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[Liam Proven]

On Fri, 21 Dec 2018 at 04:51, Eric Christopherson via cctalk
<cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
> OK, so it's down *to* the bunker or down *in* the bunker. I'm just asking
> because of my language geekery. I still don't know, though, whether "down
> the bunker" without a preposition is idiomatic in some dialect of English I
> don't speak fluently.

You do not specify what *your* native dialect is, so it's hard to say.

In much of the UK, probably most, yes, "down the /x/" is idiomatic.

"I was talking to this bloke down the pub..."
"There's a great offer down the computer market on Tottenham Court Road..."
"I was down the gym last night and I saw..."

It means "at the", roughly, I'd say.

"Down the bunker" parses fine for me.

> I just know some UK English speakers pronounce "down
> to the/down at the" ALMOST the same as "down the", but I believe there's
> still a glottal stop in the former but not the latter.

Not that I am aware of, no.

However, Yorkshire and Lancashire English tend to reduce the definite
article to a prefixed /t/ sound, e.g. "t'pub".

See the unofficial Yorkshire national anthem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Ilkla_Moor_Baht_%27at

"Baht 'at" means "bar t'hat". "Bar" as in "all bar one" -- "without"
or "except". In other words, the singer was on Ilkley Moor without his
hat.

This t' prefix is jocularly used for the Internet, for instance: "t'Internet".

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/t%27internet

Those who do not understand the reference reduce this to the
meaningless "tinternet".

As certain successive consonants without an intervening vowel sound
are uncommon in English, those who don't know what this "t'" sound
means can fail to distinguish it. Compare with the Hindi (I yhink)
words "bindi" and "bhindi". The former is a forehead adornment. The
latter is the vegetable, okra. Many Indian restaurants serve bhindi
bhaji, but because Anglophones mostly can't pronounce /b/ followed by
/h/, if you ask for "bindi baji" instead of "bhindi bhaji" you do not
get a forehead jewel shaped like an okra pod.

So you could say "I'm going down t'bunker" and to the untrained ear it
would sound like "down the bunker".

But I doubt this is what was meant.

-- 
Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
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