Key Points
- McDonald's Australia has introduced potato scallops to its menu.
- The announcement ignited debate over the item's name, with some calling it a potato cake or potato fritter.
- Many items have different names in different parts of Australia.
When McDonald's Australia announced the latest addition to its menu, it reignited an age-old debate: is it a potato scallop, cake, or fritter?
On social media, promotional posts lead to a number of impassioned followers disputing the fast-food giant's choice of name after it advertised the deep-fried potato snack as a scallop.
In Queensland, NSW and the ACT, this is the preferred name for the takeaway staple, but in Victoria and Tasmania, it's potato cake.
In South Australia, it is most commonly referred to as a fritter, while Western Australia and the Northern Territory appear to go between the terms.
In 2015, researchers at Linguistics Roadshow even mapped out the common names of the food in different parts of the country.
Linguistics Roadshow mapped out the common names for a battered, deep-fried potato snack in different parts of the country. Credit: Linguistics Roadshow
"You would think a company like this could call something by its correct name, potato cakes," Chris Mayer wrote on the McDonald's Instagram post.
Wendy Michelle insisted: "Banana dipped in batter & deep fried is a banana fritter. Pineapple dipped in batter & deep fried is a pineapple fritter. Therefore a slice of potato dipped in batter & deep fried is a....potato fritter."
Items such as potato scallops, togs, and doonas have different names in different states. Source: SBS News
Why do things have different names in different states?
The fried potato snack is one of many items around Australia that has a different depending on location.
When talking about swimwear, Queenslanders will often use the word togs, while those in NSW prefer cossies.
Queenslanders also use the word doona when referring to a type of bedding, while other states alternate between duvet and quilt.
Most places around the country refer to an orange melon as rockmelon, but in Victoria, it's a cantaloupe.
A sausage in bread is a popular snack all around the country, but depending on your location, it might also be referred to as a sausage sizzle or sausage sandwich.
Mark Gwyn, a senior researcher at the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the Australian National University, says while different areas often have distinct accents and vocabulary, it can be difficult to determine the reason for the discrepancies.
"With the potato cake being used more in Victoria whereas scallop is used in NSW and Queensland, to pinpoint why that happened is quite difficult, but if you go over to South Australia and look at their use of potato fritter, that's a little bit more understandable because of the German immigration that happened in Adelaide and South Australia," he said.
"In Australia, there has been a lot of state rivalry ... and perhaps that kind of influences the retention of these words after they become popular in a particular area."
When it comes to the origin of our colloquial terms and slang, Mr Gwyn says our language and slang is influenced by a number of factors.
"In terms of some of our distinctive Australian-English terms, a lot of them come from dialects in the United Kingdom ... and there are a whole range of words that were borrowed from the Indigenous languages," he said.
"So it comes down to geography, climate, and also what words came out with immigrants over time.
"Language doesn't sit still, it moves with the times and it reflects what our concerns are and what our culture is at the time."
