Re: CHAT: Blandness (was: Uusisuom's influences)

Robert Hailman scripsit:

> "Canadian English" again. It's all nonsense, I say. There is no one
> "Canadian" English, as much as there isn't one "American" English, or as
> much as every person in Britain doesn't speak RP. I speak English very
> differently from someone out East, or someone in the praries. So the
> phrase "Canadian English" really does offend my sensibilities. Just a
> pet peeve of mine.
Sorry, no intention to offend.  ("There are two kinds of Yanks,
those who don't know anything about Canada, and those who don't care.")

There isn't just one American English, but in contrast with any
non-North-American dialect there are plenty of common factors --
in lexis, in phonology, even in grammar.  Canadian dialects
differ in even more subtle ways: there is nothing as different
as the Northern/Midlands/Southern divide, e.g.

> I have [O] in "pot", "lot", and "father", [...]
Hmm, very surprising.  I have never heard anything in "father" but [A] and [a].

--
John Cowan                                   cowan@ccil.org
One art/there is/no less/no more/All things/to do/with sparks/galore
        --Douglas Hofstadter

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