Do you know any of these words?

[bcholmes]

I was watching a CBC program about language in Canada. I was especially suprised by a number of words and phrases that the show claimed were pretty unique to Canadians. Do you know and/or use these words/phrases? [Poll #299538]

(That last one didn't come up in the show, but I have seen it cause confusion).

Comments

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Wisconsin results may contaminate the "non-Canadian" analysis. And I know of the last from legend and surveys like this, and a few old etiquette books, but haven't heard it used "in the wild", so I didn't score it.

[jeliza]

Of course, I did grow up with 3 Canadian half-sisters, and 3 hours from the border, so perhaps I am extra-"tainted" with canadianness.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

is 'yogourt' a spelling issue? because I've never had a problem finding it in any US city, but i spell it yogurt.

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

Yeah, apparently Canada has a unique spelling of yogourt.

[nolly.livejournal.com]

I marked it, thinking it was a typo or something, but I've never seen that spelling before. 'yogurt' or 'yoghurt'. While I've read of butter tarts, and I know what a serviette is, I've never heard either used, and I have them mentally filed under not-Amercan, particularly serviette.

[iamjw.livejournal.com]

Oh - then I ticked that a yes when it should have been a no.

The only one I haven't heard of/used myself, is fishboat - possibly because I've never lived on any of the coasts.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I cheated: I spent 12 years living in US-Canadian border towns.

[vioxel.livejournal.com]

"eavestrough" is one that i've read, but never used or heard in conversation.

[mittelbar.livejournal.com]

Wow, you got a lot of answers for "eavestrough"! I have never, in my life, seen that word.

[nitoda]

I ticked a few as known, but I am in the UK. Serviette is certainly a word used in the UK, as is hanger. What else do you put your clothes on, if not a hanger? Happy as a pig in shit is only a slight variant from happy as a pig in muck, which is probably more likely to be heard over here, but close enough, I felt.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Okay, people who don't use the word eavestrough, why not? Is it that your houses don't have these open channels running along the bottom of the roof to direct the rainwater, or that you call them something else?

As for yogourt, I thought that was the spelling used in Canadian French, so people were using it as a handy bilingual version.

The only one I don't use is fishboat. I grew up with fishing boats (or, in smallkid dialect, fisheen-boats), and around here people have bass boats (I don't know if that's one word or two).

[inefficient.livejournal.com]

Americans call those gutters. I didn't even realize what that was until your explanation.

I also selected yogourt, but I thought the question was about the word and not the spelling. You aren't likely to find that in the US.

The "nice" version of "happy as a pig in shit" is "happy as a pig in slop" in Illinois.

We use "bull session" to mean a group of people shooting the breeze (usually in reference to a party of men, or mostly men; such female gatherings are called "hen parties").

What is a serviette? Like a coffee table, or a serving tray? or is it the french meaning (napkin)?

[bcholmes.livejournal.com]

*nod* A serviette is a napkin.

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Just a paper napkin, where I come from (905-land, Niagara/Toronto). Cloth napkins are called cloth napkins or napkins.

[androgyna.livejournal.com]

Actually, I just used the word serviette today at lunch: "Can I have some serviettes? Sure!"

[trinker.livejournal.com]

Dunno about Canadian French, but the Parisian version is "yaourt".

[(Anonymous)]

I always say serviette and reserve 'napkin' for cloth table-napkins. I never say gutter (which to me are street gutters) and always say eavestrough. I have always spelt yoghourt with an H and a U but have since dropped the H. I never heard of 'gasbar' though. I never knew 'bull session' was Canadian (are they sure about some of these origins?.

Other Canadian words/sayings: 'March Break', 'exhibition' (as in a fair), 'two-four' (of beer). See, we're not always a Britsh/U.S-combo treat. :o)