How to understand a canadian slang?

Canadians are influenced far more by Americans than they want to admit, Canadians have their own words that have no literal translation in any other language.

Note that not all Canadians use all of these terms. This guide is intended to prepare you to know what these terms mean if you hear them; it does not guarantee that these terms will be understood everywhere in Canada.

General terms:

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      Loonie – It is the currency used in Canada. One loonie is the same if we say in Canada one dollar ($1)

                                                                                          

Kerfuffle - a chaotic situation which is usually negative in nature; a loud or heated dispute.

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      Homo Milk - A commoner's slang for homogenized whole milk; 3% milk.

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     Rattled - When someone is embarrassed or angry. A term hardly unique to Canada

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     Sook or sookie - Oftens means a weak, self-pitying person; a person who won't go along, especially out of spite; a crybaby or sore loser. Can also be a term of endearment for pets or children who are extremely affectionate. (Newfie term not used in rest of Canada unless used by Newfies.)

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     Beaver Tail - A pastry, most commonly sold by the chain Beaver Tail Canada Inc., indicating a flat, flaky, fried pastry in the general shape of a beaver's tail. It is often served with a variety of toppings: ice-cream, maple syrup, powdered sugar, and  fruits. Originated in, and pretty much limited to, Ottawa.                                                          

                                                                                       

Canadian Grammar!

Hi! Today  I am going to point out some important aspects about the grammar of Canadian English.

Have you ever seen the construction “ as well” ? It is used a lot in English and it means the same as “ in addition”. But the first one is more used in Canadian English than the last one.

What about the definite article “ the”? It is compulsory in American English. But in Canadian English there are some phrases such as “in hospital” and “at university” which don’t need the use of this article. In American English there is an alternative to “ to university”  which doesn’t use the definite article. It is “ to college”

If you’ve ever read a dialogue or you’ve listened to a conversation  in English you may have noticed about the frequent use of the interjection “eh”. It is used in order to change a statement into a question and to add emphasis.  Its meaning is like “ isn’t it ? and “haven’t you?”. It is associated to Canadian English, but this kind of interjections appear in many languages. For example in Italian, Greek, Japanese and French. In Spanish, there is also an interjection similar to that one, it is “ ¿no?. 

I hope this information has been of your interest.  If you want to know more about Canadian English keep on reading us. 

Thanks! 

Texting&Chatting!!

Good afternoon!!

Well today we will deal with a common theme which nowadays is much used!texting and chatting!certainly in the last years technology has improved enormously and with it ourselves have to go on with time and change!.

If you have ever received a text message or chat message that seemed to be written in a foreign language it's all because of the the popularity and rise of  Facebook, Twitter, instant messaging, e-mail, Internet and mobile phone text messaging (SMS), this is why we can consider texting language a real "new language".

Thanks to some canadian friends which this "Canadian Beaver Blog" has got we have been able to discover some peculiarities which canadian youngsters write to send texts or use in their chats.Even if most of the abbreviations in Canada are similar to the rest of the whole american continent there are a couple that are specifically from canada in this case Toronto.

The abbreviation of the name of the city Toronto is "T.dot" so for example if I would like to say "I'm going back to Toronto for Christamas who is going?" I would write: "going back to T.dot 4 xmas whos ballin?" here there is also the abbreviation of the word Christams as "xmas.Also the word "hey" has got a general use and is inserted in most of the conversations such as "so what r we going to do 2nite hey?" which means "so what are we doing tonight?".Also the famous american bar chain Starbuck has got a "personal" abbreviation for example to say talk to you later i'm going to Starbucks now I would write "ttyl going to *$ now".

This is a list of the most common abbreviations used in texting and chatting:

- BFN -- Bye for now

- KK -- Okay, okay (I understand what you're saying)

- LOL -- Laugh out loud

- OMG -- Oh my God

- TTYL -- Talk to you later (also TTYS -- talk to you soon)

- UOK -- Are you okay?

-SUS -- see you soon

Well we hope you find it interesting,we have!!bfn!!sus!!

Giulia

Phonology and Spelling

Hi! In this post we are going to deal with the most important aspects of Canadian phonology and spelling.

PHONOLOGY

The most important characteristics of the phonology of Canadian English are:

1.Canadian English is rhotic because in its words the syllable-final r is pronounced. For example: car and farm.

2.Flapping can occur if the t or d is between two vowels, and the second vowel isn’t stressed or if there is an r between the first vowel and the alveolar stop. For example: waiting , seated and party.

3.Canadian raising, the onsets of the diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/ raise to mid vowels when they precede the voiceless sounds /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, and /f/. For example: Knife and  knives.

4.Canadians pronounce borrowed words with low vowels with a front [ae] , while Americans tend to use [a].

SPELLING

Canadian English combines British , American and Canadian English. Here you can find some examples about Canadian spelling and if it is similar to British or American English.

a)  defence and  offence: they are written with British spelling.

b) curb and tire : they are written the  same in American and Canadian English but different in British English.(kerb, tyre)

c)   Words such as realize and paralyze are usually spelled with -ize or -yze rather than -ise or -yse.

d) Canadian English and British English double consonants when adding suffixes to words. For example: travelled and counselling.

Virginia