Does anybody on here actually use this term to describe Cardiff? Where exactly did it come from?
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Does anybody on here actually use this term to describe Cardiff? Where exactly did it come from?
Students...probably.
The same ones who use the term chippy alley 😭
Cringeworthy
Probably the same people who use the term "Can I get" in shops!
Invented by students and visitors like ‘Chippy Lane’.
One of the many nuances creeping in to everyday use which I cannot stand.
I'll give you a few more examples:
"So, I was getting on the train..."
"OK, something's not right..."
"Sorry, but I disagree with you..."
This is one thing that can't be blamed on the Millennials either. I listen to the radio a lot, mainly BBC Radio 5 and there are grown men talking that way, mainly that Nihal Arthanayake who's surely in his 40s.
These people use it:
http://www.ilovesthediff.com/
Imo, anyone from Cardiff, or living in Cardiff who uses the terms Diff and Chippy Lane, should be banished from our great city for ever!!
Really hate to hear that. Can I get a pint of carling. My reply would be, no I'll get it for you because you don't work here . And beginning a sentence with so. Where the hell did that come from!!! I grew up with the word diff being short for difference and it will always remain that. Its Cardiff for me or failing that the city.
Who cares what the kids want to call it, you bunch of old farts.
Although can we all agree that my colleague who calls Caroline Street "Chip shop alley" is completely unacceptable.
The diff = people who allow protesters to sit on city-centre main roads, even buying them coffees; unlike folk who haul protesters from train roofs and give them a kicking.
For goodness' sake.
I love to see small businesses doing well, but I really hope that site fails. What an abomination.
Of course it is not called "the 'diff". My wife studied in Cardiff (rather than growing up there) and she doesn't recognise it either. She does call Caroline Street "chippy lane" which is obviously unacceptable, but i think we'd get divorced if she said "the 'diff".
I do think that both are different to "can I get", though. There are lots of examples of people twisting/americanising the English language, but they are different (and less offensive) than strangers renaming parts of our city for no good reason and with no basis.
The other thing I hate is when people, usually youngsters are relating a conversation, and every thing said by each individual is prefaced with, "She turned round and said...." "and I turned round and said..." " Then she turned round and said...."
I can't concentrate on what I'm being told as I have this vision of people revovling in the middle of the pavement or the pub or where ever :hehe:
I hate it, never heard anyone from Cardiff call it "the diff". Same goes for "Chippy Lane/Alley"
never heard of it as a reference
As The Smith's once said 'What difference does it make?'
Get with the times you grumpy old farts!
Funny, I've always associated that with people older than me, because the only time I ever heard it used when I was a child was by grown ups.
As for people using the diff fifty years and more ago, I never heard it in Grangetown, Fairwater or Pentrebane, the areas I lived in during my sixty years plus living in the city - I only became aware of it in the last decade.
I suppose it sounds hip, cool. Probably comes from the same crowd who always describe any area with pubs, bars, and restaurants as 'vibrant'.
On a slightly different note, my 'generation' have always referred to 'Tudor Road', not 'Street'. Not sure of any historical context re. this oddity..
I agree about older people when I was young, but I've heard conversations between teens going into town on the bus and every single thing that is related from a conversation is begun with that phrase.
with you on the diff thing. Llandaff North Gabalfa and going to school with kids from all over the city, drinking in town in my teens I never heard 'The diff' .