Question re: flat vs. apartment.
I'm reading
Half Blood Blues
and it is narrated by a black jazz musician from Baltimore. It alternates between Paris 1940, Berlin 1939, and Baltimore/Berlin/Poland in 1992.
The whole book is told in a very deliberate street dialect. In general, Edugyan, who is Canadian, is very consistent with the speech; however, in the first few pages, the narrator repeatedly uses the word flat, which threw me out of the story completely. Even today the word is pretty rare on the East Coast, but maybe it was used back then. Anyone know?
I tried Google Ngrams for rented flat vs rented apartment in American English and they don't diverge too significantly until after the war: [link]
(Can't use flat vs. apartment because of course flat means a lot of things.)
That graph is fascinating.
If I had to guess, I would have thought the war would increase usage of flat, since I feel like I only use it because of living in Europe. Although I think people use it more out here than on the East Coast.
For some reason, I feel like "cold water flat" is an American usage, but that other than that I associate t with Europe.
Although I think people use it more out here than on the East Coast.
Interesting. Flat seems common on the East coast of Canada. In Vancouver, everyone called all apartments "suites."
Erin, Dohring as Shaun is perfect, I agree. I'm hearing a lot of lines in his voice, and they work so well. I think I pictured Shaun a little bulkier, but otherwise, yeah.
Ginger wasn't lying about the page-turning-osity, either. I feel like I spend every minute not reading it waiting to read it. And I've already read it!
Oh, it's a total page turner! That's why I waited, with much impatience, to read it till I was home, so I could have absolutely uninterrupted time to suck it down.
And, like Hec, I've been thinking about you on your cruise, and am eagerly awaiting update!
"Suites" - that's very interesting.
I've only heard flat used in the verbal descriptions of buildings - like a 4 flat or a 3 flat. But the apartments themselves aren't called flats - they're called apartments.
I always thought it was a bit odd that "paying all kinds of rent for a flat that would flatten the Taj Mahal" was a lyric in a show that was very much set in New York (Guys and Dolls. And feel free to keep that earworm. I certainly have).
