Canadian English

[gusl]

washroom(CA) = bathroom (US). When I hear "washroom", I instinctively think of "laundry room", and have so far failed to unlearn that.

The pronunciation of "ou/ow" is sometimes counterintuitive, e.g. "Howe" is [ha^w], "Lougheed" is [lo^whid], "Kelowna" is [kəlo^wna].

I met someone from Prince George, BC, and couldn't understand half of what he said. "Oh, he's Irish! Um, no he isn't. What the heck did he say??". Apparently, Atlantic accents sound even more Celtic.

The Canadian raising feels natural to me, as does the "eh?" (meaning "don't you think?"). "eh" (meaning "by the way") feels less natural (lesson).

Wikipedia tells me that the raising allows one to distinguish "writer" from "rider" (my gut says it's [rʌIɾər]/[ræIɾər] and [raIɾər] respectively), a distinction most US dialects do not have. I suspect that US ears can unconsciously get the intended meaning conveyed by a Canadian speaker but not US speakers (since US speech makes no distinction, i.e. leaves it ambiguous). Whether this ability to understand is due to exposure to Canadian speech or to some a priori linguistic plausibility is an interesting question.

Comments

[gregh1983]

Canadian raising, or at least restricted Canadian raising, happens in some parts of the northern U.S. too, like in mine. One of my suitemates senior year was from Arkansas, where they definitely don't have it, and I kept getting confused for about half a second every time I thought she was suddenly introducing horses into discussions we were having about novels.

The distinction for me seems to be your first pair: [rʌIɾər] vs. [raIɾər]. I also have a pretty extreme raising of "high" in compounds beginning with voiceless sounds: "on the [haI] beam" vs. "in [hʌI] school." But an interesting point: the special seat for a baby is a "[hʌI] chair," but a seat for a really tall guy would just be a "[haI] chair" with a pause between the two words.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

my Polish grandparents used to say "washroom" for "bathroom" as well. but also "do the washing" for laundry. (and it was pronounced "warsh".)

[gregh1983]

Did they live in southeastern Ohio, West Virginia, or southwestern Pennsylvania? I think "warsh" is a rural thing from that area; my dad does it too.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_wirehead_/]

Chicago, actually.

[psifenix.livejournal.com]

I tend to hold the raised part of the dipthong (for me [aI] in both) longer in 'rider.' I argue that this is definitely enough to distinguish them and that it is also common in neutral AmE.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I thought most Americans distinguish "writer" from "rider" by means of vowel length - the first has a shorter vowel and the second has a longer one. Of course, that's a subtle difference that we don't know to listen for. And it may not always be there.

Also, I believe the word "washroom" is used most places between the Rockies and Appalachians in the US as well. (In Australia I think it's "toilet", which feels awkward for me to ask for.) I don't know exactly where the soda/pop line is, but Canada is generally on the "pop" side.

[hykue.livejournal.com]

hey, I'm from Prince George :)
also, I remember doing an online test somewhere about pronunciation that claimed it could tell you where in the US you were from. It told me I was from Canada :)