matgb: Artwork of 19th century upper class anarchist, text: MatGB (You win the Internet)
Mat Bowles ([personal profile] matgb) wrote2008-04-11 06:32 pm

[Poll:] Dialects, word patterns and lingusitic shift

There's a dialect meme (what do I call things) doing the rounds that I'm finding quite interesting, I've seen answers in Aussie, New Orleans, Yorksher, London and Real Places (ie Devon). So I thought I'd compile the common answers into a poll (linguistic shifts interest me). As always, if you don't have a Livejournal account you can login and vote with any OpenID, which everyone's got these days. So, without further ado...
[Poll #1169647]Huge bunch of sources for some of those questions (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), and some of the differences and similarities are strange. Yorkshire is, from what I can tell, more "different" than most of the other places, Londoners and Devonshire folk speak more similarly to USians and Aussies thanthey do to, supposedly, fellow English peeps. Well, God's Own Country and all that. I still cause confusion calling cakes cakes and dinner dinner (seriously, the word for lunch is dinner ? How does that work?). Ah well, have fun voting y'all.

[*] Two different people who I'm sure don't read each other did the same joke for that one, just for different countries.

Off out now, discovering the joys of Bradford nightlife. Wish me luck.

[identity profile] ihavecake.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 06:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Ouch! I hurt myself on the prickles of your satire in questions #16 and #18, you scamp :P

Also, I went for "settee" because I think that's the one I say most often, but I will also use "sofa" and if it's particularly snuggly or made of leather, "couch".

As you were.

[identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Off out now, discovering the joys of Bradford nightlife

Are you going to the Gasworks?

[identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 07:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Basement = furnished. Cellar = unfurnished.
ext_27872: (Default)

[identity profile] el-staplador.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 07:56 pm (UTC)(link)
I fear it's more a class thing in my case. I talk posh, I do. (I have not yet got to the point where I start correcting the book of etiquette, though - according to my father it's writing paper, not note paper.) In terms of region, I spent the ten most formative years of my life in the Welsh borders, but you'd never know to hear me speak...
ext_4030: Branch of holly with its binomial name, Ilex aquifolium (Default)

[identity profile] strangefrontier.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 09:00 pm (UTC)(link)
"The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening" is confusing to me, because most of the answers seem to be different things which I would refer to by the words listed here. I chose conservatory because there is one in my grandparents' house. No one sits in there in the evenings, though, because it's bloody cold. Apart from my mum, who is exiled there to smoke.

[identity profile] drjon.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
Now, you do realise that the answers I wrote were entirely intended for humourous effect (http://drjon.livejournal.com/1142053.html) (and in some cases a very locally-based effect, at that), yes?

[identity profile] baseballchica03.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 10:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Lunchbox is a really funny word. I use it, no doubt, but once on a really long road trip (home from Florida, about 1400 miles/2253 kilometers/23 hours), my brother and I were making ourselves sick with laughter coming up with funny sounding words. Even now, one of us just has to make a weird hand gesture and say, "Pants. Lunchbox," and the other will crack up completely.

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
I call it a porch, if it's attached to the house, a patio if it's not. (So my parents have a porch made out of wood that you step off the back door right onto it, and the patio is the cement thing off the side of the patio that is adjacent to it.) My apartment is on the second floor, and I have a small wood area without an awning (but directly below another similar area). I alternate between calling it a porch and a balcony.
ext_27873: (Default)

[identity profile] sylo-tode.livejournal.com 2008-04-11 10:28 pm (UTC)(link)
#6 Gravity's a device?

#7 Aside from location (which [livejournal.com profile] snapesbabe so thoroughly described), the only option that I would have chosen that has to have a roof is the gazebo.

#15 Cockroaches can curl up?

#18 Car boot sales are usually for items that don't necessarily have a clear and straight-forward path from the factory, if you know what I mean.