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Caitlin Black

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That there's some mighty fine modly behaviour Xelebes!

Careful, or you might get drafted to fight the war on spammers and trolls! (Why does this remind me of Monty Python?!)
 

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Canadian dialects? That's kinda funny...I'm pretty sure unless you're a newfie or French, 'Canadian dialect' is the same as 'American dialect.' We just don't use as many 'u's in our words.

Well, no, actually, there are approximately several still thriving Canadian dialects of English.

Someone from Ottawa, a native, sounds quite different from someone from Qubec, say, or Labrador, and there are differences in names for some common items, too.
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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Canadian dialects? That's kinda funny...I'm pretty sure unless you're a newfie or French, 'Canadian dialect' is the same as 'American dialect.' We just don't use as many 'u's in our words.

Most Canadians don't think they have accents at all, but they do, and they're very different, depending on where you are. My husband didn't hear his until I pointed it out to him. And his is definitely different from east coasters or Quebecois. He's from Alberta, btw.
 

SaraP

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Portugal is minuscule compared to Canada and we have different accents throughout the country. ;)
 

Makyelin

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Well, no, actually, there are approximately several still thriving Canadian dialects of English.

Someone from Ottawa, a native, sounds quite different from someone from Qubec, say, or Labrador, and there are differences in names for some common items, too.

Oh, I see, I see. guess I never noticed it. I've travelled all over Canada and the U.S., and never spotted any differences, except in Newfoundland (which is why everyone makes fun of Newfies) But, everyone else seems to be posting there are differences, so I suppose maybe I'm just blind. Just for curiosities sake, what are some of the different names for common items?
 

KTC

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Oh, I see, I see. guess I never noticed it. I've travelled all over Canada and the U.S., and never spotted any differences, except in Newfoundland (which is why everyone makes fun of Newfies) But, everyone else seems to be posting there are differences, so I suppose maybe I'm just blind. Just for curiosities sake, what are some of the different names for common items?

Seriously? I can go forty miles and hear a different accent further north. the differences are huge...all over the country.
 

Makyelin

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Seriously? I can go forty miles and hear a different accent further north. the differences are huge...all over the country.
Huh. Crazy. This summer I was in southern Ontario, then Northern Ontario (the real north, not North Bay) and then B.C. I met some kids from Quebec while up in Northern Ont, and they had French accents, but all English people sounded exactly the same. either I'm deaf, or crazy, or everyone else is. I'm just going to go ahead and say it's me.
 

Makyelin

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Huh. Crazy. This summer I was in southern Ontario, then Northern Ontario (the real north, not North Bay) and then B.C. I met some kids from Quebec while up in Northern Ont, and they had French accents, but all English people sounded exactly the same. either I'm deaf, or crazy, or everyone else is. I'm just going to go ahead and say it's me.
Having said that, there are major differences in America. New York, for example, or the southern states like Texas have distinct accents. Canada, though, I guess I'm crazy.
 

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Jeez. They have regional accents in the French spoken in Quebec for goodness sake.

People from Nova Scotia have an accent and Cape Breton is different than Halifax is different than Digby.

Ottawa Valley is different than Hamilton is different than Toronto.

PEI is different than Newfoundland and Mt. Pearl is different than Cornerbrook.

Calgary is different than Vancouver and Burnaby has a different sound too.

I identified a Canadian as being from Burnaby in Zaire once.
 

L M Ashton

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I have a southern Manitoban accent even though I only visited there, not live - it's because that's where both my parents are from and we spent a lot of time there.

Yeah. We have accents. And dialects. Slang varies fairly widely. We're even discussing Canadian, mainly Saskatchewan, slang right now. That's the Canadian thread, btw. :)

Also, while I'm not in Vancouver now, I did live there for five years, so I was a Vancouverite of sorts at one point in time. :)
 
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AW Admin

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There are differences in the Gaelic in Cape Breton and Nova Scotia, too!

What I'd really like to do is see Vancouver in the Spring. Haven't made it there yet, but it's On The List.

Also, are there regional dishes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba?
 

L M Ashton

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Depends on how you define regional dishes. Since Canada is made up of mostly immigrants - First Nations people being the original inhabitants and being in a severe minority - there are regional dishes of sorts that the immigrants brought with them from their home country.

My ancestors came to Canada 1874-1876 and were Mennonites. My Mennonite ancestors started in Belgium, moved to the Netherlands, then Germany, then Prussia, then Russia, and finally on to Canada. They spent around a hundred years in each country and picked up cuisine and whatnot locally. So we have perogies, which we call waraneki. We have farmer sausage *drools* and pluma moose and kuchens and zweibach and, well, definitely our own brand of cuisine. If you were to visit Steinbach, the centre of the Mennonite world in southern Manitoba, you could probably find all of that and a bunch more in the cafes and restaurants there. There's also the Mennonite Heritage Museum in Steinbach which is pretty much what you would expect it to be. It's a cool place that I've been to many times.

Other immigrant communities will, of course, have their own take on local food.

Also, Vancouver in the spring is beautiful. It's green in February when the rest of the country is ugly and brown.
 

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I guess you've got to have an ear for accents to notice the differences. I've lived in NB, NS, SK, AB, and BC. The only place where I really noticed a difference in accent was NB, though I was a young kid and living on a base (families posted there from all over the country) when I lived in NS so my experience there isn't really a fair exposure.

That said, I can tell the difference between an Acadian French accent and a Quebecois accent. To be even more specific with the Quebec French accents, I can hear the difference between a rural and urban Quebec accents. Differences in English accents in Western Canada? No, not so much. There's a big difference between the Vancouver / Lower Mainland areas and the northern Washington areas accents, though!
 
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L M Ashton

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I *don't* have an ear for accents. I'm going by what other people tell me. I think the accents, particularly for the prairie provinces and BC, are really subtle, but some people seem to be able to tell the difference.
 

jennontheisland

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I figured if there was going to be a whole thread about a Canadian city it would be about Toronto.
 

jennontheisland

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Also, are there regional dishes in Saskatchewan and Manitoba?
Don't know about SK, but living in MB for 7 years I noticed that perogies are served with everything (including Christmas dinner) and on the menu at nearly all the restaurants. I even saw them on Chinese take out menus. But they're always boiled. They'd never even consider frying them.

Chicken fingers are not treated as last resort kid food in Winnipeg. There was even a "best place for chicken fingers" thing on CBC radio.

Ridiculously sweet Swedish meatballs. Like that sauce should be on ice cream sweet.

Things similar to the Minnesota "hot dish" were also common, and not something I'd ever seen before.

In terms of regional cuisines elsewhere, one thing I really miss is "ginger beef" from Calgary (sometimes specified as "ginger fried shredded beef"). The dish there is long thin strips of beef in a very light batter, deep fried until crisp then stirfried quickly in a spicy gingery sauce that includes pieces of shredded fresh ginger and carrots. It was reportedly created at the Home Food Inn on Macleod Trail. It should be crisp and chewy, so the batter has to be light, and it should be spicier than it is sweet. And there has to be fresh ginger in the sauce. The batter, spiciness, and ginger are never quite right outside of Calgary.
 

Hip-Hop-a-potamus

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Something I noticed here in Edmonton is that the Indian community has such a huge influence here that you can get Butter Chicken in most western type restaurants. I thought that was pretty cool. I LOVE Butter Chicken!

I'd equate it to being like the Friday Fish Fry in Wisconsin. Doesn't matter what type of restaurant it is-- Italian, Greek, whatever, they gotta have their fish fry.