Dialect meme, ga*ked from everyone

[darcydodo]

I grew up in LA; both my parents are from California, but my dad's from the north and my mom's from the south. I lived for four years in England, and that certainly informs my idiolect, but for the particular questions asked here I'm definitely able to differentiate between inherited and actively learned.

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
A creek, a stream, or a brook. I think a creek's probably the smallest and a stream's probably the biggest, but I'm not 100% positive.

2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
A shopping cart. I learned to say trolley in England, and I do sometimes from force of habit, but it's actually a shopping cart. Or a grocery cart.

3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
A lunch box? Err...

4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
A frying pan or skillet.

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
Probably a couch. Or sofa. I'd probably say couch, but I'm happy with either. A sofa's probably more overstuffed.

6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
(Rain-)gutter. Drain. Rainspout. Drainspout. Gutter is definitely my first choice, though.

7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
People sit on their porches? Must be in some other part of the country. ;)

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
Soda. Or soft drink.

9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
Pancakes. Mmmm.

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
Depends where I get it! A sub, grinder, hero, hoagie... ;) I'm conversant with all those terms, but sub is my first choice.

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Trunks. Swimming trunks. Preferably they're not wearing speedoes. :P But my Australian friend just returned my dad's that he'd left in Australia, and she gave me his "swimmers," which I'd never even heard!

12. Shoes worn for sports.
I wear tennis shoes or sneakers on a daily basis; but cleats are usually for sports. I think it's asking about the former. (Once again, I picked up "trainers" in England.)

13. Putting a room in order.
Tidying or straightening. My parents would tell me to clean my room, but that's a bit more thoroughgoing.

14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
Firefly!!! We don't have them here. :(

15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
Sowbug. Not a potato bug, because that's actually a different thing (with stripes!), and not a pillbug or roly-poly because that's silly.

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. Are there other names, seriously?

17. How do you eat your pizza?
By the slice and with my hands. How's that dialect?

18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
A garage sale. Or, I suppose, a yard sale, if you must.

19. What's the evening meal?
Dinner. But when I was at camp (in Vermont), it was supper.

20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
Well, I don't have a basement and never have, but I suppose that's what I'd call it. We've got a crawlspace under the house here and in LA. :)

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

Comments

[once-a-banana.livejournal.com]

#16: A teeter-totter, obviously ;-)

And here I thought I was virtually the same as you all the way down. But I didn't think of see-saw until I saw what you wrote. Must be my midwestern charm....

[darcydodo]

Yeah, must be....

I was looking at the notebook I used the semester we were in German 1, and it's got your name on the very first page, I guess because we'd broken up into groups or something! :)

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[scazon.livejournal.com]

If you ate pizza by the hundred grams (cento), you'd be Italian. And possibly other European types.

[tlaad.livejournal.com]

In Massachusetts #2 would be "carriage," which I'd never heard before coming here.

[darcydodo]

God, they might as well call it a stroller!

[asarwate.livejournal.com]

Or a pram :-P

[eqe.livejournal.com]

8 is "pop" to my parents and siblings; I ostentatiously chose to move up the social ladder on that one in college.

16 is definitely a teeter-totter in the midwest.

17 is asking if you start at the tip or at the crust, I think. Also if slices are triangular or square.

21 is a bubbler in Wisconsin, but definitely a fountain in Minnesota.

[darcydodo]

17 is asking if you start at the tip or at the crust, I think. Also if slices are triangular or square.

At the tip, of course, otherwise what would I hold it by?! Also, they're only square if they're from Domino's, which preferably they're not.

Damn it, now I want pizza.

[owens888.livejournal.com]

With very large pizzas, too large to have a radial slice be held straight, you have to cut them into squares. That means the internal pieces have no crust and are icky to hold. Oh well.

[wageslave.livejournal.com]

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
If my life were more interesting, I would have said "love seat."

[darcydodo]

Yes, well, I don't even have need for a two-person love-seat. *sigh*

[aepfelx.livejournal.com]

does this mean you're going to tell us about your one-person love-seat?

The question here

[jessbess.livejournal.com]

is creek or crick.

Re: The question here

[darcydodo]

Given that it's not cramping my neck, it's most assuredly a creek. ;)

[owens888.livejournal.com]

For a bunch of these, I thought of the "wrong" word first because that's what Corey uses, and it makes me annoyed. Like "teeter-totter" and "pop." Also, where I'm from, porches are not usually not covered and they're usually on the backs of houses, so there's little point in sitting and talking there in the evenings if your family doesn't get along. Furthermore, there are other names for a firefly?

[linley.livejournal.com]

I believe that fireflies are called lightning bugs in some areas.

[rubrick.livejournal.com]

Both terms were in use where I grew up (southern Ohio), with firefly predominating.

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

Swimsuits were "cozzies" (or is that cossies?) in South Africa (short for swim costume).

Lightning bugs were very different than fireflies in Utah -- they were Box Elder Beetles, and had a vaguely lightning-shaped orange line cutting across their black backs.

Carbonated beverages are "pop" in Utah, regardless of class -- it's a regional thing.

[chimerically.livejournal.com]

Oh, and mosquitoes were mozzies in SAfrica. I used to call them skeeters.

[cwinant.livejournal.com]

5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
I call it a couch when I am contemplating sitting on it, and a sofa when I am shopping for one,

8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
I hear that in Georgia, all such beverages are called 'Coke'.

10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
Does banh mi count?

11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
Bathing suit, but probably because I grew up in a house of 3 women and 1 man (dad). Anyway, he wears speedos. He's french.

13. Putting a room in order.
Cleaning

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

17. How do you eat your pizza?
When I get to eat yuppie pizza at a Chez Panisse spin-off, I use a knife and fork.

[jholomorphic.livejournal.com]

3. depends on the shape; even before I knew the word, I never would have called a "tiffin" a "lunch box".