ladyofastolat: (Default)
ladyofastolat ([personal profile] ladyofastolat) wrote2008-04-04 12:23 pm
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Dialect part 3

Okay, 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. ;-)

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 01:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Context: Hampshire for first 18 years, followed by relatively short stints in Surrey, York and Cambridge, followed by 18 more in Bristol. Parents: father grew up in Kingston-Upon-Thames, mother in Wrexham.


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

[identity profile] ladyofastolat.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
The "daps" thing interests me. According to several websites I've just looked at, it's a specifically Bristol term, derived from the Bristol-based factory that made them, called Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls (though this is one of those definitions that I'm inclined to be dubious about). However, the term had clearly spread as far as a small village in north Gloucestershire - though the nearby small town hadn't heard of it.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 02:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Interesting, bain't it? And there's a T-shirt, of course... http://www.beast-clothing.com/order.html

[identity profile] phina-v.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 04:12 pm (UTC)(link)
It was pretty much exclusively daps in Highworth (near Swindon) and Bromham (between Devizes and Chippenham) too. I certainly never thought of them as anything else until moving to Bournemouth and not being understood.

[identity profile] firin.livejournal.com 2008-04-04 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I was/am a 'daps' person. Despite both having been born in and also living in Bristol, I picked the term up from primary school, which was some miles away in Somerset.

[identity profile] ladyofastolat.livejournal.com 2008-04-05 10:59 am (UTC)(link)
re. your "veeee!", [livejournal.com profile] segh, elsewhere in this thread, remembers "Oh vee!" in these circumstances, so there's at least one other person. I can't find it in The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, though.

[identity profile] steepholm.livejournal.com 2008-04-05 11:18 am (UTC)(link)
*goes to look* So she does! It's a relief to know I didn't dream it.

You're clearly going to have to don the Opie mantle and produce an updated version of Language and Lore. With an "Expanded to Include 'Oh Vee!'" sticker on the front, of course.

Belatedly joining in...

[identity profile] jane-somebody.livejournal.com 2008-04-13 11:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Re. 28: Oh, we said "Veee!" too at first school; I'd completely forgotten till you mentioned it, but now I can hear it in memory very clearly. Went to school in Southampton starting in the mid-seventies, for context. From the pronunciation/stress, I rather doubt it comes from the Jewish, as [livejournal.com profile] segh suggests; I like your "Fie" suggestion better, but goodness knows!