The Chip-tionary
More than three quarters* of us believe it's important to preserve regional dialects and accents, chip shops are the surprising heroes of local language! A study into chip eating habits shows that 1 in 6 people claim the chip shop is actually the place they are most likely to see or hear regional words and phrases.
Do you know the difference between a poke of chips, potato dabs and a potato scallop? What are bits or scratchings? And what are you getting with your chips when you order patties, rissoles, or a white pudding supper?
Test your local knowledge here in our Chip-tionary for chip lovers:
Barm
Chip butties in Manchester are not complete if they’re not in a barm
Bechdan
The Welsh (and Liverpool) will have their chips in one of these
Chippy Tea
Common description in Manchester for chip dishes – as made famous by the Lancashire Hot Pots
Chippy Sauce
Vinegar and brown sauce served with chips in Scotland
Cob
Having a chip sandwich in the Midlands it will come in a cob
Dab
Potato slice in batter – found across Lancashire
Fish and Nerks
Fish and chips in Leeds, sometimes also referred to as Fish and Derks
Fish Lot
In Scotland and the North East fish, chips and mushy peas is the lot
Fritters
Any food coated in batter. Could be potato, apple, pineapple or even spam!
Fish Bits
Exactly what they sound like – the leftover bits of fish
Pattie
Sausagemeat with potato on top, cooked in batter, found in Birmingham
Poke of Chips
A bag of chips in Glasgow
Rissole
Rissoles sold in chip shops in South Wales and North East England contain meat, while in Yorkshire these are fishcakes, containing a large slice of potatoes
Scallops
Slice of potato, cooked in batter. Often found in Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield
‘xx supper’
Meaning chips served with another chip shop dish eg chip supper, pie supper, sausage supper. Common in Glasgow, Aberdeen and other Scottish towns where you can of course also get Haggis supper.
Snozzsup
Short for sausage and chip ‘supper’ (Glasgow)
Snag and Chips
Short for sausage and chips (Portsmouth)
Sottensauce
Chips with salt and ‘sauce’ served in Scottish chippies
Scratchings
Bits of leftover batter
Scrap
Bits of leftover batter in Sheffield or Leeds
Screeds
Bits of leftover batter (or fragments) in Plymouth
Stottie
A geordie chip sandwich will be found in a Stottie
Tatties, spuds, taters, tetties, teddies, potties, tatoes, tatws
All names for potatoes – just depends where you live!
White Pudding Supper
A savoury oatmeal sausage, served with chips in Aberdeen
Yorkshire Fishcake
Not your standard fishcake – comes complete with a large slice of potato instead
Are we missing anything? Add to the Chip-tionary on Facebook and Twitter.
Read the full story here:
Chip shops are preserving regional dialects
With more than three quarters* of us believing it is important to preserve regional dialects and accents, research has shown that chip shops across the country are the surprising heroes of local language. A study into chip eating habits, commissioned for National Chip Week, shows that the chip shop provides more than just a great portion of chips. In fact, the research showed that one in six people claim the chip shop is actually the place they are most likely to see or hear regional words and phrases.
We know the perfect portion of chips start with perfect potatoes, but did you know it also starts with ‘tats’, ‘tatties’, ‘taters’, ‘tatoes’, or even ‘teddies’? Would you know the difference between a ‘poke of chips’, ‘potato dabs’ and a ‘potato scallop’? Or be able to identify a ‘fish lot’ from ‘fish and nerks’? What are ‘bits’ or ‘scratchings’? And what are you getting with your chips when you order ‘patties’, ‘rissoles’, or a ‘white pudding supper’?
Jonathan Robinson, Lead Content Specialist for Sociolinguistics at the British Library said: “No-one’s really focused on the language of chips before, but there are many different words and phrases associated with our nation’s favourite dish. Whether it’s ordering fish and nerks in Leeds, buying a poke of chips in Glasgow, or a chip stottie in Newcastle, it’s good to see that local expressions are still widely used in chip shops. Contrary to popular opinion, regional speech in the UK remains extremely diverse and the local chippy is a shining example of this.”
In Leeds, Cardiff, or Glasgow one in four people claim their local chip shop is more likely to use regional language than the post office, corner shop or even the pub. Even ‘estuary English’ is having to step aside in the chip shops of London, Cambridge and Oxford where chippies are keeping the local ‘lingo’ alive (18, 13 and 12 per cent respectively).
Some words and phrases appear predominantly in one region only, with ‘white pudding supper’, for example, almost unheard of outside Scotland. Other phrases appeared across different regions, but meanings can vary from place to place. For example ‘rissoles’ sold in chip shops in South Wales and North East England contain meat, while in Yorkshire these are fishcakes containing a large slice of potato.
Clive Upton, Professor of Modern English Language at the University of Leeds said: “It’s interesting that the word ‘chip’ is almost universal across the country (except where it’s been Americanised as fries), but it is in the language surrounding the chip’s accompaniments and serving methods that regional phrases appear. Some are unexpected or unusual phrases – such as in Plymouth where they refer to scratchings as screeds. Others are more common – for example what they call a chip butty in the south of England, will be known as a chip cob in the Midlands, and chip barm in Manchester.”
And it is not just the name that depends on the region – there is also a divide on which dishes are being enjoyed. For example, whether they call it a ‘butty’, ‘bap’, ‘cob’, ‘stottie’, ‘muffin’, ‘batch’, ‘bechdan’ or ‘barm’, the north and south clearly differ on the popularity of a chip sandwich. Thirty per cent of people from Southampton and 27 per cent of Londoners have never tried one; where as up north a staggering 94 per cent of people from Manchester and 93 per cent of people from Leeds have.
