Sheepishly stumbling over words
Speaking and writing Canadian English (thanks for the link, Tara):
This page explains the major differences between Canadian English and its British and American compatriots, follows the debate over colour and color, talks about place names and French, then looks at some unique Canadian vocabulary and ends with a short essay on pronunciation and regional variations.
I've had numerous conversations with various people about the very different words one sometimes find for common objects or things in the UK, Australia and North America. While the article above will show you some differences between words used in Canada and the United States, it seems that a fair number of words are "regionalised" to this continent.
Here are just a few:
| North America | United Kingdom | Australia |
|---|---|---|
| Candy | Sweets | Lollies |
| Sidewalk | Pavement | Footpath |
| Scotch tape | Sellotape | Sticky tape |
| Sharpie (US only?) | Permanent Marker | Texta |
And there are probably many more. I get strange looks when I say "lift" rather than "elevator" (but hey that's three syllables too many), and I can't tell you how difficult it is for me to say "scotch tape". Growing up in a former British colony meant I learned the UK set of words; moving to Australia, I acquired yet another; and now, in North America, I'm starting to get terribly confused. :)
On a completely different note — care for some sheep poetry? This page is really a year old, but it's just too cute not to revisit even if you've seen it already. It is based on this BBC article:
Each of the animals has a word from a poem written on their backs and as they wander about the words take a new poetic form each time they come to rest.
Well, at least "sheep" seem to be "sheep" everywhere.
Posted by sniffles at December 12, 2003 04:57 PM