by 
RedJohn
ANSWERS: 16
-
As a Mainer, I hear many Canadians talk. We claim that they say "aboot" because they do. It might be just Canadians who live in a certain part of the country, but they don't pronounce "about" quite like we do. "Aboot" isn't quite accurate as a spelling of how they say it, but it's almost like they say it more British than we do.
-
Americans have always had difficulty with English. An example American(s) uh-MER-i-kin(z), or uh-MAIR-i-kin(z). Do not pronounce American(s) in three syllables, uh-MAIR-kin(z), or as Lyndon Johnson did, uh-MUR-kin(z). Make sure to say it in four syllables: A-mer-i-can(s). PREZ-dint for president many will say. President - even newscasters forget the “s” in president has the sound of a z . Is it any wonder the word “about” confuses them? Meanwhile, we should go oot'n aboot regardless.
-
I've only crossed paths with a few Canadians, mostly English speakers from the Toronto area, and those folks actually do say things like "going oot and aboot..."
-
i didnt know they did
-
Oh dear. Because to us it does sound like they are saying aboot. I've heard some Americans say it as well if that makes you feel any better.
-
All my Canadian co-workers say aboot. Sorry.
-
I don't know. But somebody told me I say about like that, the other day. I don't...I think.
-
Because they do. They just don't hear it themselves.
-
"Aboat" is how I usually hear it from Western Ontario, on into Saskatchewan. Minnesota, some of Wisconsin and some of Michiganers pronounce it "aboat" as well. (upper peninsula)... I have never heard it pronounced this way in Alberta or British Columbia.
-
I am in B.C. and I don't say aboot.
-
I'm a huge hockey fan, and that's where I usually hear it, although it's actually more like "a boat" I think. Barry Melrose (ex coach of my LA Kings said it like that)
-
South Park.
-
As a Canadian myself who lives on the border I think it's because Americans pronounce boot wrong and that's why they hear it as boot when us Canadians say "about" the correct way (for us anyways). If you use your worst deep south american accent and say "I was kicked in the behind by a feller with a boot on his foot" the words a boot do sound like about. As for the way American's say "about": If you exaggerate it and draw it out so you can hear what I think it sounds like it would be: A baaa ooot. Really though it's all percieved and if you really want to know the absolute correct way to pronounce things than you would need to take elocution classes from the Queen because the language started in England first.
-
Some Canadians do say it this way, IME with being married to a Canadian (I'm American.) for eight+ years and spending lots of time there. Canadians claim that Americans pronounce many words wrong, slaughtering the "Queen's English." Since American's don't have as close ties to the Queen as Canadians, this would be understandable. (We just have fun with the differences!) What I want to know is why they pronounce semi as semee instead of semI. lol
-
For 20 years I listened to CBC and an Edmonton station of a Big Satellite dish. They do say aboot as well as co-lo-nel. And they say in hospital. But none of those is a bad thing, just different.
-
Actually, their pronounciation of about is something between 'aboot' and 'a-boat'. It's the Scottish influence - now many Scots say 'aboot'.
RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC