Support for Canadian programming conventions in the Ruby language(github.com)
github.com
Support for Canadian programming conventions in the Ruby language
https://github.com/vanruby/canada
14 comments
Yes, many Canadians pronounce "aboot", but you don't find the ", eh?" construction all over Canada, particularly out west.
I'd argue the opposite. I find "eh" is super common across the nation while the "aboot" rather rare.
I always considered "eh?" to be very much a central Canadian thing (just Ontario maybe?)
Having grown up in the ecosphere of Lethbridge, I never heard that construction until I came back east. (We would frequently watch "Front Page Challenge", one of the longer-running TV programs anywhere.)
I was once married to a Canadian. She got furiously angry when I pointed out that she said "aboot".
But yes, she said "aboot".
But yes, she said "aboot".
Typically Canadian's pronounce it about as əˈbəʊt. A boot is pronounced əˈbu̟t. The sounds are distinct, but similar. I think many Americans here it as "aboot" because they're not used to the phonetic raising.
I'm too lazy to find the reference right now, but one's brain essentially has "pigeon holes" (sorting boxes) for sounds. If one's language has few vowels, one has few boxes, if one's language has many vowels, one has many boxes.
Each time one hears a sound, one's brain maps it to the box containing the closest sound.
Canadians generally use a few more vowels (and French speakers even more) than Americans do (with the exceptions of Minnesotans and a few others, who hear Canadians say "about" when they say "about). The way many (most?) of us pronounce out, bout, and about uses a vowel combination unknown to most Americans.
The nearest sound, the nearest box, maps to "oot", "boot", and "aboot".
So it's not us sayin' the wrong thing, it's all'y'all not havin' the auditory wherewithal to pick up what we're puttin' down!
Sorry 'bout that, eh?
(EDIT: When I learn a new language, I spend quite a bit of time with my eyes closed, listening intently to the sounds for which I have no boxes, mouthing them as best as I can, consciously building a new box.)
Each time one hears a sound, one's brain maps it to the box containing the closest sound.
Canadians generally use a few more vowels (and French speakers even more) than Americans do (with the exceptions of Minnesotans and a few others, who hear Canadians say "about" when they say "about). The way many (most?) of us pronounce out, bout, and about uses a vowel combination unknown to most Americans.
The nearest sound, the nearest box, maps to "oot", "boot", and "aboot".
So it's not us sayin' the wrong thing, it's all'y'all not havin' the auditory wherewithal to pick up what we're puttin' down!
Sorry 'bout that, eh?
(EDIT: When I learn a new language, I spend quite a bit of time with my eyes closed, listening intently to the sounds for which I have no boxes, mouthing them as best as I can, consciously building a new box.)
so, aprox. uh'buh oh t
Yeah, that seems like a good approximation to me.. People are probably wondering why I'm sitting here mouthing about.
This is good sound clip actually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-about,_a_boot,_a_bo...
This is good sound clip actually.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:En-us-about,_a_boot,_a_bo...
It's also funny that Americans speak of an all encompassing Canadian accent, when Canadians would never lump the Texan, Minnesotan, or New Jersey accents together. We are a vast, sporadically populated country with as many accents as any other huge territory.
I find that pronunciation to be the most noticeable in Southern Ontario. In Western Canada, not so much.
To me it sounds like "a boat".
I hope this will continue to be supported as I'll be including it in my projects going forwards.
Similarly, British conventions for PHP: https://www.addedbytes.com/blog/if-php-were-british/