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From: ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Americanisms and Canadianisms
Message-ID: <129@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 1-Jan-86 14:28:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.129
Posted: Wed Jan  1 14:28:37 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 1-Jan-86 17:42:51 EST
References: <974@lsuc.UUCP> <8086@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Reply-To: ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 46

In article <8086@ucla-cs.ARPA> wales@ucla-cs.UUCP (Rich Wales) writes:
>It might be instructive (even amusing) to take this chance to try and
>put together a list of some of the more common Americanisms/Canadianisms
>which are liable to confuse people from the opposite side of the border.

Here are a few more:

	Canadian usage			American usage
	--------------			--------------
	route (pronounced "root")	(pronounced to rhyme with "out")
	hawk (hock?) [slang]: to steal
	deke (out) [hockey slang]	to fake (out) (an opponent) 

When I was in elementary school, we were usually taught British
spellings ("centre", "programme, " etc.) but with the odd Americanism
("jail", "connection", "curb" instead of "gaol", "connexion", "kerb").
Final -ize tended to be preferred over -ise.  Newspapers and magazines tend 
to use all American speellings, probably because they're shorter (one
"national" newspaper even uses "cigaret").  For many things, we use
the American words rather than British (I'm sure that someone referring
to a "lift" (elevator) or "boot/wing of a car" (trunk/finder) would get
funny looks.  On the other hand, "spanner" seems to be generally understood
as a "non-adjustable wrench").

This reminds me of when I was looking for a job of teaching English
in Japan.  Everyone wanted to learn "American English" and they
weren't sure what Canadian English was.  After getting over my
nationalistic indignation, I explained that Canadian English was
very similar to what Americans use on TV, but less nasal.  This
seemed to satisfy them.  Anyway, my classes responded with howls
of laughter when I explained the difference between Candian "eh?"
and American "huh?" (from my British grandmother: "Don't say 'eh',
say 'wot' like your father").

Whilst in Japan, it took me a while to realise that "American"
(actually "Amerika-jin") wasn't meant as an insult, it just
meant "white foreigner").

There exist a couple of books (I don't know the publisher/author) called
"Canajan, eh" and "Murrican, huh" which contain many of the distinctive
speech patterns of the two groups.
-- 
-- Peter Ludemann
	ludemann@ubc-cs.uucp (ubc-vision!ubc-cs!ludemann)
	ludemann@cs.ubc.cdn  (ludemann@cs.ubc.cdn@ubc.mailnet)
	ludemann@ubc.csnet   (ludemann%ubc.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA)