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we've all said it....but where did it come from?

this is an old native tonuge figure of speech of brummiegan language
the arley barley ,was invented by the early days of the centries
then came the ackie , one .two , three ,
 
ARLEY BARLEY came from John Houghton - well that's what Google told me. So there's summat else our John's famous for.
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In Oz they say "Bar-lees". I was just wondering about the origin of the phrase......but then.........at the same time, I was also wondering about the beginning of the universe. ^-^
 
According to my book, Arley and Arley-Barley comes from Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, written in the 14th century.

At the beginning of the poem the gigantic green stranger at King Arthur's court challenges any man to strike him with an axe "so long as I shall have leave to launch a return Barlay". Here, the word "Barlay" means free or unchecked, and it's not hard to see how, it came used by West Midlands kids in their play when wanting a break. Children shouted "Barley" or "Arley-Barley" when playing tig.
 
When we were kids playing a game in the street and we wanted a break we used to shout Barley, I believe this came from the French word Parlee, to speak.
 
It comes from the French 'allez parler', meaning 'go and talk it over' before things get nasty....

Big Gee
 
My husband is from London, and instead of Barley, as a child he called out 'Fainites'. This meant the same thing and if you shouted it it gave you protection when playing games
 
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