A potato scallop by any other name would taste as delicious. Or would it?
Long have states been divided over what to call the humble deep-fried potato snack; Queenslanders and NSW residents know there's no place in the world for "potato cake". Victorians disagree.
This Australian English vocabulary divide between, and within, states is what drove three linguists from Melbourne to document people's word preferences.
They gathered individual preferences via an online survey and mapped the responses out geographically, using the data as a discussion point for their outreach program called Linguistics Roadshow.
They found some surprising results: Queenslanders adamantly refer to swimwear as "togs", while suburban Sydneysiders refuse to call them anything but 'cossies'.
Queenslanders also call a barbecue sausage in a slice of bread exactly what it is: a sausage in bread, while many in NSW preferred to call it a "sausage sandwich".
Victorians held onto terms such as "milk bar" when referring to the local corner store and call a bleeding nose, or "nosebleed" as most of their northern neighbours call it, a "blood nose".
Of the 2780 respondents, only three people in all of Australia (two in Queensland and one in NSW) call a frozen water-based treat a 'by jingo'.
Jill Vaughan, one of the linguists involved, said the interactive maps were a great tool to foster discussions on how english varies in Australia.
"We used words we know vary between regions to foster discussion on how English varies in Australia and the other ways that language varies beyond regional variations; how we use different language when talking to different people," she said.
Dr Vaughan said the maps were reflective of the way language changes and varies between communities.
"At its very essence, language is defined by variation and diversity," she said.
"In different communities variations might exist, and one gets chosen as a community that gets carried on."
Dr Vaughan said the variation of certain words could have been brought over originally from the British Isles.
"We know that Australian English is based on a lot of dialects from the British Isles, which had a lot of variation to begin with and then those variations continued in Australia."
Below are some of the maps created by Linguistics Roadshow. The survey can be taken here.
What do you call a battered, deep-fried potato snack?
What general term do you use to refer to swimwear?
What do you call the object that you might drink water from in a park or school?
What do you call a barbecued sausage, served in a single slice of bread?
Which term do you use when someone's nose is bleeding?
What do you call the place where you might buy lunch at school?
Does the word 'dance' rhyme with 'pants', or 'aunts'?
What do you call the small local shop that sells newspapers, lollies, drinks and basic groceries?
What do you call a frozen, water-based sweet treat?
