Encher

Hello,

Does encher boy means ain´t you boy?

‘Oh no! ’E’s right as rain agen, old Bob is. Perked up surprisin’ just about the time your uncle was took worse arter that last bad turn of ’is—of
Bob’s I mean—round Easter. Fit as a fiddle now, with all them extry rations that ’e gets. Oh, ’e’s a card, ’is nibs is . . . a proper card. Encher boy, eh?’

The Renegate, John Metcalfe, 194?

Thank you very much.

Is there a family in this book named "Encher?" That would be my reading just based on this quote. There is a family with this name and the person is inquiring if the person is one of the sons of the Encher family.

There is no Encher family and the "person" in question is not a boy but a rhinoceros. (the story is bizzare a little bit, like everything I read )

"Encher" is English dialect for "Aren't you?". It could be from the London area, but several areas have similar spoken dialect forms like that.

He is talking to the animal affectionately.

I've just noticed that you'd guessed the answer correctly in your original post Johnyxxx. It's the equivalent of "ain't you" or "ain't ya" or any of the other similar dialect forms.

I'd expect "ain'tcha" in American slang.

It's an odd spelling to me, but a common BrE pronunciation. You'll see it in BrE without the apostrophe - aintcha . Do you do that in AmE too?

I've seen it spelt "incha" in BrE before but "Encher" is a first for me. Having said that, as soon as I read it, I knew what it meant.

Do you think the person could be a Cockney speaker?

Maybe – is the speaker a Londoner?

Rover_KE said:

Maybe – is the speaker a Londoner?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Tdol said:

It's an odd spelling to me, but a common BrE pronunciation. You'll see it in BrE without the apostrophe - aintcha . Do you do that in AmE too?

Click to expand...

Yes