Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ubc-cs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!utcsri!ubc-vision!ubc-ean!ubc-cs!ludemann
From: ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: Americanisms and Canadianisms
Message-ID: <143@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 13-Jan-86 14:10:25 EST
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.143
Posted: Mon Jan 13 14:10:25 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 13-Jan-86 17:44:48 EST
References: <974@lsuc.UUCP> <8086@ucla-cs.ARPA> <129@ubc-cs.UUCP> <992@mmintl.UUCP>
Reply-To: ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science, Vancouver, B.C., Canada
Lines: 38
Summary: 

In article <992@mmintl.UUCP> franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams) writes:
>In article <129@ubc-cs.UUCP> ludemann@ubc-cs.UUCP (Peter Ludemann) writes:
>>	Canadian usage			American usage
>>	--------------			--------------
>>	route (pronounced "root")	(pronounced to rhyme with "out")
>
>Which pronunciation of "root" did you have in mind?  Some people pronounce
>it to rhyme with "boot"; others rhyme it with "soot".
>
>The pronunciation of "route" to rhyme with "boot" is not a pure Canadianism,
>in any case; I have heard it quite often in the U.S.

I pronounce "route" to rhyme with "boot".  Where does the rhyming with
"soot" come from (I've never heard it, although I have heard "roof"
pronounced with the same vowel (American only))?

While we're on the subject, a few more differences: 
- semi-	Canadian "semee", American "sem-eye"
- hero- Canadian "heero", American "heeeero"
(I think I'm more sensitive than most people to the length of "long"
vowels because I'm used to making such distinctions in Japanese).

Generally, the Canadian pronounciations seem more in line with British
pronounciation, taking into account vowel shifts between the accents.
The American pronounciation seems to have more "exceptions".

Incidentally, the Mackenzie brothers pronounciation seems to be
a take-off on the Newfoundland accent - it's not common in the rest
of the country.  Apparently the Newfoundland accent preserves the
original British accents so well that a person's ancestry can be traced
to a particular Irish or English village just on how s/he pronounces
certain words and what meaning s/he assigns to them.

-- 
-- 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)