Either just called completely differently, or the term doesn’t refer the same thing elsewhere within your country.
Despite almost no difference in our accent across the country (some say Queenslanders up north and Western Australians may sound different), there are several things in Australia that are called differently by state.
If you want to go to a pub and order a [Chicken Parmigiana](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-05/where-the-chicken-parmigiana-come-from/11277414), [we Victorians call it Parma while in New South Wales, it’s called Parmi](https://www.puredairy.com/insight/parma-parmi-parmy-debate-divides-nation/) which has become a big debate as it’s the two biggest states in the country.
And if you want a large glass of beer – schooner with it, [but in South Australia that is referred to a smaller serve which is called pot in Victoria, or Middy in NSW and WA.](https://australiatravelquestions.com/food-and-drink/schooner-mean-in-australia/)
I know this will be pretty common in Germanosphere, and France/Italy/Spain that has historically had strong regional powers, but is this an issue in centralised countries in Europe?
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In Flanders there are two major debates about what to name stuff. These are:
* Blad-steen-schaar vs Schaar-steen-papier. It’s a discussion about which words you should use during ‘rock paper scissors’ and what order you should put them in. It has divided entire provinces and families. [A map to show where which variation is used.](https://external-preview.redd.it/x9RnM6lFz9oicubEPA5nRf6L974Z9_2F14FbFwt41Eg.jpg?width=640&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=15f42e25cbd2b7c5aa02ba49028d1af2ba4e2782) (Schaar-steen-papier is the only correct answer)
* Frikadel vs frikandel vs curryworst vs lange hamburger. Perhaps the most gruesome and controversial of debates. It is about the “frituursnack” officially known as the “frikandel”. It is known as many things across Flanders and has almost caused civil wars. [Map.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D0BpoSIXgAASTEH?format=jpg&name=large)
Beans is a good example. They are judías/habichuelas/alubias/etc depending on the region. There are even more words for local varieties or types like habas, fabes, garrafón, etc.
The dining hall/canteen in elementary school is called “bamba” in some parts of the country, whereas the regular term is something like “skolbespisning”. It’s not limited to just the city I live in, but it’s mostly associated with it. I think that’s the most “famous” one.
A [breadroll](https://mobile.twitter.com/YouGov/status/1020210976086528000/photo/1) is called something different depending on what part of England you’re from (I think the Germans also have something similar with their word for breadroll?).
In the South of England, the three meals of the day are breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the North it’s something like breakfast, dinner and tea.
In the South the game for small children is usually called Tag or It. In the North they have all sorts of weird words like Tig, Tiggy, Dobby etc.https://images.app.goo.gl/XvVQfkpt5hHGnDbf9
Allegedly in parts of the Midlands and the North it’s perfectly acceptable to use the word mom instead of mum, and to use the word pants instead of trousers. For Southerners this sounds very American.
You can start a civil war with the question of how to call [this thing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berliner_%28doughnut%29?wprov=sfla1).
Some call it Pfannkuchen, others Berliner, or Krapfen, or Kreppel, or even Puffel, and there maybe plenty of other names I don’t know.
The right answer of course is Pfannkuchen, despite what Wikipedia tries to tell you.
The most well-known is about croissants: in Northern Italy (in Lombardy, but also in Veneto probably), [cornetti](https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/0a/b2/90/8a/cornetto-al-cioccolato.jpg)*,* the Italian version of croissant, are called *brioche,* while in the rest of Italy brioches are [these](https://www.cucina.li/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Briochecongelato.jpg).
Another is watermelon: in Southern Italy is called *melone* or *melone d’acqua*, in central Italy is called *cocomero*, in Northern Italy is called *anguria*.
Others are [chiacchiere](https://blog.giallozafferano.it/allacciateilgrembiule/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/frappe-di-carnevale.jpg): in Rome they’re called *frappe,* in Central and Southern Italy *chiacchiere*, in Northern Italy *bugie* (west) or *crostoli* (east), in Bologna *sfrappole*, [etc (here all the names)](https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiacchiere#Varianti_del_nome_nelle_regioni_italiane).
I know also that [pasta al forno](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Pasta_al_Forno_01.jpg) is called *pasticcio* or *pasticciata* by some Central Italians, and that pasta al forno to them is instead lasagna.
Also [rapini](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapini): they’re called *friarelli* in Campania, *broccoletti* in Latium, *broccoli di rapa* in Calabria, *cime di rapa* or *spichi* in Apulia, *rapini* in Tuscany, etc.
There are surely others that I don’t know/remember. Keep in mind also that these are all words in “standard” Italian: if we include instead the Italian dialects, the job would be almost impossible, because they’re actually proper *Romance languages* with different vocabularies, and also every language in Italy has a proper local *dialect* with diverse nuances.
Tons of them. Here’s a [map for bread roles](https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/9_01h.jpg) for example. I live in the Semmel area.
Speaking for the Swiss German speaking part of the country:
There are so many dialects that have different words for all sorts of things that it’s hard to count. But usually you can identify where someone is from after just a few sentences. You can map which words are used where and produce “[language maps](https://kleinersprachatlas.ch/download/karten)” of Swiss German speaking Switzerland.
Note: the differences between dialects is such that even extremely common words (such as “yes” , “no” , “not” – these are the top 3 maps in the link above) are different depending on where in the country you are.
And that’s obviously before counting our 4 national languages. If you leave the Swiss German speaking part suddenly people speak French, Italian or Romansh.
– Bread rolls
– “Berliner” (food)
– The word you use for “…, right?”
– Greetings
Many more things. There is a cool website called “www.atlas-alltagssprache.de” where you can see different words for concepts on a map of the german language sphere.
Best example is [safe place when playing catch](https://www.atlas-alltagssprache.de/sicherer-ort/?child=runde) which is surprisingly accurate.
The country is conflicted between patat and friet for fries. Actually patat should be wrong because it is old-dutch for potato, and the party saying friet should be right because it is something similar in other countries and also THEY ARE WRONG!
LANG LEVE PATAT!
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The act of using violence to cover someone in snow is called Vaske in Jutland and Sule on Fyn
Here we have dozens of local dialects, some you can understand without a problem, and then there are the others (looking at your eastern Slovakia).
Just some work off the top of my head are
Potatoes – Standard : Zemiaky, in Trnava : Krumple.
Curtains – standard : záclona, in Trnava : firhany.
Pub – Standard : Krčma, in Trnava : Šenk
Hoodie – standard : Mikina, in Trnava : Drigovica
There are hundreds and hundreds of examples, every city has its own dialect
Potatoes – ziemniaki/kartofle, but there are also pyry and some other too.
Slippers – kapcie/ciapy/pantofle/łapcie/bambosze/lacie/papucie/laczki and some other too.
To go outside – wyjść na dwór/na pole.
Apparently different parts of Poland use names “borówka” and “szczypior” for different vegetables and fruit.
Yes and there is a lot of stuff:
Fino vs Imperial (a Glass of beer)
Cruzetas vs Cabides (Coat hangers)
Cimbalino vs Bica (an expresso)
Sapatilhas vs Ténis (sneakers)
Sabrinas vs Sapatilhas (Ballerina shoes)
The first one are said north of Lisbon, and the second ones in Lisbon and south of it. (I probably missed a lot of these cases)
Our dialects are strong so there probably are no old words that is the same in all three.. (newer words for technology etc are mostly the same).
tomato: paradajz-rajčica-pomidor
potato: kalamper-krumpir-patat
​
it is pointless to list them.. They all have local versions.. Say a word and I’ll give you two or three versions..
But the most important one is to not call the sea water if on the coast..
The action to put snow in someone’s face and rub has a different word everywhere.
Like my dad is from a town 10 minutes away from where they now live and I was born. So I say “Möla” but he says “Göra”
The words I can think of that are used in different places are
Mula, möla, göra and gura.
In French-speaking Belgium, even though it is a small area with approx. 4 millions speakers, you will find some regional variants, and just as in your examples, the ones I can think of are also all related to food:
* a *chique* is a chewing-gum everywhere in French-speaking Belgium, except in the area of Liège, where it is a candy or a chocolate bar (for which the rest of us has a familiar word *boule)*. There, a chewing-gum is called a *chiclette* (personal story: in a bakery in that area, a nice lady found our son was so cute she wanted to give him a “chique”, and my wife retorted he was obviously much too young to have a chewing-gum and that he would swallow it, which was very dangerous ! My wife was sincerely shocked, she had no idea it was a regional meaning…)
* a chocolate croissant is called *couque au chocolat* in some parts, mainly in Brussels, whereas the rest uses the standard French word “pain au chocolat” (… and don’t get the French started on that one, they have their own civil war about the regional *chocolatine)*
* a special kind of sweet bread for Christmas, called *cougnou* everywhere except in a province where they call it *cougnolle (and I have some family there: t*hey consider whoever calls that a *cougnou* is akin to a satanist heathen).
So I’m from Dutch Limburg and we say a lot of things different, especially in the dialect but also when speaking standard Dutch (although with an accent and some different words).
Some common words that are different in standard Dutch in Limburg are:
beurs for portemonnee(wallet),
klapper for multomap/ringband(ring binder),
naar onder gaan for naar beneden gaan(going downstairs) and many more.
People also mix a lot of dialect within their Dutch.
We have quite a few differences between the French spoken ins Suisse-Romande and the French from France, here are some exemples:
For mop, we don’t say “serpillère”, we say “panosse”.
For the numbers 70, 80 and 90 we don’t say “soixante-dix, quatre-vingt, quatre-vingt-dix”, we use the old “septante, huitante, nonante”. (don’t believe what you see online, I never heard anyone in Switzerland say “octante” for 80).
For those sweatshirts with the zipper, we don’t call them “gilet”, we call them “jaquette”.
In my canton we also use some words that come from old patois that were spoken in the region.
Mothers in England are addressed by different names. ‘Mum’ down south, ‘Mam’ here in the North and some Midlanders say ‘Mom’.
‘Fag’ is a slang term for a cigarette in much of the UK. This is known in but never used by those in North East England, who say ‘Tab’ instead.
Down south the meal eaten in the middle of the day/early afternoon is Lunch, with Dinner eaten in the Evening. However in the North, Lunch and Dinner are the same meal (Lunch being a more formal term). The evening meal is Tea.
On a seasonal topic, some areas believe Father Christmas as the traditional term with Santa/Santa Claus being an unwanted Americanism. But in parts of the North with stronger Scandinavian influences Santa/Santa Claus is indeed the traditional term.
Hundreds of things? I don’t even know. And it was even more a generation or two ago.
Here’s a map of [different words for a ladle in Croatia](https://www.total-croatia-news.com/images/seflja.jpg). Personally, I was not even aware there is other word than the one I use (which is grabilica, dark green in the far east).
Then there are the weird ones. The word I use for undrewear (gaće) is used for pants in the south. It’s weird. In the west they say the word “until” to mean “when” and it always annoys me. I don’t even know what the islanders are saying, that’s just gibberish. My town has a unique word for a kiosk: *budica*. And no one knows how it came to be, when we started saying it and why. It has no other meaning, not even in neighboring languages.
Arancini are a Sicilian dish made up of fried rice balls with some filling, most commonly ragù. In western Sicily are called *arancine* (feminine noun; singular: *arancina*), while in eastern Sicily are called *arancini* (masculine noun; singular: *arancino*), like in English. Sicilians and many other Italians jokingly fight for which is the correct name.
There are many things that have different words in different regions. For example, a cat is “gat” in Catalonia and “moix” in Mallorca; “to speak” is “parlar” in Catalonia and “xerrar” in Mallorca”, or the word “tomàtiga” (tomato) is said differently in every region (tomàquet, tomata, tomàtiga, tomaca) and the pronunciation has different variations as well.
But it doesn’t generate any conflict. Everyone sane accepts that languages have regional variations, and are one of the things that enrich those languages.
I’m from Helsinki, and we quite often use different words for things than Finns from elsewhere because of the existence of [Helsinki slang](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helsinki_slang). For example: for me, a buss is not “bussi” but “dösä”, a trashcan is not “roskis” but “rode”, a bicycle is not “pyörä” but “tsygä” and to look is not “katsoa” but “tsiigata”.
Some of these words are so common in Helsinki everyday speech that we don’t even realize they’re slang until conversing with someone who is from somewhere else. I live elsewhere now, and regularly realize I’ve accidentally used a slang term instead of a general word. People outside of Helsinki usually dislike our slang, which I understand, since it’s irritating to have to ask what the words mean.
In France, there are no regional differences related to a pastry filed with chocolate. There is the right and universal God given word and there are heinous heretics.
Patatoes in Polish arevcalled, officially, “ziemniaki”. In Wielkopolska voivodship (Greater Poland Voivodship) they are called “pyry” and are official dish there to such extent that others call that area Pyrlandia (“the land of the patato”). And in the rest of western Poland they are called “kartofle”
An excellent way to check if a person is from east or west is to ask what they call a bath broom, i.e. a whisk made from boughs of birch go lash the skin. The right answer is obviously _vihta_, but the strange folk in east and north call it _vasta_.
My childhood friend from Finland Proper was mercilessly made fun of when she called tag _natta_ when in our area it’s called _litta_. Then we bullies were tormented in turn when we found out that basically everyone else in the country calls it _hippa_. Children can be mean idiots.
A weird one I noticed throughout the UK is that everywhere seems to have a different name for the “game” played in your teens where you knock on someone’s door and run away. I’ve heard it called “knock door run”, “Bobby knocking”, “knock down ginger”, and many others I can’t recall right now, and I bet there are many I’ve not even come across yet!
well, germany is pretty diverse in that regard. Most stuff in bakeries is named different from region. Pfannkuchen can get you 3 to 4 different things depending where you are
In Viennese dialect a strawberry (Erdbeere) is called an Ananas which is also the word normaly used for pineapple. That’s because the common garden strawberry was known as an Ananas strawberry. The use of Ananas for strawberry has almost vanished nowadays.
Apaet from that every second food term is different in Austria from Germany with lots of regional variations as well.