Dialect meme

[senji]

Snarfed unrepentantly from shinydan.

Comments

[pm215]

Apparently this is a Woodlouse. Who knew?

Me :-)

[anonymous]

1. brook
2. shopping trolley
3. lunchbox (although if it were metal I might start wondering whether I should call it a tiffin)
4. frying pan
5. sofa
6. gutter
7. patio
8. fizzy drink
9. pancake
10. baguette
11. swimming trunks
12. trainers
13. tidying up
14. firefly
15. woodlouse
16. see-saw
17. in slices, with a knife and fork
18. garage sale
19. dinner
20. cellar
21. drinking fountain

(S) (from Northants)

[woodpijn]

It's a bit too full of American cultural assumptions to be much use.

Specifically, "The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening" (I'm more sure I've never seen this than that I've never seen a firefly* - I'm having trouble even picturing it), "A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup", "when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff", "The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are" (I only learned very recently that a furnace is the American equivalent of a boiler, but I didn't know they kept them in their basements/cellars) and "the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places".

*is that the same as a glow-worm? I haven't seen one of those either.

Also, how is pizza-eating style a part of dialect?

[marnanel]

Yes, it is. I don't know why they keep them in their cellars either and not in a linen cupboard or something, although ours here runs on oil! And fireflies (which I have now seen) aren't the same as glowworms (which I haven't); they are quite a sight to see. Also, you know that insect noise which American films use to show "silence" at night? It really happens.

[senji]

I have no idea what pizza-eating style has to do with anything.

[lnr]

Question 10 would be much more fun if they wanted the name of a small piece of bread in a vaguely round shape, often used to make sandwiches. Bun, roll, barm, cob, bap, scuffler, etc etc.

I'm really surprised you don't know what a woodlouse is called.

[senji]

I know what the insect called a woodlouse looks like, I didn't know it rolled into a ball.

[lnr]

Maybe you were the sort of kid who didn't habitually pick insects up?

[woodpijn]

I knew woodlice curled into a ball, but I didn't know they were unique in doing so, so "The little insect that curls up into a ball" would have thrown me without seeing Senji's answer.