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June 8, 2016 09:57 am PDT

How to Speak Canadian

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Dan Nosowitz of Atlas Obscura has posted a pair of funny pieces on how to speak Canadian. I was reminded of this clip from comedy legend John Candy.

Canada RULES! I love swearing in Qubcois. Also, I deeply respect Boing Boing's revered tech guru and sysadmin Ken Snider, who is Canadian.

Atlas Obscura's short guide to cursing like a French Canadian is fantastic. Basically you mutter a bunch of religious terms under your breath, like tabernak and callise!

Nosowitz also tackled one of the great mysteries of North American language, the Canadian about. I'm still not sure I can get my head around it.

Via Atlas Obscura:

The Canadian diphthong in about starts with something closer to eh, and migrates to a blank space on the American linguistic map somewhere between uh, oh, and ooh. That transition is actually easier on the mouth than the American version; our vowels go from low to high, and theirs from mid to high.

To say that Canadians are saying aboot is linguistically inaccurate; ooh is a monophthong and the proper Canadian dialect uses a diphthong. A-boat would actually be a bit closer, but still relies on a monophthong. Why cant Americans get their heads around the Canadian about?

What's going on is a compound of pronunciation and perception, says Dailey-OCain. The Canadians do pronounce it differently. Americans hear this and they know it's differentthey're hearing a difference but they don't know exactly what that difference is. Americans do not have the Canadian diphthong present in the word about, which makes it hard to understand. We know that the Canadians are doing something weird, but in fact its so unlike our own dialect that we cant even really figure out whats weird about it.

Our best guess? Well, we can hear that the Canadians are raising that first vowel in the diphthong, even if we dont know what raising means. But in a true American disdain for subtlety, we choose to interpret that as the most extreme possible raised vowel sound: ooh. Its like a beach artist caricature that exaggerates a feature beyond realism and into cartoon-land: we hear a difference, and boost that difference to a height that isnt actually correct anymore.

The Delightful Perversity of Qubec's Catholic Swears

What's Going On with the Way Canadians Say About'?

Xeni requests you now watch this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jm4LoOaAWI


Original Link: http://feeds.boingboing.net/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/xOcSoHzsMgI/how-to-speak-canadian.html

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