| For the record, I am a silly Canadian, and I have a silly dialect |
Let me enlighten you about some of the various terminology or slang I’ve used that has awarded me my fair share of awkward looks and blank stares while visiting the United States.
When I ask for a pop, please don’t look at me like I have asked you for crack. I am really just looking for coke, you know, of the soda variety.
I had no idea my coffee requests were so foreign. When I ask for a large Double Double first thing in the morning, surely you don’t think I’m looking for gobs and gobs of pink bubble gum to chew do you? Two creams and two sugars is what I am trying to communicate.
The term kitty corner is not where stray mangy cats hang out. It means diagonally opposite corners of an intersection, as in, they should build a Tim Horton’s coffee shop kitty corner to this Dunkin’ Donuts so Americans can drink our great coffee too.
Which leads me to Timbits. These scrumptious little round balls of pastry are the left over dough from the hole of a Tim Hortons donut. You can buy 20 of them for a Toonie.
We carry Loonies and Toonies, not because we are loony and crazy, but because we do not have $1.00 or $2.00 bills.
Please don’t look at me like I have just landed from Mars when I pronounce the letter “Z” as “Zed”.
Homo milk does not mean we employ our gay community at the milk factories. That is what we call Whole (homogenized) Milk.
A Molson Muscle is not a compliment. Molson Canadian is a hugely popular beer and a Molson Muscle is the resulting effect of our love of beer. It is a term we use to describe expanding midsection girth due to over indulgent beer consumption, or better yet, a big fat beer belly.
We have abbreviations for many of our words, particularly when it comes to cities and politics. I’m really not trying to brag about my sex life when I talk about the G-spot. That’s just another name for the city of Guelph, Ontario. I have noticed many an eyebrow raised at the prospect of living in O-town, but to the best of my knowledge, the name has nothing to do with how many orgasms people have in our Nations capital, although people from Ottawa may think differently.
Our Conservative party is often referred to as the Tories. If you are conservative, you are a Tory. For the record, our Tories are blue, not as in sad, just not red like American Republicans.
A Grit is a supporter of the Liberal party. Although they may play dirty politics I’m sure they all bathe.
A Blochead is a member of a political party called the Bloc Québécois. Their heads really aren’t square.
In Canada, our provincial leaders (we have Provinces not States) are called Premiers. Again, I can assure you, I am not referring to the Premiere of a movie, however, if a movie premiere came out about the Premier of Ontario, it would be called “Big Fat Liar” and if a movie premiere hit the Alberta box office about their Premier it would called “Even an alcoholic can run for politics in Canada, get caught drinking and driving and still remain in office” (maybe he drinks but doesn’t swallow?) We do not however, make movies about our provincial leaders, we just complain about them.
Our Canadianisms do sound strange I’m sure, but I’m thinking of taking Bush’s own advice from a May 24th speech in Greece, NY and “keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda” and help Americans realize that a double double is truly the right way to ask for a coffee, and enlighten them to the truth behind the truly correct pronunciation of the letter “zed.”
Labels: Soapbox, Thinking Out Loud |
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A very good post. Your local library might have a DVD on Canadian English. It's a doc that appeared on CBC. It's quite interesting.
Thanks Karla: When I come to Canada one day I will understand what they are saying.
Dunkin donuts coffee stinks, go to Starbucks or WAWA, yes Wawa they have the best coffee.
Darnit Karla you added that darn word verification. Oh man it is everywhere now!
i live in iowa and we call soda, coke whatever you want to say "pop" also..maybe it's cuz we're fairly close to Canda so it rubbed off :) i'm familiar with kitty corner, too. the rest must be strictly Canadian :)
Oooh, avoid Starbucks like the plague...their coffee tastes burnt and carmely. Tullys is scrumptious!! Glad you had a great visit to the states! Though I live close to the border over in BC, I have only been to Canada one time, several years ago. Next year I will be going back, and I look forward to it, though the slang may throw me off a bit...
Freya =)
Greetings from the West...
Great Post - must correct something though - the Premier who was arrested for Drunk Driving was BC's Premier. Alberta's Premier was drunk and went to visit a homeless shelter (he didn't drive - was chauffeured) one night - had a rather drunken outburst directed at the homeless clients of the shelter. He yelled that they should get jobs, was swearing, etc. then threw some money on the lobby floor and left. Yes, you guessed it - his popularity soared after this event (and he's since sworn off drinking).
It's amazing how different things can be when travelling to the US - much is the same, but I once stumped a girl at the front desk of our hotel in California by asking for an Elastic Band. Must. Say. Rubber. Band.
That's awesome! Thanks for Canadian 101! I'm from Washington and still say Pop. Maybe we got that from ya'll Northerners!...
As a former resident of Michigan (lower peninsula), I can confirm their use of "pop" for soda and how stupid it sounds.
Kitty corner and catty corner are used here in the states. I use them aproximately biweekly.
I'm a Canadian so I already know all this stuff.
Just popped in to say hi and to wish you a Happy Thanksgiving..
Very interesting. I used pop until we moved down here and got used to soda. I also say kitty or catty corner. The rest were new to me.
Forgot to mention, I noticed that you say washrooms. We say bathroom or restroom.
Do you mean "Caddy corner"? That I know. You really call milk "Homo"? That's too funny! Ha ha! We eat grits down here in the South (well, some Southerners do, not me, though)! The next time I see someone with a beer gut, I'm gonna tell him that Molson Muscle thing.
I meant "catty"....it came from catacorner.
Christi:
Catty Corner is pronounced Kitty Corner. Atleast that is what it says on dictionary.com
Karla I am so mad you have that damn word verification. You were one of the only sites left with out it and I loved coming her to comment. Wont change me coming here...lol just thought Id tell ya.
Hope you are having fun in DC!
We had "pop" growing up (Rochester, NY) but since college I've been careful not to use that term. And I've always said "kitty corner" although I'm very self-conscious about it, since I wasn't sure it if it was widely-known or just another thing like "pop".
funny the differences - i like the term "double double", its cute and its what i drink, too, but i just say "two of each" -boring - a couple similarities from here in ohio- its POP here not "coke" or "soda" .....and we call what you call "kitty corner" "catty corner" .........but close enough.. :)
Karla, thank you for the heads up on terms. I too say 'pop' and 'kitty corner' but then, i'm from ohio originally. :)
Delurking to say that I'm from Massachusetts and do use the phrase "kitty corner" (and we say kitty). Also!! My area just got a few Tim Horton's about 8 months ago. Love the coffe! LOVE the Timbits! And, great site Karla!
Karla, where are you where are you?
Hope you are settling back in from your trip to the states.
Cant wait to hear all about DC!
Thanks for the laugh, Karla!
Michigan uses "pop" quite heavily, and I'm heartened to see many of my Mid-Western neighbors giving "pop" a shout-out. Kitty-corner is used here too, I think b/c "diagonally across" is too prone to breaking a tongue or two.
I knew what a "loonie" was, but never heard "toonie" before. Hopefully it's not a sign of a further weakening exchange rate. I had also heard 'zed' before from a transplanted Canadian. His younger brother doesn't have any of the Canadian dialect.
You left "oot" off the list, as in "ootside". (That means OUTside, people!) Do Canadians refer to the "Windsor Ballet"? It's quite a common expression here in Michigan, altho I must admit I haven't seen it yet.
Former MI resident here, too, and we also say "pop". My husband from TN says "coke" for EVERYTHING. And I say kitty corner, and he says catty corner. I'd never in my life heard of catty corner before him. And yes, the rest is new to me as well!
Canadian vowels are all raised as well. So to Americans when we say about or outside to them it sounds like aboot and ootside. We say sorry as 'soar-ee' and the say 'sa-ree'. Theres sooo many Canadian differences in lexicon I could go on forever. Instead I'll list a few:two-four(as in case of 24 beer), dart (as in cigarette), gitch (underwear), bunny hug (hoody), etc. Do any Americans say giv'r? And do they have ketchup chips and smarties south of the 49th??
Great post! Love it.
If you ordered a double-double in California, people would think you were ordering a hamburger from in-n-out. (two patties and two cheeses) Homo milk would get you a lot of laughs and weird looks though! (So would loonies and toonies.) Everything else is a little strange but I've definitely heard them before.
You'd be fine even in southern california!
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