Can you tell where someone is from from how they write on MN?

[Theystoleourrecipe]

I've noticed that when going through posts, I'll read something and think, 'oh this person is from x, just by the words and phrases they use. I'll sometimes be able to localise this to a more specific region. I never look at usernames when I'm reading unless something really stands out to me, so I generally don't have any prior knowledge of the poster influencing me. Of course I can't be 100% sure but I would put a bet on being right, most of the time.

Do you ever recognise a particular region through how a poster writes? Are you conscious of how you write, making sure not to use colloquialisms unique to your area or do you not think about it, or do it anyway?

‘Poke’ is a paper bag eg to put sweets in. Pokeyhat is an ice cream cone, my papa always said ‘here’s something for ye, get a pokeyhat when the ice cream van comes’ To a PP ‘outwith’ would be used eg ‘outwith office hours call xxxxx’

I remember when I first moved up to west central Scotland from NW England 27 years ago, the horror of ordering sausage and chips at the chippy and being presented with this battered monstrosity, like wtf is this. 😅

In the part of Northern Ireland I come from, a poke is definitely not a paper bag for sweets or chips.

It's an ice cream and we definitely don't say pokeyhat either.

Right…that’s what it means here. Have I misread your post??

Whereabouts is "here"?

In Highlands, nobody calls an ice cream cone a pokeyhat. It's just a cone. Or a paper bag a pokey.

Been here a long time now.

Central Scotland..born here. Never heard of a ‘pokey’ see how things are regional? 🤷‍♀️

Calling someone good looking a 'ride' in Ireland.

Haven't heard it for many years though sadly.

I have a colleague from Glasgow who called everyone pal. Now I always say 'myfitnesspal' in the thickest Glasgow accent in my mind.

Oooohh birds! I’d sell my soul for their lamb and mint slices and cream cakes!

I don't live within reach of one of their shops anymore - but whenever I'm going to be near one, I prepare to stock up bigtime!

I can always tell if posters are English when they say words rhyme and they don't to a person who pronounces their r's

Not quite the same thing, but I always wonder with some of the old hymns, whether word pronunciations have changed over the past two or three centuries. When words like 'Word' and 'Lord' are clearly intended to rhyme within the metre of the verse, or 'home' and 'come'.

Did they rhyme to the hymnwriters in their own place and time, or did they just 'cheat' and reckon that, if they looked on paper like they should rhyme, that was good enough and it didn't matter how they were actually spoken?!

Calling someone good looking a 'ride' in Ireland.

Is that meant innocently or sleazily? Even if the former, non-Irish people would definitely raise their eyebrows if they heard it used in that context!

"He was lookin' for the ride last night!" means he was looking for a shag, in blunt terms. Or "Yer wan on the weather news is a ride"- the young lady who presents the weather forecast is attractive, FatherJack. In my part of Ireland, we used screw as an alternative to ride in both examples back in the 90s.

Lush is also used in the North East, so NOT just a Welsh/SW word.

I sometimes still say "are you able to" instead of "can/could/will you", which I think is more of an Irish turn of phrase? I also sometimes use "what age" instead of "how old", but I knew that was linked to Ireland already. (I did some units in Linguistics as part of my English degree in the 90s, and I remember this from it.)

Can I also tell VisionsofSplendour off for the "Yes, took is the correct word" post or am I too late to the thread?
🤔😆

Ah, thanks, CremeEggThief - so it sounds like it is quite a coarse expression and not just a pure synonym for 'pretty' or 'a bit of alright'!

Is anyone in Ireland able to tell me if shift is still used for snog, or has that died out too?

I suppose, FrJack. Sort of like 'fit' or 'phwoaar' in that meaning for pretty or good looking ( obviously riding/screwing/shagging are definitely earthier than 'having sex"!)

I'm Irish and I would say this. I notice the mistakes that English people make of course but fail to understand what is wrong with this sentence!

Actually I remember, my Danish boyfriend in the early 90s explained it to me. You take it with you on your way there but you bring it back home with you. he was Danish not English though! That was the only time he questioned my English.

You're too late to tell her off but you're welcome to give out to her

@CremeEggThief I don't think ''shift'' means snog anymore. I think they say ''meet'' now My kids are 17 and 20. They don't tell me much but I know they don't use shift in that context. My daughter talks about her shifts in her pt job without so much as a snigger.

That’s got to be from the Blue Boar!

@CremeEggThief I'm 53 and people my age still use it. At work on Friday afternoon, a woman my age said we had a new man starting Monday and we are so short of staff atm. She told us all to be so nice to him that we stopped just short of riding him. We all laughed like drains but we're all of a similar vintage.

@HaddawayAndShite omg it was! I stumbled across it as an away fan. It was a great pub. Regular live music I understand.

😂😂 brilliant.

On the topic of ice cream, my husband, then boyfriend, was a bit “excuse me” the first time he visited me in the North East and the ice cream man asked if he wanted monkeys blood (raspberry sauce) on his ice cream. Turns out that was a regional thing I just assumed everyone called it that, I had no idea it was even raspberry flavoured.

I could tell a BB cob a mile off, half a block of cheese and half an onion, beautiful. Decent little boozer, good cider and yeah live music too. My only beef is it’s quite small and gets very busy / overcrowded at times but I think I’m just too old for that now 😂

@HaddawayAndShite for a city centre pub, easily available to an away fan, I thought it was excellent.

I assume, from your username, you are not a Leicester local?

Where I grew up (North Wicklow) we always said meet or get off with instead of shift. It was always more of a thing in other parts of the country. My younger family members in Mayo still say shift.