I highly recommend, for people interested in such things, Bill Bryson's book Made in America. In addition to discussions on some American inventions, it discusses at length why American language is the way it is, particulary why it's different from English spoken in mother England, and why there are so many regional differences in America. I wish Canadian English had also been discussed in the book, as many of the same explanations apply. For example if an area was settled by Welsh or Irish or Germans or Swedes, or Puritans unique pronounciations and well as peculiar word usage evolved.
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13F

Call your local cab number in Newfoundland:
695 - TREE TREE TREE TREE
http://www.legionoflions.com/attachm...1&d=1192588497

This really threw me off when I first started to socialize with my UK clients and the more formal; "business speak" stopped.

You alright, ya? Coming to the pub tonight, ya? See you tomorrow, ya? ... and so on.

It was almost as if the question wasn't enough, they had to add emphasis as though it was a REAL question.

The problem was that after a week I started to develop the habit.

The abundance of Canadian-born and raised TV news anchor people suggests that central/western Canadian pronunciation is accepted and understood as being the standard of clarity. Peter Jennings was a CBC pronouncer on ABC. Morley Safer (CBS), and John Roberts (CNN) are prominent examples. Frontline news reporters are also abundantly Canadian. And then there's
Shrek, the most famous hidden Canadian of all (okay, maybe Mike Myers is a close second and Jim Carrey and Shania Twain). And everyone thinks that Celine Dion is an American with a normal accent.

Only Torontonians do not have an accent. Inhabitants of all other areas in Canada are born with crippling Canadian accents, and spend the rest of their lives trying to lose it to emulate Torontonians.

Right, time to put the 'aboot' thing to rest for good.

In central Canadian English, the diphthong /aw/ becomes /∂w/ (sort of like a slurred-together 'uh-oh' if you can't read IPA) before a voiceless consonant such as t. For Canadian speakers it does not rhyme with 'boot' /buwt/ or 'boat' /bowt/, though people whose dialect doesn't have /∂w/ tend to mis-hear it as one or the other.

This is called 'Canadian raising' and was much written about by Jack Chambers, a sociolinguist at U of T who used to work across the corridor from me.

The two pronunciations of 'route' are a completely different issue. The Canadian/French one really does have an /u/ sound, whereas the USese one has /aw/. (Of course if a Canadian were to attempt the US pronunciation it would come out as the Canadian /∂w/. )

</regurgitation of first-year lecture>

I think most people in France would disagree with you there. They all insist that I have a very marked Canadian accent (except for the people with no ear for accents, who tend to think I'm Belgian ).

Yaers ago, I remember my B.C. classmates making fun of American professors who pronounced the neighbouring state to the south (or U.S.) capital as "Wah-shing-ton" while up north it was more of "war-shing-ton".

To me people in B.C. speak in a way that is "flatter", or somewhat close to standard North American English (the midwest dialect, e.g. CNN), ya?

I'd actually go the other way around. CNN speaks like BCers (or at least Pacific Northwestners)

One interesting website is the following
www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Canadian/canphon1.html

Provides a rundown of a number of pronunciation issues and some reasons why - and it is a pretty readable site given that it is out of a university. Although I still can't think why everyone doesn't think Mt. Shasta rhymes with pasta.

It also goes through some situations where different words have almost the same pronunciation - American stack vs Canadian stock.

Yes sir.

I don't think I do, but I've had people tell me I do. To me, I sound exactly like any other American on a US TV program.

And I never say "eh" (but I do catch myself saying "hey" occasionally).

Do you tend to use the word ' Hey ' as a question alot ?

How about asking where the WASH-ROOM is located?

just 2 examples of differences in language.

French hasn't much to do with it as there are alot of Basque in the
Northwest (alot live in Idaho).