General Chat

Thought this was going to be another 'to and fro', 'back and forth', 'coming and going' thread - lol

I was getting around to that "to and fro" thing ... ;)


Shelly, "dimlow"?

You're just showing off. ;)


Helen, "We just returned from a holiday in Europe where we met some "strong-sounding" Americans, who said they were Canadian."

I'll break this to you gently.










They were lying. ;)

JoyBA: right, I'm supposed to know what "geordie" is!

Some variety of north of the border, I think ...

Looking around the net for Canadianisms ... eh?

You don't really know what you say that's strange until somebody else looks at you and says: Eh? Or their domestic equivalent.

A few here. I like this bit.

http://americansguide.ca/isms.html

(it also mentions doubloon, which was my favourite name for the new coin, but it didn't win hearts and minds)

loonie
A dollar. The Canadian $1 coin has a loon (the bird) on the back.

(This term, by the way, is used in serious financial news ...)

toonie
The $2 coin. Gold in the middle, with a silver ring around the outside. The Queen is one one side, and a polar bear is on the other. (Several people have written to remind me of the painful little joke that the coin could be called a "moonie" because it's "the Queen with a bear behind." Har har.) When the coins were introduced in the winter of 1995-1996, Canada was overcome by a frenzy to pop out the middles of the coins. This was especially popular on the Prairies, where there's not much to do in the winter. (Would you go outside any more than you had to when it's -40 for days on end?) The most successful method for destroying this new piece of currency seems to be to put it in the freezer for a while and then hit it with a hammer. Throwing it off tall buildings was popular, too. The craze passed pretty quickly, though.

LOOKS ROUND
WONDER IF JANEY'S MUM JOINED GR YET

That wasn't me! There were invisible dit-dits there.

It's from "An American's Guide to Canada: Canadianisms". I actually never heard it myself.

Some of the stuff there I don't recognize -- you think you have "regional". ;)

Shelly -- if I ask you what a dimlow is ... will I look like one? ;)

Another Canadianism -- watching crappy US television! -- it's Big Brother night, so I'm off too. ;)

Tis colloquialism

goodie


someone has confused Janey!



good on ya' Shelly



oh ........... and I'm just crazy mixed up

Never quite know which language I'm using


........ Oldham, Liverpool, Cheshire, Texas, Canada, Australia, Canada ..... in that sequence .................. will do that to you!


:))

Your way is my way as well, Janey.

In these parts we hear a lot of, "So, I turned around and said to her ....... and then she turned round and said ......."
All these people rotating as they speak make me dizzy.

Accents and dialect are to be preserved and valued, as opposed to sloppy use of English which is just annoying. But, as the daughter of an English teacher, I would say that, wouldn't I?

Gwynne

Bad grammar isn't just the domain of the person speaking in a local dialect, I love to watch The Honourable Kirstie Allsopp and Phil Spencer on Location x3 but I wish Kirstie, with her excellent spoken English, would learn when to use 'Phil and I' and when to use 'Phil and me'-JLe

Take it your mum has been emailing jokes to you then Janey??? :))



When we first moved to this part of Lancashire, a party was laid on to welcome us. I smiled happily all the way through the evening and was polite to everyone who spoke to me and laughed merrily at all the jokes. As we walked home, I turned to my husband and said "I haven't understood a word anyone has said to me tonight". Lancashire dialect has a lot to answer for.


Oh yes....Janey....we had just moved here from Liverpool!!!

Not wishing to be rude, but feeling particularly dull ... or is that dimlow ... this morning, I shall say only: g'day g'day. You all probably think that's Australian, but actually it's Ottawa Valley, from a small town where I spent three months as an articling student many years ago and had my English corrupted. They say things that sound like: Thoinks, I'm goin to the boink to get some money. Only it's a bit more like bank rhyming with bike, sorta halfway between.

A lot of Cdn English is Irish, expecially those funny Newfoundlanders.

I think I'm feeling dull from watching an hour of BB last night (this is a particularly horrifically boring season in the US this year, worst of the 12 so far), and then indulging No.1 by using the new old laptop in the living room at home to participate in his hobby of reading discussion boards about BB12, for a half-hour this morning. They were better than the show itself, at least ...


Cynthia - no, that first one was one I've had for years. The second came from No.0 whom I'd sent it to, when he got home from his road trip. His mum has Alzheimer so they speak to him. ;) He sent me a transcript of a recent conversation with her:

Mom: Would you like a piece of toast?
Me: No thanks Mom.

Mom: Would you like a piece of toast?
Me: No thanks Mom.....

Mom: Would you like a piece of toast?
Me: No thanks Mom.

Mom: Here's your toast.