A Typology of Canadianisms

https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/how-to-use

by gnabgib • 1 year ago

255 333 1 year ago

dchp.arts.ubc.ca

A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/

sophacles• 1 year ago

This is neat. It gave me a headache because my brain really wanted DCHP to be DHCP and it was confusing me... but the actual content is great.

Is there a similar dictionary for US midwesternisms, or Texisms, or really any region?

badc0ffee• 1 year ago

Seems very thorough.

I don't see "transport" or "transport truck" though. I think It's an Ontario expression and it sounds kind of weird to me as an Albertan.

MegaDeKay3• 1 year ago

Never here that term used but I'm out west as well. We're all semi's, all the time.

"two-four" is there and can confirm that is more an eastern term as well. Never heard the term until I spent a year out in Ontario many years ago. Still hasn't really made its way to the west in all that time.

bethekidyouwant• 1 year ago

Yeah it’s a flat

dismalaf3• 1 year ago

"Two-four" hasn't made its way out west because we call it a case of beer, and we already have "two-six", which is a 26oz bottle of liquor.

jdougan7• 1 year ago

It made some inroads in to BC in the 80s, mostly thanks to Bob and Doug McKenzie, but never really stuck.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

two-four has been established MB parlance for at least 50 years. But then MB isn't really Western Canada. Its central.

jt21902• 1 year ago

This classification seems extremely arbitrary. What purpose, exactly, does this classification serve? What insights about “Canadian as she is spoke” do we learn by using this?

allenu2• 1 year ago

There must be so many tiny little differences like this. I remember when I lived in Toronto for a bit that the way they phrased whether you wanted a fast food order to eat at the restaurant or to take home was a little different from in Alberta. I know in Alberta, they would ask "to stay, or to go?" when ordering, but in Toronto I think it was "for here or to go?" which is how I've heard it phrased in the U.S. as well.

Totally minor difference, but it did feel jarring when I heard it differently from the first time as someone who grew up in Alberta.

Rendello3• 1 year ago

I'm from Northern Ontario and me and my buddy went to a poutine place in Toronto. He asked for a poutine (naturally), and the worker didn't understand him. Southern Ontario says "poo-teen" /pu.tin/, but we say "p'tin" /pə.tɪn/ where I'm from. The original French way is [pu.t͡sɪn].

bawolff• 1 year ago

Americans dont use the term "pencil crayons"???

What do you call them?

cka• 1 year ago

Colored pencils

pards2• 1 year ago

pencils of color :)

joshdavham5• 1 year ago

That also blew my mind.

NikolaNovak• 1 year ago

One of the frequent debates with my wife lol... "But they are not crayons" does not help my case at all :-)

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Well... they're generally wax or oil based like a crayon. Just wrapped in wood like a pencil rather than in paper. Like some sort of... pencil... crayon. >_>

umanwizard8• 1 year ago

Crayons are the fat sticks of wax (e.g. Crayola brand). Colored pencils are, well, colored pencils.

There are also various different ways to pronounce “crayon”; is that also true in Canada? For example I pronounce it with one syllable: “cran”, just like the beginning of “cranberry”. I get the feeling that’s not the majority pronunciation but it’s not exactly rare either (at least where I grew up).

pasc1878• 1 year ago

Same in UK for what they are ie sticks of wax (They can be thin for cheap ones that break)

In UK it is two syllables.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

Nope, coloured pencils are coloured wax encased in wood. Canadians emphasize that they are crayons in pencil shape; Americans emphasize that they are pencil-form but coloured.

emptybits2• 1 year ago

In a feeble attempt to rationalize the Canadianism "pencil crayon"...

Pencils have cores based on graphite or charcoal.

Pencil crayons have cores based on wax or oil, with pigments added. This is basically the composition of crayons or pastels. Then it's wrapped in wood like a pencil. Thus ... "pencil crayon".

pcthrowaway2• 1 year ago

Wait, coloured pencils aren't actually pencils?

I've never heard Pencil Crayon, in British Columbia, but then again I did live in the U.S. for all of my school years.

sheepscreek• 1 year ago

Washroom vs. bathroom: I’ve always found it strange to call a room a “bathroom” if it doesn’t have a shower or tub. On the other hand, most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands. Although these facilities serve similar purposes, the former is used for public spaces, while the latter is found inside homes.

trashchomper• 1 year ago

As an Australian I always find it funny going places and having to remember which dance-around word everyone uses for "toilet". Washroom, restroom, bathroom, there's so many!

ajdude• 1 year ago

Don't forget water closet!

kurtis_reed• 1 year ago

Toilet is the object, not the room it's in

pards2• 1 year ago

other notables include the loo, the can, the john, and of course the dunny

gerdesj2• 1 year ago

Toilet, bog or lav in the UK are some options.

The easy to remember terms and will work nearly anywhere without giving offence are: "loo" in a residential property or "gents/ladies" for a non-residential property.

bcoates• 1 year ago

'Toilet' itself is a euphemism, an archaic term for dressing/washing room and/or the act of washing up

koakuma-chan• 1 year ago

I use washroom and bathroom interchangeably.

Forricide3• 1 year ago

This one (among others) does really fascinate me. Maybe it’s due to spending a lot of time around diverse groups of people but I’ve never really seen a huge distinction between these words. Washroom, bathroom, toilet, I and everyone I know pretty much would use interchangeably? Or at least wouldn’t blink at someone else using them.

Restroom, and a variety of others, might be slightly more usage specific but still… wouldn’t be unexpected or weird, I’d say?

SecretDreams3• 1 year ago

Animal shithouse

zahlman6• 1 year ago

most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands.

I think only people of a very specific upbringing ever call it that here. Certainly nobody in my circles would.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

yeah can't say I know of anyone with a powder room

werdnapk5• 1 year ago

Restroom has always puzzled me. Seems like it should be an alternate name for a bedroom instead.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

its been said that Canada is still mentally stuck in the Victorian age somewhat

bee_rider6• 1 year ago

I’m very upset to hear that

While brown bread may have contained some molasses in the early 1900s, post-WWII it was usually made without. So Canadian brown bread is, unlike Boston-style bread, not sweet (see the 1909 quotation) and also distinct from Irish brown bread, though the latter may have inspired it.

Brown bread is sweet, and you are supposed to cut it up into little hockey pucks and toast it. It is the perfect shape when it comes out of the can.

throaway54544• 1 year ago

Can? Where in Canada is this canned brown bread at?

wobblyasp2• 1 year ago

We call it spoon bread in the east. True spoon bread is baked in an old tin can. Not sweet.

bee_rider6• 1 year ago

It isn’t, apparently, that’s what I’m upset about. Canada and New England are supposed go way back, longer than the countries. But apparently we didn’t share our bread technology advances.

rapind2• 1 year ago

I've had it. You're really not missing out. I always assumed it was a depression era thing (canned bread!).

bregma5• 1 year ago

Check the foreign foods section of your local supermarket. Probably right beside those chocolate sprinkles intended for making sandwiches.

SECProto4• 1 year ago

That's a weird (or perhaps regional) definition. Brown bread I've had is always molasses sweetened. Source: ontario and provinces east.

The boston canned brown bread i always assumed was a touristy thing, not something regularly consumed.

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Lived in BC, SK, and ON. I'm far enough east that I regularly hit up both Ottawa and Montreal.

In my experience "brown bread" is a synonym for whole wheat bread. If you go order a sandwich and they ask what bread you want it on and you say "brown", you're getting whole wheat (or maybe 60% whole wheat... just not white).

I'd be very confused if I ever got this molasses-sweetened bread everyone is talking about.

bee_rider6• 1 year ago

My family were definitely not tourists, but come to think of it I don’t recall seeing the canned stuff in my friends’ houses. So maybe we were just locals who fell for a prank that was being played on the tourists, or something.

drdec• 1 year ago

Massachusetts native, we regularly are brown bread from a can as a kid. Not a touristy thing.

neurobashing• 1 year ago

Sad to not see "dart" in there, I assumed from Letterkenny that it was a regular Canadianism. Perhaps it's too new?

wobblyasp2• 1 year ago

Darts an old one. At least since my parents age.

jdougan7• 1 year ago

Apparently originated in Australia, though it is definitely an established usage in Canada. I seem to recall hearing that usage in Vancouver in the 90s.

https://gikken.co/mate-translate/blog/from-darts-to-cigarett...

throaway54544• 1 year ago

Popularized by Trailer Park Boys in the 2000s, if not well before

xutopia• 1 year ago

As a Nova Scotian I can tell you it was present before 2000s... at least 90s.

rapind2• 1 year ago

We called em darts when I was in highschool back in the 90s.

floren• 1 year ago

I don't remember darts as much on TPB... the phrase "Corey, Trevor, two smokes, let's go" stands out.

olalonde3• 1 year ago

Another Trailer Park Boys classic: "That's the way she goes"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65w7ha4DZKo

joshdavham5• 1 year ago

"Dart" is absolutely still used. "Eh bud. Can I bum a dart from ya?"

ChoGGi3• 1 year ago

Throw me a dart, yeah?

mikrl3• 1 year ago

In southern Ontario a dart is also called a bogey

throaway54544• 1 year ago

Chesterfield, serviette?

werdnapk5• 1 year ago

Those are British words which Canada uses a lot of.

joshdavham5• 1 year ago

I wish they would've explained the term "soaker" a bit better as it's such a Canadian thing.

Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.

chongli3• 1 year ago

Wow! I remember getting soakers as a kid! I had no idea it was a Canadianism!

throwaway2902• 1 year ago

When and why/how did you stop getting soakers? Asking for a friend

SecretDreams3• 1 year ago

In Southern Ontario, it feels like it's soakers all winter long!

zahlman6• 1 year ago

I can relate to the experience, but never even thought of having a word for it...

cik2• 1 year ago

Yup, they'll forever be booters to me to. Go Bison?

joshdavham5• 1 year ago

And go Jets!

throaway95523• 1 year ago

got a booter eh bud?

votick• 1 year ago

first time i’ve found a fellow manitoban on HN greetings !

throaway54544• 1 year ago

We are here, were everywhere!

joshdavham5• 1 year ago

Probably one of my favorite commonly-used Canadian slang is "to chirp someone". It's a term that's frequently used in hockey circles, but more generally means to make fun of someone in a banter-y kind of way.

dismalaf3• 1 year ago

Nah if you say someone chirped you say, on the street or in a pub, it's fighting words...

slumberlust2• 1 year ago

I've always took it as the opposite. Chriping is just noise with no real threat (most chirping birds are not a threat to humans). It's just someone being friendly with their banter usually in a making fun of you type context.

mikepurvis• 1 year ago

Having courtside seats at a basketball game means getting to listen to the players chirp each other.

RandallBrown• 1 year ago

It might be more popular in Canada but I think "chirping" is pretty common in the US.

red-iron-pine4• 1 year ago

yeah heard it a bunch in the context of talking shit in sports

canucker2016• 1 year ago

For chirping, I'll bring up Shoresy, spin off of Letterkenny TV show, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoresy

The film Slapshot with hockey banter/ribbing (at a Gilmore Girls-type pace).

ghostpepper• 1 year ago

I think of chirping as specifically mean-spirited bullying, especially in an attempt to provoke a reaction. Source: grew up in BC.

maxglute2• 1 year ago

I remember being very amused at a party when hockey, baseball and football players were teaching each other their respective lockerroom slang.

bardak• 1 year ago

The one subtle difference I've noticed between Canadian and American English is on school grades. American say "first grade" where as Canada say "grade one".

gpm• 1 year ago

Toronto here, I think approximately I'd say first-sixth grade, and grade 7-12. Grade one just sounds wrong though.

wk_end3• 1 year ago

Odd, I grew up in Toronto and Grade 1 sounds fine to me.

suddenlybananas• 1 year ago

Well, Toronto is ground zero for Americanization. First grade sounds super American to my ear, I'd never say it over grade one.

scarecrw• 1 year ago

I'll have to go through this with my family; we have a number of terms we use that we're never sure if they're Canadian, non-regional uncommon words, or just things our family say.

My grandpa called toonies "bearbucks", which isn't listed, but is in one of the quotes on the toonie entry. No listing for "reef" as in yanking on something, though I don't know if that's a Canadianism or not.

wredcoll2• 1 year ago

You reef lines (ropes) on a boat.

throw0101a• 1 year ago

You reef sails (by using lines):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefing

MegaDeKay3• 1 year ago

Never heard of bearbucks but can confirm that "reefing" is pulling hard on something.

PieUser• 1 year ago

"upload" and "download" are interesting to me, which, in addition to the standard meaning, refer to the transfer of costs/jurisdiction to a higher and lower level of government respectively (between provincial and federal for instance)

bregma5• 1 year ago

That usage came about during the right-wing political swing of the 1990s, just as the phrase was becoming popular in connection with computers. Generally, costs and responsibilities were downloaded and revenues and control were uploaded.

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.

Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French).

And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".

Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they attribute that to it having been "seeded" by some Hudson's Bay advertisements run at their original 6 locations all in Western Canada.

Some other words/terms that surprised me: renoviction, gong show, kerfuffle, off-sale, stagette

jdougan7• 1 year ago

I (West Coast) pretty much entirely associate "all-dressed" with potato chips.

mikrl3• 1 year ago

Dressed all over, zesty mordant, and gelapenno.

The goalie trinity right there

StrictDabbler• 1 year ago

As a West Coaster, I had to look up nearly every term in this article. As usual, "Canadian" almost entirely means the central/east areas.

madcaptenor4• 1 year ago

I (US) also associate "all-dressed" with potato chips since we started getting them down here.

c-hendricks4• 1 year ago

The Works is usually a the name for the pizza. Chiming in for the east coast, all dressed is chips.

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Yeah, mostly came as a surprise to me because I've spent most of my time in Saskatchewan and Ontario near the Quebec border. I somehow managed to spend my entire life bouncing around Canada and never spend much time anywhere where "all dressed pizza" didn't exist, even though it's apparently a highly-specific term.

tomjakubowski• 1 year ago

The Works is pretty common in the US, too. Pizza and sandwich toppings

rufus_foreman• 1 year ago

It was an Everything pizza at the place I worked at as a kid. They're disgusting.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

in MB, never heard of all-dressed pizza in my life. We have the chips and the works pizza

kps2• 1 year ago

And bagels.

cwillu3• 1 year ago

Having spent a large portion of time answering phones in the pizza business, I can assure you that a great many people in Saskatchewan will order an all-dressed pizza even though we had no such thing on the menu.

embedded_hiker• 1 year ago

There are several parking structures called "parkades" in Salem Oregon.

pjot• 1 year ago

A “fully dressed” poboy in New Orleans is one with all the fixing’s

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Huh, that makes sense given "all dressed" came from French and New Orleans' French history.

I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about that outlier.

marctrem• 1 year ago

In Quebec French we use “toute garnie” to refer to a pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperonis.

chongli3• 1 year ago

Here in Ontario English we call that pizza deluxe!

fracus2• 1 year ago

That is what OP said. "All dressed" is a direct translation from French.

lynguist• 1 year ago

Do you call “tomato sauce” “red sauce”?

BunsanSpace2• 1 year ago

Which is funny because that translates to "fully garnished" not "all dressed". Tabarnac

SecretDreams3• 1 year ago

Old, but good, CBC documentary on this type of thing:

https://youtu.be/eIoTpkM5N64?si=FnGploZrLZ1XRVXO&utm_source=...

asplake• 1 year ago

Kerfuffle is British - quite common here. 19th century Scots apparently!

zahlman6• 1 year ago

Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.

What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:

An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]

I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.

"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).

"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.

I can easily find "kerfuffle" in supposedly American online dictionaries so I think their claim is rather dubious. On the flip side, I've never in my life heard "off-sale"; and in Ontario it's only quite recently (https://www.ontario.ca/document/alcohol-master-framework-agr...; https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003988/ontario-consumers...) that you can even legally purchase beer and wine at a grocery store.

goodcanadian2• 1 year ago

I've never in my life heard "off-sale" . . .

Off-sale has long been used in Alberta. I have a memory of asking my parents what it meant when I was a kid (and I am in my 40s, now).

dghughes3• 1 year ago

Renoviction

That's very common word these days at least here in PEI. Kicking people out to "renovate".

It basically means renovate as in sweep the floor and paint a small patch on the wall, done. All so they can kick out the tenant and up the rent 1,000%.

dackle• 1 year ago

In Vancouver in the 1990s, if you wanted to buy a six-pack of beer at 10pm after the government-run liquor store closed, you would walk into a local pub and ask the bartender if they did "off-sales". If yes, they would sell you a cold six-pack for a very small markup.

Also, in Ontario in the 1990s, one-eighth of an ounce of weed was called a "half-quarter", ha ha.

cik2• 1 year ago

And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".

There's no mystery. This is rubbish research. In parts of Manitoba we also use all-dressed for the same purpose (and of course chips). The unifying factor is French culture. The Riel Rebellion helped bring tremendous franocphones, and French culture out west. There are areas like St. Boniface in Winnipeg where s some people speak only French. The Metis are in both Manitoba and Quebec...

throaway95523• 1 year ago

Manitoba was founded by French speakers (the Metis) and about 2000 Metis were supposed to get most of what is now downtown Winnipeg. Their culture was eventually suppressed by Ontario.

ShroudedNight7• 1 year ago

It's been a long time now, but from what I remember from school, a critical part of the notability of Gabrielle Roy[1] was that she wrote from the perspective of francophones living in the prairies.

I appreciate the DHCP-3 is not a monolithic work, but to have both authorship and editorial oversight of a corpus that presents itself as a rigorous treatise of Canadianisms demonstrate either broad ignorance of, or reckless disregard for a significant portion of our heritage is just baffling to me. What's the point if one is not going to be ruthlessly thorough?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabrielle_Roy

geophile• 1 year ago

"Can confirm".

In the mid 70s, I would order a small pizza, all dressed from McGill Pizza, when feeling peckish. $1.10, delivered to your door in no time at all.

cwillu3• 1 year ago

There's a significant (though not exactly large) french-speaking population in Saskatchewan.

I live a couple blocks from a large french-only school.

jdougan7• 1 year ago

I'm pleased to see some of the Chinook jargon is there.

switchbak5• 1 year ago

Skookum as frig!

Actually they should just watch a few AvE videos, he’s a goldmine for old Canadian lingo.

jdougan7• 1 year ago

I still use "saltchuck" when I'm distracted. Confuses the heck out of Californians.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

Skoden

wk_end3• 1 year ago

Even though I lived in the US for a decade, it still surprises me to learn that certain words are Canadianisms. I wonder how often people had no idea what I was talking aboot and just didn't speak up.

Cthulhu_• 1 year ago

I strongly suspect most language / communication is clear from inference and context, and the exact words used aren't super important unless they are really out there or a different language entirely. It's the same with learning a foreign language (english in my case), you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.

darkwater• 1 year ago

you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.

Yes. Unless you are like me, you think you are good at inferring from context, never lookup a word in the dictionary and think for a few years it means something while it actually means the opposite.

allenu2• 1 year ago

I always loved the term "keener" growing up and was disappointed that it wasn't a term of use down here in the States. It's essentially the same thing as a "brown-noser" but a little less graphic.

jdougan7• 1 year ago

A little less derogatory, in my estimation.

bregma5• 1 year ago

A keener is an ardent enthusiast. A brown-noser (aka a browner) is a sycophant. Not the same thing at all.

Also, a brown-noser should not be confused with a blue-noser.

ShroudedNight7• 1 year ago

The distinction between an ardent enthusiast and a sycophant was lost on many I encountered using the term.

morkalork3• 1 year ago

A keener is also a bit of a try-hard.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

Keener is more benign than brown-noser, but Canadians will use it with a subtle hint of irony or sarcasm to indicate politely that the "keener' is indeed a brown-noser or amusing try hard.

CoastalCoder• 1 year ago

As American who's recently discovered Corner Gas, I just learned that nearly every resident of Saskatchewan is named "Jackass".

no_ja• 1 year ago

Discussions of healthcare facilities always get me in Canada. Grew up in the states, but born in Canada, when you have to use the emergency room it’s said that “they went to Hospital” as opposed to “they went to ‘the’ hospital”. No one up here ever seems to see the oddity of always referring to multiple different hospitals as the singular Hospital.

jt21902• 1 year ago

“They went to hospital” is a Britishism and definitely not something you’ll hear all the time in Canada.

samplatt• 1 year ago

Confirming britishism - both are in use here in Australia.

umanwizard8• 1 year ago

In America you do something similar with school. I went to school (not “the school”).

jdougan7• 1 year ago

Also varies by region in the US for referring to highways. In Southern California it is usually "the I-5" while on the other coast you will hear a plain "I-95".

BJones12• 1 year ago

I usually hear "they went to emerg(e?)"

fracus2• 1 year ago

I've never heard a fellow Canadian say "to hospital" over "to the hospital", in person, or on TV.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

went to hospital is a British thing and ive never heard it in Canada

michaelmior• 1 year ago

As a Canadian who married an American and now lived in the US, I was surprised how many things I say are Canadianisms without me having realized. There have been a lot of (minor) miscommunications because I didn't realize I was saying something only Canadians understand. Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.

Forricide3• 1 year ago

I always assumed we just called it hydro in BC because so much of the power comes from hydroelectric, but then I moved and it seems we call it hydro everywhere no master source..?

standeven• 1 year ago

I think it’s primarily BC and Ontario. And maybe a French version in Quebec.

dledesma• 1 year ago

I've had to explain to an Albertan friend that hydro meant power, they mostly use coal out there from what I understand.

retrac• 1 year ago

Hydroelectric was historically even more dominant in Canada than today. In places that aren't majority hydro now, they were in the past, like in Ontario and Alberta.

The name of the utility companies in most provinces was probably an influence. Until 1999 in Ontario it was the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, shortened normally to Ontario Hydro. Manitoba Hydro. Hydro Quebec. I think in Toronto they still stamp manhole covers with THES (Toronto Hydro-Electric System).

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

do people look at you puzzled when you say "keener"?

kashunstva2• 1 year ago

Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.

When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.

nsavage2• 1 year ago

I travel to the UK a lot and am usually pretty careful with my Canadianisms, but during my last trip I accidentally asked a server for both a pop and a serviette at the same time, leading to a blank stare.

astura2• 1 year ago

Pop isn't a Canadianisms, is common in a lot of the US too.

https://www.businessinsider.com/soda-pop-coke-map-2018-10

mykowebhn3• 1 year ago

I initially worked in Canada where it wouldn't be uncommon to go out for a work lunch and order a beer.

When I got a new job in the US, my boss took me and several coworkers to a restaurant for lunch as a way to welcome me. When the waitress asked what I wanted to drink I asked for a beer. I then heard one of my coworkers who was sitting next to me ask me incredulously, "What are you doing?" I responded that I was ordering a beer. He said that I could get fired for that. That's when I realized that for a country that seemed so similar to Canada on the surface it was quite different below that surface.

astura2• 1 year ago

It's common to order a beer at work lunch in the US too.

Though I have worked at places if the company was paying for the lunch they won't pay for alcohol. In those cases we've always asked for the beers to be on a separate check so the expense report is easier.

slumberlust2• 1 year ago

Many companies and cultures in the US are fine with a drink or two at lunch. What industry was this company in?

red-iron-pine4• 1 year ago

had plenty of drinking lunches w/ US companies. the current (Canadian) company I'm at is quite strict about drinking -- would likely be fireable.

the Aussies would have been disappointed if I only had one...

dghughes3• 1 year ago

The term Hydro for electrical power (power lines) is not used in PEI the older generation would call it the "light bill" younger people now may call it the "power bill". If it was out we'd just say the power is out.

BunsanSpace2• 1 year ago

Hydro is just for QC, ON and BC where the electrical companies have "hydro" in their name.

Other parts of the country just call it power/electrical. But in NS my grand parents would also call it a "light bill".

throaway95523• 1 year ago

Hydro is from Canadian provinces that use mostly hydro power

regus• 1 year ago

I have a sure fire method for detecting Canadians out in the wild. Pay close attention to how they pronounce the word “resources”. If you hear the letter Z in there then they are probably Canadian.

umanwizard8• 1 year ago

Also if they refer to a washroom instead of a bathroom or restroom.

MegaDeKay3• 1 year ago

Your method wouldn't detect me. But you'd get me when I pronounced "Z" as "Zed".

mynameisvlad2• 1 year ago

Sadly my last name starts with a Z so after a decade of living in the US, I lost the "zed".

tricolon• 1 year ago

Mine's listening for proe-ject instead of prah-ject.

__turbobrew__• 1 year ago

Do you call program “prah-gram”? Do you call pro shops at the golf course “prah shops”? I will die on the proe-ject hill.

Rendello3• 1 year ago

A good test would be "ice eyes garage sorry resources".

For me it would be something like /ʌɪs aɪz ɡəˈɹæʒ ˈsɔːɹi ˌɹiˈzɔɹsɪz/.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Canadian_English

red-iron-pine4• 1 year ago

easy way is "figure it out" -- that seems to be common in Alberta to Montreal

strong emphasis on the out as "ooot" -- "figure it ooot, bud"

throaway95523• 1 year ago

car door gets me

madcaptenor4• 1 year ago

Most people who refer to "North Americans" collectively are Canadian. People in the US can forget Canada exists. People in Canada can't forget the US exist and so they need a term that includes both.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

? Americans refer to the continent as "North America."

mjklin2• 1 year ago

The only real giveaway to me that Trailer Park Boys is Canadian is how they pronounce the word “sorry”. Like SOW-ry rather than SOH-ry.

chmwils• 1 year ago

Disappointed there's no ginch/gonch/gotch/gitch: https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/nincf2/gotchies_got.... Closest is gotchies for a wedgie. How can we contribute?

parliament32• 1 year ago

And related, "gooch", as both a noun and a verb.

frankus• 1 year ago

My favo(u)rite Type 1 has got to be “whippersnipper” (string trimmer).

sellmesoap3• 1 year ago

I use that one, also "dishswisher"

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.

zahlman6• 1 year ago

That's the first gloss DeepL gives me for it. I've never before in my life heard "pastèque" and I doubt I'll remember it.

af78• 1 year ago

« Melon d'eau » ? For watermelon? I thought it was a joke, but well, Wikipedia mentions it: « La pastèque [...], parfois appelée melon d'eau » (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past%C3%A8que)

Everyone says « pastèque » in mainland France, where I've lived for over 40 years. I've never seen melon d'eau and I doubt anyone will understand it unless they know the English word.

werdnapk5• 1 year ago

Quebec has it's own dictionary.

talos_9• 1 year ago

Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) promotes the french language and adapt new English words (whereas France typically integrate English words in their vocab).

The website Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) will have a lot of useful resources if you're interested! For instance, how to write a professional sounding email, names of official documents, invoice templates.

Highlights (good and bad):

* emails -> courriels (courrier + iels; mail + similar sounding syllable)*

* spam mail -> pourriels (pourri + iels; rotten + similar lexem as courriels)

* to spoil (as in spoilers) -> divulgâcher (divulguer + gâcher; to reveal + to ruin)

* to mansplain -> mecspliquer (mec + expliquer; man + to explain); This one is outrageous (and uncommon) because it's an homonym to "m'expliquer" (explain to me)

* to browse (the web) -> naviguer (as in "to navigate"; browser -> "navigateur")

dadadad100• 1 year ago

And Quebec has it’s own English. I spent a few years working in Montreal and soon learned about “passing the vacuum” and “closing the light”. There are so many bilingual folks that concepts and word orders flow back and forth. I had an interesting discussion with a bilingual anglophone about how in English elsewhere it’s called a “pacifier” and not a “souce”

throaway95523• 1 year ago

how about une boîte aux lettres?

throwawaymaths4• 1 year ago

given the englishisms in quebecois i was amused to see arrêt signs, because I'm pretty sure they say stop in france.

mikrl3• 1 year ago

Meanwhile I went hiking up on Georgian bay and saw a bilingual sign for a local landmark

“Overhanging point

Point Overhanging”

nucleardog7• 1 year ago

Also good luck planning any meals.

Dejeuner is breakfast in Quebec (lunch in France).

Diner is lunch in Quebec (evening meal in France).

talos_9• 1 year ago

déjeuner is a literal translation though. "Breaking fast" -> "dé-jeuner" (undo fasting).

French people typically say: - breakfast - petit-déjeuner (small breakfast) - lunch - déjeuner (breakfast) - diner - diner

Québecois people say: - breakfast - déjeuner - lunch - diner - diner - souper (eating soup; probably historical roots like "getting your big meal of the day" which is likely broth + potatoes)

SteveVeilStream• 1 year ago

Love to see Skookum in there.

superconduct123• 1 year ago

Is that in all of canada or just west coast

beloch• 1 year ago

It's mostly West coast. Origin is Pacific West Coast pidgin (Chinook). Some people in Yukon and the prairies use it, but it becomes rarer the further you are from B.C.. It has become more widely used in recent years though.

0xEF2• 1 year ago

Same. As an American living on the Canadian border most of my life, I learned most of my Candaianisms from factory coworkers and AvE's youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/arduinoversusevil/videos

fsckboy3• 1 year ago

title? this is a full Dictionary of Canadianisms, words included according to a six facet typology. i.e. the typology is not the main story.

Type 1 – Origin: a form and its meaning were created in what is now Canada

Type 2 – Preservation: a form or meaning that was once widespread in many Englishes, but is now preserved in Canadian English in the North American context or beyond; sometimes called “retention”

Type 3 – Semantic Change: forms that have undergone semantic change in Canadian English

Type 4 – Culturally Significant: forms or meanings that have been enshrined in the Canadian psyche and are widely seen as part of Canadian identity

Type 5 – Frequency: forms or meanings that are Canadian by virtue of frequency

Type 6 – Memorial: forms or meanings now widely considered to be pejorative

Non-Canadian: forms or meanings once thought to be Canadian for which evidence is lacking

physix• 1 year ago

Take off, eh!

It's missing.

kashunstva2• 1 year ago

Significant pronunciation differences are related, but not covered in this list.

For example, in Ontario (perhaps elsewhere in Canada) the word asphalt is pronounced like “ash fault” (ˈæʃfɑlt) as opposed to U.S. pronunciation like “ass fault.” (ˈæsfɔlt)

Also “pasta” is often ˈpæstə as opposed to ˈpɑstə in American English.

bregma5• 1 year ago

It's the same people mispronouncing "asphalt" with a "sh" that also use "nucular" energy to watch filums about athuletes in the artic. Some of them have even visited Warshington in the USA.

I don't think any of that is particularly Canadian though.

talos_9• 1 year ago

Well, why not include the word "Canadian", which significantly predates the country, as the prime example?

It's derived from Iroquois Nation words and used by French settlers to refer to Indigenous people. The word "Canada" was used by explorer Jacques Cartier to refer to the city now called "Québec". It broadly refered to the territory of a specific Indigenous tribe. (could be derogatory, but seemingly accurate / matter-of-fact)

After the British invasion, the British start using "Canadian" to describe both First Nations and French settlers (derogatory, "non-British)

Over time, "Canadian" generally refers to habitants of Canada.

Related: the hockey team "Les Canadiens" is from Montréal in the province of Québec in Canada. It's the oldest hockey team (1909, pre-NHL). The name is a reappropriation of the word Canadian at a time where it was used derogatively against "French-Canadians" (term that didn't exist at the time). Their chant "go, habs, go" refers to the "habitants", i.e., French settlers.

Related: "province" originates from latin used by Romans to described conquered territory. This is the term founders of Canada in 1867 decided to use instead of "state"

For anyone interested in Canadian history, always check-out the French version of a wikipedia page (and translate it). English pages have a lot of hand-waving and start history with their conquest. Also, ChatGPT makes outrageous historical mistakes all the time, such as suggesting that French-Canadians were a minority group in the 19th century

edit: format, typos

throaway95523• 1 year ago

and it was originally Canadiens, not Canadians :)

keoneflick4• 1 year ago

Be sure to also check out how francophone Quebecois have been very effective at revenge - driving out anglophones and allophones from Quebec through vindictive attacks against their language, culture, schooling and employment. It's sad, but I am ultimately glad I will be the last generation of my family born in Quebec. Au revoir and good riddance.

abeille• 1 year ago

To put things into perspectives, let’s remember that anglophones in Québec, which represent about 10% of the population, have 3 universities, one of which is McGill, and have there theaters and artists, newspapers and tv shows. Many live in Montréal all there life without knowing a word of French, since it is possible to find almost everywhere someone that speaks English. By constrast, it is less and less easy to live only in French in Montréal, since it is not always possible to find someone that speaks French.

talos_9• 1 year ago

The original post was focused on history and language, and I added some political spice. Not discussing the politics of language (as in OP) is a bit outrageous.

You're right that French-Canadians are not guilt-free from discrimination et al. Québec only ever had French as an official language, but the last decades we've seen a series of dubious policies

laurencerowe3• 1 year ago

Related: "province" originates from latin used by Romans to described conquered territory. This is the term founders of Canada in 1867 decided to use instead of "state"

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province this is a false etymology:

In fact, the word province is an ancient term from public law, which means: "office belonging to a magistrate".

"State" is an overloaded term. In British English it usually refers to the top level political entity, e.g. "head of state" unless specifically talking about the US (except for the Secretary of State...)

I wonder if the word choice was influenced by the US civil war ending only a couple of years previously and wanting to make it unambiguous where the centre of power lay.

talos_9• 1 year ago

From the link you shared:

The English word province is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French province, which itself comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of authority of a magistrate, in particular, to a foreign territory.

The fact that British authorities picked a French word that the conquered would understand is significant.

I wonder if the word choice was influenced by the US civil war ending only a couple of years previously

Interesting interpretation! I would agree given Canadians were given the opportunity to ally with the 13 colonies at the time (but didn't). British loyalists also fled the United States. "Province" made allegiance to the crown oversea clear

skeeter2020• 1 year ago

> Their chant "go, habs, go" refers to the "habitants"

The province of Quebec has very strong language laws intended to protect the French language. Heavy-handed? You be the judge. City buses in Montreal were recently "pressured" to stop displaying the chant (one of the most Quebecois things you can say to promote your pride) because it's English. Instead they were told to use the super-common-rolls-off-the-tongue-and-way-better "Allez! Canadiens Allez!"

edit: this was later reviewed because of public pressure about just how stupid it is and now "go" is ok. But the language police still say "go" is an Anglicism and public bodies are obligated to use "exemplary" French, so you can see some of that snooty OG France perseveres - I guess the system works!

kunzhi2• 1 year ago

For anyone interested in Canadian history, always check-out the French version of a wikipedia page

In reading about Canadian history this entire comment strikes me as very "East" biased? (Because I'm reading a strong implication that the French are the true holders of the history and the English just showed up later. Which may very well be true)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_alienation

PotatoPancakes• 1 year ago

I'm reading a strong implication that the French are the true holders of the history

I interpreted this more as "don't forget to check out the French-language Wikipedia articles too, since they might have contents that are absent from the English-language Wikipedia articles." This would likely be the case for anything concerning Québécois or Acadien culture, or the early settlements by the French; but not likely for most things west of Ottawa (aside from some pockets like Grande Prairie, Alberta or Saint Boniface, Manitoba).

It seems everyone outside of Ontario feels some kind of alienation or other. The west, as you mentioned, but also the maritimes, and especially the Québécois.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

It is true from the Quebec to Manitoba (about the French), but not west of that. The East Coast provinces are more complicated with their own histories.

nsavage2• 1 year ago

This is excellent stuff, I am going to be spending a lot of time on this.

My absolute favourite Canadianism is how, on wikipedia, the 401 (major highway that goes through Toronto) is "colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_401).

Ylpertnodi• 1 year ago

"Four-oh-one", is equally very British to me.

ShroudedNight7• 1 year ago

I'm surprised "Four Oh [X]" is specifically a Canadianism. I would have expected it to manifest more broadly, given things like:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/409_(song)

wk_end3• 1 year ago

I don't really think it is...in Washington State for instance the highway through the Seattle suburbs is called "the four-oh-five" (there's a Death Cab For Cutie song about this one).

madcaptenor4• 1 year ago

The Atlanta area code is definitely "four-oh-four" (and also the HTTP error)

sillywalk2• 1 year ago

I'm genuinely curious what else it would be called. I live 5Kms away from it, and that's just "what it's called."

Four zero one? Or Four-Hundred and One?

mykowebhn3• 1 year ago

Growing up in Toronto during the 70s, I remember several expressions I've rarely, if ever, heard elsewhere.

"No guff"--meaning something like "no, really?" in a sarcastic sense

"My foot"--maybe something similar to "my ass!"

And later, when living in Montreal, I remember several expressions that were basically direct translations from the French

"Me, I..."--from the French "Moi, je..."

"In place of"--instead of "instead of"

morkalork3• 1 year ago

"In place of" sounds like a direct translation of "En lieu"

teqsun• 1 year ago

This list somehow doesn't have "converter" (to refer to a television remote), which was the first word to unexpectedly baffle my American coworkers the first time I said it, to my own surprise.

Rendello3• 1 year ago

I'm from Northern Ontario and never heard that one, but I was also surprised by a missing term: "transport". In my neck of the woods, that's how we refer to a semi-truck / 18-wheeler.

werdnapk5• 1 year ago

I've never heard that one... what part of the country is that from?

eigenspace• 1 year ago

Where are you from? I'm from BC and I've never heard that one either.

cluoma• 1 year ago

I grew up in BC as well and never heard it. My parents were from Ontario and always called it the flipper. Because it flips channels I guess. Felt like every household had a different name for it though.

throaway95523• 1 year ago

never heard of that, but always delighted my friends when id ask for the channel changer

tempest_2• 1 year ago

Converter was definitely heard when I was growing up and I would know what you were talking about 100%

Now a days I am probably more likely to say "Clicker" unless otherwise prompted.

mhurron• 1 year ago

I think that's actually going to be more of an age thing as well. The converter wasn't just the remote, but the little box, separate from the TV, needed to convert signals for an older TV.

Basically, the 'cable box' or the 'satalite box.'

But ya, 45 years old, grew up in Toronto and Southern Alberta and it was a converter, until it wasn't.

osigurdson3• 1 year ago

What is it converting?

red-iron-pine4• 1 year ago

No mention of bunnyhugs

dghughes3• 1 year ago

Here in PEI I'm sure every isolated community has thousands of sayings. The island as a whole I'm sure has many. Canada is probably like that small communities with slang none of us have ever heard. The ones that break out regionally still may not make it to other areas even after decades being in use.

walthamstow• 1 year ago

On one of the recent seasons of Alone there was a guy from Labrador who had an solidly Irish accent, no hint of North America, right down to saying 'tree' for '3'. I can only imagine that's who the settlers were and the isolation meant the accent never changed.

ChoGGi3• 1 year ago

Growing up in downtown Toronto in the 90s we always played sue sum see, living in AB I just get confused looks now.

(rock paper scissors)

ShroudedNight7• 1 year ago

How does "Rip" not contain an entry for the driving equivalent of mall rats' loitering?

"Out for a Rip?"

c-hendricks4• 1 year ago

sad they don't have "barmp" here, it's a newfoundland-ism (maybe east coast) that means "honk" of a car horn.

rick mercer: https://x.com/rickmercer/status/1491480449226579969

nova scotia: https://theshuffledemons1.bandcamp.com/track/barmp-your-horn

newfoundland: https://barmp.com/

kimos2• 1 year ago

Incredible. I’ve never heard this. How is Newfoundland even a real place.

c-hendricks4• 1 year ago

also missing "heatbag", another newfoundland-ism. Meaning "being very conspicuous while doing something you shouldn't"

c-hendricks4• 1 year ago

also missing "bunk", again Newfoundland, meaning "bad"

j_not_j3• 1 year ago

"brown toast".

When ordering breakfast, such as eggs and toast. "You want white or brown toast?"

Since most toast is toasted to a brown tone, the question confuses Americans (west-coast, anyways).

It's really the question: white bread toast or whole-wheat bread toast?

throaway95523• 1 year ago

I asked an American family if they wanted brown or white bread, they looked confused and said "we want BREAD"

j_not_j3• 1 year ago

"wet coast"

Slang for BC. It's a joke, because (coastal) BC is mostly wet. And BC is the westernmost province.

nikanj• 1 year ago

I wish there was a random button

maxglute2• 1 year ago

I want to see Ausralian version.

osigurdson3• 1 year ago

I'm surprised that no one commented on the waste of taxpayer dollars that such a compilation must be.

whycome2• 1 year ago

bunny hug (saskatchewan) will always be my favourite.

https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/entries/bunny%20hug

A Typology of Canadianisms

Related Stories