Since doing my English Language A level I've been really interested in the regional variation of how people speak particularly different names for the same thing.
For example I call an alleyway a 'ginnel' but my friend calls it a 'jennel'.
This is another one that always gets people going - names for bread. Everyone seems to know what a bread roll is but call it different things - I call it a barm or a bap. My nan who only lives an hour away calls them cobs but to me a cob is a crusty roll (hope this is making sense!) and a bun is only bread if its got sesame seed on the top (like a burger bun) otherwise a bun is a cake (like a fairy cake). Also a sandwich is two slices of bread with a filling where a butty usually has something greasy inside such as sausage, bacon or chips and must be a roll, barm, bap or whatever you call it.
I don't want to cause any arguments here (potentially it could) but I really am interested in what people call the same thing so what do you call an alleyway or bread or anything else you can think of!

I'd call an alleyway and entry lol a bread roll would be bap or barm..

I find it funny going into different chippies and ask for a split (chips and peas)..

People say some well funny things in chippies - I personally don't say this but in a town near me they ask for chips and pea wet or chips and bean wet which is basically chips covered in either the green water that comes with the peas or bean juice!

In Sussex an alleyway is a 'twitten'.

A bread roll is a Bap
dont know about the others, but heres another one
Potato are Tates
Lea

I knew someone who called bread 'buppy' and sugar was 'tubby' , a cup of tea was 'gnats'  but that one was slang I think... :0 potatoes were 'tatties'

To me in the south - bread ( unless its french then its a stick  or baguette) is the thing you make sandwiches with regardless of filling
a bun (unless its a burger bun with sesame seeds ) has raisins or sultanas in and is often covered in icing
a bap is a large soft roll
a bread roll can be a finger roll or a smaller version of the bap
a fairy cake is a small cake in a case with icing on

An alleyway is an alleyway LOL

>a cup of tea was 'gnats'  but that one was slang I think

Gnats is a description for weak tea as in  "tea is as weak as gnat's w**"

where I'm from, a ginnel is called a jitty....

I lived in Hull for many years, there it's called a "tenfoot" or a snicket, depending on size??

have never called a bread roll a barm or a bap, have only ever referred to rolls or cobs, in Hull a bacon sarnie is called a bacon banjo....

again Hull seem to have a dialect all of their own, "patty and chips" refers to a potato cake which I believe is fairly unique to the area?? I know they are not descibed as such in any other chippy I've been in...

got me thinking now....

Well I'm with killicchick on everything she says .  But we also have the old cockney rhyming slang as well down here - not all of which gets used but some popular ones still do

The one difference that I have noted over the years is for gym shoes - pumps I used to call them, plimsoles, sandshoes and here in Wales daps!  Bread rolls have always been rolls to me or baps.    An alleyway - that is more difficult - 'back lane, gully depends where it is. 

I come from Essex but now live in Cheshire - a bread roll is a bread roll to me, be it crusty, soft, floured etc.  Plimsolls are little black PE shoes that children wear although my grandma in Wiltshire always used to call them Daps and confuse us.  Alleyways were called gants, we had Baileys Gant, etc, and they were tiny weeny gaps between houses or shops.

Up here in Cheshire an alleyway is called a ginnel.

I am in Dundee and an alleyway is called a pendy, plimsolls are called sanny dabbers (sp), rolls are just rolls though and buns are always cakes and never rolls.

Whereabouts are you Maxine?  I'm classed as Greater London too...home of the 'chavs facelift'  if you get my drift...

And we wonder why they always say the English language is the hardest to learn, even we British get confused.

Rolls, baps, buppys, bappies, whatever lol ............... all buns to me!   unless of course its a stottie cake (which is a very flat shaped floured bread) :D

ok, what is this then?

a spuggy

Hi

I'm in Havering - yep home of the chavs....

And as for a spuggy - that has to be something potato wise doesnt it...

nope not anything vegetable...... nor mineral.... LOL ;0)

>a spuggy

Snot or bogey?

LOLOL nope, not bodily secretions either

In the South Wales valleys, as Ceejay said, an alley is a 'gully' (pronounced to rhyme with 'Pulley'!!),  plimsoles are 'daps' and chewing gum is often 'Pepsin'!  The other one is........a Belfast sink is always a 'Bosh'!! 'Baps' are soft, round, flat bread rolls  and Welsh Cakes are 'Pics'!!  I could write a book on it........thinking about it..............someone already has!!   

  Never heard of Pepsin - but hey we are off to Wembley!!!!  Bluebirds!

Bread roll is just that............ a bread roll.   Harry calls them cobs or baps.  A bun is a sponge cake in a bun case, unless referred to as a burger bun in which case a bread roll with seeds on top.
Plimsoles are gym shoes or plimsoles.  It was only when I joined the Navy that I found out they are referred to as Daps.

What do people the end bits of ready sliced bread?  I have always known them as "the heel"  Harry takes the mickey out of me and calls them "the ankle" but I have never heard of any other word for the end bits apart from "heel".

Er! crusts?

I thought buppy was babytalk for bread or sandwich.  My mum used to say it to my children but I refused to talk babytalk to mine, buppy, gee gees, wo wo, dick dicks, quack quacks.

I'm in the South and have always called an alley an alley, rolls are bread rolls of which there are seeded, soft, crusty. A cob is a round loaf of bread made of one smaller one stuck to a larger one.

As for cockney rhyming slang I was brought up on it (as well as jellied eels, pie and mash with green liquor sauce) as my family are Londoners and some were true cockneys.  Depends who I'm with as to whether I use it or not but I'm mostly out of the habit now. 

a spuggy to me is a sparrow - how confusing it would be if it is something to eat where you are.  Imagine going into a shop up here and asking for a spuggy roll!!

Where I'm from spuggy is another name for chewing gum.

im from coventry where we call bread rolls batchs...i have no idea why though !

yeah spuggy is a sparrow here too

I learn something new every day!  This is quite interesting, to read, as most terms used I have never heard of, and I thought I was starting to get the hang on "English" ways of talking.

Its just amazing to see how many names are used for the same thing.

I would call an alley way a ginnel but if its a short one then I'd call it a snicket. As for a bread roll, I call them tea cakes, a bap is bigger than a tea cale and a roll is like a crusty oval shaped roll. A bread bun is a burger bun whereas a bun is a small sponge cake with icing on baked in a paper case (like fairy cakes)

Yes, here in Coventry we call them 'batches'  whether its a cheese batch or a sausage/burger batch
A sandwich (2 slices of bread) is a 'sarnie', a 'butty' is usually 1 slice of bread (mmm.. chip butties)  and an 'alley' is just that, an 'alley' or 'alley way'.

ooh Tracey you just reminded me LOL  the only thing I call a 'bun' is a Hot Cross Bun which is like a teacake without the X oooh toasted teacakes, this thread is making me hungry!

In the South Wales valleys, as Ceejay said, an alley is a 'gully' (pronounced to rhyme with 'Pulley'!!),  plimsoles are 'daps' and chewing gum is often 'Pepsin'!  The other one is........a Belfast sink is always a 'Bosh'!! 'Baps' are soft, round, flat bread rolls  and Welsh Cakes are 'Pics'!!  I could write a book on it........thinking about it..............someone already has!!

As Oldilocks has said, here in this part of the South Wales Valleys, a gully would be a narrow alley and a back lane would be the space between the backs of the houses, big enough to get a car or coal lorry down      Forgot about Daps until the kids went to school   Dad would get really annoyed if we called any china sink a Bosh (I thought it must be a 'bad word' ) 

Baps are the soft round bread rolls, crusty ones are rolls, Small round loaves are called Cobs (usually crusty )  We call Welsh cakes .... Welsh Cakes buns are sweet bread rolls with currants or mixed fruit and spices and I especially love the Hot Cross kind

The place under the stairs is called the Cwtch, as is a dog's bed, but it's also the word for a loving hug or a nice long cuddle   ( "Cwtchin' on the sofa" )  Sweets are often called Loshins

Ah Dill......I'd forgotten to mention 'The Cwtch'!!!  (Even though I say to my grandchildren.............."Come here and let me give you a big cwtch"    You had a posh dad then if you couldn't say "Bosh"   

This topic has got me giggling today hearing all the different words people use for things.  I'm in Somerset and call an alleyway and alleyway and a bread roll is a bread roll but some people call them baps.  Ummm i've always called plimsoles 'daps' but then alot is obviously picked up from family and mine are from various places including Dorset, South Wales, Scotland and Grimsby so I get my sayings from all over the place lol!

>'Baps' are soft, round, flat bread rolls 

Yep - but they're also breasts!

LOL at JG :D :D

Oldilocks what part of the Valleys are you in??  Nosey? MOI?

I'm from North Yorkshire, (now in Essex) have always know an alley as a ginnel too...

Fish n chips was always 'one of each twice'  (i.e. one bit of fish, one lot of chips) - as in Yorkshire the fish only tended to be haddock.... (Much to by East end husbands disgust!!)
Ooooh I miss Yorkshire fish n chips

Dill, I am in Bridgend now, I haven't lived in the valleys for 30 odd years.  Originally, I came from the Garw Valley which is about 9 miles north of Bridgend!   But you know what they say "You can take the girl out of the valleys, but you'll never take the valley out of the girl"!!!      Duw ay Mun!!! 

Im from Devon. Dont "ooh aar" like a farmer too much   but we do have trouble being understood by people as we are quite lazy talkers, and drop words a lot.
E.g.  others say "i am going into the town"   we say "im goin town"   Also, something i never knew until a northener picked up on is we add "too" to the end of our sentances. E.g. "where are you" we say "where you to?"

In Fife an alleyway is a pend, or sometimes a close (but thats usually used for the entry to a house or flat), a spuggy is a sparrow, bread is bread but can be plain or pan! We usually say we are 'going to have my tea' rather than just 'going to have tea', dinner is eaten in the middle of the day and the evening meal is tea. Plimsolls are gutties, a vest is a simmet, anything in the chip shop that comes with chips is a supper. Its a whole other language really although standard English is more common among younger people - even though half the words they use don't mean what I think they mean!!

OOH that's woken my brain up!!

My Gran used to say "goyn yam" instead of going home (go-in-ohm in wenglish) she also called Eggs - Yoogs.  My Granch used to say "Ow be?" instead of How are you? :D :D

Oldilocks,

You are more Welsh than I am   I'm from the eastern Valleys and there was a HUGE Irish influx here when the steelworks was built.  So much of our Welshness was diluted, my father's family were Irish, maybe that's why the problem with Bosh?

So Dill........I speak like 'Stacey' from 'Gavin and Stacey' and you speak like 'Nessa'!!   

>Well I'm with killicchick on everything she says

Me too. I'm in Herts

I'm the same as Pinkbrady - where are you from?

Here's some Scottish ones thrown in

fish and chips from the Chippy is called a fish supper or sausage and  chips is a sausage supper

Smurr  is a type of rain (light almost like drizzle but a bit wetter!!)

"Ken" is another word for know.  (I ken what you're saying  or I know what you're saying)

Jill
Why is it your brain stops working when you're trying to remember all those sayings you used to use before moving south!!

Oldilocks and Dill - what about years!  - for those things either side of your head!  I think cwtch is a great word.  Tidy is another one that gets used in a different context to anywhere else.  Tidy like!!

Ceejay.......'Years' has always been a big joke in our house because I call them 'years' being a valley girl originally and my sons, both brought up as 'Townies', call them 'ee......ars' as the English correctly say!!      Where in Wales are you?  The other one is the use of the word 'couple'.  In Wales a 'couple' can mean anything from 6 to about 12 whereas a 'couple' is officially 2!!   My mother always used to say "Do you fancy a couple of chips for tea?" 

An alley is an alley here down in Kent

I can't think of many words that are Kentish but when we moved to this part of Kent the common woodlouse as I knew it became a Monkey Pea. Some others are Agger- jaggers - a sea mist when the coast is a different temperature to the sea, Mizzle - Light rain and  siding it down - raining heavily but a lot of the phrases are only common in specific areas of the county.

In Devon, when it starts getting dark in the evening, it's said to be getting 'dimsy' or 'dimpsy'.

Here we have;  'is it' after lots of sentences and instead of cheerio or bye folk tend to say 'chiri'.