Questions for 22 - 24 December

[vilakins]

A fun and relaxed (and possibly also merry, as that means "pleasantly tipsy" to me) Christmas to all who celebrate it!

It's just past the summer solstice which means it doesn't get dark till 9:30 down here, yet there are still a few people who light up their houses US-style. I hope they do it again at Matariki (our latest holiday) next year; we so need a winter festival of light, and it will at pretty much the same time in our winter as Christmas is in the northern one, just after that solstice.

Aucklanders were released this month after a long lockdown and travel ban. Seen yesterday outside a steampunk shop: "Welcome to Orclanders who have escaped Mordor!"

On to the questions. Enlighten me on #23 if you can.

22. Is there anything about technology that scares you?
Data mining: how much companies and other entities might know about me because of my online activity. Not that any of it's unlawful; I just value my privacy.

23. What’s a word/phrase that’s commonly heard in your region, but not anywhere else?
Wee!
It's not unique to here, but since we moved down south, Greg and I have been fascinated and amused by its wide and varied usage. When the English boy in Derry Girls complained about it being used for everything regardless of size, we both cracked up. I only use it for size, as in "a wee bit" of something, but people here use it as a catch-all adjective. They call Oamaru "our wee town", have wee jobs and businesses, and live in wee houses. Is it a term of affection, which I originally thought? Not really, as when I got my last Covid shot, I was asked to take a wee chair, and who would feel fondness for a generic plastic one? I have had wee haircuts and asked how I liked my wee meal, and all our wee seasonal festivals have been cancelled this year.
Ha!
Our neighbour just texted, "There's a wee present at your front door". There was indeed: two (normal-sized) bottles of the wonderful craft beer he brews and a delicious Christmas cake (i.e. a fruitcake) his partner made. YUM!
Anyway, if you live in a "wee" region, does it mean anything specific to you, or is it just a filler word?

24. Do you bite on straws, lollipop handles, or ice-block sticks?
No. And not on pens, hair, or fingernails either. (And if that's drink straws, they're mostly steel these days.)

Comments

[mab_browne]

I use wee, but then I was brought up in the south although there is not a skerrick of Scottish in my family. For me it's generally a modifier for small things or things that one wishes were small with occasional filler tendencies - I might have made a wee mistake, wee kids, a wee bit hot, etc etc.

[vilakins]

It's definitely very Scottish here - everything comes with bagpipes! - but as we saw in Derry Girls, it's also Northern Irish.

"Skerrick" is a word we've adopted and like a lot. Where did you grow up?

[mab_browne]

I was a Dunedin girl back in the day - my parents were SIers but not local to the place themselves, and if there's any particular preponderance of cultural inheritance in our family it's Irish.

[vilakins]

Another origin for "wee" then!

[imhilien]

Hope you had a nice Christmas Day. :) I use wee as a size thing. Mum's side has Scottish, Dad's side has a lot of Irish.

[vilakins]

It was quiet and relaxing as usual, just the way we like it. And thank you for your card!

Wee makes sense as a size thing, and I use it like that as in "wee bit". But for towns, jobs, chairs, haircuts etc etc? That's weird.

[watervole]

My best guess is that 'wee' is sort of 'little/not of major importance/ but still something you like'.

I love how languages evolve!

[vilakins]

Me too, but I'm still trying to find a pattern. Some of it's affection, but a wee chair, haircut, or job? It's not always liking or size - maybe it's a friendly/casual way of talking to put others at their ease? The more I think now about how I've heard it, the more it seems that way, and seems to be used by women more than men which supports that view, but I've heard/seen it from men too.

[Edit] And this, from an American in Scotland seems to support that.

[watervole]

That sounds bang on the nail.

I already knew 'wabbit' from a Glaswegian friend.