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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no subject
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 12:11 pm (UTC)21: Pimp? Doesn't seem very English!
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Date: 2008-04-04 12:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 12:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 12:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 12:24 pm (UTC)no subject
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 01:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
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 01:43 pm (UTC)I still don't have any answers though.
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Date: 2008-04-04 01:46 pm (UTC)no subject
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
Date: 2008-04-04 01:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 01:59 pm (UTC)Is that foreigner, or furriner?
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Date: 2008-04-04 02:01 pm (UTC)no subject
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 02:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-04 02:03 pm (UTC)