This brought to you by Andrew saying he left a glass of water for me on the side

[cosmolinguist]

In many ways I'm envious of the British variant of our fair language; I don't think we have such a good word for wellies, or anything quite like faffing about. I like trainers better than any of the words I grew up with for such shoes.

But it's just not worth it. The thing in the kitchen, for which I use the perfectly good word counter, is here called the top¹ ... or the side. <sup>2

1</sup> Which I can almost see because I could call it a countertop without getting weird looks.

² Which not only makes no sense (except maybe from sideboard?) but is also not allowed to be in any way equivalent to the top of anything.

Comments

[taimatsu]

I use 'side' or 'worktop'. In my family kitchen we had a counter like a peninsula which poked out into the room. It was known as 'the middle bit'. ('I think it's on the shelves under the middle bit!' 'I left it on the middle bit!') That seems weird to me now :)

[taimatsu]

Also, the worktops are usually at the side of the kitchen, no?

I am going to bed now! :D

[cosmolinguist]

Hm... I see what you're trying to do there, but I think that sounds like the logic of someone who needs to go to bed. :)

[taimatsu]

Yes, well... but really, I think that's why in my family we called it 'the side'. I don't know why else we would've :)

[cosmolinguist]

Well yes, considering the geographical origin of other kitchen names like 'the middle bit,' perhaps you have a point there.

Or maybe it's just that they're from Lancashire. :)

[donttouchmyhat.livejournal.com]

Of course, if one had to choose a nickname, Yank's easier on the heart than Limey.

[toastedtuna.livejournal.com]

Aussies talk funny, too.

[dyfferent.livejournal.com]

I never heard it called the side, only the worktop. Is this a northern-git thing?

[cosmolinguist]

I'm not a good person to ask. :) I'm not sure if I've heard it from anybody but Andrew, now that I think of it. Maybe his family. So maybe it is a northern thing, or maybe he's just weird.

[cosmolinguist]

Never mind; taimatsu just says up there that she says side too, and I don't think she's northern (yet).

[taimatsu]

No, I grew up in South London. HOWEVER, my parents are both from Lancashire ;)

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

Worktop, definitely. Though I might say I'd left something out on the side, but that would just mean I'd left it on anything that wasn't a table, including a window ledge to be honest.

[cosmolinguist]

See, that's what really confuses me. I have heard him say this for other things, including the table, I'm pretty sure (definitely including the quasi-coffee-table). How are thesei n any way a side? :) (But then I could say the same about football teams. :))

[myfirstkitchen.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's just a way of qualifying leaving something out - otherwise it can mean omitting something ("I left that one out for a reason!") or wanting someone to stop it ("leave it out, mate!") or leaving something (otherwise it could mean leaving it behind etc). Clarification of sorts.

[miss-newham.livejournal.com]

I'll give you 'counter', that's a good one.

[cosmolinguist]

Woohoo! I'll be sure to talk about those more than couches then.

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

Reading stuff like this makes me remember all those confusions and whee!s and discovering that I was going through nearly ten years ago, complete with 'but is this a Yorkshire / Northern thing'? Though I didn't have the internet / LJ to help :)

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, I know I'm really no kind of expert on the Englishes in the same way I'm no expert on all of America, though everybody asks me here about how things are in America and I feel I'm sure to disappoint by being able to tell them only of my experience, which is a Midwest farmer's daughter who went to a cow college.

[mrs-leroy-brown.livejournal.com]

I still get people asking me about stuff like 'what do Americans think of Obama' or whatever and I'm like er I've lived here for nearly 10 years I dunno! It's because nothing can kill a Midwest accent, so I think I sound like I just got off the boat!

[cosmolinguist]

The last sentence made me laugh a lot. But I was always, and am increasingly often the longer I stay here, asked if I am Canadian. Which seems to me a fair balance of English and Minnesoooo-dah. Also seems better than being from the most insane country in the world.

Though yesterday somebody asked if I was Greek. Don't know where that came from. Besides, despite the dark hair, I'm Scandinavian-pasty.