Agatha Christie spells a character’s use of “really” as “reely” in one of her books. Not a typo: she repeats it to indicate some kind of an accent, presumably a lower-class one.
In American English “reely” is the only pronunciation I’ve ever heard. How would British upper-class speakers pronounce it differently? Three syllables? Rawly?
What kind of lower-class origin is Christie implying?
The book is from 1930, if that makes a difference.
Wiktionary describes it as a pronunciation spelling of really and supplies literary quotations, all of which seem to use it in the vernacular or in common speech:
I think I’ve heard it as sort of like “Rally”, but not quite that strong, in some old b&w English films.
I’ve seen Brit dramas and the upper crust character says “Really, my dear” or something close to that. They say really like rally.
Reely would maybe be how the help or lower class would say the word.
Ninja’d
I hear it as close to “relly”.
May I ask which book it was, and which character?
Christie was an unregenerate class snob who didn’t have any qualms about mocking those in the lower classes, especially the ones who didn’t know their place. So I would not be surprised if she wasn’t drawing attention to the character’s lack of “breeding” (you know, like horses and dogs) and the right education. Knowing which character would help determine if this observation is on the right track in this case.
By the standards of Christie’s class and time:
“Common” - relatively long drawn-out “ee”
“Posh” - more clipped, and closer to the “i” in “hit”
Nowadays, younger upper-crust folk tend to what an older generation would have considered slacker vowels.
Tone of voice and usage made a difference - as between, say, a housemaid using the word as an intensifier (“really really nice”, which would make a posh snob wince) and Lady Bracknell raising a sceptical/dismissive eyebrow.
Which book was it ? There’s probably a bbc adaptation somewhere…
I say “rilly.”
Michigan born and bred.
A Pocket Full of Rye.
Miss Grosvenor, collapsed in a chair, wailed in a voice whose accent was noticeably less Mayfair than usual, “I made the tea just as usual - reely I did - there couldn’t have been anything wrong in it.”
So, it looks as if AC wanted to illustrate the change of accents. I am sure it would have made more sense in the 1940s than it does today.
There are many other examples of the use of “reely” in older literature.
Absolutely: Miss Grosvenor lets slip that she’s not quite as upper crust as she’d been presenting.
Actually, the book I found it in was Murder at the Vicarage, the first Miss Marple book. The character is a young woman assisting an archaeologist with a dig at a local barrow. The point was, I’m sure, to make her stand out from the locals who all have servants even when they aren’t rich.
Interesting that “reely” was such a class marker that Christie used it in more than one book. I’m only halfway through so I don’t want to say more because there are hints that “not all is what it seems.” But this is the one and only word so far that is respelled this way. No other dialect is used, making this example stand out.
There were some “marker” words that were a short hand to signal class in novels (similar to how some USians on these very boards use some marker words to identify Canadians).
Another was if someone was said to pronounce “girl” as “gurl”. In Wodehouse, Aunt Agatha and Aunt Dahlia generally say “gairl”.
Rather is used as a marker as well.
I love the way it’s said in those old Dramas.
Hastings in the Poirot series actually uses it as an exclamation.
Most other British novels of the time use heavy amounts of dialect for servants, rustics, or other non-educated speakers. Worked the other way too, with some authors dropping the g in goin’, sayin’, or other words to indicate true posh. John Dickson Carr’s Sir Henry Merrivale, holder of the oldest baronetcy in England, doctor, lawyer, early equivalent of Bond’s M, always spoke this way.
Christie’s limiting it to just one word is unusual in my experience. Because it’s a mystery and anything might be a clue I took notice. Or it could just be a nuanced way of giving background to a character. Christie actually could write when she wasn’t grinding out Poirot nonsense.
The showing-off word to describe what you call “marker word” is shibboleth, based on a biblical story (Judges 12:5-6) where a person’s pronunciation of this Hebrew word is used to tell friend from foe.
Traditionally, more likely “gels”. “Gairl” would be Miss Jean Brodie - her “crème de la crème”!
I just read that! It was my first Agatha Christie. That lady for all her prejudices can really spin a good yarn! I ended up buying the whole box set and I’m on the third one now.
I also say rilly. Northern New England.