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This item appeared in a travel industry newspaper and was, apparently, originally published by that paragon of journalistic virtue, The Sun! It seems to good to be true but it's a good story notwithstanding!
A TEENAGER reportedly ended up with a cabinet instead of a taxi because she asked directory inquiries for a “cab, innit”. According to The Sun, the Londoner, 19, wanted a taxi to take her to Bristol airport, and first used the Cockney rhyming slang “Joe Baxi”. When the operator told her she couldn’t find anyone by that name, the teen replied, “It ain’t a person, it’s a cab, innit.” The operator then found the nearest cabinet shop, Displaysense, and put the girl through. She then spoke to a bemused saleswoman and eventually demanded, “Look love, how hard is it? All I want is your cheapest cab, innit. I need it for 10am. How much is it?” The sales adviser said it would be £180, so she gave her address and paid with a credit card. The next morning, an office cabinet was delivered to her South London home. Richard English |
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Too right, it does! It has all the hallmarks of a joke or an urban legend. What was the date it was published in The Sun? Was it April 1 by any chance? I tried searching both Snopes and their forums for both 'cab' and 'cabinet' without finding it mentioned, but I expect if the report is brought to their attention, Snopes will swiftly debunk it.  Come on you raver, you seer of visions, Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine! |
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Googling "cab innit" yields about 2 goopages of results. This meme seems to be spreading through the blogosphere. Yes, we'll see what Snopes reveals.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing. |
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According to the Google search suggested by zmj, the story has been published in the Daily Mail and The Metro (a free sheet) newspapers as well as The Sun. None of them is particularly renowned for the accuracy of its reporting.
 Most of the other reports are in blogs and forums passing on the tale (with and without attribution). Come on you raver, you seer of visions, Come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine! |
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Did someone ask Snopes? I asked them something recently, and it just took minutes before I had my answer. I agree that I don't think it's true.
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I did c heck with Snopes as I always do before reporting these kinds of improbable stories. At that time they had nothing about it.
Richard English |
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It's an object lesson in how fast stuff spreads on the internet. To me this is clearly and obviously a JOKE, a concept that none of the dozen or so sites I just briefly checked from google. seems to have even considered.
Although it made me laugh, I don't believe a single word of it. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. My new blog - which I hope to keep more up to date than my old one. And don't miss this - my unpublished book, coming a chapter a week |
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Mind you, it's very noticeable how the non-word "innit" does find its way into youthful conversations so frequently. I'm surprised that this joke (and I guess we must assume it is such - even though it was reported in "Travel Daily" as a fact) hasn't cropped up previously.
Richard English |
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The "non-word" (as you described it) serves the function f providing a universal question tag that replaces all the other possible question tags. Like it or loathe it (and personally I loathe it on aesthetic grounds) I suspect that given the demographics of its spread it will eventually enter the language as standard English.
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. My new blog - which I hope to keep more up to date than my old one. And don't miss this - my unpublished book, coming a chapter a week |
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a universal question tag
On tag questions ([ulr=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_question]link[/url]) in general. I thought innit was just a dialectal (or perhaps sociolectal) pronunciation of isn't it which is used in tag questions even here in the former colonies. It's just one of many features of Estuary English (link). As to the story, I wondered what a South London girl who spoke Estuary English as her only dialect was doing traveling by cab to Bristol airport. Why not Stansted or Heathrow? —Ceci n'est pas un seing. |
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No it isn't. It's an emerging universal tag form. It's used to replace ANY tag. Teenagers, especially from certain socio-economic and ethnic communities regularly form constructions such as the following. (I'm regularising the spelling of the rest of the sentences, though that often varies too.) I'm coming, innit? (aren't I - which is on odd structure in its orthodox form, when you think about it - why not amn't I?) He can't do that, innit? (can he) He drives a taxi, innit? (doesn't he) He'll be here, innit? (won't he) as well as to replace "isn't it". The exact substitutions and the extent to which they are used vary according to group and region but it is far more widespread than a simple dialectal variation of "isn't it". Of course I have no idea if it is even heard in the US. these remarks apply solely to UK English. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. Read all about my travels around the world here. Read even more of my travel writing and poems on my weblog. My new blog - which I hope to keep more up to date than my old one. And don't miss this - my unpublished book, coming a chapter a week |
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Of course I have no idea if it is even heard in the US. these remarks apply solely to UK English.
Thanks for that, Bob. Interesting development. The only place I've heard innit is from UK co-workers fooling around in speech, and from Sacha Baron Cohen in his character of Ali G. As for aren't I for amn't I (or ain't I), I figured it was from an intrusive R pronunciation of amn't I. No proof, just a WAG. —Ceci n'est pas un seing. |
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Gatwick would have been the logical choice - but there might have been other reasons why she was travelling from Bristol. Maybe she was joining a party who'd booked from there. But, having said which, she would have been far better off taking a train to Bristol. A cab would take far longer and cost much more. Another fact that suggests that the story is a hoax. Richard English |
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I had some friends in college from Waukesha, Wisconsin who used the tag ain't-a (with a silent t) similarly. One of them is a judge now. |
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Considering the perils of careless communication, I feel obligated to ask .... what is the connection between the judge's present occupation and a slangy tag question he used in his youth?
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what is the connection between the judge's present occupation and a slangy tag question he used in his youth?
neveu will have to answer for his own intended meaning, but I took it to mean: his friend used non-standard language in his indiscreet youth, but managed to become a judge in spite of it. The usual implication being that using something along the lines of innit will not only lead to the ruin of The Language, but of the person who uses it. I could be reading something into it, though. —Ceci n'est pas un seing. |
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Just giving a shout-out to my homeboy Ralphie. Yo! Ral-PHIE! For what it's worth, another became a district attorney. I think the third one lives in his parent's basement. It was college. We all sounded like idiots. But I grew up 60 miles west of them and I'd never heard ain't-a (used exactly like innit) before. Has anyone else? |
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I've never heard it before either. But Tom Tolan has:
And from the Urban Dictionary:
Plain and Fancy is a 1956 Broadway musical comedy involving a New York couple and the Pennsylvania Amish. Here are some uses of ain't in the play: [LIST] "I love you so and we can get a house And you can fix it nice with paint ... And when the stars is out, we'll feel so fine, But when the stars is all, you'll love me ... ain't?" He must believe that you are good Amish. And you will be, ain't, Peter? Like it was a long time ago, ain't? I think it means you like me, ain’t? |
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As I have discovered since taking on the role of a freelance writer for a travel industry paper, journalists need do very little to get stories. I am bombarded with press releases from PR companies, all of which appear to be plausible and accurate. In fact, I rarely use any of them without calling contacts to check the latest information before writing. Of course, my work is in features, not news, and so I am under less pressure than are news reporters; the only news reporting I have done is on conferences, where I take my own notes and write my own story. Richard English |
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Cool! I always wondered whether it was a Milwaukee thing or just a localized expression (they all went to the same high school). |
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I just found Plain and Fancy in Google books. The page numbers for the quotes I cited are 32, 33, and 41 in this copy.
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Thanks for the write-up, tinman, and the link which lead to a couple of new language blogs.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing. |
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The next logical step would be the question, "Inna cab, innit minutes ter Heathrow?" to which someone necessarily replies, "I'm sorry I can't recall a Minister Heathrow."
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