Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why is Canadian English unique?

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 52 posts

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#41

Post by sdm »

goodcanadian wrote: post #18

There are some errors in the article. May two four is a distinctly Eastern Canada slang. In western Canada, it is simply May long weekend. Two four to refer to 24 beer is also Eastern Canada. In western Canada, you call it a flat. Finally, as a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for a long time, Canadians really do use eh a lot. It is just that it is a subconscious element of the language that we are not aware…

Grew up in Northern AB and have lived the past 10 years in BC, While "flat" is sometimes used, it's far more common to call them "two fours" here.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#42

Post by sdm »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>> Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British; they’re just interested in using the British connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because they didn’t want to leave. What horrible highschool textbook is this from? When did Canada separate from the US? And to say english Canadians ar…

> American culture IS canadian.

Yeah right, buddy.

> But look to the UK, to the BBC, and you won't find any.

As other have pointed out you find a few there. However this is more easily explained by two things: (1) for Canadians working in the US is hell of a lot easier than working in the UK, (2) For acting, the US pays far more than the UK.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#43

Post by allannienhuis »

sdm wrote: post #40

I'm surprised they missed one of the biggest ones that comes up in day-to-day life dealing with Americans: the use of verb "to table" in meetings. In American English if you say you want to table something in a meeting it means you want to stop talking about it. Ex. Let's table this discussion for later. In Canadian English if you say you want to table something in a meeting it means you want to raise it up and discu…

I have't heard that exact phrasing used, but the idea is that you're putting a topic 'on the table' to be looked at by everyone and discussed. I've used and heard the term used both ways without too much confusion just based on context.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#44

Post by scholia »

One factor is publishing rights. Traditionally, English language publishers negotiated for two main sets of rights: American (sometimes North American) rights, and British and Commonwealth rights. The latter resulted in the same books (with English spelling conventions) appearing in the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand etc.

There have been attempts to change this. To quote from a Guardian article from 2008:

"We are all struggling to free ourselves from the proprietorial attitudes of the US and UK that continue to dominate the publishing world," said Juliet Rogers, chief of one of Australia's largest independent publishers Murdoch Books, and former president of the Australian Publishers Association. "The UK fails to grasp that the Empire is dead and that Commonwealth markets are no longer theirs by right [and] the US views Canadian rights as an automatic extension of their territory, even though they frequently have no intention of responsibly exercising those rights."

"Because British or American publishers get first dibs and insist on British Commonwealth rights, Australia, New Zealand and Canada are not getting a look in," added Andrew Wilkins, director of Australian publisher Wilkins Farago. This is to the disadvantage of authors, he explained, as exported copies of books are sold at reduced royalty rates, "so in theory the author could be making three to four times more money by having a local publisher – it makes no sense."

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/oct/17/canada-australi...

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#45

Post by goodcanadian »

sdm wrote: post #41
goodcanadian wrote: post #18

There are some errors in the article. May two four is a distinctly Eastern Canada slang. In western Canada, it is simply May long weekend. Two four to refer to 24 beer is also Eastern Canada. In western Canada, you call it a flat. Finally, as a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for a long time, Canadians really do use eh a lot. It is just that it is a subconscious element of the language that we are not aware…

Grew up in Northern AB and have lived the past 10 years in BC, While "flat" is sometimes used, it's far more common to call them "two fours" here.

Grew up in Alberta and never heard two-four until I went to university and met some people from Ontario. It was actually a bit of a meme that they could tell where you were from based on whether you said flat or two-four. As I said elsewhere, it may be generational, but two four definitely started in the East.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#46

Post by gyardley »

sandworm101 wrote: post #2

>> Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British; they’re just interested in using the British connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because they didn’t want to leave. What horrible highschool textbook is this from? When did Canada separate from the US? And to say english Canadians ar…

The Queen was and is a big thing in the part of Canada I grew up in. People descended from United Empire Loyalists sometimes write 'U.E.L.' after their names, you see a lot of Queen Elizabeth memorabilia in shops, tourists go on 'loyalist tours', and the biggest bit of pomp and circumstance from my childhood was when the Queen's local representative, the lieutenant-governor of Ontario, visited town. I wasn't particularly impressed and made the mistake of sarcastically saying 'wow, what an honor' when one of the local farmboys was going on about the handshake he'd received from 'the Queen's representative'. He backhanded me hard enough to knock my glasses thirty feet.

Canada, like the United States, is a little too large and varied to easily generalize about.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#48

Post by branchless »

notahacker wrote: post #31
branchless wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The UK is plenty oppressed. We still have all the same problems with economic rent extracted via land ownership.

Every country - republics included - has that problem. Although the reason that a relatively high proportion of resource extraction revenues in Canada are redirected to public welfare is, perhaps ironically, because the vast majority of Canada's territory is classed as Crown Land...

Which is as it should be - that land belongs to all Canadians.

In the UK Queenie gets 15% of crown land to spend on the their lavish lives. I wonder how much rent she takes out of Canadian schools and hospitals. Any idea? Google failed me.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#49

Post by johan_larson »

goodcanadian wrote: post #18

There are some errors in the article. May two four is a distinctly Eastern Canada slang. In western Canada, it is simply May long weekend. Two four to refer to 24 beer is also Eastern Canada. In western Canada, you call it a flat. Finally, as a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for a long time, Canadians really do use eh a lot. It is just that it is a subconscious element of the language that we are not aware…

"24 beer"

Is that usage (the plural "beer") a Canadian thing? I've heard it in Canada but never in the States.

Re: Why is Canadian English unique?

#50

Post by goodcanadian »

johan_larson wrote: post #49
goodcanadian wrote: post #18

There are some errors in the article. May two four is a distinctly Eastern Canada slang. In western Canada, it is simply May long weekend. Two four to refer to 24 beer is also Eastern Canada. In western Canada, you call it a flat. Finally, as a Canadian who has lived outside of Canada for a long time, Canadians really do use eh a lot. It is just that it is a subconscious element of the language that we are not aware…

"24 beer" Is that usage (the plural "beer") a Canadian thing? I've heard it in Canada but never in the States.

I guess so; I've never really thought about it.
Post reply on HN