Re: [YAEUT] Lexical variation survey

On Mon, May 5, 2008 at 1:41 AM, Kelly Drinkwater <mizunomi@...> wrote:
>  (adapted from the McGill Dialectology and Sociolinguistics Lab's
>  "North American Regional Vocabulary Survey")
>
>  Date of birth:
>  Sex:
>  Where do you currently live? (city, state/province, country)
>  Please list the places you've lived between age 4 and age 18, with the
>  most recent first:
>  Occupation:
>  Highest level of education completed:
>  Ethnic heritage:
>
1987; Male; Singapore; Singapore; Student; 'A' Levels; Chinese

>  What is/are your native language(s)?
>
Mandarin, English

>  Roughly how many years have you been conlanging or studying linguistics?
>
11 years

>  How many years ago did you first encounter / begin reading (not
>  necessarily join / begin posting on) an online conlanging community?
>
No idea. Might be three, four years back?

>
>  1. the metal device over a sink or bathtub that controls the flow of water:
>  faucet, spigot, tap
>
tap

>  2. the apparatus from which you'd get a drink of water in a public place:
>  bubbler, drinking fountain, water fountain
>
In Singapore these dispense either hot (boiling) and cold water, in
which case they're called "water coolers" (the hot part is ignored);
or the water is of room temperature, in which case there is no name
for them besides generalising "water cooler" to them, or simply saying
you're going to drink some water and walking over.

>  3. the device that firefighters attach their hoses to:
>  fire hydrant, fire plug
>
fire hydrant

>  4. the container in which you'd put water for washing the car or the floor:
>  bucket, pail
>
Either way; "pail" is used when one feels lazy.

>  5. a machine that performs banking services:
>  ATM, automated teller, bank machine, cash machine, cash point,
>  guichet, hole in the wall, money machine, commercial name (eg MAC
>  machine, Instant Teller, Instabank)
>
ATM

>  6. stuff you throw away:
>  garbage, rubbish, trash
>
rubbish (cf. Ray's notes)

>  7. the wheeled conveyance you put your groceries in while shopping:
>  basket, buggy, cart, trolley
>
trolley (cf. Ray's notes)

>  8. a shallow pan for frying eggs or meat:
>  fry pan, frying pan, griddle, skillet, spider
>
"frying pan", of course! Intuitively. (:

>  9. a piece of chocolate, 4-6 inches long:
>  bar, candy bar, chocolate bar
>
chocolate bar

>  10. a carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage, like Coke or Sprite:
>  coke, cola, cold drink, fizzy drink, pop, soda, soda pop, soft drink, tonic
>
soft drink; cold drinks can be non-carbonated; tonic is generally used
for the alcohol; coke = Coca-Cola

>  11. cooking outside over a charcoal grill in the summertime:
>  barbecuing, grilling, grilling out, having a cookout
>
barbecuing (and I hate how people like to spell it "barbeque" just
because it is abbreviated "BBQ")

>  12. a cold sandwich on a foot-long roll:
>  sub(marine), hero, hoagie, grinder
>
sub

>  13. the sweet, creamy layer on top of a cake:
>  frosting, icing
>
icing

>  14. your main evening meal:
>  dinner, supper
>
dinner; supper's eaten late at night, after dinner, and is not a
proper meal but rather snackish. Hence, dinner can also be at 12am as
long as you have not had an evening full meal. Normally the name of
the meal isn't fixed until the day is over: if you've taken three
meals, the first is breakfast (if taken before noon), the second lunch
(even if taken at 6pm), and the third dinner (even if taken at 1am);
however, if you don't eat by noon you've skipped breakfast and you're
starting with lunch at 1pm, and if you eat again at 5pm and again at
11pm, you've had a lunch and two dinners. Pretty much to do with
daylight and the conception of "evening".

>  15. food picked up and taken home to eat:
>  carry-out, take-away, take-out
>
take-away

>  16. an appliance on which you heat food in saucepans:
>  cooker, range, stove
>
cooker

>  17. knives, forks, and spoons:
>  cutlery, flatware, silverware, utensils
>
cutlery; "utensils" has a broader range

>  18. contact someone by telephone:
>  call, phone, ring, telephone, buzz
>
(tele)phone or call; unless invoking a typically Western vocabulary,
in which case all are possible

>  19. the toilet facilities in a public place:
>  bathroom, facilities, ladies' room / men's room, lavatory, loo,
>  restroom, toilet, washroom, WC, john
>
in increasing order of appropriateness: toilet, gents', washroom,
restroom; like Ray, "bathroom" tends to have a bath or at least a
shower.

>  20. athletic shoes worn with jeans as casual footwear:
>  gym shoes, plimsolls, runners, running shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes,
>  trainers, brand name (eg Adidas)
>
track shoes

>  21. a sweatshirt with front pockets and a hood:
>  hooded sweatshirt, hoodie, kangaroo jacket, bunnyhug
>
hoodie

>  22. a piece of furniture that seats 3 people:
>  couch, chesterfield, davenport, divan, settee, sofa
>
sofa, but "couch potato"; "settee" is too similar to "suttee"

>  23. a piece of furniture with drawers for socks, underwear, etc.:
>  bureau, chest (of drawers), drawers, dresser, highboy
>
drawers

>  24. the last letter of the alphabet:
>  zed, zee
>
zed

>  25. the place where you pay for something in a store:
>  cash, cash register, cashier, check-out, till
>
cashier (person), cashier's (place); the cash register is the machine,
the "till" is an old-fashioned cash register, and the "check-out" is
the entire row of cashiers' (cashier's? Admittedly the problem of
punctuating the plural of this word has never come up before) in a
supermarket

>  Thanks so much for participating!
>  -Alioth
>
You're welcome. (:

Eugene