auntblabby
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22 Dec 2015, 4:35 am
22 Dec 2015, 5:51 am
auntblabby
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Joined: 12 Feb 2010
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Posts: 115,217
Location: the island of defective toy santas
22 Dec 2015, 6:17 am
animalcrackers wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
if I were dropped into Canada, I don't know how long it would take before I started saying "aboot."
I don't say "aboot" and i don't hear other people say it either. I don't think anyone, anywhere in Canada, actually says "aboot". Apparently the perception that Canadians say "aboot" comes from some kind of subtle pronunciation difference called "Canadian Raising" ....
link 1
link 2
I like how one Canadian said "on the west coast we say ABOAT."
anyways, this reminds me of the controversy surrounding Neil Armstrong's moon-landing pronouncement, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." most folks' hearing acuity is insufficient to hear the quickly spoken "a" in his speech, thinking he just said "one small step for man" sans the intervening "A."
Dwarvyn
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 12 Dec 2013
Age: 40
Gender: Female
Posts: 66
Location: Ontario, Canada
22 Dec 2015, 7:07 am
auntblabby wrote:
animalcrackers wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
if I were dropped into Canada, I don't know how long it would take before I started saying "aboot."
I don't say "aboot" and i don't hear other people say it either. I don't think anyone, anywhere in Canada, actually says "aboot". Apparently the perception that Canadians say "aboot" comes from some kind of subtle pronunciation difference called "Canadian Raising" ....
link 1
link 2
I like how one Canadian said "on the west coast we say ABOAT."
anyways, this reminds me of the controversy surrounding Neil Armstrong's moon-landing pronouncement, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." most folks' hearing acuity is insufficient to hear the quickly spoken "a" in his speech, thinking he just said "one small step for man" sans the intervening "A."I think it's more the east-coast accent that sounds like aboot. Not that they actually say 'oo', but it's not 'ow' either, and since it's different, we focus on the different-ness of it.
One of the big things that I notice about the US is that if you immigrate there from another country, you're {origin}-American: Italian-American, Polish-American, Japanese-American, etc. In Canada, you just seem to be Italian, Polish, Japanese etc. I remember in school they taught us that US's culture was a melting-pot and Canada's was a mosaic: in the US, the culture is a big combination of the immigrants that make it up, but in Canada there's no real identifiable 'Canadian' culture because people tend to keep their origin country's culture (my grandparents moved to Canada when they were young and both my parents were born in Canada, but if I were to be asked about my origin, I'd probably answer Slovak/Dutch before Canadian).
That might be why the US feels more patriotic than Canada: Canadians seem to identify with their origin countries (even if they also identify with Canada), and so their 'loyalties' are split at best.
That might also be why Canadians apologize so readily: since we have so many cultures butting up against each other (instead of one culture influenced by many), you may not know what culture the other person is, let alone what's considered offensive in their culture, so we apologize just in case.
auntblabby
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22 Dec 2015, 7:15 am
22 Dec 2015, 8:58 am
Dwarvyn wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
animalcrackers wrote:
auntblabby wrote:
if I were dropped into Canada, I don't know how long it would take before I started saying "aboot."
I don't say "aboot" and i don't hear other people say it either. I don't think anyone, anywhere in Canada, actually says "aboot". Apparently the perception that Canadians say "aboot" comes from some kind of subtle pronunciation difference called "Canadian Raising" ....
link 1
link 2
I like how one Canadian said "on the west coast we say ABOAT."
anyways, this reminds me of the controversy surrounding Neil Armstrong's moon-landing pronouncement, "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind." most folks' hearing acuity is insufficient to hear the quickly spoken "a" in his speech, thinking he just said "one small step for man" sans the intervening "A."I think it's more the east-coast accent that sounds like aboot. Not that they actually say 'oo', but it's not 'ow' either, and since it's different, we focus on the different-ness of it.
One of the big things that I notice about the US is that if you immigrate there from another country, you're {origin}-American: Italian-American, Polish-American, Japanese-American, etc. In Canada, you just seem to be Italian, Polish, Japanese etc. I remember in school they taught us that US's culture was a melting-pot and Canada's was a mosaic: in the US, the culture is a big combination of the immigrants that make it up, but in Canada there's no real identifiable 'Canadian' culture because people tend to keep their origin country's culture (my grandparents moved to Canada when they were young and both my parents were born in Canada, but if I were to be asked about my origin, I'd probably answer Slovak/Dutch before Canadian).
That might be why the US feels more patriotic than Canada: Canadians seem to identify with their origin countries (even if they also identify with Canada), and so their 'loyalties' are split at best.
That might also be why Canadians apologize so readily: since we have so many cultures butting up against each other (instead of one culture influenced by many), you may not know what culture the other person is, let alone what's considered offensive in their culture, so we apologize just in case.
My wife's parents are from Ontario near Toronto and when we visit I hear them say it. I agree it's not exactly "aboot" but more like "aboat." I also agree it is very subtle, but I still detect it. I also noticed a difference between people in northern Ontario enunciate "Toronto" Toe-RON-toe... and those closer to the city run it together like this: Tuh-ronno
Her family makes fun of the way my mom speaks, cos we're from Minnie-SOH-ta dontcha know?
Good natured, of course.
Dwarvyn
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 12 Dec 2013
Age: 40
Gender: Female
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Location: Ontario, Canada
22 Dec 2015, 4:40 pm
looniverse wrote:
My wife's parents are from Ontario near Toronto and when we visit I hear them say it. I agree it's not exactly "aboot" but more like "aboat." I also agree it is very subtle, but I still detect it. I also noticed a difference between people in northern Ontario enunciate "Toronto" Toe-RON-toe... and those closer to the city run it together like this: Tuh-ronno
I've noticed the differences in Toronto pronunciation as well. The closer you get to Toronto, the quicker it's said: "Toronto" becomes "Torono" becomes "Trono" becomes "Trana". My parents were born and raised in Toronto and they say "Trana" most of the time. I've never lived there, but always within 2 hours and still say "Trono". My husband who was born and raised in North-Western Ontario says the full "Toronto", and it always sounds so weird when he says it
auntblabby
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22 Dec 2015, 6:23 pm
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LocksAndLiqueur
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23 Dec 2015, 2:24 am
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auntblabby
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25 Dec 2015, 7:22 pm
CockneyRebel
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26 Dec 2015, 10:38 pm
28 Dec 2015, 1:23 am
auntblabby wrote:
I would like it if Canada were part of the USA. they might not like it, though. what if we paid each Canadian citizen a cool million? would they like it any better?
i don't think there'd be too much in the way of culture shock.
i would take it, but how would the queen feel about losing 35 million "subjects"?
auntblabby
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28 Dec 2015, 1:29 am
