Dialect

[ladyofastolat]

I didn't do that dialect meme that's been going around because it was too obviously American, and most British people seemed to be coming up with much the same answers, or else going, "What?" I feel like putting together a British version of it. I've got about a dozen questions so far, but am open to suggestions. So, British people: can you think of any examples of words where you have encountered regional variety?

It's been quite interesting thinking about it. I was brought up rather bilingual in dialect terms, with a Scottish father and a Derbyshire mother. I then picked up some Gloucestershire words at school. However, I seem to have stopped using quite a lot of the dialect words over the years. The Scottish ones, in particular, are ones I'm familiar with, but don't actually use myself. I'm always amused, though, by the fact my Dad's main contribution to my childhood dialect lexicon was in terms for different types of rain, such as "smirr" and "stotting" - concepts that he claimed had no exact equivalent in English English.

Comments

[bunn.livejournal.com]

pronunciation of scones
Round savory bread product containing a filling
A field boundary
Tourists
An endearment


There are quite a lot of plant ones, but to ask those you are kind of expecting people to know both the latin and common names, which is a bit of a big ask.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Easing my sore buttocks onto an old hobby-horse: As a child, what did you say in the playground when you were playing a game and want to call a truce?

You see a group of animals standing in a farm building. They have udders and go moo. Complete the following sentence: "Look at those ____ standing in that ____!"

You haven't had anything to eat in a long time, and your stomach is letting you know about it. You would also like to be warmer. You say: "I'm ____ and ___!"

Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt?

A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____.

[phoebesmum.livejournal.com]

I'm middle-middle class, Received Pronunciation English all the way, so the only differences I tend to encounter are, for example, that Judy will say 'serviette' and 'lounge' and 'settee' where I'll say 'napkin' and 'sitting room' and 'sofa'. Oh, and there is also some debate about what 'dinner' is. (It's the meal you have about 8.00 at night. Just for the record.)

[muuranker.livejournal.com]

At Yome, we have Word maps : a dialect atlas of England (http://www.librarything.com/work/1626393/book/10618777) which I recommend to anyone interested in dialects. It's rather out of date, which adds to its interest, I think, as we can see how things are moving.... I had your reaction to finding out that

My contribution to the meme (I numbered it 0) is 'What do you call the space between two buildings containing a footpath'. At Yome, the traditional answer is 'A snickelway', and from childhood in Northamptonshire, it's a jetty.

Another one: what do you say in a shop when you are handed your change?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Slang term for left-handed.
Slang for a pair of trousers.
The schoolground game where someone is 'it' and has to touch someone else who then becomes 'it'.
Pronunciation of Shrewsbury.
Sandwiches.

[segh.livejournal.com]

What is the playground way of saying someone is out of order?

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

lnr's reaction to the dialect meme was to post a poll about what people call an individual small bread product.

I take your point about the UK responses to this meme, though I still found it very interesting reading people's answers, especially the additional commentary type things. I posted it on myself partly because for a couple of questions at least I did have answers that were different from any I'd seen on my own UK part of flist, and partly out of interest to see if I could pass it on to different parts of my flist so I could see their answers.

The question of the original meme I thought most relevant to dialect in the UK is the 'shoes for sports' one, as long as we can go back past trainers to the things we'd have worn at school esp when little and esp I expect for people above a certain age. I know what I called plimsolls, phina_v called daps, and other people call pumps (which in turn is interestingly rather different to what US folk mean by pumps.) Secondly would be the 'small body of water' one. I do agree that most of the others, from a UK point of view, are either obvious, or a commentary on the difference between UK and US practices, or more relevant to class than dialect - although of course there is some overlap between issues of class, dialect, and locale.

[amalion.livejournal.com]

A dialect word for:
hands
ears
face

Terms for someone who looks miserable

I'm sure I know more but at the moment my forgetery is working well.