Dialect Meme

[ailbhe]

WHAT DO YOU CALL:

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
A stream

2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
Shopping trolley

3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
Lunchbox

4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
Frying pan

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.
Guttering

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
Patio

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
Fizzy drink or sometimes soft drink.

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Pancake, and it's not REALLY a breakfast food.

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
Baguette with filling, filled roll, [fillingname] roll.

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Generic: Togs. Male-specific: Trunks.

12. Shoes worn for sports.
Runners.

13. Putting a room in order.
Tidying up

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
No idea.

15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
Woodlouse.

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.
See-saw.

17. How do you eat your pizza?
Without cheese :( But also without cutlery, usually.

18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
Market? Car boot sale?

19. What's the evening meal?
Dinner, sometimes Tea

20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
It's something in the basement - I grew up with a basement containing the kitchen, coal cellar (coal hole), scullery, and playroom.

21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
Drinking fountain.

Comments

[pne.livejournal.com]

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
No idea.

I've never seen one, and assumed they weren't even common in Europe, though Wikipedia says says that e.g. Lampyris noctiluca is "found in the most of Europe including the British Isles."

The word that came to my mind, though, was firefly.

(German calls them "Glühwürmchen", i.e. "glow-wormlets", or something like that.)

[happydisciple.livejournal.com]

I'm from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and I say:

WHAT DO YOU CALL:

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
Non-flowing: vaart, wetering, tocht, wijk, gracht
Flowing: beek

2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
Winkelwagentje

3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
Broodtrommel

4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
Koekepan

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
(Driezits)bank

6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
The horizontal parts that collect the water: dakgoot
The vertical pipe that carries it down: regenpijp

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
Patio

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
Softdrink

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Beschuit

(I know, I know, not what they meant, but hey, pancakes aren't breakfast food in the NL)

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
Baguette, broodje

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Zwembroek

12. Shoes worn for sports.
Gympen

13. Putting a room in order.
Kamer opruimen

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
Vuurvliegje

15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
No idea

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.
Wip

17. How do you eat your pizza?
Depends. When it's pre-cut: without cutlery. When it isn't: pizza knife & hands, or pizza knife & fork, or normal knife & fork

18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
Weird.

When there's some organisation to it (as in, the local $foo organises it, and $num people come & sell their used stuff): rommelmarkt

19. What's the evening meal?
Avondeten

20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
Nonexistent. If, and that's a big if, there is space under the house where hoomins are meant to go with some regularity, and it's of reasonable height: kelder. If it's only for crawling access to under-floor spaces: kruipruimte.

21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
Fonteintje

Oh, and because I'm from Amsterdam: for every long "o"-sound (double "o"s & "o"s at the ends of syllables), read "au". For every voiced "d", read an unvoiced, sharp "t".

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Beschuit

Beschuit are the best things in the world, and due to allergies I can't eat them any more. I hereby give you my lifetime share. Enjoy!

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

I'm from Nottingham - I think most of my dialect is still from there, though I've lived in various bits of England, and I only differ from you on two of those. Number 12 is 'trainers', though when I was growing up they were 'plimsoles' and the area underneath the house is basement or cellar interchangeably (though it maybe that a 'basement' is a proper room, whilst a 'cellar' is more of a storage place thinking about it).

Interesting stuff.

[merryhouse.livejournal.com]

but trainers and plimsolls are completely different (I'm from the next county to you - Leicestershire).

I agree on the difference between basement and cellar. Hardly anyone I knew had either, and I remember being really impressed when my rich friend in the big edwardian house demonstrated the sauna and playroom in their basement!

I say settee rather than sofa - I think it's one of those words where everyone thinks their version is the not-posh one.

I have used both glow-worm and firefly, but it's a bit academic because I've never seen either.

We normally have our dinner at teatime - though when I was little we had dinner at lunchtime.

Swimming suits for men and boys are trunks.

The rest I'm the same as Ailbhe.

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

But when I was little trainers didn't exist, we had plimsoles for doing gym at school and that was it, so now I'd say trainers, but growing up it was definitely plimsoles.

Hmm ... settee or sofa. I think I might use those interchangeably now. It was probably settee when I was growing up.

And yes, breakfast, dinner and tea. If you're going out for your tea then it's dinner though. Usually. (Being slightly silly here, and have spent a lot of the last year explaining some of the vagaries of English to a Swedish friend so got used to being silly with it)

[vatine]

My answer is here.