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A Typology of Canadianisms

dchp.arts.ubc.ca

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Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#241

Post by throaway955 »

ShroudedNight wrote: post #234
cik wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery". There's no mystery. This is rubbish research. In parts of Manitoba we also use all-dressed for the same purpose (and of course chips). The unifying factor is French culture. The Riel Rebellion helped bring tremendous franocphones, and French culture out west. There are areas like St. Boniface in Winnipeg where s some people speak only French. The Metis…

It's been a long time now, but from what I remember from school, a critical part of the notability of Gabrielle Roy[1] was that she wrote from the perspective of francophones living in the prairies. I appreciate the DHCP-3 is not a monolithic work, but to have both authorship and editorial oversight of a corpus that presents itself as a rigorous treatise of Canadianisms demonstrate either broad ignorance of, or reckl…

A lot of French history has been erased from the Canadian West

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#242

Post by throwawaymaths »

throaway955 wrote: post #219
throwawaymaths wrote: post #117

as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.

how about une boîte aux lettres?

given the englishisms in quebecois i was amused to see arrêt signs, because I'm pretty sure they say stop in france.

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#243

Post by ShroudedNight »

dmalik wrote: post #146
dismalaf wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Two-four" hasn't made its way out west because we call it a case of beer, and we already have "two-six", which is a 26oz bottle of liquor.

In Ontario "two-six" is called a twixer

"Twixer" must be relatively new, or more specific regionalism. I've only known them to be called "twenty-sixers"

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#244

Post by throaway955 »

School-Cotton wrote: post #92
bawolff wrote: post #5

Americans dont use the term "pencil crayons"??? What do you call them?

Crayons are the fat sticks of wax (e.g. Crayola brand). Colored pencils are, well, colored pencils. There are also various different ways to pronounce “crayon”; is that also true in Canada? For example I pronounce it with one syllable: “cran”, just like the beginning of “cranberry”. I get the feeling that’s not the majority pronunciation but it’s not exactly rare either (at least where I grew up).

Nope, coloured pencils are coloured wax encased in wood. Canadians emphasize that they are crayons in pencil shape; Americans emphasize that they are pencil-form but coloured.

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#245

Post by talos_ »

nucleardog wrote: post #233
throwawaymaths wrote: post #117

as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.

Also good luck planning any meals. Dejeuner is breakfast in Quebec (lunch in France). Diner is lunch in Quebec (evening meal in France).

déjeuner is a literal translation though. "Breaking fast" -> "dé-jeuner" (undo fasting).

French people typically say: - breakfast - petit-déjeuner (small breakfast) - lunch - déjeuner (breakfast) - diner - diner

Québecois people say: - breakfast - déjeuner - lunch - diner - diner - souper (eating soup; probably historical roots like "getting your big meal of the day" which is likely broth + potatoes)

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#246

Post by ShroudedNight »

bregma wrote: post #170
allenu wrote: post #61

I always loved the term "keener" growing up and was disappointed that it wasn't a term of use down here in the States. It's essentially the same thing as a "brown-noser" but a little less graphic.

A keener is an ardent enthusiast. A brown-noser (aka a browner) is a sycophant. Not the same thing at all. Also, a brown-noser should not be confused with a blue-noser.

The distinction between an ardent enthusiast and a sycophant was lost on many I encountered using the term.

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#247

Post by talos_ »

werdnapk wrote: post #203
throwawaymaths wrote: post #117

as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.

Quebec has it's own dictionary.

Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) promotes the french language and adapt new English words (whereas France typically integrate English words in their vocab).

The website Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) will have a lot of useful resources if you're interested! For instance, how to write a professional sounding email, names of official documents, invoice templates.

Highlights (good and bad):

* emails -> courriels (courrier + iels; mail + similar sounding syllable)*

* spam mail -> pourriels (pourri + iels; rotten + similar lexem as courriels)

* to spoil (as in spoilers) -> divulgâcher (divulguer + gâcher; to reveal + to ruin)

* to mansplain -> mecspliquer (mec + expliquer; man + to explain); This one is outrageous (and uncommon) because it's an homonym to "m'expliquer" (explain to me)

* to browse (the web) -> naviguer (as in "to navigate"; browser -> "navigateur")

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#248

Post by tempest_ »

teqsun wrote: post #184

This list somehow doesn't have "converter" (to refer to a television remote), which was the first word to unexpectedly baffle my American coworkers the first time I said it, to my own surprise.

Converter was definitely heard when I was growing up and I would know what you were talking about 100%

Now a days I am probably more likely to say "Clicker" unless otherwise prompted.

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#249

Post by tempest_ »

throwaway290 wrote: post #181
chongli wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I no longer walk to school! When I walk into a store or into work I always watch where I step, regardless of the season or the weather. I’m especially cautious walking around my back yard after a rain!

Yes I guess once you learn to tell the signs of thin ice, soakers are rare... but now in tropics I get soakers being adult! Sometimes deep water is hard to notice or there is no route around a puddle. Maybe these are not really soakers (no ice involved) but I like the word

Just go hiking in the spring.

Got a soaker in April when I stepped on some snow that has hiding a deep puddle on a trail.

Re: A Typology of Canadianisms

#250

Post by mhurron »

teqsun wrote: post #184

This list somehow doesn't have "converter" (to refer to a television remote), which was the first word to unexpectedly baffle my American coworkers the first time I said it, to my own surprise.

I think that's actually going to be more of an age thing as well. The converter wasn't just the remote, but the little box, separate from the TV, needed to convert signals for an older TV.

Basically, the 'cable box' or the 'satalite box.'

But ya, 45 years old, grew up in Toronto and Southern Alberta and it was a converter, until it wasn't.

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