(Read comments) - (Post a new comment)

melisus
2007-04-18 03:21 pm UTC (link)

I don't really get it either, because either way it never sounds like "aboot" but some people insist it does. I know someone from Washington state and when we used to talk she'd laugh and tell me that the stereotypes I always said were wrong WERE actually right because I said "aboot". I told her I didn't; I just remembered there was a "u" in "about" and didn't say "abot" like she said.

I actually find these kind of things really interesting because I watched a show on the CBC once that looked at how the Canadian and American dialects evolved independently into what they are now.

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	plazmah 2007-04-18 03:53 pm UTC (link)
	Yes, that's my defense too: "I just prounounce the 'u', you bitches." As an aside, it was also in university that I met another Canadian who actually didn't use "eh?" at the end of her sentences. She was from Calgary, and just used "huh?" instead, like I know some Americans do. Very wacky. ;) (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	melisus 2007-04-18 04:01 pm UTC (link)
	Well Alberta's practically the United States anyways. ;) I don't use "eh" a lot, but I do use it. My relatives from Northern Ontario, however, use it a hell of a lot. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	plazmah 2007-04-18 04:11 pm UTC (link)
	I use it pretty frequently, and I'm from Toronto. Then again, I did grow up in Newfoundland, so maybe that has something to do with it. ;) (Reply to this)(Parent)

	frequentmouse 2007-04-18 04:39 pm UTC (link)
	Well, a lot of us mossbacks (although not Skip Berger) sound more like old-time BC residents than 5-6 generation BC people sound like people from Toronto, so, shows what she knows. (Had lunch with a table full of Anthropological linguistics people at the Empress once). (Reply to this)(Parent)

	chibikaijuu 2007-04-18 11:55 pm UTC (link)
	But it's not "oo" or "o", it's "ow". (Generally speaking, most Canadians I have heard don't have the stereotypical accent. When I did finally meet a couple of them who did, I had to go hide in the bathroom and giggle before I could engage in actual, non-embarrassing conversation with them. They really did say "aboot" and had an "eh?" at the end of every sentence.) (Reply to this)(Parent)

(Read comments) -