[Vision2020] Aboot?

[Ralph Nielsen]

Kai, you admit yourself that frequent use of "eh" in Canada seems to  
be more a personal idiosyncracy than general national usage.

Conrad Black owns a lot of newspapers, including, it seems, the one  
in the small up-Island town of Campbell River.

I've met and heard very few Newfoundlanders (emphasis on the "New-"  
or "-land" not the "-found" part, please). Some of them sound quite  
Irish. (I spent 10 days in Ireland last June.)

On Jun 11, 2008, at 9:46 AM, Kai Eiselein, Editor wrote:

> Ralph, would you pleeeease explain the use, or non-use rather, of  
> "eh" to my Uncle Danny in Port Coquitlam, B.C.? He apparently  
> missed that memo and says "eh" incessantly.
> In my experience, with my family, "about" does have a slight "oo"  
> sound to it, not much, but it is there. Perhaps it's a vestige of  
> our Scots ancestry? We are McKenzies.
>
> My step-grandfather, Cecil, was from Alberta and didn't use "eh"  
> nor did he pronounce "ou" as "oo". But he could curse in French and  
> make it sound like a sonnet :)
>
> The following is a snippet from an article in the Campbell River  
> Mirror, owned by Black Press Group, Ltd.:
> "The walls were also filled with three huge memorial banners where  
> mourners had written messages to Smith and his family in colourful  
> ink."
>
> Canada's a big place, it has it's own colloquialisms, ever tried to  
> understand what a "Newfie"  was saying?
>
> --------------------------------------------------
> From: "Ralph Nielsen" <NIELSEN at uidaho.edu>
> Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:58 PM
> To: "Vision 2020" <Vision2020 at moscow.com>
> Subject: [Vision2020] Aboot?
>
> > Many Americans have weird ideas about Canada. Canadians do not say
> > "aboot" or "oot" or "hoos" or "moos." They say "about," "out,"
> > "house," and "mouse" like everyone else. It's only in some parts of
> > Scotland where they speak like this.
> >
> > The last letter of the alphabet is "zed" in all of the English-
> > speaking world except the U.S.
> >
> > The rather affected British "-our" ending of "-or" words, like
> > "colour" and "harbour" was abandoned by the Canadian everyday press
> > years ago.
> >
> > The much-discussed "eh?" was apparently made popular by a  
> Canadian TV
> > comedy program about 40 years ago. It was not unknown before then  
> and
> > is not over-used today.
> >
> > I'll let you in on an unmistakable Canadianism in common use today.
> > They invariably say "lineup" where we say "line" and the British say
> > "queue."
> >
> > Now you're cued in.
> >
> > Ralph