Linguistics meme (I added a question)

[beth_leonard]

This one, language! My guess is that this is supposed to show regionalisms or what have you. So my regional background: born in NY, started talking in San Jose, Ca, spent age 3-8 in MA, 8-9 in upstate NY, 9-11 outside St. Louis MO, 12-18 outside San Francisco, CA, 18-21 in SoCal, 22-32 (Gah!) in silicon Valley.

1. A body of water, smaller than a river, contained within relatively narrow banks.
2. What the thing you push around the grocery store is called.
3. A metal container to carry a meal in.
4. The thing that you cook bacon and eggs in.
5. The piece of furniture that seats three people.
6. The device on the outside of the house that carries rain off the roof.
7. The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening.
8. Carbonated, sweetened, non-alcoholic beverages.
9. A flat, round breakfast food served with syrup.
10. A long sandwich designed to be a whole meal in itself.
11. The piece of clothing worn by men at the beach.
12. Shoes worn for sports.
13. Putting a room in order.
14. A flying insect that glows in the dark.
15. The little insect that curls up into a ball.
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.
17. How do you eat your pizza?
18. What's it called when private citizens put up signs and sell their used stuff?
19. What's the evening meal?
20. The thing under a house where the furnace and perhaps a rec room are?
21. What do you call the thing that you can get water out of to drink in public places?
22. The object in which a woman carries her keys and money.


1. creek
2. shopping cart
3. lunchbox
4. frying pan
5. couch/sofa
6. gutter
7. front porch
8. soda
9. pancake
10. sub
11. swim suit
12. tennis shoes
13. cleaning
14. firefly
15. rolly polly
16. seesaw/teeter totter
17. finger food
18. garage sale
19. dinner
20. basement
21. water fountain/drinking fountain
22. purse (although I know pocketbook and handbag make strong showings in other parts of the country. Diaper bag might also make it big in some circles ;-)

Comments

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Sometimes I feel like I can't play these games anymore because I know all the answers. ;) Really though, I do know my dialect, and my answers are the same as yours, except

7. patio
11. trunks
13. picking up/cleaning/tidying up
14. firefly" and "lightning bug" are interchangeable, because we don't have those here.
17. depends on the pizza ;)

[feuervogel]

Are patios covered? I've never heard of a covered patio (: usu. brick area on the ground, often with furniture), though I've heard of covered/enclosed decks (: wooden structure built above ground level.) Of note, I would put patio furniture on the deck, but not on the porch (: covered entryway to a house, can extend further, as in Victorian wrap-around porches.)

Yes, outdoor furniture is patio furniture, regardless of whether it's destined for a patio or a deck. Much like I buy coke from a machine clearly labeled Pepsi (and I push the button for Mountain Dew.)

[beth_leonard]

My parents' back patio is covered with a trellis. I almost said patio, except that question The covered area outside a house where people sit in the evening brought to mind an image of two old people sitting on their front porch watching the traffic go by, not the back patio.

I've never actually done this. I don't know anyone locally who does this. But the image from popular media is there, of people sitting on their front porch in the evenings.

I suppose it could be called a Veranda. Pippy longstocking calls hers a veranda.

--Beth

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Patios can be covered, and decks can be covered, but it seems to me that in California that is less likely because the weather is always so nice. ;) So the words have become interchangeable. My grandmother uses "porch" to describe the cement patio in her back yard that has an awning over it, but that was most decidedly the patio to the rest of us. She was partly-raised in Iowa, and her parents were English, so that likely had an effect on her usage.

Of note, I would put patio furniture on the deck, but not on the porch

Would you put other furniture on the porch? To me a porch isn't much good without a swing or a rocking chair or something old-timey like that. (Clearly I have the same perception of porches as Beth does, heh.) (Oh and agreed re: "patio furniture" being all outdoor furniture.)

[feuervogel]

I can't say I've ever seen a covered patio, and I've spent most of my life in the mid-Atlantic or Southeast.

I suppose furniture would go on the porch, but I wouldn't call it patio furniture. I don't know what I'd call it...

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Hey, like I said, the likelihood of bad weather affects the structure of outdoor sitting areas. :D I've spent my entire life in southern California, so I'm probably a weather snob. I've made several trips to Arizona, Ohio and Boston, and I can't recall seeing open patios in any of those places, either.

I think there are two kinds of porches--the kind that might be called a "stoop" in other dialects, where it's an open area at the top of a flight of stairs that lead to the main door of a residential building, and the kind that takes up more space in front of/behind a home. The former would definitely not have furniture, but the latter may.

[feuervogel]

Have you spent any significant time on the East Coast? Weather is pretty horrid here: cold in winter, hot & humid in summer. But we still leave our patios uncovered.

I don't think of a stoop as covered. I think of a stoop as the entrance to (eg) a brownstone, usually roofless, but the door may be recessed a bit.

On a different topic, have you ever heard of "nabs"? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lance,_Inc#Nabs)

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Nono, they don't need to be covered at all. I totally misread your middle comment, because I was getting porches and patios mixed up in my head. And I expected them to be covered in the east, not uncovered. So you and I have been seeing different things. :) And stoops aren't covered as I understand them, either. The brownstone entrance is just what I picture when I think of a stoop.

"Nabs" is totally new to me. The only brand made by Lance that I've even heard of is Cape Cod potato chips, but I've never heard of anyone refer to those as nabs. Iiinteresting...

[feuervogel]

I'd never heard it until I started work at this job. I've seen Nabs crackers in the vending machine, but I've never heard anyone call generic vending machine snacks "nabs" before.

This leads me to assume that it's a regionalism, as Lance is based here in NC, so the "widely used" assertion by the wikipedia author is greatly exaggerated.

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that seems fishy to me. Ah well, we're all prone to the Frequency Illusion now and then.

[beth_leonard]

Sometimes I feel like I can't play these games anymore because I know all the answers.
Hehe, yes, I could see that in your position. I wish this were one of the types where you could type in your answers and find out where it thinks you're from. What dialect are you/am I? Do you need to know how people pronounce things to find out for sure? I rode to nursery school in a 'car'. My 2 1/2 year younger brother, who learned to talk outside of Boston took a 'ca'.

--Beth

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Phonology, vocabulary, and semantics all play a role in the difference between dialects, but vocabulary alone can be a strong indicator. Individual speakers are also affected by where their parents/caregivers are from and physical differences, like macroglossia. Just from the words, I'd say your dialect is "Standard American", which can be as much a reflection of economic background as where geographically you grew up--that's why I (southern California-born and raised) and Ted (Boston metro-born and raised) and Cesar our taco guy (Guanajuato, MX-born and raised, perfectly fluent in English) all pretty much speak the same dialect. Ted has some local dialect words that I don't (frappe), and pronounces a few words differently ("cocky" for khaki), but overall our language is indistinguishable.

NH versions (Obeth)

[robszewczyk.livejournal.com]

1. stream, creek, or rill
5. couch
12. sneakers
13. neatening/tidying
14. Lightning Bug
15. roly-poly
18. Yard sale


I can't even think of other versions for shopping cart. Ditto lunchbox and roly-poly. What are they?

Re: NH versions (Obeth)

[songmonk.livejournal.com]

Maybe "trolley" for shopping cart? When I googled just now to see if that was the case, it also came up with shopping carriage (which I have never heard).

Maybe lunch pail for lunchbox.

For roly-poly, I learned to call them potato bugs when I was a child.

Re: NH versions (Obeth)

[beth_leonard]

Is it also perhaps a pill-bug or sow bug? I couldn't remember, but I think I've also called them that. It may be a different bug though. I was never clear on the differences. What is the proper name for those bugs anyway?

--Beth

Re: NH versions (Obeth)

[kirinqueen.livejournal.com]

Apparently the proper name is "woodlouse". They may also be known as doodlebugs, armadillo bugs (I like this one), potato bugs, and carpenters.

As for shopping trolley/carriage for shopping cart, I'm pretty sure that's non-American English only.

Re: NH versions (Obeth)

[robszewczyk.livejournal.com]

I have actually heard the "carriage", tho not for a LOOONG time... Thanks!

When I think lunch pail, I'm literally thinking of pails... :-)

Re: NH versions (Obeth)

[beth_leonard]

Lunch pail perhaps? When I think of a lunch pail I think of Mark Twain.
--Beth