Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Hollywoodaction]

You say you 'Visit with someone', we say 'Visit someone'. You say 'knit cap', we say 'tuque'. Face it, Canadians and Americans speak and write differently because Canadian and American culture and history are different. As I've said many times before in other threads, people in New York speak differently than people in LA, and I'm not only talking about accent but also of their lexicon. So, criticising Canadians for speaking and writing differently than you is just plain ignorant.

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Adventurer]

You could carry this train of thought further and say Canada and America should be one country. Yet, your argument ignores the fact that there are many ways to speak the English language. The Irish and the English speak English in very different ways, but they spell the same way, and so do the Australians and New Zealanders. There may not appear to be major differences between New Zealanders and Australians, but if you ask ANZACs they would disagree whole-heartedly.

As someone stated, the words you mentioned are pronounced the same way whether you are in England, Canada, or the U.S.A. Daniel Webster chose to eliminate the spelling of colour with the letter u. It had to do with American nationalism? Do you want Canada waving or perhaps either the Union Jack or the stars and stripes? You could argue that the U.S. could be open to the spelling used in Canada. Why should Canada follow the U.S.'s lead in that area.

Anyway, Canadians have less of a regional variation when it comes to English than say the U.S. Last but not least, Canada was known as British North America. Canada never had a revolution, never felt the need for a violent break or to change its spelling to differentiate itself from England.

[heeheehee]

Canadians are taught in school to spell certain ways, Americans are taught certain ways. These differences in spelling are nothing more than examples of conditioning and habit.

This talk about spelling nationalism is plain nonsense.

[SweetBear]

Just learn how to spell ridiculous boys and girls and I won't care how you spell color/colour.

[Hollywoodaction]

[laogaiguk]

[Hollywoodaction]

[Adventurer]

[Moldy Rutabaga]

A good read for a more technical explanation of how English came to NA is Nicolas Ostler's Empires of the Word. I haven't finished it yet, but it also has chapters on everything from how Sumerian to Spanish to Chinese spread. A general tendency for North American English is to preserve the sounds brought with them from Europe longer than the Old world does. In some respects, a New England speaker is closer to Shakespeare's tones than a 21st-century Londoner is, and outport Newfie dialect still uses 'ye' and other archaisms.

The Canadian rebellion of 1837 was a serious matter but involved relatively tiny numbers of people compared to the American revolution, which was a sustained rebellion with large armies. The Louis Riel rebellions of 1870 and 1885, coming after confederation, had more to do with anger between Manitoba Metis and greedy Ontarian land speculators-- it was a little more like civil war between prairie and eastern Canada than a Canada-England feud, and to this day many prairie Canadians cherish Riel as the first person to stand up to Ottawa.

Canadian independence in 1867 came with no bullets fired; with little fur left and no idea that this tree-covered icebox had any future value, England saw little reason to oppose what turned out to be a loyal member of the commonwealth anyway.

To me the differences between Canadian and American speech are largely geographical anyway; we say touque because Floridans don't need them, and we don't need words for alligators. It would be more useful to speak of dialect or vocab areas on the continent. Newfies have many different fishing-related words; Californians have surfing slang. Western Canadians generally don't say 'eh' or 'aboot'; that's a central thing.

Ken:>

[Adventurer]

[kermo]

Americans spell things differently because of the Spelling Reform movement. Canada tends to use "British" spelling because the reform movement didn't really take off there.

I think it makes sense for Canadians to use British spelling, because there have been no formal decisions to change from the original, but I understand that pervasive influence from America (books, magazines, web content) has had a strong influence.

Moldy Rutabaga (Ken), I usually agree with you, but this notion of the North American pronounciation as preserved antiquity has been largely debunked from what I've read. Adventurer, Aussies use British spelling, and some similar jargon, but their dialect sometimes sounds like it's from another planet.

I feel that any question of Canadian vs. American vocabulary isn't that relevant. That falls under the category of difference in dialect, as Ken pointed out.

[cbclark4]

Isn't there a Canadian Heritage Dictionary?

cbc

[Cliff for King]

I haf an eyedeer. Whai don't we all just axept that my speling is rite and move on. I don't mind yoo all copying my wurk.

[Hollywoodaction]

Don't be so fast to dismiss the Canadian Rebellions and the Metis Rebellions. For one, the Confederation wouldn't have occured if it wasn't for the resulting political climate. Metis and Native Canadians would also disagree with any labelling of the Metis Rebellions as anything but a major events. Oh, but I don't blame you for that. Remember high-school history? When you look back, you see that Canadian educational system is purposely avoiding indepth analysis of historical events, probably to promote its federalist policies. They want us to believe that all Canadians were 100% behind British rule and Confederation...except for those pesky Quebecers, which couldn't be further from the truth.