Scarlett wrote:I struggle to tell the difference between Canadian and American.

Scarlett wrote:I struggle to tell the difference between Canadian and American.

Scarlett wrote:I struggle to tell the difference between Canadian and American.

Scarlett wrote:I wouldn't mistske your accent for Canadian I doubt, Lak

Fallible wrote:American sentence: If a person keeps talking about a boat, they're probably Canadian.
Canadian sentence: If a person keeps talking a boat a boat, they're probably Canadian.




People keep saying it's a boot, but it's not. It's a boat.

Evolving wrote:The only reliable test that I know is the diphthong in words like "about"; but even that's not foolproof, because not all Canadians, drat them, pronounce it the way they're supposed to as Canadians.

Scarlett wrote:I think I speak properly, it's everyone else doing it wrong!

Evolving wrote:

Scarlett wrote:I think I speak properly, it's everyone else doing it wrong!

Sorry, what was that?

laklak wrote:Nairn of all y'all talk good.

Evolving wrote:

Fallible wrote:American sentence: If a person keeps talking about a boat, they're probably Canadian.
Canadian sentence: If a person keeps talking a boat a boat, they're probably Canadian.




People keep saying it's a boot, but it's not. It's a boat.

However:

Evolving wrote:The only reliable test that I know is the diphthong in words like "about"; but even that's not foolproof, because not all Canadians, drat them, pronounce it the way they're supposed to as Canadians.

I take it you're one of the reliable Canadians. (Some one told me this was really Toronto English. May be rubbish.)

Evolving wrote:I am one of the few surviving pronouncers of "often" as "awphen", by the way (to pick up on an earlier post). My mother is the only other that comes to mind. I also say "lawst", "acrawss" and (of course) "awf". But our accents were preserved in a time capsule from the late seventies.

Evolving wrote:And just to prove how tolerant and open and whatnot I am, I don't mind laklak avoiding adverbs. German proves that a language can get along perfectly well without them.

I don't believe I shall ever be able to bring myself to say "talk good" myself. But if that is the way the language is going (and it seems that it probably is), so be it.

Scarlett wrote:

Evolving wrote:I am one of the few surviving pronouncers of "often" as "awphen", by the way (to pick up on an earlier post). My mother is the only other that comes to mind. I also say "lawst", "acrawss" and (of course) "awf". But our accents were preserved in a time capsule from the late seventies.

Are you, like, well posh?

I'm not sure we can be friends after this.

Evolving wrote:In one flat we lived on the top floor, and we had oil heaters in a couple of rooms, and an oil boiler next to the bathtub in the bathroom, which we would light when someone wanted a bath. When the oil was running low somebody would have to go downstairs to the shed in the back garden next to the mountain, where the oil was kept in a tank, and fill up a kind of watering can from the tank and bring it back upstairs.

Evolving wrote:

Scarlett wrote:

Evolving wrote:I am one of the few surviving pronouncers of "often" as "awphen", by the way (to pick up on an earlier post). My mother is the only other that comes to mind. I also say "lawst", "acrawss" and (of course) "awf". But our accents were preserved in a time capsule from the late seventies.

Are you, like, well posh?

I'm not sure we can be friends after this.

Evolving wrote:In one flat we lived on the top floor, and we had oil heaters in a couple of rooms, and an oil boiler next to the bathtub in the bathroom, which we would light when someone wanted a bath. When the oil was running low somebody would have to go downstairs to the shed in the back garden next to the mountain, where the oil was kept in a tank, and fill up a kind of watering can from the tank and bring it back upstairs.