English Language Q - <Ta>
 

I think i may have asked this once long ago but with Oldtimers' Disease setting in i forget if i did and the answer if i did

anyway on Coronation Street last night

I noted they often use a &lt;Ta(h)&gt; for saying good-bye

or Ta Ta for now, etc.

Where does this &lt;Ta&gt; come from and is it mainly an English Midlands (Corrie Street locale) type saying for see ya later)

Again i apologize if i asked before and hearing it again last night just made me curious

We actually do say Ta Ta for now

But not just &lt;Ta&gt;

is this common all over Britain and is it done routinely or only with friends, etc.

thanks again

Ta (pron. TAH) on its own is slang for &quot;Thank you&quot; (rather looked down on in my childhood, especially when in the formulation &quot;Ta, ever so&quot;, and unlikely to be heard from anyone under about 50 nowadays - &quot;cheers&quot; seems to have taken on the same sort of function).

&quot;Tata&quot; (pron. TAT+ah) for &quot;goodbye&quot; mostly be London/South of England, again rather informal and old-fashioned nowadays, I think. The generation above me was always using (and you may very occasionally hear) a catch-phrase from a radio show where a character was always inventing acronyms, one of which was &quot;TTFN&quot; (Tata for now).

What you're hearing is the North of England equivalent &quot;Tara&quot; (pron T'RAH). Same sort of social status I would think. I don't think Blanche would dream of saying it. The factory girls would; Sally Webster would feel torn between trying to join in by saying it and keeping up her social status by not saying it. If you hear it anywhere else, it may well be meant to be humorous or slightly camp.

Does that help?

hi, i live in the east midlands and say ta to mean thank you if its an informal setting.People i know only say ta ta to mean goodbye to little children.

Pat % leverton

thanks - Yes Pat it was a younger gal who said it - i think the hairdresser going to marry (?) Liam.

thanks for the edification.

Tah!

My late MIL, from Oldham used to say t'ra meaning goodbye. My nephew from Derby says t'ra duck. As a southerner I used ta-ta (or being lazy more often it came out as ta-da). Tata for now, or ttfn, was a catch phrase of singer/DJ of yore Jimmy Young.

Ta is baby talk for thanks. Unacceptable nowadays from the mouths of babes, but in common usage by adults.

Mancunians would btw be deeply offended to be told they are Midlanders - they regard themselves as Northerners!

Thanks hetismij - i keep making that mix up over and over between Midlanders and Northerners (who or where are Midlanders or is there even such an appellation?

dank u very wel

Midlanders would be from West Midlands - Brummies, Black Country (Wolverhampton &amp; Walsall), Coventry, also East Midlands like Derby, Leicester and Nottingham. South Midland would be Northampton, Kettering, Corby, bordering on Home Counties to the South.

It's from Winnie the Pooh. Tigger uses it as his goodbye: TTFN, Ta ta for now!

Hi Pal,

as a soap fan, have you ever come across &quot;crossroads&quot;? that was set in/near Brum I believe, with appropriate accents and wobbly scenery.

as a midlander, i take exception to you calling those uncouth northerners &quot;midlanders&quot;. p Lease.

they are all flat caps and ferret racing. [or is that yorkshire?] [corrie is set in Salford which is in Lancs].

my aunty vera [coventry born and bred] says &quot;tara&quot;.

regards, ann

Carolyn, that's the Disney Tigger. The REAL Tigger (A.A. Milne)never used that term. I hate the Disneyfication of wonderful literature.

Me too, carolyn. And if it is in the Disney film, then they got it from ITMA (the radio show I mentioned), from which it became a popular catchphrase for much of the 1940s and 50s - long after AA Milne wrote the Pooh books.

Sorry; I hate it when people mess up good books, too. My daughter has our Milne books, which I read to her in the early 60s. Funny how I can't seem to remember them too well now.