# in Blighty



## TheUnitedStatesOfEurope

Hello everyone!

Here is a sentence quoted from the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9c0fbd20-...uid=9a750eca-c0c5-11df-94f9-00144feab49a.html

The really interesting country is the UK. What degrees get you to the top in Blighty?

What "in Blighty" means here, please?

Thank you very much in advance


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## The Prof

Hello,

Blighty (with a capital 'B') is a slang term for Great Britain.


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## Keith Bradford

...particularly used during the Second World War.  Pilots would talk of _flying_ _back to Blighty_.  A wound serious enough to get a soldier repatriated was called _a Blighty touch_.

Not much used nowadays except with _un clin d'oeil_ to the wartime usage.


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## QuestionTag

Bonjour !

Je rebondiss sur ce poste car je n'arrive pas moi-même à penser à un équivalent familier en français pour "Blighty" et éviter "Angleterre". Avez-vous des idées ?
Merci !

QT


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## doinel

Il y a bien Albion mais comme _nous_ avons tendance à ajouter perfide...


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## timpeac

QuestionTag said:


> Bonjour !
> 
> Je rebondiss sur ce poste car je n'arrive pas moi-même à penser à un équivalent familier en français pour "Blighty" et éviter "Angleterre". Avez-vous des idées ?
> Merci !
> 
> QT


I think we need a full context here. The trouble is that I can't imagine the word "Blighty" being used by someone who isn't British (and as noted above it was a war-time phrase, and would only be used jokingly today).

Although not specific to England would "la brave patrie" have the same humoristic and jingoistic overtones? (Obviously this would require the context to have a Brit saying saying it).


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## Itisi

Chez les rosbifs ?  'equivalent de 'frogs' pour les Français).  Pas très gentil, mais pas très méchant non plus... Mais un anglais ne le dirait sans doute pas!


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## QuestionTag

Thanks for your suggestions Doinel, Timpeac and Itisi - I was indeed thinking of going for something like "le pays des rosbifs", but yes I suppose the irony in "la brave patrie" (or "la mère patrie" maybe) translates the humoristic overtones pretty well too. 

Doinel - although it is a great and valuable alternative for Great Britain, I'm afraid 'Albion' is too poetic, the register doesn't quite match that of 'Blighty'. 

The original sentence was 'What is it, exactly, that Brits find it hardest to be parted from, that they had in abundance back *in good old Blighty*?' So unfortunately I can't really use 'brave patrie' or 'pays des rosbifs' with no tweaking...

The only think I can think of quite spontaneously is "la bonne vieille patrie" but then the specific reference to GB is lost. Any idea?


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## Kajeetah

"sur leur bonne vieille île"?


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## timpeac

How well known are quotes from Shakespeare's Richard II in French? With very similar overtones to "Blighty" Brits can talk of "this sceptred isle" quoting from that book. I see that the standard French translation of that is the more prosaic "cette île souveraine".

Whatever you use, I think you're right it will need tweaking because as I say above these phrases only really make sense when said by Brits themselves. "Dans *leur *mère patrie" or "dans *leur* île souveraine" etc. I can't see how something involving "rosbif" would work because "Blighty" is heavily _pro _Britain (even if humoristically so).


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## QuestionTag

Many thanks timpeac, that's very interesting. I had a feeling that "Blighty" sounded affectionate anyway, so it makes sense. But as you said the French might not be familiar enough with Richard III to make good use of "île souveraine", and since "sur leur bonne vieille île souveraine" doesn't work, I suppose we'd have to give up on the other two adjectives. Kajeetah, I quite like "sur leur bonne vieille île", although from the mouth of a French speaker it might sound a little pejorative - but I guess any way of referring to Britain in an informal way has a slight risk of sounding pejorative if it comes from a non-native speaker!


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## Kajeetah

Et pourquoi pas un truc inventé avec un nom propre (ou commun), sur le même modèle que "la langue de Shakespeare" pour dire "l'anglais"?


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## doinel

Kajeetah said:


> Et pourquoi pas un truc inventé avec un nom propre (ou commun), sur le même modèle que "la langue de Shakespeare" pour dire "l'anglais"?


J'aime bien cette idée : Au pays/ royaume de Shakespeare...


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## Itisi

Even if the French are not familiar enough with Shakespeare, I think 'île souveraine' has that 'pro Britain' feel to it, the British being keen on their sovereignty with regard to Europe.  Sorry if this is too much of a cliché...

Sorry, Doinel, but I find 'au royaume de Shakespeare' a bit corny...


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## Kajeetah

Je pensais carrément citer un autre nom en fait, mais je ne trouve rien qui colle pour l'Angleterre toute entière - ou alors ce sont des clichés français sur les Anglais.
Qu'est-ce qui représente l'Angleterre, à part Shakespeare? La BBC? Le thé? La famille royale? Les moutons? La sauce à la menthe? Oups pardon ça y est, je suis dans les clichés.


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## swirtch

I don't know for others but I don't think of GB when I hear "l'île souveraine"... I might sound weird.


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## Martyn94

doinel said:


> J'aime bien cette idée : Au pays/ royaume de Shakespeare...



 I agree. As timpeac said, Blighty cannot be said affectionately by someone who _is not British. "The land of Shakespeare _would hardly be said by someone who _is British. _But "la royaume de Shakespeare" seems to hit the right note of (possibly modified) affection that we might hope for from a near neighbour, ally and friend. And it is hardly just invented: the tag "de shakespeare" is pretty much used: it will convey its meaning.


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## swirtch

What about John Bull?


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## Kajeetah

Je cois que "Mr Bean" passerait mieux.


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## timpeac

Could l'île souveraine de Shakespeare work, and thus include an element of all the suggestions? Since l'île souveraine is a quote from Shakespeare it works from that point of view too. 

I also liked the BBC idea (which the British have a lot of affection for) - qu'est-ce qui leur manque le plus, qu'ils avaient à volonté assis chez eux devant la BBC (or similar).


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## Itisi

Kajeetah said:


> "sur leur bonne vieille île"?


 Je trouve que c'est encore le mieux.
Ou leur chère île


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## Martyn94

I suppose now is the time to ask the question we might have asked QuestionTag days ago. We have various candidates which are good in their different ways.* What exactly *is the context into which you want to insert an equivalent to "Blighty"?


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## Itisi

Martyn94 said:


> What exactly is the context into which you want to insert an equivalent to "Blighty"?



Isn't QuestionTag wanting to translate, or understand, the word in the context given at #1? 

If so, you lose a star!


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## Martyn94

Itisi said:


> Isn't QuestionTag wanting to translate, or understand, the word in the context given at #1?
> 
> If so, you lose a star!


Not as I read the thread. His question was at #4, was in completely general terms, and gave no context at all.


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## emmsy

I think the context is no 8...


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## Itisi

Martyn94 said:


> Not as I read the thread. His question was at #4, was in completely general terms, and gave no context at all.



Silly me, I was looking at a post from 2010  !


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## Martyn94

emmsy said:


> I think the context is no 8...



Yes of course: I cover myself with sackcloth and ashes. But I cannot see that this context constrains their choice at all,  not even in the ways that they say it does at #8. You just pick the most worn-out cliché: "le pays de John Bull" works for me, though it is chosen entirely at random.


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## emmsy

My french friends and I use  "La Royaume de Kate et William"  but we are a group of females in our 20's and thirties (unless that is your target audience!)


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## Martyn94

emmsy said:


> My french friends and I use  "La Royaume de Kate et William"  but we are a group of females in our 20's and thirties (unless that is your target audience!)


Most French people seem to be obsessed with the Royal Family (especially the younger ones, who they can imagine to be pregnant or having abortions, or bastards, or divorces): it seems to be pretty universally valid.


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## Kajeetah

Juste un truc pour Shakespeare, je dirais "le pays/la terre de Shksp" et non "le royaume de Shksp" parce que royaume + nom d'une personne insinuerait l'idée que c'est cette personne qui "rules". Ca conviendrait plutôt pour un nom commun ("le royaume de la sauce à la menthe") Mais c'est juste mon intuition personnelle.


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## QuestionTag

Merci à tous pour toutes ces suggestions !

Je crois qu'elles sont toutes assez valables, tant qu'on respecte en effet une connotation affective positive : "leur bonne vieille île" permet de garder les 2 adjectifs "good old" de la phrase de contexte que j'ai donnée en #8, et c'est quand même plus spécifique que "patrie", mais en effet j'étais surtout curieuse des diverses possibilités de traduire "Blighty" dans l'absolu, et à ce titre j'apprécie le pays / la terre de Shakespeare (éventuellement le royaume, mais j'entends ton point Kajeetah), le royaume de Kate et William, et de manière générale les références aux marqueurs culturels comme John Bull, Mr Bean ou la BBC, à adapter dans la phrase en trouvant une tournure comme proposée par timpeac en #20. Il me semble aussi - mais après cela varie avec les personnes j'imagine - que "île souveraine" est un peu moins manipulable si on ignore que c'est une citaton de Shakespeare, et peut donc sonner un peu étrangement en fonction du contexte, surtout si celui-ci est un peu familier par exemple (parce que 'Blighty' c'est un peu familier au départ), donc je comprends la remarque de swirtch. Mais je ne suis pas sûre que l'expression "l'île souveraine de Shakespeare" passe non plus... ni "le royaume de la sauce à la menthe"^^


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