Talk:Canadian English/Archive 2

message: We already had Lists of words mainly used in British, American, Australian English. Why not Canadian? I just created a most needed List of words mainly used in Canadian English as a spinoff containing "English" canadianisms and French loanwords. Canadian English definitely needs more attention and visibility. --JackLumber 15:32, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian words 

message: * The bit about class associations linked with the use of the word "serviette" sounds rather subjective if not altogether suspect to me. Where is this documented? I would personally contend that while 'napkin' is growing in popularity, it is also seen as an American influence. The use of "Serviette" therefore carries a mildly nationalist tone (which is partly why Vancouver radio and television personality Nardwuar the Human Serviette chose it as a moniker. For the record, I still use 'serviette' (for either cloth or paper, but would be more inclined to use "napkin" for paper) , as it is the word my father (Quebec anglophone) and mother (from Saskatchewan) both used. They are both from middleclass families, and in neither case were they using it to denote a knowledge of French. Totally absurd. Leviathanbus 08:30, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree. It has absolutely nothing to do with being snobbish or showing of French knowledge. I also use serviette for paper and cloth, however I also know people who say 'napkin'. I think some people avoid saying it, to avoid being tagged as an american, just as pronouncing 'z', 'zee', as oppposed to 'zed' is often avoided. --Stephen 19:39, 29 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Serviette 

message: I thought I should mention "Runners" sees pretty frequent use in Australia. Maybe it should be removed? --Carbon Copy Man 04:10, 24 February 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The article does seem focused on Canadian English vs Other Englishes - mostly American (which its probly closest to) and British.  My suspicion is that this article needs to address parts of Canadian English that are nonstandard vs overall English, even if they show up in Australian English, or one of the other smaller dialects (such as Jamaican English).  Am I crazy to think this?  I have no idea - but it certainly isn't clear to me that the article need only deal with features of the language unique to Canada.  For the moment, let's just note that it's also found in Australian English in the entry on runners - until the bigger question can be addressed.  WilyD 21:37, 6 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Runners 

message: While spelling does not appear to be formally standardized, "toonie" is the far more common spelling, and is the spelling used by the CBC, the Royal Bank of Canada, various departments of the Federal Gov't, and even the Royal Canadian Mint. Also: do a Google search: "toonie" gets you 129,000 hits, "twonie" gets you 529 and the question "Did you mean toonie?" SigPig 17:39, 15 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Spelling of "toonie"

message: I wish the article could mention this, but I'm wondering if it is too anecdotal.  First of all, the pronunciation of the dipthong "ou," as in "about," is frequently pronounced more like "abowt" (as in "ow, I stubbed my toe."). "O" (as in pronouncing the letter "o") is also common in such words as "holy," "goal," "load," "know," etc. There is definitely a British-style precision to the vocalisation. I've occasionally been asked (usually by Americans) if I'm English. Other friends of my generation born on the southern Island have had similar experiences.  Fishhead64 03:14, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I totally agree, but yes it's too anecdotal for Wiki rules.  Just a month ago I was talking with a writer friend from Mayne Island and he commented on the same thing; the old British flavour of the BC dialects, especially in the Islands.  Also the use of Britishisms like "bloody" and "the rub is..." occurs, I'll wager (using another one), a lot more freely and commonly in BC than in Central Canada.  But Canadian academia has not deigned to acknowledge of study such things, and so therefore can pretend that they don't exist as no one can provide a cite for them.  Ignore something and it will go away, especially if you inundate the place with broadcasters from Toronto and the Maritimes.  The other side of this is that it's considered shameful/un-Canadian that BC had such a strong British flavour, and that it was possible to buy the Guardian and the Times more easily in Van and Vic thirty years ago than it was to find the Globe.  So the attitude will just be, about your accent thing, "that's just a hangover from the British presence but it's not really Canadian".  The same argument has been used re the Prairie twang and that particular cowboy drawl found in parts of the Interior.  Academia is more interested in native languages, and in pretending that Canada has a single anglophone culture, all of it modelled on life/culture (so-called) from Toronto.  I know this is a rant but it's a frustrating one; this kind of material such as your observations about Island English I think we should just put our own webpage about (we can do it on my own domain at www.cayoosh.net; or a blog I started and haven't used yet at blogspot.com, Splendor Occasu; and I'm sure my friend from Mayne would contribute and another friend is a dialect coach for the movies, originally from Saskatchewan, and she's of a mind to one day travel around the Great Flat Place collecting accent materials.  Wish I could have taped some of the Auld Guard I knew in Victoria, and some of the old pioneers from the Fraser Canyon-Bridge River; i.e. before they passed on....Skookum1 16:52, 16 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Vancouver Island (or Southwestern BC) variation

message: I archived the discussion through Feb.  I've never done this before, so I hope I did it correctly and appropriately.  I archived through Feb, but there are scattered comments from March embedded in older discussions. Fishhead64 16:43, 8 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Archived 

message: I spotted a couple of things that look like mistakes to me, but not being Canadian, I didn't like to change them.
*"Several political terms are uniquely Canadian, including riding" - see [[Electoriding" - see riding for proof that ridings were/are also used outside Canada.
*"An exception is missile, where the American and British versions are almost equal" - should that be "Canadian and British"? American and British pronunciations are certainly quite different.
--Stemonitis 06:58, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I think you're right on both scores.  HistoryBA 13:01, 9 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: No, you're wrong. As for "riding", you seem to have overlooked the fact that this means riding in the sense of an electoral district. As for the second part, you misunderstood the sentence. It means that both pronunciations are heard in Canada. I shall reinstate the deletions. Kelisi 15:52, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If you intended to indicate that both pronounciations are used equally in Canada, then edit it to that, don't simply try to revert to your previous edit, because as you are obviously aware, that edit was unclear in the first place, as it implies that the American and British pronounciations are the same. I do agree that I hear "missill" and "missaisle" pronounciations more or less equally, and have myself even used both of them, depending on the setting and who I am speaking with, so I don't believe it is a stretch to say that both are used in Canada. So say that if you wish, but do not say that "The American and British pronounciations are equal" because to the vast majority of people, that would heavily imply something completely different from what you mean. Uniqueuponhim 22:36, 10 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Errors? 

message: See Canadian English#Other variations: can someone render premiere in IPA for comparison?  Is the difference merely the stress on the last syllable?  Thanks.  —Michael Z. 2006-05-15 05:30 Z
It's not a matter of première but of premier being pronounced in a variety of ways. The word's premier use (that one is uncommon) is as the leader of a provincial or state government in Canada or Australia (but not Pakistan or India where the corresponding officer is a chief minister, as formerly in Canadian territories and still in Australian territories, since Pakistan and India are not federations). The leader of a provincial government in Canada is a PREEM-yer [rhotic terminal r]; the leader of a state government in Australia is a PREMM-yya (often with an extremely emphatic consonant Y and broad A in the second syllable). The term was formerly used as an occasional variant for prime minister in Britain and there the current Australian pronunciation was also used. The Canadian pronunciation appears to be rather unusual. As for première, as with many words recently and directly borrowed from French, anglophone Canadians s more thoroughgoing attempt than British, American and, certainly, Australian English-speakers to reproduce French pronuncation: première is prem-YAIR (albeit with terminal rhotic r); in Australia a thoroughly assimilated pra-MEE-yya would be usual. Masalai 17:26, 29 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Premiere in the rest of the world 

message: That subsection is a tad confused. 
* There has been kind of an edit war about this one: When absolutely necessary, Canadians go to "hospital"; Americans go to "the hospital". What does "when absolutely necessary" exactly mean? Well, if it's absolutely necessary you don't bother adding the definite article... Can we possibly check out authoritative references? The hospital article suggests that both usages are found in Canada.
* Canadian students also do not receive grades in school, but "marks." I don't buy it. OK, just because Canadian students receive marks doesn't mean that grade---a pretty much universal term---is unknown. site:ca "grade point average gets 170,000+ Google hits.
* As well (In addition in US English),... This phrasing is not just unencyclopedic, it's laughable. --JackLumber 12:15, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The point of the first two examples is that these usages exist in Canadian but do not exist in American. The third is, for instance, from CBC Radio: "As well we were able through better real estate management to finance moves...", in American English, "as well" would never be used but "in addition" would. I will say the usage sounds odd (to an AmE speaker) but I can't confirm that it is truly a distinctive usage. Rmhermen 14:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, "as well" as a clause-initial adverbial sounds really strange to American ears. We should try to find out whether this usage is confined to Canada or not and, if it is, we should emphasize the fact.--JackLumber 20:45, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

text: It has been noted several times above that this page would benefit from some major reorganization. Those two sections for instance: "Briticisms" seems to presume that Canadian is a version of American English with a few British terms retained while the "difference between Canadian and American lexicons" section seems to presume Canadian is a dialect and American is another dialect. Rmhermen 14:59, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, not only the two sections mostly overlap in scope, but the very word "Briticism" is out of place in this context. Furthermore, a Can/Br/Am comparison would help figure out differences and similarities between the *3* dialects, as in the 2 cases above (hospital & grade), and not just Can vs. Am or Can vs. Br. --JackLumber 20:38, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Variations between Canadian and American lexicons 

message: I don't know about the rest of you experts, but I am a simple man simply curious to learn the difference between various forms of english. From many portions of the article, I see that we pronounce words differently than or British and American counterparts. Well duh. But anyways, what my complaint is about is the use of Phonetic Transcriptions to display the alternate pronunciations. For example: You state that in Canada that writer and rider are pronounced [ɹʌjɾəɹ] and [ɹajɾəɹ]. Now I don't know what your opinion is, but I feel these articles should be readable and very clearly understandable by any average person. I have no idea what the pronunciation of [ɹʌjɾəɹ] is. I can assume from another example posted in the article describing the different pronunciations of anti, semi etc. that the two different forms are "Antee" and "Ant-eye". Well, for us ignorant folk lets change it to some form like this, so we can all understand.
Thank you.--207.210.17.225 22:19, 16 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: You're right in a sense. Even in this very article there's a sharp divide between the section on Pronunciation (which is mostly technical gobbledygook) and that on Vocabulary (which is not even encyclopedic in many respects, see my post at the bottom of this page). The meat & potatoes is that the first element of the diphthong in "writer" sounds somewhat like the vowel of hum, while in "rider" the i is homophonous with eye. --JackLumber 12:20, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

text: The difficulty with phonetic transcriptions is that how one pronounces a given word depends on one's accent.  The phonetic alphabet injects greater precision into the enterprise.  If you check out the IPA chart for English, that should help. Fishhead64 14:49, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This is a good reason for including sound files. Rmhermen 15:00, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Phonetic Transcriptions 

message: The article states: "Among Montréal-native anglophones, there is a distinction between /æ/ and /a/, unique in Canada, so that Mary and merry are not homophones." Isn't this actually referring to marry (æ) and merry (ε) not being homophones? I inherited this distinction from having an anglo-MTL parent, which my BC classmates would joke about, but the name Mary was indistinguishable from merry for me, and I assume for Montrealers too? J21 20:40, 19 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Montreal "-arr-" 

message: As far as I can tell, everyone in Canada (at least outside the Maritimes, and I'm pretty sure of it there too) merges cot and caught to the rounded [ɒ] position of "cot" ("caught" being the one that merged), regardless of whether they have this 'Shift' or not (this is the first I've ever heard of this shift - it must be in Southwestern Ontario because it is not present in Ottawa or in Calgary). I have never ever heard any Canadian pronounce either cot or caught as un-rounded [ɑ] (this would be approximately the sound of the British broad A - I suppose we could spell it "caat" (in Britain, "caught" is still pronounced as /kɔ:t/)). Not only that, from what I can tell, most people in the western US pronounce both words exactly as we do in Canada (as opposed to the eastern US where both words take on a number of pronunciations). Frankly, if there are Canadians pronouncing cot and caught as "caat" (un-rounded [ɑ]) they are probably the ones WITH the shift, not the ones without. This section needs some serious cleaning up because it is factually incorrect. --D P J 22:09, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian shift and cot-caught merger 

message: Nope.  Why?  Because Hansard follows its own style-guide, how things are to be put (and what's not to be put); same as CBC has a certain way things are preferred to be pronounced (the famous "shedyule"), the newspapers have their guides; the institution of Parliament is no different.  It's futile to search for a "standard Canadian English", given the wide variation left today even after decades of intentional homogenization; there never was a "standard Canadian English".  There's been efforts to create/enforce/mythologize one, but there never has been one.  Hansard may be a standard for official English, perhaps - certainly legislation is - but it's not a standard for the national tongue, the Volksprache.  There is no common vernacular; no more than there is the mythic Canadian identity, which our lit-media establishment are always looking for (while stifling it whenever possible).Skookum1 04:25, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Comment on taking Hansard for a standard

message: "Canadians say that they sleep in, not sleep late." Looks like half the sentence is missing. "Sleep in" is General American; I've never heard "sleep late" before.  Jon 21:10, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Sleep in vs Sleep late

message: the newer system has "10th grade" is now in "Senior 2" where as a student in "9th grade" would be in "Senior 1" and so on,even though "Senior 1" is still considered Junior high
Whose newer system is this? Education is provincial jurisdiction (and moreover localized by schoolboard), so whatever this is, it certainly isn't Canada-wide. Where I grew up, there was no junior high and Grade 8 was high school, for instance. J21 15:05, 12 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Education 

message: Who exactly claimed that school exam supervisors in Canada are always called invigilators and not proctors? I'm more than willing to accept that invigilator may be the preferred term in some areas, but at the university I attended (which was most certainly in Canada) they were called proctors. Bearcat 05:43, 21 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Definitely proctors at the 2 schools I attended (University of Ottawa, University of Toronto) -- Samir   धर्म 18:55, 22 June 2006 (UTC)

text: I've never heard invigilator used before.  Proctor was what I always heard at University of Waterloo, particularly as a grad student when we would talk of proctoring exams - never invigilating.  Where is invigilate used rather than proxy? Nfitz 22:29, 25 June 2006 (UTC)

text: To be fair, I'm beginning to think there may also be a difference at some schools between what the institution calls them in official usage, and what the students call them in everyday conversation. Considering, for example, that in this conversation alone we've had conflicting claims for usage at the U of T, I wonder if at some universities they're called invigilators by the university but proctors by the student body. Bearcat 21:39, 6 July 2006 (UTC)

text: You'll want to add the University of New Brunswick. - BalthCat 06:13, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: For the record, I go to McMaster University and we use invigilator... i have never heard of "proctor" until I read this article. Tauntobr 07:32, 15 December 2006 (UTC)

text:  I've never heard "proctor" before either, they used invigilate/or at my high school P.A.C.I Thunder Bay, On; Lakehead University; and University of Calgary.   As an aside, what would constitute good citations?  I have various University Calendars on hand from when I was applying, and they do make mention of Invigilator: i.e. "Invigilators of any tests may, when they have reason to believe there is cause to do so, challenge any candidate to produce proof of identity either in the form of the University I.D. card or some acceptable equivalent (i.e., one bearing a photograph) such as a Provincial Driver's License, Canadian Citizenship Card, Passport, etc." -- University Of Calgary 2006/2007 Calendar.  Should we just start listing all the calendars that use one, and then those that use the other?  Ice-Wolf 07:47, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've never heard the word, "invigilator" before. However, I've actually been a proctor at a canadian university (Brock), and will be so again in a few weeks. But proctoring and supervising are the only terms they ever use here. (As a side note, americans really don't say "writing exams"? That seems so hard to believe!) Bladestorm 13:51, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Exam supervisors

message: :Prairie housewives formerly used the somewhat disparaging adjective "boughten" in reference to bread purchased commercially rather than home-baked.
Found that kind of interesting; and I've heard that word.  Never picked up on it being disparaging, other than purchased bread isn't better than homemade.  My impression is that it's an adaptation of Dutch, Mennonite or Scandinavian scansion rendered into what turns out to be folksy old-country English; it's equally a Scots word, though; or something from the Isles.  But I've never considered it disparaging....thoughts?Skookum1 05:42, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: And it's definitely found in the States too. JackLumber. 20:48, 30 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: My grandmother was from northern Indiana and was a Mennonite (though my great-grandmother, her mother-in-law, was from Wellesley Township, Ontario) and she used "boughten" or "store-boughten" (when she spoke English and not her German dialect) to refer to any kind of vegetable purchased at a supermarket (she grew almost all her own food) and it was almost always disparaging - "oh, that boughten stuff just isn't any good".--MarshallStack 02:26, 5 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Boughten and bread

message: The second sentence of the article currently reads: "It [Canadian English] is spoken as a first or second language by over 25 million—or 75 percent of—Canadians (2001 census)." Problem is, the census merely asks about the individual's knowledge of "English", not Canadian English per se. A significant number of those 25 million learned English outside of Canada. For example, immigrants from the United States or other English-speaking countries, as well as immigrants from non-English-speaking countries who learned English before arriving in Canada (since the Canadian variety of English is rarely taught internationally as a second language). Another problem with that sentence of the article is it says Canadian English is spoken by 25 million, whereas the census data tabulates not the ability to speak the language, but merely "knowledge" of the language (which might be comprehension only, not expression). --Speak Canadian 20:24, 22 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I edited the sentence in question to make it consistent with the census data. However, I wonder if we should delete that sentence entirely, because it is still a bit misleading given its prominent location at the start of the article. --Mathew5000 11:19, 25 July 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I say the whole thing should be deleted altogether since Canada is increasingly a country made up of people who were raised in other countries, speak passable English learned from outside of Canada, and don't understand the nuances of Canadian English.  For example, I know Canadians originating from mainland China who spell their English words in the American style.  Then there are those Canadians originating from Hong Kong who spell in the British style.  Neither immigrant groups understand that Canadian spelling is itself a unique spelling system that fuses American and British spelling.  Further, many bookstores in Canada sell Websters' Dictionary (both the real thing and the imitations), the Oxford Dictionary and the few Canadian English dictionaries published by Canadian publishers.  To make any claim regarding the exact number of Canadians well-versed in Canadian English is therefore ridiculous.  --Alf74 16:27, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  How many people speak Canadian English? Certainly less than 25 million 

message: In my experience, gas mileage is almost always measured in miles per Imperial gallon (vs L/100km) in conversation.  I have rephrased the Metrification-related section to reflect this.  If other Canadians (Ontarians, perhaps) disagree with this observations, or if other users believe that this constitutes too much original research, feel free to revert. --OsmosisChesterfieldFoodstuff 06:09, 10 August 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Out west (Vancouver), my experience is that I haven't discussed "miles per gallon" for many, many years, instead using "litres per 100km". --Ckatzchatspy 07:03, 16 August 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Gas mileage 

message: This was always a clunky phrase and a jarring way to begin a paragraph. If that graf even has to be there, which is dubious, the whole thing should be rewritten so it flows better. I'm not doing it myself immediately because my preference would be just to nuke it. – joeclark 14:15, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  ‘A business history explanation for some Canadian spelling rules is possible’ 

message: I've never lived outside of Ontario in my life, and I've heard "whack of..." as a pretty regular figure of speech. Admittedly not as much in Toronto as in say, Sudbury, but I still hear it here. Can anybody provide significant evidence that it's a Westernism and not just a general Canadianism? Bearcat 22:11, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: In the back of my memories somewhere there's a European-language origin for this, from Scandinavian I think, maybe from a derivate of vaxa/vaksen, "to grow", "to become full"; so even if it's current in Eastern Canada now I suspect it may have derived from Anglo-Scandic slang on the Prairies.Skookum1 21:23, 1 November 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: "Whack of" is hardly a Westernism

message: Boughten, ICK!!!!
What lousy English...
And to think that I used that, myself, once...
Michael 23:13, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know if I really go for the assumption that non-standard/dialectical English inherently equals lousy English, but maybe that's just me. Bearcat 18:50, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  No, it's not just you!!!  Boughten ain't no lousy English any!  Michael is definitely indefensible.  JackLumber.  14:39, 6 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Boughten, ICK!!!! 

message: Just a thought that flew over my head. (Reffering to the books, school students use to write their notes in)  Sum1else 22:07, 23 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Copy book or Excersise book?

message: Below is a list of Canadian style guides. In situations in which there is a difference between US & British spelling, none recommend -ise, several recommend -ize, some that do not specifically recommend -ize, use -ize (as in capitalize, authorize, organize) --JimWae 20:55, 30 September 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian spelling -ise -ize 

message: Someone placed a notice indicating that this section regarding Canadian legal terminology is getting off topic.  I agree to the extent that there was a bit of digression towards explaining the various roles of Canadian lawyers.  I have taken the liberty of shortening this section, making it more "to the point" and avoiding digression where possible.
I like to say that I AM A CANADIAN LAWYER and not some freelance writer or journalist who happened to be interested in law.  It seems like Wikipedia material regarding Canadian law and legal terminology are written by both jurists and laymen.
I personally dislike the words attorney and counsellor, and I, as a Canadian lawyer, have almost never seen these words used by lawyers and judges in Canada to refer to a Canadian lawyer.  However, I have seen many times the word attorney being used to mean any person who has been granted power of attorney, which in my humble opinion is the best way to use the word "attorney", another word for "agent".
Meanwhile, the word solicitor is encountered by lawyers themselves almost everyday to mean any type of Canadian lawyer, whether he/she practices strictly as an office lawyer specializing in non-litigation matters or as a courtroom lawyer with numerous ligitation files to handle.  Of course, the general public tend to understand the word "solicitor" to mean some annoying person who knocks door-to-door trying to sell a product or promote a cause.  I have encountered clients who think that lawyers in Canada are called "attorneys" because such clients tend to watch too much American TV and think that Canada is the same as the United States on legal and political matters.
I hope that any Wikipedian who makes serious changes to this section is NOT some average Canadian who learns his/her Canadian law by watching American legal drama shows on television.  I wish more ordinary Canadians would take the effort to learn law by visiting their local court house and observing court hearings which are normally open to the public.  You just have to stand up and tell the presiding judge that you are simply "observing" if the judge notices your presence and happens to ask who you are.
Alf74 16:07, 25 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Law 

message: Since this article recently underwent a major cleanup, let's please start to cite new additions from verifiable sources, so it doesn't devolve to a mess of hearsay again. —Michael Z. 2006-11-10 19:19 Z
:This is very tempting. I almost want to audit the page all the way to November 1 and remove any unsourced changes. Avt tor 20:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, recent edits bug me enough to start putting down the fact tag. Avt tor 20:06, 26 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Please cite new additions 

message: I live in Nova Scotia, and here, no one that I know refers to a place where you buy food as a "supermarket", as seems to be commonly found in the US.  It is always refered to as a "grocery store".  Is this just a Maritimes thing, or is this used across the country as well?  Perhaps this should be mentioned in the article?  Green451 15:50, 17 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Add whatever you like, as long as you have a quotable reference for it. (Maybe you just don't have the giant Loblaws out in Nova Scotia? :) ) Avt tor 00:19, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: We have them here in Ottawa. And I still call them grocery stores. (But I am from NS, sooo...) - Eron Talk 00:32, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: As a matter of fact, we do have Loblaws here, only they're called Atlantic Superstore...but seriously, it was just something I thought of, and it might not necessarily merit a mention in the article.  Whatever you think... Green451 00:44, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I googled "grocery store" and checked a couple of dictionaries; I don't see anything to indicate that it is an exclusively Canadian usage. - Eron Talk 00:53, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nah, a common U.S. usage too.  JackLumber.  19:42, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

text: Heh, I believe my point earlier is that the distinction is perhaps one of scale rather than geography. The term "supermarket" refers to the subset of "grocery stores" which are really big. If you don't live near a community with a really big grocery store, there may not be anything that fits the term "supermarket". Avt tor 20:41, 20 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: If your definition of "supermarket" is about 60,000 square feet with a clothes and general merchandise department as well, we have lots of them here, that's for sure.  The whole reason I thought about this was because every time I hear someone (usually in an American movie) say "supermarket", I think to myself, "how strange", similar to what I think every time someone says "ro-of" instead of "roo-f". Green451 18:31, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Grocery store" 

message: "The spelling defensive is universal, as is true for offence and offensive."
I don't know how to edit this to fix it, but something's clearly wrong. US English is "offense" so the spelling of "offence" is NOT universal. But it could be universal throughout Canada. So how is the word "universal" intended in connection with "defensive"? Somebody please help or I'll delete the sentence. Cbdorsett 10:08, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Online sources I can find (my cursory search came up with things that aren't really authoritative) suggest that the British spelling "defence" is acceptable and the American spelling "defense" is a permissible alternative in Canada. A Saskatchewan (government) education site on this topic says, "If you make a mistake in this area, it will not be in choosing the wrong form but in mixing the right forms. You need to be consistent. For example, do not use colour and color in the same piece of writing." My opinion would be that suggesting that "defence" and "offence" were preferred spellings in Canada would be correct, but that saying that "defense" and "offense" were completely incorrect would be somewhat POV. Avt tor 16:27, 29 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spelling of "offence" 

message: I added "(Canadian slang)" at the end of "Words used mainly in Canadian English" to help people locate the correct section of the article when they are being redirected from Canadian slang article. --Mike Sorensen 19:14, 28 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Words used mainly in Canadian English - (Canadian Slang)

message: Canadian Shift: It is the defining feature of all of Canada except the Atlantic Provinces.
Isn't the above quote taken from the article a bit too strong?  I live in Western Canada and I've never heard this so-called "Canadian Shift" in any Canadian's speech.  Maybe it could be said that some Canadians display this shift in their speech, but to call it "the defining feature" is going too far, in my opinion.
--FinnHawk 23:16, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Canadian Shift 

message: The word "chesterfield" is certainly not obsolete. It is used to describe a couch or sofa that has arms which are the same height as the back and is made of leather with deeply set buttons. This term is in common usage.
:Exactly.  Dictionaries indeed agree that chesterfield has two meanings 1) the one you mention, listed without comment, and 2) "any couch or sofa,"  which is typically labeled "Canadian."  (OALD, Webster's New World, even wiktionary). Interestingly, Webster's Third (1961) doesn't regard sense 2) as "Canadian," but as "West & Brit."  —JackLumber /tɔk/ 16:37, 17 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  The use of the word Chesterfield in "British" English 

message: I'm a Canadian, and I've never heard anyone say most of these "Canadian" words.  It would be odd if someone read the article and thought people commonly talk like that.  The fact is, Canadians liten to American music and watch American television, visit American web pages and play American computer games.  The way we talk is pretty much the same.
:The key is, regional differences.  Canadian vocabulary may vary from province to province---even from person to person.  So it's perfectly normal that you are not familiar with most of those words.  Hey, what do you mean by "Bad influence"?  —JackLumber /tɔk/ 13:23, 23 April 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I disagree!  Coronation Street, on the CBC, has a terrifically loyal following, and has had it for years, and it comes from the UK.  We watch British TV and listen to British music as well.  BalthCat 21:12, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bad influence