One for the UK (and more specifically Welsh) contingent. Anyone else familiar with this phrase, usually used by English people, in a bad Welsh accent, as a stereotypically Welsh thing to say?
The variant “Whose boots are these shoes?” has also been encountered.
Any idea where this originally came from? A Google search brings up a few examples of it in use, but no explanation of its origins.
Well, I’m an Englishman who may years ago spent three years in Cardiff (OK not hardcore Wales but whatever) and I have never even heard of either phrase let alone to the extent it is “usually used” or “stereotypical”!
My vote of for a stereotypical Welsh expression would be, if you ask for directions, you get, “Well, you go BY HERE” (points) " until you come to a phonebox and BY THERE you go right…"
Was in Carmathennshire this weekend and was amused to hear to coming up.
To digress, in Ireland you would of course get the answer, “Well, I wouldn’t start from here!”. Now there is an English stereotype!
Well, I didn’t really mean to imply that it was especially common. What I meant was that when I have heard it used, it has usually been by English people imitating Welsh people, rather than by Welsh people themselves.
And surely the fact that it crops up on more than a dozen web pages means that it has some kind of common currency?
Ah, I know the ones…
“See those two houses on the hill? Mine’s the one in the middle.”
I was born in 1980 in Anglesey in North Wales. I know of the phrase as I remember my Dad saying it a few times when I was around 10/11. I’ve always assumed it was a catchphrase from television but can’t find reference to anything.
Well I’m English, and I’ve never heard anyone say it, so calling it ‘commonly said’ is a bit of a stretch.
I think I found a clue. Jimmy Carr Welsh Accent - YouTube
As a New Englander, I can appreciate this (and will now appropriate it for my own use), as we are known for telling strangers “You can’t get there from here.”
You were YoungYoungs when the post you responded to was written! 