Two countries divided by the same language?

[Disneyfan63]

Hi, basas!

It's difficult to define the difference between US and Canadian accents, because Americans have different regional accents according to the parts of the country in which they live. Canadian accents seem more "rounded" to me; they pronounce certain words more distinctly than Americans pronounce the same words, and even use different words for the same item (e.g., my aunt and uncle, who also live in Winnipeg, MB, call a "napkin" a "serviette" and a "restroom" or "bathroom" a "washroom", which IMHO more accurately describes its function). I think the biggest difference between Americans and Canadians is the latter's use of the word "eh" (pronounced AY) at the end of a sentence, rather than "huh?". To Canadians we must seem an ignorant lot much of the time when we say "huh?".

I'm afraid I've rambled on and not really answered your question. But to get at the difference between American and Canadian accents, one needs to listen carefully. There's no single American accent, as I've stated above. Natives of the US southeast and in Texas, for example, tend to draw words out, putting a long i or y into words to produce a kind of lilt. New Englanders (the true Yanks to which some Brits may refer; "Yankee" is a monthly magazine devoted to life in those six US northeastern states) distinctly flatten or drop the letter r. I live in New Jersey and have been told I definitely have an accent or distinctive "northern" quality to my voice.

Hope this helps!

Jim

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

I have read that when you go to visit someone in the UK the phrase that you use is the same one we use for something else quite different. LOL

"Knock someone up"?

I love language, it is most interesting, and the ways we use the same words to mean different things is fascinating.

Please educate me if I have been misinformed.

Tom's "Trouble and Strife" Slightly Goofy

 

[UKDEB]

I really notice that when I say thanks to someone, they say "you're welcome" whereas we would just grunt?!?

Another one I've picked up.

 

[catherine]

<< The butter thing is funny whenever we ask for butter (pronouced with the t's) we always get blank looks but if you ask for it swapping the t's for d's they seem to understand >>

We here in NA rarely use "t's" when they're in the middle of words. It's actually hard to do and makes you sound British if you use it! For example...

Numbers: (Twenty= Tweny) (Seventy= Sevendy) (Forty: Fordy) (Fifty= Fifdy), etc.

Also think of words like "Fastpass" where people rarely pronounce the "t", making it "fasspass", and most other words with "T" like "community", "butter", or "property", etc.etc.

BTW- can anyone tell the difference between an American and Canadian accent? Even me being Canadian, i can't tell the difference most of the time....

I remember when I first moved to CA, when we would go out for dinner I would ask for water, only to be met by a blank stare from the waiter! I was OK if I was with DH as he would always tell them that I wanted a glass of 'wadder', but if I was by myself sometimes I would have to spell it!

 

[jjpenguin]

Purses are also called pocketbooks, which is in fact an Elizabethan word..!

I always get confused at menu's

Coriander = Cilantro

and what on earth is Aragula?

 

[Madjock]

Lift = elevator
Tights = pantyhose
Rubbish = garbage/trash
Flat = apartment

 

[londonpenguin]

I hope this one hasn't been posted and I just missed it:

Brits take a decision, whereas Americans make a decision. I've always kind of liked the Brit version a bit better because it sounds as if there are several decisions just floating around, and the British pluck one out of the air and say, "I'll take this one!"

 

[Goofyish]

on earth is Aragula?

Aragula is rocket (green salad stuff)

 

[Dimplenose]

Tights = pantyhose

When I was young (early 1970s) pop socks were all the rage. My mum bought me some bottle green ones (it was 1970s!) from the local market which were labelled "Knee High Hose" it always makes me think of Snow White. (Not the knee bit but the "High Hose")

On another note I was staying near Philidelphia when a local person asked me the time "It's twenty five past nine" I said clearly, to which he looked totally blank - my friend had to translate "It's twenty five after nine"

And a third thought. When being seated at Boma this year, as we spoke the waitress said to us "Do I hear an accent there?" I thought "No - it's you that's got the accent I haven't got one."

Sorry to ramble,
Libby

 

[Miffy2003]

"Knock someone up"?

To me, this is slang for impregnating someone LOL. It's not used in my part of the UK as "calling for someone" but I am sure it is in others - I just can't remember where! Anyone?

 

[Clare D]

Tramp = Bum

 

[basas]

I remember when I first moved to CA, when we would go out for dinner I would ask for water, only to be met by a blank stare from the waiter! I was OK if I was with DH as he would always tell them that I wanted a glass of 'wadder', but if I was by myself sometimes I would have to spell it!

*Tries saying out loud "waTTer"...no, it just doesn't sound right! Infact, it sounds as if you're saying it sarcastically, or rudely! LOL- i'll stick with "waDDer"

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

Miffy2003, that is what it means here but I have read that term in books about England. Of course they might have been older volumes and that has gone out of style.

Many of our older volume use the word 'gay' to mean young and carefree while it means something altogether different here.

Our country is so big that there are many terms that mean one thing one place and another somewhere else.

Bummbershoot (sp??) for umbrella??

Slightly Goofy

 

[Miffy2003]

Well I have definitely heard the expression here but I am just not sure where.

I love the bummbershoot though, never come across that before

 

[Shagley]

I had a friend visiting from the Isle of Wight, and we went to the grocery store to pick up a few items. You should have seen his face light up when the pretty girl at the cash register asked him "Would you like a sack"?

In the US, a "sack" means a "bag" (not sure what the British term is)

 

[jen_uk]

I hope this one hasn't been posted and I just missed it:

Brits take a decision, whereas Americans make a decision. I've always kind of liked the Brit version a bit better because it sounds as if there are several decisions just floating around, and the British pluck one out of the air and say, "I'll take this one!"

Ive never heard that in the UK before, is it used in certain parss like up north (Im right down in the south)?

 

[tim june and sam]

I had a friend visiting from the Isle of Wight, and we went to the grocery store to pick up a few items. You should have seen his face light up when the pretty girl at the cash register asked him "Would you like a sack"?

In the US, a "sack" means a "bag" (not sure what the British term is)

Well Shagley, I think "sack" has many meanings in UK-English - depends on the context....

Its slang for "bed" and we do use it for a heavy, almost industrial bag for coal, flour, etc., but definitely not for the bag at the supermarket. That said, we don't use the ol' brown paper bag that is still used in the US at Publix, etc. - ours are all plastic (occasionally biodegradeable).

Also a football term - gridiron football, of course?

 

[SlightlyGoofy]

Whenever one of my grands or one of my pupils is confused with a spelling rule or something of the sort I tell them to blame it all on Daniel Webster, who was one of the first to set down rules, and then I explain how much harder it would be without any rules and we could all spell things as we wished. They think that is a good idea until I point out how hard it would be to read. LOL

Communication, words, accents, it is all part of what makes this a wonderful world. If we were all exactly the same and did things the same we would have no need to leave our houses and what a boring world it would be.

Jumper/ Sweater
Ice lolly /Popsicle
Afters /Dessert

I would rather be daft rather than stupid, it sounds ever so much better and if said with an English accent it is downright elegant. (grin)

Slightly Goofy/Linda

 

[WIcruizer]

Trainers = sneakers

Actually we call them "tennis shoes" although pronounces as one word "tenni-shoes." Most of the UK words are better, bt you have to get rid of "trainers."

As far as tea goes, there's ice tea and hot tea...then there's also SWEET tea in the south. (And FL is not the south...although it is on the map.) Another American oddity.

 

[Andrew Bichard]

An English architectural student, working during his vacation in a USA office makes a mistake with his drawing and calls out "can anyone lend me a rubber?" and wonders why everyone falls about laughing. (rubber=erasor)

Staying with a family in the USA, a British dinner guest asks his hostess if he can help her wash up after the meal. (wash up = do the dishes)

Andrew