Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

^ Atlantic Canada is a bit of an anglo accent wonderland with various distinct sounds (French-tinged Acadian, the standard Nova Scotia English, the turbocharged Cape Breton accent, urban Newfoundlander and the one that might as well be Gaelic, outport Newfoundlander).

But yeah, west of Quebec it's almost impossible for me to pick out accents. I can identify the Southern Ontario/Niagara Peninsula vaguely American sounding accent you sometimes hear (e.g. "I'm from around Hemmmilton"... "think you"), and if someone has an ethnic sounding accent that helps to place them. But by and large I find it hard to distinguish and I'm skeptical of anyone who claims they can, for example, tell a Saskatoon vs. a Kamloops native by how they sound.

And lots of people in the Maritimes today have the standard Canadian "west of Quebec" accent as well. Especially in the main cities. And their numbers are growing.

[sonysnob]

please delete, wrong thread.

[sonysnob]

...wrong thread, sorry...

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Acajack

And lots of people in the Maritimes today have the standard Canadian "west of Quebec" accent as well. Especially in the main cities. And their numbers are growing.

I have noticed this as well but then again every time I land back at the airport in Halifax I hear the accents immediately.

I also think that most of the standard Canadian accents are found downtown or in the South End, the parts most frequented by visitors and inhabited by people from other parts of Canada. When I went to Dalhousie I had large classes that were 50% Ontario students. Of course you will also find lots of people from Cape Breton and Newfoundland in the city; people move to Halifax from lots of places in Atlantic Canada and consequently it is a kind of regional melting pot. There are lots of words people use/understand in Halifax and St. John's that aren't really part of the lexicon here in BC or aren't used in the same way (I didn't even know people don't use "stunned [****]" or "sook" here, and they definitely don't use CFA.. "goler" is another, apparently more modern, one).

Things may have changed dramatically in the last 8 years or so but I doubt you will meet many people born and raised in Spryfield, Cole Harbour, or Lower Sackville who don't have some kind of identifiable accent (ask them to say "car"). I'd be even more surprised around St. Margaret's Bay or Jeddore, and those are still quasi-suburban.

[MonctonRad]

For those who are interested, "goler" means backwoods hillbilly, and is derived from the surname of a rather unfortunate family living on south mountain in the Annapolis Valley. Haligonians tend to employ the term "goler" quite frequently when referring to their somewhat less cultured country cousins (at least they did back in the 1980's). I'd be surprised if the term is still in frequent usage.

[SignalHillHiker]

People don't use sook in B.C.? That's a really useful word - you can use it for a child, a significant other, a whiner, an affectionate person, whatever.

Playing video games, when team mates say they're stunned, it always makes me giggle.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

People don't use sook in B.C.? That's a really useful word - you can use it for a child, a significant other, a whiner, an affectionate person, whatever.

Playing video games, when team mates say they're stunned, it always makes me giggle.

Related to "suck", I assume? Used as a noun in Ontario in a mildly pejorative way, in my experience. Example - "Don't be such a suck."

"Stunned" would be recognized and used here, although perhaps less commonly and in a slightly different way that down East.

[SignalHillHiker]

It can be the same as "suck", yeah - but, depending on context, it can be positive. It usually is, I suppose. A grandmother's favourite grandchild would be Nan's sook, for example. But it can also be whiny and negative. "Knock off sookin'" if you're feeling down, etc.

Stunned is just a mild form of stupid, a non-thinking stupid. "Are you friggin' stunned?", "She's as stunned as me arse and not half a good-looking.", etc. You wouldn't use it for someone who actually is unintelligent, just people who do stupid things, make bad choices, etc.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It can be the same as "suck", yeah - but, depending on context, it can be positive. It usually is, I suppose. A grandmother's favourite grandchild would be Nan's sook, for example. But it can also be whiny and negative. "Knock off sookin'" if you're feeling down, etc.

Stunned is just a mild form of stupid, a non-thinking stupid. "Are you friggin' stunned?", "She's as stunned as me arse and not half a good-looking.", etc. You wouldn't use it for someone who actually is unintelligent, just people who do stupid things, make bad choices, etc.

In that case, "stunned" is quite similar in meaning. That last example for "sook" makes me wonder if it doesn't stray into the territory of "sulk"? A false cognate somewhere along the line in the past perhaps?

[SignalHillHiker]

Yeah, it can mean sulk too. The only real difference is sook can be positive. Like if you're lying on the couch watching a movie with your significant other, and getting all cuddly, one could easily call the other a sook, affectionately. "Who's my sook?" is like "Who's your daddy?" Sulk then would imply a negative sort of neediness. Sooking is also needy but it's not quite the same, doesn't come from the same place. Sulking is wanting attention directed to you, sooking is wanted to direct attention outward. In that context. If you're actually sulking, it can be called sooking too, and then it means the same thing exactly.

[SignalHillHiker]

It really is fading, but it's still got it in the right places.

https://www.facebook.com/RoyalNewfoundlandConstabulary/videos/483171465219161/

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It really is fading, but it's still got it in the right places.

https://www.facebook.com/RoyalNewfoundlandConstabulary/videos/483171465219161/

Fading indeed. The most notable feature seems to be an "a" in "are" that makes him sound a bit like a pirate! Still very easily identifiable as "Atlantic", obviously.

[SignalHillHiker]

Or maybe not lol.



(In NL English, at denotes action, usually. And to denotes location, always. "that's where it's to" is just a complete phrase with nothing dropped, as opposed to "that's where it is", which is missing a word. Kind of like how most North Americans are fine with "I would have" but some parts of NL and much of the UK and pockets of people everywhere find that missing a word and should be "I would have done.")

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

For those who are interested, "goler" means backwoods hillbilly, and is derived from the surname of a rather unfortunate family living on south mountain in the Annapolis Valley. Haligonians tend to employ the term "goler" quite frequently when referring to their somewhat less cultured country cousins (at least they did back in the 1980's). I'd be surprised if the term is still in frequent usage.

In French Canada, "goaler" is used by francophones with an imperfect command of English instead of ''goalie". Either when speaking English or when speaking French and trying to be cool by using an anglicism for "gardien de but".

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In French Canada, "goaler" is used by francophones with an imperfect command of English instead of ''goalie". Either when speaking English or when speaking French and trying to be cool by using an anglicism for "gardien de but".

In the context someone123 indicated, Goler is a term derived from the surname of an incestuous family from a very backwoods part of the Annapolis Valley.

The usage in "Halifax English" implies a dim-witted rube or bumpkin from someplace off the peninsula (perhaps Spryfield or Hammonds Plains). In essence, a person not worth wasting any time upon, or a person worthy only of derision and contempt.

Goler and "goaler" would not be synonymous at all.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Acajack

In French Canada, "goaler" is used by francophones with an imperfect command of English instead of ''goalie". Either when speaking English or when speaking French and trying to be cool by using an anglicism for "gardien de but".

I believe "goaler" was once occasionally used in English as well, but has died out.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

In the context someone123 indicated, Goler is a term derived from the surname of an incestuous family from a very backwoods part of the Annapolis Valley.

The usage in "Halifax English" implies a dim-witted rube or bumpkin from someplace off the peninsula (perhaps Spryfield or Hammonds Plains). In essence, a person not worth wasting any time upon, or a person worthy only of derision and contempt.

Goler and "goaler" would not be synonymous at all.

Yeah, I never thought that they would be anywhere close to being synonymous.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Andy6

I believe "goaler" was once occasionally used in English as well, but has died out.

In that case, it could be one of those words once used by anglophone Canadians but that has faded away, but that is still used by francophones here.

Kind of like "bloke", which is still used in the UK, but never by anglophones in North America.

In Quebec it's (very) sporadically used - as a slur for anglos in fact. It was very common when I was a kid though.

[kwoldtimer]

Not really a speech pattern, but I was surprised at the supermarket earlier this week when the cashier, who spoke fluent English with a slight accent the origin of which I couldn't identify, did not know what a "dime" was. Or rather, she seemed to know it was a coin from the context, but didn't know which one. Seemed to me like a strange tiny gap in her Engish.

[niccanning]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

For those who are interested, "goler" means backwoods hillbilly, and is derived from the surname of a rather unfortunate family living on south mountain in the Annapolis Valley. Haligonians tend to employ the term "goler" quite frequently when referring to their somewhat less cultured country cousins (at least they did back in the 1980's). I'd be surprised if the term is still in frequent usage.

I read "On South Mountain" a while back and have been using "Goler" ever since (: Good book if anyone is interested.