Wherein we ask each other dialect questions we don't quite understand

[Scott DeWar]

Don't worry about it! It wasn't my question - I was just making a trivial observation about the reply. I have no desire to learn anything about road naming conventions in the US.

Oh. OK then. I do understand the M27 is a major roadway. I am curious what the equivalent is.

 

[Bullgrit]

Is tea time a real (modern) thing for the English?

When I spent a week in Sweden, I learned fika is a real (modern) practice. In the US, we might have coffee and doughnuts in a meeting, (especially if first thing in the morning), but that is not an assumption, nor does the practice have a name (other than, "we'll have coffee and doughnuts in the conference room".)

Is "continental breakfast" a term known/used in Europe?

Bullgrit

 

[Morrus]

Is tea time a real (modern) thing for the English?

It's one of many names for the evening meal, usually used by those who have their main meal at lunch time. I don't use the term myself.

Is "continental breakfast" a term known/used in Europe?

It's known in the UK; we invented the term. At least the term exists - I don't know if it means the same thing to us that it does to you. It refers to the British term "the continent" as being mainland Europe, as opposed to Britain. Dates back a long time.

It means a mainland Europe (specifically Mediterranean) style breakfast. On the continent, I assume they just say "breakfast" in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch or whatever.

Bunch of interesting info on the etymology of the term here: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/37939/origin-of-continental-breakfast

 

[pedr]

Table the motion. Shelve that idea. Action that plan!

Of course "to table (a motion, etc)" means exactly the opposite thing in British English (introduce for discussion) as in American English (put off discussion to another date, or indefinitely).

On roads, linguistic difficulties are tied up with parallel development of similar things, resulting in different names and in different rules for similar arrangements. So a Brit understands "motorway" and includes in that meaning the restrictions - no pedestrians or pedal cycles; no stopping or turning around; limited, numbered entrance/exit points often many miles apart; segregated lanes for each direction (a "dual carriageway") etc. I expect that in different parts of the US the rules differ - and that the language used locally may too.

Terms like Parkway (used in the name of a non-motorway road here in Sheffield), by-pass (a newer road built to reduce traffic travelling along the old road through a town centre), etc are likely to develop naturally, unlike motorway, with its particular legal definition, or Interstate, which presumably has a strong historical meaning/significance, even if driving on Interstate highways in different parts of the US may feel different.

 

[Janx]

neither had I so I googled and it has its own wikipedia entry thus "Ole and Lena (also Sven and Ole) are central characters in jokes by Scandinavian Americans, particularly in the Upper Midwest region of the U.S., particularly in Minnesota"

just another strange Americanism that the rest of us have no idea aboot

which is why I worked Sven and Ole into the conversation because it's a cultural thing that not everybody's heard of.

As to why DogMoon hasn't heard Sven and Ole jokes, I got no clue. What part of Minnesota are you from? I grew up in the northern half of the state. I imagine folks in the Twin Cities might be too urbanized or very well racially mixed to tell those jokes. Farther up north, it was just us white folks telling jokes making fun of us white folks or people from Wisconsin.

 

[Ryujin]

which is why I worked Sven and Ole into the conversation because it's a cultural thing that not everybody's heard of.

As to why DogMoon hasn't heard Sven and Ole jokes, I got no clue. What part of Minnesota are you from? I grew up in the northern half of the state. I imagine folks in the Twin Cities might be too urbanized or very well racially mixed to tell those jokes. Farther up north, it was just us white folks telling jokes making fun of us white folks or people from Wisconsin.

This is the only place that I know Sven and Ole from:

[video=youtube;3CjcfEQ77fA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CjcfEQ77fA[/video]

 

[Janx]

I'm not sure I understand the question. Are you asking whether we say "I'm going to hospital?" as opposed to "I'm going to the hospital?"

Yes, we do. Like "I'm going to school" or "I'm going to jail", the definite article is not spoken when referring to it as a general state. When referring to the actual specific location, though, we say "the prison" and "the school" and "the hospital". "I applied for a cleaning job at the hospital" is correct, as is "he has been contracted to do some repairs to the prison roof".

You do the same thing as us with school, college, jail, and other words. You have a special exception for hospital, though. We don't.

We don't say "I'm going to doctor" though.

You Europeans also say "I'm going to University" which is a little wierd to us americans.

We say "I'm going to college" or "He's going to the University of Wisconsin"

college is the general term (and not all colleges are Universities). University is just part of the name of the college. Like University of Texas or University of Houston. 2 very different schools. Which are not the same as Texas A&M or Baylor.

 

[Morrus]

You Europeans also say "I'm going to University" which is a little wierd to us americans.

We say "I'm going to college" or "He's going to the University of Wisconsin"

Yup. Though I don't know how most of Europe says it, as they have their own languages. You're really talking about the UK and English there.

One thing worth noting is that if you say "European", people in the UK don't imagine you're referring to them. That implies the continental mainland to us - which is very much a "somewhere else". While you're right in that the UK is technically part of the same continent, when I say "American" I don't mean Canadians, either.

 

[Bullgrit]

Is "continental breakfast" a term known/used in Europe?

It's known in the UK; we invented the term. At least the term exists - I don't know if it means the same thing to us that it does to you. It refers to the British term "the continent" as being mainland Europe, as opposed to Britain. Dates back a long time.

It means a mainland Europe (specifically Mediterranean) style breakfast. On the continent, I assume they just say "breakfast" in French, Italian, Spanish, German, Dutch or whatever.

Here, a continental breakfast is breads and pastries for breakfast. As opposed to an American breakfast which is eggs and meat. And a Southern breakfast would be an American breakfast plus grits, biscuits, and gravy.

Bullgrit

 

[Umbran]

University is just part of the name of the college.

While there is no official control on this - the typical difference between a college and a University in the US is that the University has full undergraduate and graduate education, while a College is typically undergraduate-focused, and often has a narrower focus of programs than a University.

In several instances, a University is composed of several Colleges.