slang and HP - Reckon

[charisjulia]

Kathryn wrote about the word "Luv":
 
>  It tends to be regional. It's very common in and around London, 
where I
> live. (Also annoying as anything, especially when used at the end 
of *every*
> sentence). Where i went to university in the Midlands they tended 
to use
> duck instead (because no one minds being compared to a waddling, 
web-footed
> bird!). Newcastle/Durham way they use pet. Ummm - running dry here, 
my
> mother's ex-boss was from the West Country and he used to refer to 
everyone
> (customers, staff, his bosses, absolutely everyone) as 'my lover'.
>

My mother (native Sheffielder) used to call my sister and 
me "chicken" when we were small. Or, if she was feeling especially 
affectionate, "chicken--licken". But never in public, no -- not after 
the time a colleague over-heard her when she was picking me up from 
the crèche: 

"You call your child a * what*?!"

But then my father still calls my sister "mparmpounaki", which 
means "little red mullet", so there you go.

Charis Julia