Divided by a Common Language

[Boreas]

My grandfather was English and always expressed frustration about how Canadians spoke. We'd say "Ave" instead of Avenue. I grew up in London, Ontario, where there are many names that are the same as in the big London "across the pond" People would say Westminister instead of Westminster. Berks -eye-r instead of Berskhur (spelled Berkshire). Worschester sauce did not get all the syllables pronounced - it was a variation of Wooster.

I have been amazed at the difference between Canadian language and American since we are neighbours. I was in Detroit area once, two hours away from London, and someone on the phone was referring to Jan all the time....she meant John. The thing you put on your head in Detroit is a ha-at, the water is hat.....and we really do say oot and aboot in comparison. Another trip found me in Bangor, Maine. I was misplaced and was trying to find a particular road. No one knew where "highway" 2 was....and I couldn't figure out why there was a problem.....they knew it as route 2......

We are sort of between British English and American English. Never ever tell a woman in Canada you will "knock her up" in the morning......it has an entirely different meaning in Britain! (or did)

[David77]

Boeras could also tell you that Canada is somewhat divided in language between the English and French languages.
There has been a number of persons in Montreal who want their own seperate French nation seperated from Canada.

I have been in many parts of Canada. In Montreal Canada we tried to speak to people in one typical neighborhoods, but they do not know what we were saying. One neighbor would ask another neighbor whether they knew what we were say, but no luck.

My wife wanted to send home an item she had bought in a nice shop in the underground shopping mall. When we gave her the address, she said that she had never heard of Illinois. Another sales clerk then pronounce Illinois with the French pronunciation (which was maybe something like "Ill-i-wa", possibly. However she did know English well, but I did not know French.

In the USA more and more items and instructions are also listed in the Spanish language in addition to English. Some predict that the Spanish language will be used in the USA more and more, as time goes on.

[Petrus]

How is this the fault of the USA, or how are we responsible? It is not allowed on TV or radio, the exception being cable. Even PBS, which used to allow it now censors explitives on shows imported from England. One local station has Hustle on and most of the cursing is muted out of the show.

Whilst the “f word” has been in use in England since medieval times, its usage was very limited and probably a lot of people had never heard it. However with the domination in our cinemas and TV of American films, where the word appears to be freely used, it suddenly entered into daily language and it is used by anybdy from Dukes to dustmen!
Unfortunately, American words and pronunciation are beginning to creep in and I shout at the TV screen, when somebody on the BBC cannot pronounce “schedule” correctly! Most, if not all, computers programmes are written using American English and whilst Word has a UK English version the tool bar will, for example, have a button to change “Font color”. I feel that it is important to treasure our language, as it is part of our heritage, culture and identity. I can readily understand why the French try and prevent English (American?) words entering into their language. The World would be a much poorer place if everybody spoke a version of English and text language.

[David77]

"from Dukes to dustmen!

My best guess is that a "dustman" is something like what we call a "janitor".

[David77]

Quoting Petrus,

"from Dukes to dustmen!

My best guess is that a "dustman" is someone like whom we call a "janitor".

[Stu2630]

David,

No, a "dustman" is what you would call a "garbage collector" (the guys in the garbage truck). What you call a "janitor" would be what a BrE speaker would call a "caretaker".

Stu

[Petrus]

David,

No, a "dustman" is what you would call a "garbage collector" (the guys in the garbage truck). What you call a "janitor" would be what a BrE speaker would call a "caretaker".
Stu

“Dukes to dustmen” used to be an expression indicating that something applied to everybody in society- it is probably not quite alliteration, but it flows nicely! Nowadays dustmen are more often referred to as refuse collectors (there is probably a PC word ending in “operative!) and the local council will refer to refuse collections.

[jon71]

I was reading a webcomic the other day (British) and "geezer" was used apparently to mean a guy. In America it would be old person.

[Boreas]

Boeras could also tell you that Canada is somewhat divided in language between the English and French languages.
There has been a number of persons in Montreal who want their own seperate French nation seperated from Canada.

I have been in many parts of Canada. In Montreal Canada we tried to speak to people in one typical neighborhoods, but they do not know what we were saying. One neighbor would ask another neighbor whether they knew what we were say, but no luck.

My wife wanted to send home an item she had bought in a nice shop in the underground shopping mall. When we gave her the address, she said that she had never heard of Illinois. Another sales clerk then pronounce Illinois with the French pronunciation (which was maybe something like "Ill-i-wa", possibly. However she did know English well, but I did not know French.

In the USA more and more items and instructions are also listed in the Spanish language in addition to English. Some predict that the Spanish language will be used in the USA more and more, as time goes on.

This is true. We do accept bilingual packaging, and such in Canada because that is how it should be. I think things have settled down somewhat, and it is certainly different in different regions of the country. For instance, if an anglophone ended up in francophone New Brunswick, there would likely either be someone who could speak English, or they would try to understand. I see no reason why we shouldn't have both French and English packaging, and even interpretation here. Both nations founded the country. In addition to this, we are seeing more First Nations' languages around. It really is not very hard to accomodate more than one language in a civilized society. If an area has a high Korean presence, why not have Korean language around? Seeing bilingual English/Spanish when I was in California made absolute sense.

But those are more than one language. not one language divided....

[NudePete]

An American can be quite surprised if a Brit says "What would you think if I knocked you up this evening?" It means to wake someone, perhaps even by knocking on the door of their flat.
Be careful with that phrase!