British, Canadian and American English

Don't we have any Brits on this forum?

Play school, I'm told on good authority, Andrew.

I had to be told, as I never participated in such meself. I did play post office a few times, but never at an officially organized establishment per se, nor at an organised one nivver.

Nursery and also kindergarten. Play school, less common imo.

Recently I read an article entitled "What do you call someone from the United States?" At first I thought it was a rather senseless question. I'm a US citizen, and I call my fellow citizens all manner of things, based on any peculiarities or strange vibrations I detect in them. But that turned out not to be the import of the article.

To quote: "Not American, that really irritates the Canadians. Some (not all serious) suggestions for a specific English word meaning "citizen of the US" have included Americanite; Colonican; Columbard; Columbian; Fredonian; Statesider; Uessian; United Statesian; United Statesman; USen; Vespuccino; Washingtonian. And Merkin -- from the way Americans pronounce "American."

In this sense of the question, my personal pick is "Merkin" although I've never used the term, save a few times when I've tried to imitate LBJ or Ross Perot.

This may land you in hot water, one day.

Although, the juxtaposition of one both cognizant of the term, AND humour challenged enough to hit you, may be statistically rare enough to ensure your safety.

Otherwise it could be a debacle.

It ain't the Canajuns who get pissed about the use of the term 'Mer'can . . . it's our Latin brethren and sisterns to the south. They usually pointedly refer to us as norte americanos.

Canajuns have problems of their own. They have an affective disorder which causes them to insert additional syllables into perfectly acceptable one syllable words. For example, they will pronounce iron, known and grown as "eye-run," "no-when" and "grow-when." We won't even start on how they pronounce the word about.

"Aboot", eh?

One Canadian trait I've noticed when conversing with them is how they'll end most every declarative statement with a lilt, as though it's a question. It's about the only way I can tell for certain I'm listening to a Canadian, rather than to a Murican from one of our northern colonies.

Whether that's a pan-Canadian habit, I don't know. And as to whether their questions end with the same sort of lilt, I don't know that either. I can't recall any of 'em ever posing a question, most likely have assumed I couldn't make a reasonable response if asked.

McTag is one of our Brits.

AAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHHHHHH.

Lots of Australian female people do that. Especially young ones, and those not so having partaken of the glories of the full education system.

The rising inflection, I mean.

It's enough to drive one insane, and that is not necessarily such a long drive some days.

ha! that's funny. I think of up-speaking as a particularly west-coast Murican vocal specialty. You don't get much up-speaking through most of Canada - most central Canajuns sound like they're either from Minnesota or upstate New York. Then you get the Maritimers, who have their own interesting sound.

I used to think of that particular vocal trait -- the rising inflection at the end of a declarative sentence -- as a US Southernism. The places I had heard it in my youth were mostly in Kentucky and Virginia. But in recent years it seems to have become the trademark of any young thing -- especially female -- in the U.S. of A. I rather think it might have something to do with a youthful lack of confidence in one's own conclusions. The person speaking in this outlandish manner isn't quite sure whether her statement is correct, so she phrases it almost as a question.

Dear Mr. Merkin, you look so nice in that hat and scarf.

Perhaps it's been my good fortune to connect with the relatively few Canadians who employ that lilt, or inflection, as Deb put it. I have always found it a bit refreshing, as a matter of fact.

In pursuit of bidness, I seem to speak far more frequently with Canadians than with Californians, etc., so I wasn't aware of its being a westcoast trait.

But, how do the Maritimers speak, ehBeth? Smooth as a silkie from Skule Skerry?

Now that you've pointed it out, Andy, I have noticed young folks adopting that tone, making it rather obvious they're on uncertain ground. Probably comes from being told not to say "you know" all the time.

However, in the case of the Canadians, their "up-speak", or whatever, to me doesn't hint of any lack of confidence in what they are saying, but makes it seem as though they're asking rhetorically, "are we on the same page?" Like a Plum Wodehouse character appending "what" to a statement, you with me?

I'll have to see if I can find some Youtube-y thing of some Newfies having a chat. It's mmmm different.

Uh, that was no Murican, Bethie, that was my wife. Nevertheless, you're very kind to mention it.

Perhaps you've heard that I gave up wearing the white boa, and took to wearing a top hat. Folks going on and on about all the hair around my shoulders and none on me head finally got to me. Such ridicule never bothered Shakespear, but I guess he was more hidebound than yo mismo.

Anyway, as I say, you're most kind. I'll bet even your pooches tell you that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCYaw5tGYAs

It's always a half hour later in Newfoundland (pronounced "newfunlan" by the Canajuns, although if it were all that much fun, you'd think their tourist industry would be in better financial shape). You hear it on the radio and tee-vee all the time: "Seven o'clock Central, Eight in the eastern time zone, and a half hour later in Newfoundland."

So, what i want to know is . . . if you tell a Newfie a joke, do they laugh thirty minutes later?

"aboot" seems to be pretty much confined to Ontarians, as far as I can determine (I used to live across the river from them, so it was common, but no one elsefrom up above seems to do it). Can't tell the prairie provinces from Americans (they're probably sorry to hear that). Newfoundlanders sound kinda mid-Atlantic, something like a cross between an English English dialect, maybe West Country, but not so intense, like they'd been rowing around the ocean for a few years and lost a little bit of the burr.

Murkin is really just what Texans call us. There are a lot of them and they're loud, so maybe that seems general, but it's regional--listen to old LBJ speeches. "Yankee" works for me, but Texans hate it. F*ck 'em.

If Bush is anything to go by, thanks but no thanks.