Talk:Canadian English
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Does anyone here ever notice that Canadians tend to pronounce the word "Southern" as "Sow-thern" rather than "Suh-thern"? Am I the only one that does this? Is this a feature of Canadian English or just my English?
That seems to be a Canadian thing. I have an American friend and "Sow-thern" drives him crazy. So does saying "raa-dee-ay-tor" instead of "ray-dee-ay-tor" --Munchkinguy 18:27, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Perhaps we should mention this in the article. -- rlwelch
Bad example. Lots of English-speakers all over the world say "serviette" rather than napkin. Perhaps the difference is that Canadians are not trying to be posh when they use the word? - clasqm
In that case, go ahead and remove the sentence about serviette!
Not unless I (or a Canadian, more likely) can think of a better example to put in its place. That's how it works here IMHO. - clasqm
In my idiolect, a napkin is made of cloth, while a serviette is made of paper. I'm guessing my idiolect is representative of wider Australian English, but I've learned to be not entirely sure. -- SJK
- In mine, too. - montréalais
- I'm from Vancouver and we always called things out of paper, napkins. I called the cloth ones "cloth napkins". :-) My granparents (2nd and 3rd generation canadians) however seemed to call everything serviette. dave 18:52 26 Jul 2003 (UTC)
I've read that the 'Standard Canadian English' dialect (the type of English spoken in most of Ontario and points west) is the most geographically widespread dialect of any language in the world. It said (and my own experience backs this up) that there is essentially no difference in accent or word usage over the entire area - whereas both these things change noticeably for every other language in every other country over dramatically smaller distances.
This incredible amount of uniformity, apparently, is due to the fact that Western Canada was settled so recently, and the inhabitants (mostly Ontarians and non-English speakers) didn't have the time in isolation (before the advent of mass communications) to develop their own accents.
Can anyone more knowledgeable back this up? - user:stewacide
I think the words "toonie" and "loonie" should be removed as examples of "uniquely" canadian words. I was kind of surprised that they were on the list, because it's just what we call our dollar and 2 dollar coins. They are basically just slang. However there is no alternative in British English or American English. Chesterfield however, does belong there, as does toque, if in fact they call it something different in Buffalo or other American cities where gets damn cold in winter. My point is, the article seems to emphasize the differences between the english languages, however this list just mentions some slang terms which don't even have alternatives in other countries! like toonie and loonie. I also don't agree with Garburator being rare in Canada since I have had a garburator all my life, and my parents were by no means rich! I'm from Vancouver though, maybe this article was writen by an Ontario-ite? dave
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"Canadian English also has its own words not found in other variants of English."
Along with serviete, which is used frequently in Britain, the words "francophone" and "anglophone" are are also used and understood there.
It says that most Canadians pronounce about aboat or abuht, and cant kayant. I can honestly say that I have never heard anyone I know pronounce them like that, nor do I. I pronounce them about and cant, like the average american (I say eh all the time though)
- You probably prounounce them like that without realizing it. (It's actually a very subtle pronuncation difference that is difficult to hear unless you have been specifically trained to listen for it.) Adam Bishop 04:19, 26 Jun 2004 (UTC)
- "Kayant" with two syllables? That sounds very U.S. to me.
- But "about" is definitely a way to recognize a Canadian, as are "house" and "mouse". We say "abowt" with a very short "au" sound and the lips coming together in a pucker. Everyone else says "abawt", with a sort of open "OW" or "ah-ooh" sound—more of a diphthong, sometimes approaching two syllables. —Michael Z. 17:36, 2004 Sep 7 (UTC)
The article does not mention the other two words that (in my observation) combine with "about" to make the uniquely Canadian shibboleth: "sorry" (rhymes with "hoary", not "sari") and use of the word "washroom" where other dialects would use "toilet", "WC", "bathroom", etc. I don't think any of these is unique, but I believe the comnbination is.
The vowel-raising phenomenon is also heard among educated native New Yorkers (as in the city).
- Hey, man, if you think it goes in there, add it. That's the glory of, that's the story of...Wikipedia. jengod 02:51, Jan 23, 2004 (UTC)
EAVESTROUGH is another uniquely Canadian word (look it up). --Xwu 16:15, 11 Mar 2004 (UTC)
- * hoser: a genereally dispariaging term, often used with "eh?", i.e. "You're a real hoser, eh?
Does anyone still actually use this? I've never heard anyone say it in a way that wasn't self-conscious. - Montrealais
Dispute?
When adding a dispute comment, it would be helpful if it were mentioned, what partcular parts of the entry do you feel are inaccurate.
==What's a "higher vowel""?
The phrase sounds like it may be real, or authentic to linguistics. Is it? Some justification for an inherent rank-order of vowels would be cool. rmbh 07:10, Nov 28, 2004 (UTC)
Canadian - American
Made for Canadian actors working in the U.S. on the different pronunciations
(Canadian vs American)
"SOME IMPORTANT PRONUNCIATIONS TO WATCH FOR (Critical words marked by *) From Canadain to American
Canadian - American'
Sorry - Sahrry - a as in sari. Canadians say sohrry.
Twenty - Twunny (Drop the t. Distress the e)
Ninety - Ninedy
- Again, against - Agen, agenst (Canadian: agayn)
Tuesday - Toosday.
- Been - Bin, not bean
Interest - In-trist (drop the middle e) "intristing" or "inneresting"
- Z - Zee. Canadians say zed
Semi - Semeye on its own. Semi-finals, semi-conscious, semi-professional.
Sometimes semee, when attached to another word. i.e. "semi-trailer"
Anti - Anteye. Sometimes but not always. Anti-biotic, anti-bacterial, antee-freeze
- Schedule - Skedule, never shedule
Roof - Roof as in tooth (rhyming with woof is regional)
Route - "Rowt", when referring to a path, journey or itinerary of stops. "Root" when referring to a road
Sure - Sher. Sometimes Shoorr
Often - Offen. Not often
- Detail - Ditail
- Data - Dayta.
Really - Rilly. Canadians say Reely.
Coupon - Coo-pon. Canadians say cyoo-pon.
Drama - Drawma (does not rhyme with "gramma")
Toward - Tord
Associate - Assoshiate (this includes all its forms, i.e. "associative", "associating" etc. with the exception of "association" which is usually pronounced "ass-oe-see-ay-shun")
Decal - dee-cal
Foyer - Foyer. Canadians say foy-ay.
Mirror - Meer
- This list is silly. Most of these distinctions are formal vs. informal, not Canadian vs. American. Few Canadians can be bothered to fully enunciate words like "Twenty" or "Toward".
Maritime(Canadian) English
Why isn't maritime(New Brunswick, PEI, Nova Scotia) english mentioned on this page? The unique accents of the area are completely ignored by this website, and come to mention that, any other website I have ever seen about 'Canadian' English. I know that most of english in Canada is quite homogenous, with the notable exception of Newfoundland, but there are definitely regional accents in the maritime provinces that are easily recognized as not being 'standard' canadian. In fact I would say some of the regional accents are quite unique to North America. Why are they not addressed here? Has no linguist ever taken time to study these regional dialects?
- My knowledge of developments in dialectology in this regard is not exhaustive, and I too would be grateful for additions from a knowledgeable person. I agree that the article is deficient in this regard. - Montréalais 21:29, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Request
Is there any evidence to support these generalizations:
- Anecdotally, the "abuhwt" or even "a-beh-oot" vowels are heard in Ontario and further east, and the "aboat" vowels are heard in the Western provinces. Also heard are: "can't", in Ontario, almost "kayant," whereas in the west, it becomes more "kahnt."
- Notwithstanding the above, most Canadians say about as "a-bow-t" where you take a bow, not the bow and arrow.
They don't describe the Canada in which I live. There should be research about this. I'll look for some but if the authors of these statements know of any that would help. John FitzGerald 13:47, 15 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Eh!
Canadian "Eh!" should be discussed here.
- Why? --Munchkinguy 22:29, 3 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Number of English speakers
30 million? How was that arrived at? Are all of the 5 million French speakers bilingual? I doubt it. Check the 2001 Census and revise that figure downwards. That is not to mention the many Canadians whose native language is Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi etc and who do not really speak Canadian English, indeed can hardly muster up a few words, especially older people. Many of these people speak British English or some other variant of English (such as Caribbean) rather than Canadian, so someone should look into the number of true "native speakers".--BrentS 17:23, 1 Feb 2005 (UTC)
Grammatical error?
I don't want to edit this myself, mostly because I'm tired and my grammar is off, but this part sounds odd: "College student" is Canada might denote someone obtaining a diploma in plumbing; --- 24.76.141.132 01:01, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC)
Here's another one (it's a paragraph):
- "In Canada, the word 'premier', as meant to be the leader of a provincial or territorial government, is pronounced "prem - yare" in most places, as opposed to the United States, where it is pronounced "prem ear". Premier, as in a movie premier, is pronounced the same in Canada as the rest of the world."
For one thing, all the people I know (I live in Manitoba) pronounce it "preem - yer". The other thing is that a "1st Movie Showing" is spelt "Primiere", so this entire paragraph may be useless. --Munchkinguy 03:49, 1 Apr 2005 (UTC)
I'm another Manitoban who says "Preem-yehr" Gary Doer, and movie "pre-MYER", but I don't spell anything "Primiere". —Michael Z. 2005-04-1 05:49 Z
Sorry, I meant "Premiere". --Munchkinguy 22:48, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)
Mary != merry in Quebec only?
An anonymous user just added this line:
- among native Montreal anglophones, a distinction between /æ/ and /a/, unique in Canada, so that Mary and merry are not homophones
I don't think this is correct; I was born and raised in Toronto and speak with the same distinction. Ergo, it must not be "unique" to Montreal anglophones. Unless anyone can back the claim that it is unique, I'll revert it (in a day or so). -- Hadal 03:58, 4 Apr 2005 (UTC)
British Columbia
* [aɪ] diphthong pronounced [↑ɪ]
I'm from BC(central interior) and I have no idea what this means. Could someone give me some examples?