Dialect part 3
Apr. 4th, 2008 12:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ladyofastolatOkay, here is a UK version of the dialect meme, with questions added by Bunn, Steepholm, Muuranker, Philmophlegm, Segh and Amalion. Anyone who feels like doing it is free to add extra questions.
My context: Derbyshire mother, father from near Glasgow. Went to school until 7 in Watford, from 7 to 11 in Winchcombe in north Gloucestershire, and after 11 in Cheltenham. Most playground memories come from the Winchcombe part of my childhood. I picked up my accent and most of my vocabulary from my Mum. My Dad used lots of Scottish terms, and I was familiar with them, but didn't use them much.
1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: I called it a jitty when I was young – a word I got from my Mum – but now would probably call it an alleyway.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper. I think my Dad calls it a pullover, though.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.":Tag. More complicated versions of tag included "Stuck in the mud" (when tagged, stand still with arms out, and freed by someone running under the arms), Sticky toffee (when tagged, stand still with legs apart, and freed by someone crawling through legs) and "Dib dab" (which one of my parents called "Lurky 1 2 3" and a friend from Birmingham called "Hacky 1 2 3") which we discussed here some while ago, but I've now forgotten the rules of.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: Cross fingers and say "cruces" (pronounced "croo-siz".) I was very pleased to find this term on the truce term map in The Lore and Language of School Children, exactly on north Gloucestershire.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: At school we called them pumps. My Mum called them plimsolls and my Dad called the sand shoes (I think. It might have been the other way round.) When my Mum did supply teaching in a small village school only a few miles away, everyone there called them daps.
8. Small round bread: I'd just say bread roll, or roll. Pellinor says "bun", which I'm slowly being corrupted by, especially in a burger context, although to me "bun" makes me think of something spicy with raisins in, that you often eat toasted. I'd probably use "bap" occasionally, but only for very soft and floury rolls.
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Moan.
11. Generic term for a bird: I don't have one. However, I can never tell crows, rooks and jackdaws apart, so sometimes call them "corbies" in order to blind English people to my ignorance.
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Scotch pancake. My Dad disputed this loudly, though I can't remember what he called it.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: When I was young, the local thing was lardy cakes. I also feel quite an attachment to Bakewell puddings, as a result of my Mum's passsionate Derbyshire loyalty. I sneer at the "Bakewell tart" imposters.
14. Term of endearment: I don't think I use any particular regional one. My Mum and various aunts and uncles would often use "duck", though.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: It's not a word I really use myself any more, but when young I'd use "nesh" – inherited from my Mum.
16. Tourists: No particular name when I was young. Caulkheads (native Isle of Wighters) use "grockles" for tourists, and "overners" for non-native residents.
17. A field boundary: My mental default is a hedge, but dry stone walls follow them hot on their heels.
18. 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 ____!" Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. 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 ___!" It depends on how hungry or cold I was. "I'm freezing and I'm famished" (I think I'd have said "perishing" when I was younger, as my Mum does, but don't seem to say that any more.) If it's not so bad, then probably "I'm chilly and I'm peckish."
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Um… Not sure. Scaredy cat? Wimp? If I remember correctly, that word came into usage when I was around 10 or so, and it was used a lot.
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: I have no idea!
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Sorry to be boring, but I just say "thank you"
23. Generic friendly greeting: I boringly say "hello" or "good morning." The standard one in these here parts is "all right?", said more like "awri'?" Response is "awri'"
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: I'm afraid I can't think of one. I fail at slang.
25. Slang term for left-handed: I fail here, too.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree (rhyme with "show"). NEW-cass-ul (short A sound). GLAZ-go (short A sound)
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwiches. However, if the filling is chips or bacon, it's a butty. My Dad says "pieces," and it used to amuse me when he said "put my pieces in a poke." As for the light meal you eat during the day, usually as a break from work, I know a few Caulkheads who still call it a tiffin.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: I can't think of one, except, "I'm telling on you!"
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: I can't think of any that I've ever used, to be honest.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: A mardy baby? Though that's a lot more than merely miserable.
31. Potatoes: I'd usually just call them potatoes. Occasionally "spuds", but not often. My Dad calls them "tatties" and I liked that term when I was little, so often used that.
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter Crumpet
33. You annoyingly lucky person! Jammy. "You jammy git", though I was too polite to say such a thing. ;-)
My context: Derbyshire mother, father from near Glasgow. Went to school until 7 in Watford, from 7 to 11 in Winchcombe in north Gloucestershire, and after 11 in Cheltenham. Most playground memories come from the Winchcombe part of my childhood. I picked up my accent and most of my vocabulary from my Mum. My Dad used lots of Scottish terms, and I was familiar with them, but didn't use them much.
1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: I called it a jitty when I was young – a word I got from my Mum – but now would probably call it an alleyway.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper. I think my Dad calls it a pullover, though.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.":Tag. More complicated versions of tag included "Stuck in the mud" (when tagged, stand still with arms out, and freed by someone running under the arms), Sticky toffee (when tagged, stand still with legs apart, and freed by someone crawling through legs) and "Dib dab" (which one of my parents called "Lurky 1 2 3" and a friend from Birmingham called "Hacky 1 2 3") which we discussed here some while ago, but I've now forgotten the rules of.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: Cross fingers and say "cruces" (pronounced "croo-siz".) I was very pleased to find this term on the truce term map in The Lore and Language of School Children, exactly on north Gloucestershire.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: At school we called them pumps. My Mum called them plimsolls and my Dad called the sand shoes (I think. It might have been the other way round.) When my Mum did supply teaching in a small village school only a few miles away, everyone there called them daps.
8. Small round bread: I'd just say bread roll, or roll. Pellinor says "bun", which I'm slowly being corrupted by, especially in a burger context, although to me "bun" makes me think of something spicy with raisins in, that you often eat toasted. I'd probably use "bap" occasionally, but only for very soft and floury rolls.
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Moan.
11. Generic term for a bird: I don't have one. However, I can never tell crows, rooks and jackdaws apart, so sometimes call them "corbies" in order to blind English people to my ignorance.
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Scotch pancake. My Dad disputed this loudly, though I can't remember what he called it.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: When I was young, the local thing was lardy cakes. I also feel quite an attachment to Bakewell puddings, as a result of my Mum's passsionate Derbyshire loyalty. I sneer at the "Bakewell tart" imposters.
14. Term of endearment: I don't think I use any particular regional one. My Mum and various aunts and uncles would often use "duck", though.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: It's not a word I really use myself any more, but when young I'd use "nesh" – inherited from my Mum.
16. Tourists: No particular name when I was young. Caulkheads (native Isle of Wighters) use "grockles" for tourists, and "overners" for non-native residents.
17. A field boundary: My mental default is a hedge, but dry stone walls follow them hot on their heels.
18. 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 ____!" Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. 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 ___!" It depends on how hungry or cold I was. "I'm freezing and I'm famished" (I think I'd have said "perishing" when I was younger, as my Mum does, but don't seem to say that any more.) If it's not so bad, then probably "I'm chilly and I'm peckish."
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Um… Not sure. Scaredy cat? Wimp? If I remember correctly, that word came into usage when I was around 10 or so, and it was used a lot.
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: I have no idea!
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Sorry to be boring, but I just say "thank you"
23. Generic friendly greeting: I boringly say "hello" or "good morning." The standard one in these here parts is "all right?", said more like "awri'?" Response is "awri'"
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: I'm afraid I can't think of one. I fail at slang.
25. Slang term for left-handed: I fail here, too.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree (rhyme with "show"). NEW-cass-ul (short A sound). GLAZ-go (short A sound)
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwiches. However, if the filling is chips or bacon, it's a butty. My Dad says "pieces," and it used to amuse me when he said "put my pieces in a poke." As for the light meal you eat during the day, usually as a break from work, I know a few Caulkheads who still call it a tiffin.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: I can't think of one, except, "I'm telling on you!"
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: I can't think of any that I've ever used, to be honest.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: A mardy baby? Though that's a lot more than merely miserable.
31. Potatoes: I'd usually just call them potatoes. Occasionally "spuds", but not often. My Dad calls them "tatties" and I liked that term when I was little, so often used that.
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter Crumpet
33. You annoyingly lucky person! Jammy. "You jammy git", though I was too polite to say such a thing. ;-)
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Date: 2008-04-04 12:09 pm (UTC)1. Path, alley, gap. Maybe backpath?
2. Jumper
3. Skiving
4. Tag
5. Skinch, or skinchies. Often with fingers crossed
6. Bagsy, or Bags I
7. Gym shoes
8. Bun, as a general term. A lot of specific ones, though.
9. Pudding
10. Gone. Obviously... :-)
11. Spuggy (picked up from Dad; idiosyncratic to him, as far as I know)
12. Assuming you don't mean normal pancakes: dropscone or scotch pancake
13. Stotty cakes
14. None, particularly.
15. Wimp, little sister :-)
16. None
17. Default to dry stone wall, I think.
18. Cows, barn or shed (depending on what the building looks like...;-) )
19. Hungry and cold
20. Dunno... scaredy cat?
21. Rich person? No particular term
22. Thanks
23. Hello
24. Possibly strides, but I'd only use it to be obtuse
25. None
26. SHROVESbry (the V almost silent), NewCAStle, GLAZgow
27. Sandwich: butty if chips, bacon or jam
28. None known
29. Lug or lughole, for ear; gob for mouth
30. Can't think of a general one
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Date: 2008-04-04 12:20 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 12:11 pm (UTC)21: Pimp? Doesn't seem very English!
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Date: 2008-04-04 12:19 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:00 pm (UTC)1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: an alleyway.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": He. We also had a 'Stuck in the Mud'-style game called 'Stone Dab', where you could be freed only someone crawling through your legs.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: For the life of me I can't remember. It's a great sadness to me.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: plimsolls, though I call them daps in Bristol just to be understood.
8. Small round bread: roll or bap. Assuming it's not a brioche...
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Gone.
11. Generic term for a bird: Er, bird?
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Can't quite picture it.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: In Hampshire, Gales HSB. In Bristol I'm fond of lardy cake and Easter biscuits, which I think are quite local.
14. Term of endearment: Too many to recount... But I don't use them to strangers.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: None
16. Tourists: We don't really get many, inexplicably! Grockle seems to be the local West Country term, though.
17. A field boundary: hedge.
18. 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 ____!" Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. 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 ___!" It depends on how hungry or cold I was. "I'm starving and freezing".
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Dastard! (At least, it sounded like dastard...)
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: Chav (but I suspect that's not quite right)
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Cheers or Thanks.
23. Generic friendly greeting: I wish I could say "Happy Day", like in Children of the Stones, but "Hello" is more likely.
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: None
25. Slang term for left-handed: If I used one, I'd say cack-handed, but I'm a bit sensitive on the issue.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree. NEW-castle. GLAZ-go. Long 'A's all the way. They got shorter for a while when I lived in York, but I reverted.
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwiches.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: When I was very young, I'm sure I remember people saying "Veee!" But I've never been able to find anyone else who remembers this, so perhaps I imagined it - though I'd like to think it was etymologically related to "Fie!"
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: Only for the mouth, really: "Gob", "cakehole", and (picked up from my brother, who picked it up in Manchester) "laughing gear", as in "Wrap your laffing gear round that." Oh, "bum", of course.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: misery guts.
31. Potatoes: I'd usually just call them potatoes. Potatoes
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter: Crumpet
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-05 10:59 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-13 11:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:33 pm (UTC)1. Alley way
2. Jumper although I have heard the term woolly which is odd when referring to something not made of wool.
3. Playing hookey
4. Tick
5. I did use one but I can't remember it.
6. Bags.
7. Pumps, in Australia they are sneakers.
8. A roll or bap
9. I used to say pudding until I went to OZ and then changed to saying dessert when it was pointed out to me that you could hardly call ice cream pudding.
10. to rhyme with gone.
11. Is there one?
12. scotch pikelet, or just pikelet in OZ
13. Faggots if you can call them a delicacy.
14. Darling, my dad used to use the term duck or ducks.
15. I don't know about the first but I could answer 'me' for the latter
16. Holiday makers
17. Hedge
18. Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. I haven't heard of this specific phrase, but a saying for hunger was, 'my stomach thinks my throat has been cut' and 'perishing' for cold
20. Scaredy cat.
21. Spiv
22. Thanks
23. Around here it's yawroyt
24. Strides, dacks
25. cak handed
26. I was brought up to say Shrowsbury (rhymes with throw) but having lived near there for some years, I have changed to shrew (as in small furry animal.) NewCARstle, GLAZgo
27. Sandwich in OZ sarnie
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order:
29. hands: donnies or mits. ears: lugoles or lugs. face: fizog (from physiognomy I guess)
30. Local: You've got a face as long as Livery street. You look as though you lost a pound and found a shilling.
31. spuds
32. I was brought up to call them pikelets but now call them crumpets.
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:46 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:48 pm (UTC)1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: path
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Skiving
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": Tig
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: Pax
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy or Bag
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: Pumps
8. Small round bread: bap or bun
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Afters
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Gone (but in S. Wales it rhymed with 'moan'.
11. Generic term for a bird: bird
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Welshcake. It also has raisins in it, obviously.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: Nowadays, it would probably be pasties. In Swansea I suppose it should have been lava bread, only I don't know anyone who actually ate that, I suspect it of being one of those regional delicacies that exist only to horrify outsiders. Welshcakes again, I suppose. You could get a mean lardy cake or chelsea bun there too, but I don't think that was particularly local: I suspect that both of these have suffered from the onset of the Healthy Food revolution.
14. Term of endearment: When talking to the dogs, I tend to use 'sweetie'. In terms of the sort of 'endearment' that is used as a sort of verbal punctuation, people in Swansea said 'flower' and people in North Devon, Love, or My lover (yes, they really did. Not me though).
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: ? Not something I have a word for.
16. Tourists: Grokels. Visitors (said with that particular emphasis that carries just a suggestion of mental weakness: as in 'Oh, you are a visitor (unspoken: "that explains why you are picnicking on my lawn/ have fallen in my duckpond / have got stuck in this ditch"). If not currently performing any particularly idiotic feat, the question is reversed into 'are you local?'
17. A field boundary: hedge or bank (bank is stone but grasscovered and topped with a hedge).
18. 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 ____!" Look at those cows standing in that cowshed.
19. 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 ___!"
hungry and cold.
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Wuss/ Woos.
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____:
Almost certainly, a Grokel!
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? thanks
23. Generic friendly greeting: Hi (insert comment about weather).
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: I don't have one, but the question reminds me of someone who I knew in Cheshire, who had a special pair of 'Pulling Slacks' for looking for girls in.
25. Slang term for left-handed: Nope, nothing here...
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? Shrows, and long aas on the other 2.
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwich.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: Can't remember any
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: In Devon, ears are Yurs. Things that belong to you are also Yurs. Therefore, your Yurs are Yurs, a fact that can cause considerable amusement if you are the right age.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: I fear this may be a crybaby, unless it's a wuss who has been forced into doing something unwussy.
31. Potatoes: Tatos. Bananas are Nanas. I don't think that's dialect though. Bananas become nanas when you have a sister called Anna, and things then progress from there.
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter. Crumpet
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:50 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 02:01 pm (UTC)(For non-British people who find this very odd, there's nothing harrassmenty about it. It's totally unisex - used as much by women to women as by men to women. Whether men would say it to men, though, I don't know.)
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Date: 2008-04-04 02:20 pm (UTC)I don't know if the column is still going ( I have a feeling the author may have died by now) but I've often thought that it would be rather nice if these were collected on the web somewhere for posterity. Not by me though, retyping thousands of words of dialect strikes me as not a fun task...
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Date: 2008-04-04 02:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 02:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 03:10 pm (UTC)1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: An entry.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: Jumper - woolly when I was young.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: Bunking off.
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": It. (yes, I know it's boring!) We had stuck-in-the-mud too.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: Cross fingers and say Vainites (presumably derived from Fain I.)
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bags I.
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: Plimsolls.
8. Small round bread: Bread roll.
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding. I think my mother said "Sweet" but she may have meant "Suite", who knows?
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": Gone. My mother used to say that people who pronounced them the other way couldn't make them.
11. Generic term for a bird: Bird.
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: Pancake.
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: Suburbs don't have delicacies. My father's favourite pudding was Manchester Tart - a jam tart with a layer of set custard on top. In my youth in the Old Kent Road it was winkles for tea. What happened to winkles, anybody?
14. Term of endearment: My mother used to say "My heart's darling" which she said was Irish - perhaps she got it from her in-laws.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: Don't know.
16. Tourists: We used to say "Touroids" when I was at Oxford, but I don't think that counts as slang, it was just a generic insult. A man I knew used to go up to them and say, "Are you a genuine tourist? May I take your photograph?"
17. A field boundary: Hedgerow.
18. 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 ____!": Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. 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 ___!": I'm starved with cold.
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Wimp.
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: Flash Harry?
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change?: Thank you.
23. Generic friendly greeting: 'Morning, unless in church, where it's kallimera.
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: Slacks
25. Slang term for left-handed: Cack-handed. I always wondered if that derived from the Greek kakos, bad.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROWS-bree, NEW-cass-ul, GLARZgo(but my mother said Glassgae.)
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sarnie.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: "Oh Vee!" The thought of it still chills me.
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: Don't know.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: Misery-guts. My (very cockney) auntie used to say Misery-guts the barber, which sounds like something out of Unhappy Families.
31. Potatoes: Spuds.
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter: Crumpet
33. You annoyingly lucky person!: Jammy devil.
I just remembered my auntie's word for common sense, which was nous - also possibly from the Greek. When I was young I still had uncles and aunts that used rhyming slang, without affectation.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 03:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-04 10:15 pm (UTC)1. Er... Depends. On a house, with a roof overhead, it's a breezeway. Between two commercial buildings that are unconnected, it's an alley.
2. Sweater.
3. Playing hooky
4. Tag
5. Time out! (Usually followed by, "Hey guys, I mean it! Time owwwwwt!"
6. Dibs. As in, "I call dibs on that!"
7. Er...I actually have no idea what this refers to. There was a time before sneakers?
8. Roll
9. Dessert
10. "Gone" -- but only because Pellinor has corrupted me into doing so. Before his evil influence, I pronounced it to rhyme with "moan."
11. Bird.
12. Pancakes - American style. I remember making some of these for you when you were here. :-)
13. Not necessarily here in Florida, but where I grew up, funnel cakes were the big thing at amusement parks and carnivals. Also, the cookie called snickerdoodle, which is a German item, and not to be found much outside the Midwest, especially Ohio.
14. Sweetie or honey. Dear is a Southern term, and that has crept into my speech over the past few years.
15. Wimp? No particular term for this.
16. In Ohio, no real word. Down here in Florida? They're called snowbirds. Because they flock down here when the snow starts to fly in the northern states, and they leave again in late spring when it gets warm again.
17. A fence or if it's greenery, a hedge
18. Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. I'm starving and I'm freezing! (I must be in a whump story!)
20. Chicken. Or scaredy-cat. Or if they aren't nice, chickensh**
21. Pimp? I have no idea.
22. "Thanks!" And if I'm feeling particularly generous, "Have a nice [insert time of day here]."
23. Hi, hey, hello
24. Well, trousers is different to us. To me it means more a formal-style article of clothing (notice how I'm not calling them "pants" *g*), and as such I don't know that they have a nickname. I'm useless when it comes to men's wear. But khakis or Dockers often works for less formal trousers.
25. Southpaw
26. Shrewsbury - just like it's spelled. Shrews-bury. Newcastle - again, just like it's spelled. Glasgow - Glaz-gow, with the last syllable rhyming with cow.
27. Sandwich. Or, when I'm joking with the IT guy at work, it's a "sammich." (Don't ask.)
28. I'm telling!
29. Nothing comes to mind
30. Sadsack, although I had to work to think of this one
31. Potatoes, but my dad called them spuds
32. Ah, this may be the infamous English muffin. But I'm not sure, since I don't know if I'm picturing the same thing as you.
33. You lucky dog! Or, You lucky stiff!
You should add: Carbonated beverage that comes in a can: Is it soda, pop, sodapop, a Coke, or something else? It's a big debate here, and what you say reveals where you grew up. For me, being from the Midwest, it's pop. Tracy, who grew up in New England, calls it sodapop. Most people call it soda. In the South, though, everything is a Coke. Even if it's a Pepsi. :-)
This was fun! :-)
no subject
Date: 2008-04-05 07:21 am (UTC)For 32, I was thinking of a crumpet, which you probably don't have over there. I remember you asking me what a crumpet was, years ago, and I told you. There was then a pause. "So what do they mean when they say that Gillian Anderson is the thinking man's crumpet?" you asked.
For the "pop", I'd say "fizzy drink." This question was on the American-originated dialect meme which sparked this one.
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Date: 2008-04-05 01:15 am (UTC)1. The space between two buildings containing a footpath: The alleyway (always ‘the’), the passage, or the cut.
2. A knitted item of clothing worn over a shirt, without buttons: A thin one, such as for school, was a pullover, a thick one, a jumper.
3. The act of not going to something that you're supposed to go to: skiving off
4. Playground game in which someone is "it" and has to touch someone else who then becomes "it.": Tag. When played within the netball court markings: bulldog. We also played Hacky/Lurky.
5. Playground truce term when you want a break from the above games: Cross keys.
6. Playground term you say when you want to claim something: Bagsy. Just as, if not more common in the negative: ‘Bagsy baint it’ ie. ‘Bagsy not I’.
7. Slip-on shoes worn for school sports in the days before trainers: If they’re black, plimsolls. Otherwise pumps.
8. Small round bread: If it’s got a crusty outside, then a roll, if soft, it’s a bap. Buns are sweet.
9. Sweet course that follows the main course: Pudding or Afters.
10. Scone: pronounced to rhyme with "gone" or with "moan": I go with either, but more likely to rhyme with ‘gone’. Parents rhyme with ‘moan’.
11. Generic term for a bird: I say ‘bird’ but would also understand ‘chook’
12. Round food stuff made with batter on a griddle, which is brown on the outside: pikelet
13. A delicacy that you feel is particularly local to you: pork scratchings. Faggots. (Which I never liked.)
14. Term of endearment: ‘love’ or ‘lover’ ‘All right my lover’ is absolutely generic – adult to child could say that with no connotations. My godfather says it to me all the time. ‘Bugger’ is the same – very affectionate, especially ‘old bugger’ (you can say that to a kid, too) and ‘daft bugger’.
My Uncle, who just about never left south-east London (he came to visit us once, for the weekend, and it was a major expedition) called all women from his mother to his wife to the girl behind the bar ‘lovey’.
15. Someone who's soft and easily feels the cold: ‘wuss’ is generic for anything soft. ‘Are you dithering?’ means ‘Are you cold?’
16. Tourists: Didn’t really get them.
17. A field boundary: Hedge
18. 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 ____!"
“Look at those cows standing in that barn!”
19. 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 ___!"
“I’m starved/starvatious and half-frozen” (or, if really cold, ‘proper frozen’. ‘clammed’ means ‘hungry’ – I don’t say that, but some of my friends do).
20. Your friends invite you to enter a haunted house: you demur. What do they call you, by way of a derisive taunt? Yampy. Wuss. Wimp.
21. A man who dresses flashily with lots of expensive jewellery is a ____: wide boy is all I can think of.
22. What do you say in a shop when you are handed your change? Cheers, Ta or just thanks
23. Generic friendly greeting: ‘All right?’ or even ‘All’s all right?’
24. Slang term for a pair of trousers: keks or keeks.
25. Slang term for left-handed: caggy or cackhanded.
26. Pronunciation of Shrewsbury? Newcastle? Glasgow? SHROOZEbry, NEW-Cah-Sul, GLAHS-go.
27. Two pieces of bread with a filling: Sandwich. Sarnie when at school.
28. A playground way of saying someone is out of order: ‘bang out of order’ is all that comes to mind.
29. Dialect terms for hands, ears, face – and, indeed, for any other body parts you care to name: head is noggin. Paws or mitts are hands. Chops was a really common term, for cheeks/mouth. ‘long in the chops’ for ‘down in the mouth’, etc.
30. Terms for someone who looks miserable: ‘all in’. ‘proper’ was always the qualifying term ‘proper miserable’ although I’d use ‘right miserable’ more these days. Face as long as Livery Street.
31. Potatoes: ‘taters’, usually. Or ‘spuds’.
32. Pale round food stuff with a brown base, lots of holes in it, which you serve hot with butter: crumpet at home, pikelet at friends.
33. You annoyingly lucky person! ‘jammy cow’ or ‘jammy bugger’.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-05 07:25 am (UTC)You know, I'd love to ask these questions to a bunch of today's 10 year olds, to see if the regional differences are alive and well, or if it's all gone uniform because of the influence of television etc.
(no subject)
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Date: 2008-04-06 07:54 am (UTC)1. Cut
2. Jumper
3. Sagging off
4. Tag
5. Cross fingers and say, "Pax" or "Kings".
6. Bagsy
7. Daps or plimsolls
8. Bap. A larger one is a breadcake
9. Pudding
10. As in 'gone'
11. None. A Thrush is a Throstle and a Lapwing is a Peewit though. A Sparrow is also a Spug :-)
12. Pancake
13. Bara Brith and Welshcakes round here.
14. Love
15. Nesh
16. None really
17. Here it tends to be an earth bank with a wall or spiky hedge on the top.
18. Look at those cows standing in that barn!
19. I'm frozen (short o sound - frozzen) and peckish
20. Windy
21. Bobby Dazzler!
22. Diolch in Wales, Ta in England
23. 'How do' or 'Now then'
24. None, though trousers are singular in Welsh, as in "I bought a new trouser!"
25. Lefty, if at all
26. SHREWSbree (like the little animal), NEWcassl (short a), GLAZgo (short a)
27. Butty or doorstop, depending on the thickness
28. Rotter
29. None
30. 'Face like February' if miserable. 'Having your face on' also means looking sulky.
31. Taties (long a)
32. Crumpet
33. Jammy
no subject
Date: 2008-04-07 01:49 pm (UTC)1. Jitty - but I picked that up from my wife's aunt in Nottinghamshire. Before that I would have called it a path, or just possibly a cut.
2. Jumper or pullover or jersey, entirely interchangeably.
3. Skipping. Skiving was the common word in Worcestershire. Also 'bunk off'
4. Tig in Yorkshire, tag in Worcestershire. One variant was 'Hot Rice' (played with a ball), but that could be Scouting slang.
5. Truce??? It was always war!
6. Bagsy
7. Pumps at school, but at home they were plimsolls (is that not the correct 'shop' term?).
8. All my friends at university called this object something different. Roll, bun, bap, breadbun and others. A friend from Herefordshire used pikelet, but that might have been a crumpet. Shape and flour coating makes a difference too. I use roll.
9. Pudding
10. Scone = gone
11. Bird. And you should be ashamed about your corvine ignorance.
12. This is another possible pikelet, but at my home it is a Scotch pancake. Or rather at my home now. At my parental home it did not exist.
13. Banbury cakes (which may be extinct). Malvern water. Belgian buns.
14. I do not use one. In Sheffield it was universally 'Love'.
15. Sissy? But it is not quite the same.
16. You don't get many tourists in Doncaster.
17. Hedge. Wall. Hampshire gates were new to me when I lived in Berkshire.
18. Cows.
19. Starving. Cold. Although I might use chilly, or parky.
20. Wimp.
21. Never met one.
22. 'Thank you'. I guess in Sheffield I would have said 'Ta love'
23. Good morning/afternoon/evening. One of my work colleagues says 'How are things going' and I have to stop myself giving a ten minute report on the status of my work.
24. Trousers. Not keeks.
25. Cack handed is how my father (London) described himself.
26. Shrows-bree. Newcarssl (long A), Glasgo (short a, soft s rather than z)
27. Sandwich. Although up north I probably called it a sarnie.
28. Can't remember. Alhough now I quite like 'Bog off' which I suspect I picked up from Porridge.
29. No comment!
30. Misery sock.
31. Potatoes. My parents used spuds. So peeling potatoes was spud-bashing.
32. Crumpet.
33. Jammy.