canadian english

I was once told, by an american in Philly, that I spoke pretty good.....for a Canadian!!

Years ago when I was on vacation in Florida, I ended up chatting with a guy from Brooklyn at the hotel bar. He asked me to speak "Canadian" to him. At first I was a little puzzled by this, but then I realised that he thought there was a "Canadian" language that was completely different than English; In other words,he didn't think that anyone spoke English in Canada!
I guess he might have been a little drunk but I mean come on!! In the end I resorted to speaking some really heavily accented French, real Quebec hillbilly French, with lots of "tabarnacs" and "esties" thrown in. He seemed pleased with that....

I mean it's not the pure version of proper English. We mix in French words that they don't use, as well as native words.

Look at it this way...we eat cookies, they eat biscuits.

No language remains pure when it becomes regionalised. The vast majority of British people speak a bastardised version too.

Oh, that's what it meant. I didn't know at the time.

If you're interested in language you should find a book called "The Story of Language" Scarecrow. It traces a few of the theories of how language developed and how it changes over time. Pretty interesting.

I read through two or three pages of this topic, and as a Canadian who moved to Florida at age 3 but who goes back to Toronto every summer, I can talk objectively about the accent. My brothers and I all notice that, at least in southern Ontario, Canadians say A-BOAT instead of about and that any word with "out" in it, has the out portion pronounced "OAT". Furthermore, when Canadians say words like house, again with the "ou" phenome, it has that long O sounds like with BOAT. Also, with words like tomorrow, borrow, and sorry, whereas American pronounce them "to-marrow," "barrow," and "sarry" Canadians pronounce them "sore-ey," etc. However, while I notice that these inflections are still present in my younger cousins up there, what the younger generation is losing is the unique Canadian lexicon. My grandpa says, "Get off the chesterfield," yet my 13-year-old cousin doesn't know what a Chesterfield is. Also, young Canadians, for the most part, no longer say serviette, zed, and toque, instead calling them napkin, zee, and beanie, respectively. But just to be fair, when I go up to Toronto I'm told I have an American accent, I suppose meaning that I say about, not a-boat. I definitely don't have a southern accent, although if I did I'd be obliged to marry my sister. But most people in Florida come from up north. Anyway, a good website on a linquistic study of Canadian "raising" as it's called is [web]http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/CanadianEnglish.html[/web]

Hope this helps.

Funny how saying what you belive is an innocent word or phrase can get you into so much trouble.
Was down in the States,and dropped into a store to get some"lipcare"
The lady cashier thought I was making a move on her,and almost slapped me in the face.
Next time in the U.S ask for "chapstick" unless your asking a "hooker" then lipcare is starting rate...lmao

Do Canadian's say pop or soda? I only say pop.

One of the reasons that Americans think we say Aboot and such is cos of that damned south park movie!!

Oh, and a Chesterfield isn't Canadian for couch... A chesterfield and a Couch are two different things. A chesterfield is similar to a couch, but it has low sides and a high back, usually two seaters. Whereas ther rest of the world was confused and scared of the prospect of having two similar things with different names, and made the name generically couch, therefore making Canada one of the few countries that use the proper name!!

lol, I did meet this one lady though, she owns a resturaunrt near where I live. She honestly had the whole Canadian package. She said Aboot, said Eh after every sentance, and spoke in a slower, more paitent manner. Frankly, I quite like the Canadian accent over the American one, because alot of American Accents are full of stupid condjunctions like Y'all. (BTW, the plural of Y'all IS Y'all. The question is, what is the singular of Y'All, since Texans seem to say Y'All even if your the only one there... From a personal experiance)

I am British, but I pretty much talk Canadian, because I mix British English with American English. I prefer the Canadian version because it's proper and doesn't miss out letters like the Americans do (with favour/favor, or savour/savor). :lol:

I don't say Aboot but I've never really heard any Canadians I've spoken to say that. I use a mixed version because I have friends from the ABC (America, Britain and Canada: just something I made up :oops:

) so I'd rather speak universally. Canadian English is the more universal English in my opinion.