A Dialect Meme

by paet the pagan-gerbil 3. May 2010 17:43

Stolen from the guy who writes For I Have Tasted The Fruit...

  1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks:
    Stream, maybe brook (but only if it is babbling).
  2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called:
    Trolley, or shopping trolley.
  3. A metal container to carry a meal in:
    I don't know of metal containers to carry meals in - plastic ones are lunch boxes (if they have a hinged lid and Action Man on it), tub or tupperware.
  4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in:
    Frying pan - although we grill our bacon and I am incapable of frying eggs.
  5. The piece of furniture that seats three people:
    Sofa.
  6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof:
    Gutter.
  7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening:
    Sit outside? Usually patio if it's a concrete thing in the back garden (but I've never seen one covered), porch in the front of the house (though I can't imagine many people sitting at the front of the house of an evening!)
  8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages:
    Fizzy drink.
  9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup:
    Probably pancakes, but they are not really a breakfast food.
  10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself:
    Baguette.
  11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach:
    Shorts or (swimming) trunks. I always preferred shorts, the longer the better. And a t-shirt. My theory was that if that was all I wore anyway, that's all I needed to tan. Why risk cancer?
  12. Shoes worn for sports:
    Trainers.
  13. Putting a room in order:
    Tidying, cleaning if you dust as well.
  14. A flying insect that glows in the dark:
    Probably firefly. That's the only one I can think of, I don't think there's a local word for it.
  15. The little insect that curls up into a ball:
    I'd call it a woodlouse, but apparently a Bristolian term is 'grampfer grey'.
  16. The children's playground equipment where one kid sits on one side and goes up while the other sits on the other side and goes down:
    Seesaw.
  17. How do you eat your pizza:
    Fingers. Pizza is a meal of last recourse, when no-one can be bothered to do something more difficult. No need to try and save dignity there. I will use a knife and fork in a restaurant, depending on both the quality of the restaurant, the company I am with, or (ultimately) the thickness of the base. Some of them are almost transparent at Pizza Express!
  18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff:
    A crime? I've never seen people just set up at the front of their house and sell things. Most people would take it to a boot sale or church fair or something.
  19. What's the evening meal?:
    Dinner. My wife would call it tea (but to me, that's a drink).
  20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are:
    HELL. People don't have furnaces in this country, and it's very rare to have a basement either. I think of them as basements or cellars, depending on how pleasant they are to be in. Having not seen more than one ever, I couldn't tell you which is worse.
  21. What do you call the thing from which you can drink water in public places:
    Fountain or drinking fountain. And the general rule is that you don't drink from them.

Tags:

General

Comments

5/4/2010 5:22:12 AM #

B

Oh, why, thank you for the unexpected linkage.

B Australia

5/4/2010 7:07:13 AM #

Pete

I'll be honest, I just wanted you to comment again so I feel I have readers! I'm afraid there are no people here to follow that link.

Pete United Kingdom

5/4/2010 8:12:05 AM #

B

Aw. I always read your posts, over at LJ!

B Australia

5/4/2010 8:50:53 PM #

Victoria

It's not the difference in words that's interesting, but the context.  Such as pancakes.  When do you eat pancakes if not for breakfast?  And English people don't do yard sales?

Also: "Grampfer Grey"?! That's delightful!  It sounds like an old curmugeonly character in some fantasy novel.  Grampfer Grey is the local crazy old man who's always chasing the kids off his lawn when they dare each other to run up to his porch.  It turns out he's actually a powerful wizard.

Victoria Canada

5/4/2010 9:29:13 PM #

Pete

I know! But I think Grampfer Grey is particular to this one city (regional dialects here can affect only a few miles!)...

In general, pancakes are eaten on Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday). You can get them for breakfast at McDonalds, I believe, but they're just not... breakfast food.

We (meaning my wife and I) also eat pancakes on Valentine's Day, but that's because we like pancakes more than Valentine's Day.

While checking my facts on Wikipedia (I had to check it really was called Shrove Tuesday), I realised that there are many pancake-like things that we eat more often - crumpets, crepes, and Yorkshire Pudding (I'd never made the connection before!) are all eaten more than once a year. Yum yum yum.

Pete United Kingdom

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