can anyone tell me what is that private language the 3 brothers sometimes talk, and the boss scolds them and says: quit talking that butcher talk, speak english! i thought it sounds pretty cool. is it some australian thing??
sharei think they were speaking backwards... can't remember too well
shareButchers speak. You just reverse the word. yenom means money, spoc is cops etc. Its aussie butchers language, like a secret code that butchers talk to each other with. It's alluded to a couple of times, the backwards signs for instance.
"The birds flightless is it not....then it shant be going anywhere"
What's the point in Butchers Speak? Why can't butchers just speak English (or their native tongue) like everybody else in any other profession? Why do butchers - of all people - need to have their own language? Must be an Aussie thing...
shareHaha, nevermind, one of the guys who commented on the movie's IMDB page and explaned the whole concept of butchers talk and how it's a secret language used by criminals for communicating in public... very interesting (and genius, if I must say so myself)
shareOne of the special features on the DVD explains that butcher shops have hard walls that reflect sound clearly, so butchers talk backwards when they make remarks about customers, for example about the srekconk on that obmib wot just came in. If you watch the movie again, put the subtitles on and you can see the words spelled backwards.
shareMy guess about the origins of Aussie criminals speaking backwards would be that it ultimately derives from Cockney Backslang. This was a excluding slang used in Victorian London by the criminal classes that existed still in London after World War 2. Presumably it was carried to Australia along with a lot of other elements of British life. I remember coming across it on London streets occasionally in the 1950s, but it seems to have petered out now.
John atte Kiln
There are a couple of words that are still thought to be Cockney backslang. Yobs to mean boys for example, although yob now means hoodie-wearing, threatening-in-manner, underemployed adolescents, but it comes from the word for boy.
share
Hi John - yes you're right. It does ultimately derive from Cockney criminals - Australia began life as a penal colony 218 years ago, and most of its first inhabitants were London criminals and their jailers - and it is really just a form of backwards speak, although the words they choose to encode do tend to have a bit of poetry to them. Why it stayed alive among butchers specifically - crims certainly don't talk like this now - is a mystery. I asked lots of butchers anyway and they had no idea. It's dying out. Only guys over 40 tend to use it now. Anyway, I (over)heard it being used in a butcher's shop when I was just starting to write the movie and it seemed a perfect touch.
Cheers - Scott Roberts
Thanks Scott for the reply!
well it's bloody brilliant! terrific movie on all counts.
shareEssentially - without wishing to malign an entire industry - Butcher's speak was developed so the men could speak freely to one another in front of their customers without offending them being that they were predominately women and social mores considered this behaviour highly offensive. Swearing, teasing one another in vulgar terms and commenting on women's appearances is pretty common amongst tradesmen; or certainly was for generations. We all know the stereotype of the whistling leering construction worker. Same thing, just they are preparing meat. Ask any Australian Butcher, they will tell you the same. I have been friends with four butchers, all said this was the case. Surprised this seems to have been overlooked.
shareTOTALLY WRONG SCOTT !!!
Butchers' language (or for those that can speak it, is pronounced retcher-tub-kay-lat) is not Cockney at all - it is a language devised by butchers to speak about both their products, and their customers, directly in front of them.
It has nothing to do with Cockney slang, criminal language, or transportees from the UK when first penalised.
It is also far more difficult than backwards speak, although this does play a part in the language.
Far from dying out, it is a strong as ever; I was a butcher in the 1970's and heard it spoken in front of me by a butcher last week.
So Teg Kaycuffed Teenuc !
[deleted]
The backwards signs were indicating that Tarzan was dyslexic, and had nothing to do with the slang.
shareFrom memory there was a big piece on the extras menu of the DVD which gave some insight into this odd language.
It's known as "Retchub K-lat" (or backwards, "butcher talk")
Basically it's words spelt backwards with the exception of combinations of consonants eg. "chalk" becomes "klach" and "there" becomes "ereth".
All words are still in the order that they would originally be spoken. "That's not the way" would become "Stath ton eth yaw"
Apparently it was started up in Australia with some of the first convicts to arrive. It was a language used by the convicts to each other so the guards didn't know what the prisoners were saying (Probably between neighbouring prison cells). Apparently they practised it quite a bit to the point where it could be used as a fluent language.
As Australia grew up this language somehow managed to still be used by butchers. It's a bit of a tradition for butchers to still use bits of this language and apparently can still maybe be heard in parts of Sydney and Brisbane (most likely to comment on customers!)
I don't seem to be able to find anything else online about it. Can anyone provide anymore info?
Something that nobody has yet pointed out is that 'butchers talk' is not nessasarrily used by butchers. It is slang to describe the 'language'. As people are saying they are 'butchering' the english language, as such, it that way of speaking became known as 'butchers talk'.
"What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes"
Ah. Good point. Thanks
shareIf by "backwards signs" you mean like the staff only and such when the 6 were doing the job, that was not alluding to the butchers speak but I think to the fact that Tarzan is dyslexic. That is why he has problems later on with the door.
shareI speak it everyday. It's used in the butchers shop I work at. It's called back slang. Aparantly it all started with costermongers and continued into butchers shops. Basically, it's just a way of talking to other butchers without the customers knowing what your saying.
shareI think you misinterpreted the backwards sign. The character Tarzan was either dyslexic or illiterate, and couldn't read the sign. Remember, later on when he was trying to enter the number code in the pad to enter the security room, he failed to get it to work. That indicated he couldn't properly read the number. The backwards sign and the number problem was specific to that character, and had nothing to do with the butcher language.
shareYou're right about rhyming slang. However this discussion is about backslang. Read the director's comments above (scottscreen2002, Scott Roberts) - "It does ultimately derive from Cockney criminals ... Why it stayed alive among butchers specifically .. is a mystery"
John atte Kiln
[deleted]