A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles https://dchp.arts.ubc.ca/
Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.
Apparently it's a direct translation from French and is pretty exclusive to Quebec English and the Easternmost part of Ontario (which is heavily French).
And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".
Also found "parkade" interesting--apparently it's still much more heavily used in Western Canada, and they attribute that to it having been "seeded" by some Hudson's Bay advertisements run at their original 6 locations all in Western Canada.
Some other words/terms that surprised me: renoviction, gong show, kerfuffle, off-sale, stagette
I (West Coast) pretty much entirely associate "all-dressed" with potato chips.
Dressed all over, zesty mordant, and gelapenno.
The goalie trinity right there
Save me some of those sweet empowered chicken things https://youtu.be/Jfq3c4Cf1Fs?si=pl5Q0Q1bJb8rP2br
As a West Coaster, I had to look up nearly every term in this article. As usual, "Canadian" almost entirely means the central/east areas.
It's just like "aboot" and milk in bags.
I (US) also associate "all-dressed" with potato chips since we started getting them down here.
The Works is usually a the name for the pizza. Chiming in for the east coast, all dressed is chips.
Having spent a large portion of time answering phones in the pizza business, I can assure you that a great many people in Saskatchewan will order an all-dressed pizza even though we had no such thing on the menu.
Yeah, mostly came as a surprise to me because I've spent most of my time in Saskatchewan and Ontario near the Quebec border. I somehow managed to spend my entire life bouncing around Canada and never spend much time anywhere where "all dressed pizza" didn't exist, even though it's apparently a highly-specific term.
The Works is pretty common in the US, too. Pizza and sandwich toppings
in MB, never heard of all-dressed pizza in my life. We have the chips and the works pizza
And bagels.
It was an Everything pizza at the place I worked at as a kid. They're disgusting.
> And Saskatchewan. Which the site notes is "a bit of a mystery".
There's no mystery. This is rubbish research. In parts of Manitoba we also use all-dressed for the same purpose (and of course chips). The unifying factor is French culture. The Riel Rebellion helped bring tremendous franocphones, and French culture out west. There are areas like St. Boniface in Winnipeg where s some people speak only French. The Metis are in both Manitoba and Quebec...
It's been a long time now, but from what I remember from school, a critical part of the notability of Gabrielle Roy[1] was that she wrote from the perspective of francophones living in the prairies.
I appreciate the DHCP-3 is not a monolithic work, but to have both authorship and editorial oversight of a corpus that presents itself as a rigorous treatise of Canadianisms demonstrate either broad ignorance of, or reckless disregard for a significant portion of our heritage is just baffling to me. What's the point if one is not going to be ruthlessly thorough?
A lot of French history has been erased from the Canadian West
Manitoba was founded by French speakers (the Metis) and about 2000 Metis were supposed to get most of what is now downtown Winnipeg. Their culture was eventually suppressed by Ontario.
Old, but good, CBC documentary on this type of thing:
https://youtu.be/eIoTpkM5N64?si=FnGploZrLZ1XRVXO&utm_source=...
Kerfuffle is British - quite common here. 19th century Scots apparently!
> Surprising one for me was "all dressed" as a term for, e.g., a pizza with all the toppings.
What on Earth. Wikipedia tells me:
> An all-dressed chip called The Whole Shabang is produced by American prison supplier Keefe Group. It became available to the general public in 2016.[4] Frito-Lay began selling all-dressed Ruffles potato chips in the United States that same year.[5]
I had assumed the entire time that everyone uses this term for potato chips (and that everyone has the flavour) and that the Quebecois were just being weird by also applying it to pizza.
--
"Renoviction" is a very recent neologism that's mainly used in the specific major cities where it's an issue (because of the housing market).
"Gong show" I think is relatively old-fashioned (as in Gen X) by comparison. I'm actually surprised Americans don't say that, given that the actual show was on NBC.
I can easily find "kerfuffle" in supposedly American online dictionaries so I think their claim is rather dubious. On the flip side, I've never in my life heard "off-sale"; and in Ontario it's only quite recently (https://www.ontario.ca/document/alcohol-master-framework-agr... https://news.ontario.ca/en/release/1003988/ontario-consumers...) that you can even legally purchase beer and wine at a grocery store.
In Vancouver in the 1990s, if you wanted to buy a six-pack of beer at 10pm after the government-run liquor store closed, you would walk into a local pub and ask the bartender if they did "off-sales". If yes, they would sell you a cold six-pack for a very small markup.
Also, in Ontario in the 1990s, one-eighth of an ounce of weed was called a "half-quarter", ha ha.
> Renoviction
That's very common word these days at least here in PEI. Kicking people out to "renovate".
It basically means renovate as in sweep the floor and paint a small patch on the wall, done. All so they can kick out the tenant and up the rent 1,000%.
It's interesting because it's a term that emerged due to a legal allowance (renovation+eviction: allowance to evict a tenant when major renovations to a building have to be done).
What other legal-derived portmanteaus are there?
There's something human and clever and beautiful in the smart portmanteau in that it just communicates an idea so well.
I've never in my life heard "off-sale" . . .
Off-sale has long been used in Alberta. I have a memory of asking my parents what it meant when I was a kid (and I am in my 40s, now).
Maybe from UK ‘off-license’?
Similar concept, I suppose. When I was young, alcohol for consumption at home was generally only available for purchase in government run liquor stores. (This is still the case in some provinces, but no longer true in Alberta.) However, a few licensed premises (bars and restaurants) were permitted to do off-sales and sell alcohol that you were allowed to take with you off the premises.
"off-sale" at a licensed premises means sale for off-premise consumption.
In BC.
In Quebec French we use “toute garnie” to refer to a pizza with red sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, green peppers and pepperonis.
Which is funny because that translates to "fully garnished" not "all dressed". Tabarnac
IMO that's a mistranslation; “stuffed with everything” would be more accurate.
Here in Ontario English we call that pizza deluxe!
Depends where in Ontario!
I'm in Ontario but in a heavily French area (i.e., East of Ottawa) and "toute garni / all dressed" is common. You'll find it places like Ottawa as well given the proximity to Quebec and French population.
That is what OP said. "All dressed" is a direct translation from French.
Yes, they both refer to the same pizza. Many francophones actually say "une pizza all dress" - it refers to that specific combination of toppings though, not literally every available topping.
Do you call “tomato sauce” “red sauce”?
I can't speak authoritatively for the OP, but yes, I would expect red sauce to be tomato-based. Compare with "sauce brune" [brown sauce ~= gravy] which is what gets put on poutine.
"Can confirm".
In the mid 70s, I would order a small pizza, all dressed from McGill Pizza, when feeling peckish. $1.10, delivered to your door in no time at all.
A “fully dressed” poboy in New Orleans is one with all the fixing’s
Huh, that makes sense given "all dressed" came from French and New Orleans' French history.
I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped". I'm sure some linguist could probably do a dissertation on this or something. And hopefully also cover how Saskatchewan ended up with using "all dressed" because I'm really curious about that outlier.
> I'm not sure why we both ended up with "dressed" given the French is literally "all garnishes / toppings" or "wholly garnished / topped".
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dress
> 4. (also figuratively) To adorn or ornament (something). [from 15th c.]
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/garnish
> 1. To decorate with ornaments; to adorn; to embellish.
(Bonus: "garnish" is etymologically related to "warn". There are many such other pairs in English, e.g. "guarantee" / "warranty" and "guard" / "ward". (As I understand it: the Gauls could pronounce the "g", but the Franks couldn't.)
There's a significant (though not exactly large) french-speaking population in Saskatchewan.
I live a couple blocks from a large french-only school.
There are several parking structures called "parkades" in Salem Oregon.
I wish they would've explained the term "soaker" a bit better as it's such a Canadian thing.
Basically, when the snow starts to melt in the spring, you'll sometimes accidentally step on some thin ice that leads directly to a puddle underneath and soak your boot. It sucks! Also, we would often call these "booters" in Manitoba, where I'm from.
I can relate to the experience, but never even thought of having a word for it...
Wow! I remember getting soakers as a kid! I had no idea it was a Canadianism!
When and why/how did you stop getting soakers? Asking for a friend
I no longer walk to school! When I walk into a store or into work I always watch where I step, regardless of the season or the weather. I’m especially cautious walking around my back yard after a rain!
Yes I guess once you learn to tell the signs of thin ice, soakers are rare... but now in tropics I get soakers being adult! Sometimes deep water is hard to notice or there is no route around a puddle. Maybe these are not really soakers (no ice involved) but I like the word
Just go hiking in the spring.
Got a soaker in April when I stepped on some snow that has hiding a deep puddle on a trail.
Yup, they'll forever be booters to me to. Go Bison?
And go Jets!
In Southern Ontario, it feels like it's soakers all winter long!
first time i’ve found a fellow manitoban on HN greetings !
We are here, were everywhere!
got a booter eh bud?
As a Canadian who married an American and now lived in the US, I was surprised how many things I say are Canadianisms without me having realized. There have been a lot of (minor) miscommunications because I didn't realize I was saying something only Canadians understand. Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
I initially worked in Canada where it wouldn't be uncommon to go out for a work lunch and order a beer.
When I got a new job in the US, my boss took me and several coworkers to a restaurant for lunch as a way to welcome me. When the waitress asked what I wanted to drink I asked for a beer. I then heard one of my coworkers who was sitting next to me ask me incredulously, "What are you doing?" I responded that I was ordering a beer. He said that I could get fired for that. That's when I realized that for a country that seemed so similar to Canada on the surface it was quite different below that surface.
Many companies and cultures in the US are fine with a drink or two at lunch. What industry was this company in?
Good to know. This was in suburban Chicago, Naperville, IL to be exact, during the 90s. The industry was Telecomm. Maybe it was a more conservative area compared with the Bay Area or Boston.
It’s usually best if the manager/more senior employees order first and sets the tone for “is this a beer friendly lunch”. Definitely don’t make the new guy order first and guess
It's common to order a beer at work lunch in the US too.
Though I have worked at places if the company was paying for the lunch they won't pay for alcohol. In those cases we've always asked for the beers to be on a separate check so the expense report is easier.
had plenty of drinking lunches w/ US companies. the current (Canadian) company I'm at is quite strict about drinking -- would likely be fireable.
the Aussies would have been disappointed if I only had one...
The term Hydro for electrical power (power lines) is not used in PEI the older generation would call it the "light bill" younger people now may call it the "power bill". If it was out we'd just say the power is out.
Hydro is just for QC, ON and BC where the electrical companies have "hydro" in their name.
Other parts of the country just call it power/electrical. But in NS my grand parents would also call it a "light bill".
Hydro is from Canadian provinces that use mostly hydro power
I always assumed we just called it hydro in BC because so much of the power comes from hydroelectric, but then I moved and it seems we call it hydro everywhere no master source..?
Hydroelectric was historically even more dominant in Canada than today. In places that aren't majority hydro now, they were in the past, like in Ontario and Alberta.
The name of the utility companies in most provinces was probably an influence. Until 1999 in Ontario it was the Ontario Hydro-Electric Power Commission, shortened normally to Ontario Hydro. Manitoba Hydro. Hydro Quebec. I think in Toronto they still stamp manhole covers with THES (Toronto Hydro-Electric System).
In Ontario, we still have Hydro One as a (the?) primary distributor of electricity outside urban environments.
If I remember correctly, Hydro One also serves some parts of the Ottawa area, and their delivery rates were different enough from Hydro Ottawa that it was often a material consideration for where one chose to buy one's house.
I think it’s primarily BC and Ontario. And maybe a French version in Quebec.
Hydro-Québec is the name of the power company there so I’m guessing it is.
I think it's pretty common in Western Canada. Definitely the norm in Manitoba.
Not common in Alberta but people probably will know what you mean.
That would definitely make the most sense. It’s also hydro in Quebec (hydro-Québec).
I've had to explain to an Albertan friend that hydro meant power, they mostly use coal out there from what I understand.
Alberta doesn't use any coal actually.
They have only recently finished phasing out coal, such that it appears in last year's statistics. And it's still mostly natural gas, i.e. a fossil fuel.
https://www.aeso.ca/aeso/understanding-electricity-in-albert...
> Like when I told her that my parents' hydro had been out all day.
When I immigrated to Canada (Ontario) a decade ago, the term hydro was the most confusing to me. I assumed it meant water supply or plumbing, but it was always in the wrong context. I imagined the disaster of hooking up the plumbing to the electrical service! Now it’s completely natural to call it “hydro” but confusing at first.
I travel to the UK a lot and am usually pretty careful with my Canadianisms, but during my last trip I accidentally asked a server for both a pop and a serviette at the same time, leading to a blank stare.
Pop isn't a Canadianisms, is common in a lot of the US too.
do people look at you puzzled when you say "keener"?
Washroom vs. bathroom: I’ve always found it strange to call a room a “bathroom” if it doesn’t have a shower or tub. On the other hand, most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands. Although these facilities serve similar purposes, the former is used for public spaces, while the latter is found inside homes.
As an Australian I always find it funny going places and having to remember which dance-around word everyone uses for "toilet". Washroom, restroom, bathroom, there's so many!
'Toilet' itself is a euphemism, an archaic term for dressing/washing room and/or the act of washing up
“Toilette” is still used that way in normal everyday French. “Je fais ma toilette” - I’m washing up/getting ready/getting dressed/doing my morning hygiene routine/etc.
It was pretty surprising to be reading some old books on Project Gutenberg and seeing the word "toilet" being used meaning "outfit" or "wardrobe".
Let's call it the poop room
Don't forget water closet!
Not to be confused with Tungsten Carbide, a ceramic used for abrasives and ballpoint pen tips.
Toilet, bog or lav in the UK are some options.
The easy to remember terms and will work nearly anywhere without giving offence are: "loo" in a residential property or "gents/ladies" for a non-residential property.
and also the lavatory
That'll be the lav.
other notables include the loo, the can, the john, and of course the dunny
The pisser
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Toilet is the object, not the room it's in
Only in some parts of the world. In many it's the room and the object
Soviet apartments had a separate rooms for the toilet and the area with a bath/shower/sink. The area behind the toilet was usually a hinged wall that could be opened to reveal the entry point for utilities.
I assume toilet hands were an unspoken issue, because there was no possible way to traverse from the toilet room to the washroom without touching anything.
For a complete tangent, I’ll mention that Soviet toilets had a “poop shelf” so that people could eyeball their stool to gauge their health. One flaw of this design is that there was no odour suppression offered by toilets that immediately immerse stool in water.
> One flaw of this design is that there was no odour suppression offered by toilets that immediately immerse stool in water.
Still better than a Poseidon kiss.
I think their style is an import from Germany in the first place, but it stuck.
I believe German toilets have the same shelf.
Mostly in older buildings. I don't think you see it as often in more modern bathrooms anymore.
Ah yes, [a Dutch toilet](https://noplacelikeanywhere.com/destinations/dutch-toilets-a...)! A most regrettable invention.
And the last 2-bed apartment I rented was a scam, the rooms didn't even come with beds.
> Toilet is the object, not the room it's in
Meaning 1a is the object, 1b is the room. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/toilet
Restroom has always puzzled me. Seems like it should be an alternate name for a bedroom instead.
This one (among others) does really fascinate me. Maybe it’s due to spending a lot of time around diverse groups of people but I’ve never really seen a huge distinction between these words. Washroom, bathroom, toilet, I and everyone I know pretty much would use interchangeably? Or at least wouldn’t blink at someone else using them.
Restroom, and a variety of others, might be slightly more usage specific but still… wouldn’t be unexpected or weird, I’d say?
> most single-family homes in Canada have a “powder room” where people can wash their face and hands.
I think only people of a very specific upbringing ever call it that here. Certainly nobody in my circles would.
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yeah can't say I know of anyone with a powder room
I use washroom and bathroom interchangeably.
its been said that Canada is still mentally stuck in the Victorian age somewhat
Animal shithouse
Probably one of my favorite commonly-used Canadian slang is "to chirp someone". It's a term that's frequently used in hockey circles, but more generally means to make fun of someone in a banter-y kind of way.
I think of chirping as specifically mean-spirited bullying, especially in an attempt to provoke a reaction. Source: grew up in BC.
For chirping, I'll bring up Shoresy, spin off of Letterkenny TV show, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoresy
The film Slapshot with hockey banter/ribbing (at a Gilmore Girls-type pace).
Having courtside seats at a basketball game means getting to listen to the players chirp each other.
It might be more popular in Canada but I think "chirping" is pretty common in the US.
yeah heard it a bunch in the context of talking shit in sports
I remember being very amused at a party when hockey, baseball and football players were teaching each other their respective lockerroom slang.
Nah if you say someone chirped you say, on the street or in a pub, it's fighting words...
I've always took it as the opposite. Chriping is just noise with no real threat (most chirping birds are not a threat to humans). It's just someone being friendly with their banter usually in a making fun of you type context.
Maybe it's regional but definitely was fighting words when I grew up in Alberta. If you were bantering with your friends we'd just call it "bullshitting", "talking shit", etc...
I'm not into sports so I don't really know that angle but I did have a roommate in Ottawa who got into a fight outside of a bar because "some guys were chirping" him.
The one subtle difference I've noticed between Canadian and American English is on school grades. American say "first grade" where as Canada say "grade one".
Toronto here, I think approximately I'd say first-sixth grade, and grade 7-12. Grade one just sounds wrong though.
Well, Toronto is ground zero for Americanization. First grade sounds super American to my ear, I'd never say it over grade one.
Odd, I grew up in Toronto and Grade 1 sounds fine to me.
in the US, people tend to say "first grade", but if you say "grade 1" nobody would blink, people say it all the time, teachers, administrators, etc.
As American who's recently discovered Corner Gas, I just learned that nearly every resident of Saskatchewan is named "Jackass".
This list somehow doesn't have "converter" (to refer to a television remote), which was the first word to unexpectedly baffle my American coworkers the first time I said it, to my own surprise.
I'm from Northern Ontario and never heard that one, but I was also surprised by a missing term: "transport". In my neck of the woods, that's how we refer to a semi-truck / 18-wheeler.
Converter was definitely heard when I was growing up and I would know what you were talking about 100%
Now a days I am probably more likely to say "Clicker" unless otherwise prompted.
I think that's actually going to be more of an age thing as well. The converter wasn't just the remote, but the little box, separate from the TV, needed to convert signals for an older TV.
Basically, the 'cable box' or the 'satalite box.'
But ya, 45 years old, grew up in Toronto and Southern Alberta and it was a converter, until it wasn't.
Where are you from? I'm from BC and I've never heard that one either.
I grew up in BC as well and never heard it. My parents were from Ontario and always called it the flipper. Because it flips channels I guess. Felt like every household had a different name for it though.
I've never heard that one... what part of the country is that from?
never heard of that, but always delighted my friends when id ask for the channel changer
What is it converting?
Sad to not see "dart" in there, I assumed from Letterkenny that it was a regular Canadianism. Perhaps it's too new?
Popularized by Trailer Park Boys in the 2000s, if not well before
We called em darts when I was in highschool back in the 90s.
I don't remember darts as much on TPB... the phrase "Corey, Trevor, two smokes, let's go" stands out.
Ricky is shot with multiple tranquilizer darts.
Ricky, get the darts out!
Ricky dazily pulls out his cigarettes.
Not those darts!
Another Trailer Park Boys classic: "That's the way she goes"
As a Nova Scotian I can tell you it was present before 2000s... at least 90s.
Apparently originated in Australia, though it is definitely an established usage in Canada. I seem to recall hearing that usage in Vancouver in the 90s.
https://gikken.co/mate-translate/blog/from-darts-to-cigarett...
Darts an old one. At least since my parents age.
In southern Ontario a dart is also called a bogey
"Dart" is absolutely still used. "Eh bud. Can I bum a dart from ya?"
Throw me a dart, yeah?
[dead]
Americans dont use the term "pencil crayons"???
What do you call them?
In a feeble attempt to rationalize the Canadianism "pencil crayon"...
Pencils have cores based on graphite or charcoal.
Pencil crayons have cores based on wax or oil, with pigments added. This is basically the composition of crayons or pastels. Then it's wrapped in wood like a pencil. Thus ... "pencil crayon".
Wait, coloured pencils aren't actually pencils?
I've never heard Pencil Crayon, in British Columbia, but then again I did live in the U.S. for all of my school years.
Crayons are the fat sticks of wax (e.g. Crayola brand). Colored pencils are, well, colored pencils.
There are also various different ways to pronounce “crayon”; is that also true in Canada? For example I pronounce it with one syllable: “cran”, just like the beginning of “cranberry”. I get the feeling that’s not the majority pronunciation but it’s not exactly rare either (at least where I grew up).
Nope, coloured pencils are coloured wax encased in wood. Canadians emphasize that they are crayons in pencil shape; Americans emphasize that they are pencil-form but coloured.
Interesting, I never knew that. Never been much of an artist. So I guess the Canadian term is actually more accurate!
Yes, British originally
Same in UK for what they are ie sticks of wax (They can be thin for cheap ones that break)
In UK it is two syllables.
FWIW I’m American. According to the “Harvard Dialect Survey” which I found on Google, about 14% of people in the US pronounce it like I do and most of the rest with two syllables.
Colored pencils
pencils of color :)
Pencils experiencing colourfulness
One of the frequent debates with my wife lol... "But they are not crayons" does not help my case at all :-)
Well... they're generally wax or oil based like a crayon. Just wrapped in wood like a pencil rather than in paper. Like some sort of... pencil... crayon. >_>
That also blew my mind.
This is excellent stuff, I am going to be spending a lot of time on this.
My absolute favourite Canadianism is how, on wikipedia, the 401 (major highway that goes through Toronto) is "colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontario_Highway_401).
I'm genuinely curious what else it would be called. I live 5Kms away from it, and that's just "what it's called."
Four zero one? Or Four-Hundred and One?
I'm surprised "Four Oh [X]" is specifically a Canadianism. I would have expected it to manifest more broadly, given things like:
I don't really think it is...in Washington State for instance the highway through the Seattle suburbs is called "the four-oh-five" (there's a Death Cab For Cutie song about this one).
But that might be just because it's a bypass to I5/5/the 5 (depending on who you ask).
The Atlanta area code is definitely "four-oh-four" (and also the HTTP error)
I'm confused. How else would you pronounce it? Four hundred and four? Four-zero-four? That's just weird. :-)
I don't think I don't ever use "oh" for zero. FWIW, I'm from South Florida with New Jersey parents. The area code I grew up with is "three-oh-five".
I think it might be different for area codes that end in a zero - I remember 610 (Philly area, where I grew up) usually being pronounced "six-ten". On the other hand, 215 was always "two-one-five", never "two-fifteen". But I agree for those with zero in the middle, like 404 or 305.
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"Four-oh-one", is equally very British to me.
Even though I lived in the US for a decade, it still surprises me to learn that certain words are Canadianisms. I wonder how often people had no idea what I was talking aboot and just didn't speak up.
I strongly suspect most language / communication is clear from inference and context, and the exact words used aren't super important unless they are really out there or a different language entirely. It's the same with learning a foreign language (english in my case), you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.
> you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.
Yes. Unless you are like me, you think you are good at inferring from context, never lookup a word in the dictionary and think for a few years it means something while it actually means the opposite.
Could be worse, and be like me, who instantly looks up any word he doesn't understand, and because he does it so often, forgets the definition almost as soon as it is read after moving on.
It probably takes me a good seven to ten times of looking up a new-to-me word to really nail it down. As a result, a lot of my blog/personal writing is filled with odd phrasings of things because I never quite learned the prescriptive way of using said word.
AKA wollah¹ (according to this made up dictionary)
1. https://www.thedictionaryofobscuresorrows.com/word/wollah
Significant pronunciation differences are related, but not covered in this list.
For example, in Ontario (perhaps elsewhere in Canada) the word asphalt is pronounced like “ash fault” (ˈæʃfɑlt) as opposed to U.S. pronunciation like “ass fault.” (ˈæsfɔlt)
Also “pasta” is often ˈpæstə as opposed to ˈpɑstə in American English.
It's the same people mispronouncing "asphalt" with a "sh" that also use "nucular" energy to watch filums about athuletes in the artic. Some of them have even visited Warshington in the USA.
I don't think any of that is particularly Canadian though.
"brown toast".
When ordering breakfast, such as eggs and toast. "You want white or brown toast?"
Since most toast is toasted to a brown tone, the question confuses Americans (west-coast, anyways).
It's really the question: white bread toast or whole-wheat bread toast?
I asked an American family if they wanted brown or white bread, they looked confused and said "we want BREAD"
as someone who learned continental french, when i visited quebec i saw "melon d'eau" and i nearly lost it.
Meanwhile I went hiking up on Georgian bay and saw a bilingual sign for a local landmark
“Overhanging point
Point Overhanging”
That's the first gloss DeepL gives me for it. I've never before in my life heard "pastèque" and I doubt I'll remember it.
« Melon d'eau » ? For watermelon? I thought it was a joke, but well, Wikipedia mentions it: « La pastèque [...], parfois appelée melon d'eau » (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Past%C3%A8que)
Everyone says « pastèque » in mainland France, where I've lived for over 40 years. I've never seen melon d'eau and I doubt anyone will understand it unless they know the English word.
This is a remnant of British colonization. French-speaking population didn't know any English, so you have a lot of these literal translations.
I've heard "flour" uttered with the French pronounciation (fl-oo-r, instead of homonym of "flower") in New-Brunswick. I was floored. Took me a while to figure out what they meant.
Clearly, this originates from non-English speakers reading "flour" on a sign and just running with it.
Also, consider that the British conquest happened before watermelon was highly prevalent in France or North-America. It's unsurprising to see terminology diverge in this case.
Conversely, I'm a native French speaker from Quebec, and honestly, this is the first time I've ever come across the word "pastèque."
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Quebec has it's own dictionary.
Office Québécois de la Langue Française (OQLF) promotes the french language and adapt new English words (whereas France typically integrate English words in their vocab).
The website Banque de dépannage linguistique (BDL) will have a lot of useful resources if you're interested! For instance, how to write a professional sounding email, names of official documents, invoice templates.
Highlights (good and bad):
* emails -> courriels (courrier + iels; mail + similar sounding syllable)*
* spam mail -> pourriels (pourri + iels; rotten + similar lexem as courriels)
* to spoil (as in spoilers) -> divulgâcher (divulguer + gâcher; to reveal + to ruin)
* to mansplain -> mecspliquer (mec + expliquer; man + to explain); This one is outrageous (and uncommon) because it's an homonym to "m'expliquer" (explain to me)
* to browse (the web) -> naviguer (as in "to navigate"; browser -> "navigateur")
> * to browse (the web) -> naviguer (as in "to navigate"; browser -> "navigateur")
I’m old enough to remember when it was called web surfing and everyone used Netscape Navigator.
oh cool pourriels is amazing. Contrastingly the continental "mail" for "email" is... disappointing?
And Quebec has it’s own English. I spent a few years working in Montreal and soon learned about “passing the vacuum” and “closing the light”. There are so many bilingual folks that concepts and word orders flow back and forth. I had an interesting discussion with a bilingual anglophone about how in English elsewhere it’s called a “pacifier” and not a “souce”
They're literally translating from French to English because they don't know any better. In French you open and close lights and all other electronics... that's just how it works. On and off isn't a thing. So it's not it's own form of English, it's French people making mistakes.
Or “open the road” in reference to removing the snow from the road.
really? its called a soother where I live
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Also good luck planning any meals.
Dejeuner is breakfast in Quebec (lunch in France).
Diner is lunch in Quebec (evening meal in France).
déjeuner is a literal translation though. "Breaking fast" -> "dé-jeuner" (undo fasting).
French people typically say: - breakfast - petit-déjeuner (small breakfast) - lunch - déjeuner (breakfast) - diner - diner
Québecois people say: - breakfast - déjeuner - lunch - diner - diner - souper (eating soup; probably historical roots like "getting your big meal of the day" which is likely broth + potatoes)
> Québecois people say
So do (typical) French speakers in Belgium and Switzerland.
how about une boîte aux lettres?
given the englishisms in quebecois i was amused to see arrêt signs, because I'm pretty sure they say stop in france.
"upload" and "download" are interesting to me, which, in addition to the standard meaning, refer to the transfer of costs/jurisdiction to a higher and lower level of government respectively (between provincial and federal for instance)
That usage came about during the right-wing political swing of the 1990s, just as the phrase was becoming popular in connection with computers. Generally, costs and responsibilities were downloaded and revenues and control were uploaded.
Seems very thorough.
I don't see "transport" or "transport truck" though. I think It's an Ontario expression and it sounds kind of weird to me as an Albertan.
There must be so many tiny little differences like this. I remember when I lived in Toronto for a bit that the way they phrased whether you wanted a fast food order to eat at the restaurant or to take home was a little different from in Alberta. I know in Alberta, they would ask "to stay, or to go?" when ordering, but in Toronto I think it was "for here or to go?" which is how I've heard it phrased in the U.S. as well.
Totally minor difference, but it did feel jarring when I heard it differently from the first time as someone who grew up in Alberta.
I'm from Northern Ontario and me and my buddy went to a poutine place in Toronto. He asked for a poutine (naturally), and the worker didn't understand him. Southern Ontario says "poo-teen" /pu.tin/, but we say "p'tin" /pə.tɪn/ where I'm from. The original French way is [pu.t͡sɪn].
Never here that term used but I'm out west as well. We're all semi's, all the time.
"two-four" is there and can confirm that is more an eastern term as well. Never heard the term until I spent a year out in Ontario many years ago. Still hasn't really made its way to the west in all that time.
"Two-four" hasn't made its way out west because we call it a case of beer, and we already have "two-six", which is a 26oz bottle of liquor.
In Ontario "two-six" is called a twixer
It's a 750.
"Twixer" must be relatively new, or more specific regionalism. I've only known them to be called "twenty-sixers"
Same here. Also, 13 oz is a 'mickey', and the 3L is a "Texas mickey". (I noticed I did ounces and litres)
It made some inroads in to BC in the 80s, mostly thanks to Bob and Doug McKenzie, but never really stuck.
two-four has been established MB parlance for at least 50 years. But then MB isn't really Western Canada. Its central.
Yeah it’s a flat
This classification seems extremely arbitrary. What purpose, exactly, does this classification serve? What insights about “Canadian as she is spoke” do we learn by using this?
This is neat. It gave me a headache because my brain really wanted DCHP to be DHCP and it was confusing me... but the actual content is great.
Is there a similar dictionary for US midwesternisms, or Texisms, or really any region?
I have a sure fire method for detecting Canadians out in the wild. Pay close attention to how they pronounce the word “resources”. If you hear the letter Z in there then they are probably Canadian.
A good test would be "ice eyes garage sorry resources".
For me it would be something like /ʌɪs aɪz ɡəˈɹæʒ ˈsɔːɹi ˌɹiˈzɔɹsɪz/.
Your method wouldn't detect me. But you'd get me when I pronounced "Z" as "Zed".
Sadly my last name starts with a Z so after a decade of living in the US, I lost the "zed".
The only real giveaway to me that Trailer Park Boys is Canadian is how they pronounce the word “sorry”. Like SOW-ry rather than SOH-ry.
Most people who refer to "North Americans" collectively are Canadian. People in the US can forget Canada exists. People in Canada can't forget the US exist and so they need a term that includes both.
? Americans refer to the continent as "North America."
easy way is "figure it out" -- that seems to be common in Alberta to Montreal
strong emphasis on the out as "ooot" -- "figure it ooot, bud"
Mine's listening for proe-ject instead of prah-ject.
Do you call program “prah-gram”? Do you call pro shops at the golf course “prah shops”? I will die on the proe-ject hill.
Also if they refer to a washroom instead of a bathroom or restroom.
car door gets me
Discussions of healthcare facilities always get me in Canada. Grew up in the states, but born in Canada, when you have to use the emergency room it’s said that “they went to Hospital” as opposed to “they went to ‘the’ hospital”. No one up here ever seems to see the oddity of always referring to multiple different hospitals as the singular Hospital.
“They went to hospital” is a Britishism and definitely not something you’ll hear all the time in Canada.
Confirming britishism - both are in use here in Australia.
I've never heard a fellow Canadian say "to hospital" over "to the hospital", in person, or on TV.
I usually hear "they went to emerg(e?)"
In America you do something similar with school. I went to school (not “the school”).
Also varies by region in the US for referring to highways. In Southern California it is usually "the I-5" while on the other coast you will hear a plain "I-95".
In Northern California it's also just "5" "880" etc. We can pick out Southern Californians by their use of the pronoun.
If you want to show your geographical sophistication within California, you can safely refer to "80" (I-80 passes through only the northern part of the state) and "the 10" (which passes only through the southern part). As for "5" vs. "the 5" just make sure that if you're heading south you've switched by the time you reach the Grapevine (q.v.).
I'm not sure where the N/S dividing line is, though. Any HN readers from Bakersfield or Coalinga?
I think Americans have the most variety of names for roads - kind of like the Inuit have many ways to talk about snow.
Parkway, Freeway, Highway, Tollway, Expressway, Interstate, Byway, etc
>In Southern California it is usually "the I-5"
in LA it's most definitely "the 5" and state highways are also named with their numbers with no distinguishing. it's all "the N"
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I’m from Arizona and I don’t think this is settled law here. I’m just as likely to say the 10, the I-10, or just I-10.
In Colorado, people tend to say "The I" and the automatic assumption is I-25. At least if you live on the front range anyway, which 80% of the state does.
went to hospital is a British thing and ive never heard it in Canada
sad they don't have "barmp" here, it's a newfoundland-ism (maybe east coast) that means "honk" of a car horn.
rick mercer: https://x.com/rickmercer/status/1491480449226579969
nova scotia: https://theshuffledemons1.bandcamp.com/track/barmp-your-horn
newfoundland: https://barmp.com/
Incredible. I’ve never heard this. How is Newfoundland even a real place.
also missing "heatbag", another newfoundland-ism. Meaning "being very conspicuous while doing something you shouldn't"
also missing "bunk", again Newfoundland, meaning "bad"
I'll have to go through this with my family; we have a number of terms we use that we're never sure if they're Canadian, non-regional uncommon words, or just things our family say.
My grandpa called toonies "bearbucks", which isn't listed, but is in one of the quotes on the toonie entry. No listing for "reef" as in yanking on something, though I don't know if that's a Canadianism or not.
Never heard of bearbucks but can confirm that "reefing" is pulling hard on something.
You reef lines (ropes) on a boat.
You reef sails (by using lines):
Missed it by that much.
Here in PEI I'm sure every isolated community has thousands of sayings. The island as a whole I'm sure has many. Canada is probably like that small communities with slang none of us have ever heard. The ones that break out regionally still may not make it to other areas even after decades being in use.
On one of the recent seasons of Alone there was a guy from Labrador who had an solidly Irish accent, no hint of North America, right down to saying 'tree' for '3'. I can only imagine that's who the settlers were and the isolation meant the accent never changed.
My favo(u)rite Type 1 has got to be “whippersnipper” (string trimmer).
I use that one, also "dishswisher"
Chesterfield, serviette?
Those are British words which Canada uses a lot of.
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I’m very upset to hear that
> While brown bread may have contained some molasses in the early 1900s, post-WWII it was usually made without. So Canadian brown bread is, unlike Boston-style bread, not sweet (see the 1909 quotation) and also distinct from Irish brown bread, though the latter may have inspired it.
Brown bread is sweet, and you are supposed to cut it up into little hockey pucks and toast it. It is the perfect shape when it comes out of the can.
That's a weird (or perhaps regional) definition. Brown bread I've had is always molasses sweetened. Source: ontario and provinces east.
The boston canned brown bread i always assumed was a touristy thing, not something regularly consumed.
Lived in BC, SK, and ON. I'm far enough east that I regularly hit up both Ottawa and Montreal.
In my experience "brown bread" is a synonym for whole wheat bread. If you go order a sandwich and they ask what bread you want it on and you say "brown", you're getting whole wheat (or maybe 60% whole wheat... just not white).
I'd be very confused if I ever got this molasses-sweetened bread everyone is talking about.
BC, AB, ON. Same as you, brown bread = whole wheat. Not sure I've even heard of molasses-sweetened bread, let alone eaten it.
https://www.crosbys.com/sarahs-molasses-brown-bread/
It’s made with ungodly amounts of molasses. My grandmother used to make it with lard or shortening, yikes.
I would note that's a recipe on a molasses website. My family recipe uses one quarter cup of molasses, which is ~48g sugar in two loaves. Leave the spoonful of sugar out your morning coffee and you'll be even with the sugar in your couple slices of toast.
Molasses has a lot of minerals in it, and the notion that eating fat makes you fat is a lie purpitrated by big sugar/grain that has lead to a lot of diabetes and heart desease, your grandmother knew where it was at! Also Big Sugar is an underrated band from Canada IMO
That isn’t just fat, it’s heavily saturated fat. Lard in particular is nasty stuff.
And yeah molasses has minerals in it … and a ton of sugar. It’s no health food.
I’ve loaded up on this stuff as a kid. You’re basically eating cake. That’s fine for a treat, not for eating every day.
Would you expand on how nasty lard is? I had a quick search and the top result was a reddit thread of people breaking down the different fatty acids in lard and coming away surprised that the good outweighs the bad. I don't eat a lot of lard personally, but I'm not as concerned about it compared to microplastics or highly processed foods. Looking at the nutritional info on the side of the blackstrap molasses carton indicates a small amount of it covers a significant portion of daily intake for a few key minirals against less surgar then one puts in their coffee. I agree it's cake, but does a slice of generic sheet cake get part of your daily dose of iron, potassium, b2, b6, magnesium?
I bet you knew it was a treat, though. Compare to some folks’ daily sugar cereal diet… I dunno, unhealthy habits are usually unhealthy because they are habits.
I found a sort of fun blog post that points out that technically, it could be considered a pudding rather than a bread, because it is steamed rather than baked.
https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Number-of-Historical-...
Although the consistency is more like a dense, very moist bread. It wouldn’t be great for a conventional sandwich. Could reasonably steal the English muffin’s job, though. Or a regular muffin. Maybe a bit messier.
Yeah when I think further on it, I've never heard of it here in Ontario. In Atlantic Canada though, it's definitely made with molasses. Google search results [1] suggests this is a regionalism (Atlantic Canada and new england states)
If I was offered brown bread and got a boring whole wheat, I'd be sorely disappointed.
[1] https://my-mothers-cook-books.ca/2021/05/29/brown-bread-vs-p...
Nova Scotian here: it’s definitely made with molasses. It’s really moist and doughy when it’s fresh. Goes very well when dipped in a chowder.
Or do like my Mom did: mix a little peanut butter with molasses into a slurry on top.
All of this will kill you, of course, but it does taste good!
Massachusetts native, we regularly are brown bread from a can as a kid. Not a touristy thing.
My family were definitely not tourists, but come to think of it I don’t recall seeing the canned stuff in my friends’ houses. So maybe we were just locals who fell for a prank that was being played on the tourists, or something.
Can? Where in Canada is this canned brown bread at?
It isn’t, apparently, that’s what I’m upset about. Canada and New England are supposed go way back, longer than the countries. But apparently we didn’t share our bread technology advances.
Check the foreign foods section of your local supermarket. Probably right beside those chocolate sprinkles intended for making sandwiches.
I've had it. You're really not missing out. I always assumed it was a depression era thing (canned bread!).
> I always assumed it was a depression era thing (canned bread!).
1860’s apparently.
https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/A-Number-of-Historical-...
> You're really not missing out.
It it rare in matters of taste to be able to say it, but you sir or madam are objectively incorrect!
Ok well, maybe that is a bit over the top. But anyway, since it comes in a can, hopefully anyone curious can just try it. Pop it in the toaster oven, put some cream cheese on it, and have it for breakfast. It is a treat, IMO.
We call it spoon bread in the east. True spoon bread is baked in an old tin can. Not sweet.
Love to see Skookum in there.
Same. As an American living on the Canadian border most of my life, I learned most of my Candaianisms from factory coworkers and AvE's youtube channel.
Is that in all of canada or just west coast
It's mostly West coast. Origin is Pacific West Coast pidgin (Chinook). Some people in Yukon and the prairies use it, but it becomes rarer the further you are from B.C.. It has become more widely used in recent years though.
How does "Rip" not contain an entry for the driving equivalent of mall rats' loitering?
"Out for a Rip?"
title? this is a full Dictionary of Canadianisms, words included according to a six facet typology. i.e. the typology is not the main story.
Type 1 – Origin: a form and its meaning were created in what is now Canada
Type 2 – Preservation: a form or meaning that was once widespread in many Englishes, but is now preserved in Canadian English in the North American context or beyond; sometimes called “retention”
Type 3 – Semantic Change: forms that have undergone semantic change in Canadian English
Type 4 – Culturally Significant: forms or meanings that have been enshrined in the Canadian psyche and are widely seen as part of Canadian identity
Type 5 – Frequency: forms or meanings that are Canadian by virtue of frequency
Type 6 – Memorial: forms or meanings now widely considered to be pejorative
Non-Canadian: forms or meanings once thought to be Canadian for which evidence is lacking
Growing up in Toronto during the 70s, I remember several expressions I've rarely, if ever, heard elsewhere.
"No guff"--meaning something like "no, really?" in a sarcastic sense
"My foot"--maybe something similar to "my ass!"
And later, when living in Montreal, I remember several expressions that were basically direct translations from the French
"Me, I..."--from the French "Moi, je..."
"In place of"--instead of "instead of"
"In place of" sounds like a direct translation of "En lieu"
I always loved the term "keener" growing up and was disappointed that it wasn't a term of use down here in the States. It's essentially the same thing as a "brown-noser" but a little less graphic.
Keener is more benign than brown-noser, but Canadians will use it with a subtle hint of irony or sarcasm to indicate politely that the "keener' is indeed a brown-noser or amusing try hard.
A keener is an ardent enthusiast. A brown-noser (aka a browner) is a sycophant. Not the same thing at all.
Also, a brown-noser should not be confused with a blue-noser.
The distinction between an ardent enthusiast and a sycophant was lost on many I encountered using the term.
A keener is also a bit of a try-hard.
A little less derogatory, in my estimation.
I'm surprised that no one commented on the waste of taxpayer dollars that such a compilation must be.
Growing up in downtown Toronto in the 90s we always played sue sum see, living in AB I just get confused looks now.
(rock paper scissors)
"wet coast"
Slang for BC. It's a joke, because (coastal) BC is mostly wet. And BC is the westernmost province.
bunny hug (saskatchewan) will always be my favourite.
I'm pleased to see some of the Chinook jargon is there.
Skookum as frig!
Actually they should just watch a few AvE videos, he’s a goldmine for old Canadian lingo.
I still use "saltchuck" when I'm distracted. Confuses the heck out of Californians.
I've seen Chinook words used in California, both in place names and businesses. Skookum, Siwash, Tyee, etc.
Definitely less common than in BC/WA/OR though.
Klahowya tillicum!
Skoden
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Take off, eh!
It's missing.
I want to see Ausralian version.
I wish there was a random button
No mention of bunnyhugs
Disappointed there's no ginch/gonch/gotch/gitch: https://www.reddit.com/r/canada/comments/nincf2/gotchies_got.... Closest is gotchies for a wedgie. How can we contribute?
And related, "gooch", as both a noun and a verb.
Well, why not include the word "Canadian", which significantly predates the country, as the prime example?
It's derived from Iroquois Nation words and used by French settlers to refer to Indigenous people. The word "Canada" was used by explorer Jacques Cartier to refer to the city now called "Québec". It broadly refered to the territory of a specific Indigenous tribe. (could be derogatory, but seemingly accurate / matter-of-fact)
After the British invasion, the British start using "Canadian" to describe both First Nations and French settlers (derogatory, "non-British)
Over time, "Canadian" generally refers to habitants of Canada.
Related: the hockey team "Les Canadiens" is from Montréal in the province of Québec in Canada. It's the oldest hockey team (1909, pre-NHL). The name is a reappropriation of the word Canadian at a time where it was used derogatively against "French-Canadians" (term that didn't exist at the time). Their chant "go, habs, go" refers to the "habitants", i.e., French settlers.
Related: "province" originates from latin used by Romans to described conquered territory. This is the term founders of Canada in 1867 decided to use instead of "state"
For anyone interested in Canadian history, always check-out the French version of a wikipedia page (and translate it). English pages have a lot of hand-waving and start history with their conquest. Also, ChatGPT makes outrageous historical mistakes all the time, such as suggesting that French-Canadians were a minority group in the 19th century
edit: format, typos
> Related: "province" originates from latin used by Romans to described conquered territory. This is the term founders of Canada in 1867 decided to use instead of "state"
According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Province this is a false etymology:
> In fact, the word province is an ancient term from public law, which means: "office belonging to a magistrate".
"State" is an overloaded term. In British English it usually refers to the top level political entity, e.g. "head of state" unless specifically talking about the US (except for the Secretary of State...)
I wonder if the word choice was influenced by the US civil war ending only a couple of years previously and wanting to make it unambiguous where the centre of power lay.
From the link you shared:
> The English word province is attested since about 1330 and derives from the 13th-century Old French province, which itself comes from the Latin word provincia, which referred to the sphere of authority of a magistrate, in particular, to a foreign territory.
The fact that British authorities picked a French word that the conquered would understand is significant.
> I wonder if the word choice was influenced by the US civil war ending only a couple of years previously
Interesting interpretation! I would agree given Canadians were given the opportunity to ally with the 13 colonies at the time (but didn't). British loyalists also fled the United States. "Province" made allegiance to the crown oversea clear
> The fact that British authorities picked a French word that the conquered would understand is significant.
That seems unavoidable given almost all English words related to government/law/administration (including "state") derive from French! The only counterexamples I can think of are "borough" and "riding".
> "Province" made allegiance to the crown oversea clear
There is a much clearer term for that though, "dominion" as in "Dominion of Canada". At least to my British English ear "province" simply doesn't have those connotations.
> That seems unavoidable given almost all English words related to government/law/administration (including "state") derive from French!
Interesting. I always thought that Britain adopted parliamentary system earlier than France. I'm guessing this has to do with the period Normandie (i.e., the French king) ruled over England
Norman French was the language of administration in England for about 300 years following the Norman conquest in 1066 and the term "parliament" emerged during this time.
I like to joke that "Dominion of Canada" is actually a railroad company
> For anyone interested in Canadian history, always check-out the French version of a wikipedia page
In reading about Canadian history this entire comment strikes me as very "East" biased? (Because I'm reading a strong implication that the French are the true holders of the history and the English just showed up later. Which may very well be true)
> I'm reading a strong implication that the French are the true holders of the history
I interpreted this more as "don't forget to check out the French-language Wikipedia articles too, since they might have contents that are absent from the English-language Wikipedia articles." This would likely be the case for anything concerning Québécois or Acadien culture, or the early settlements by the French; but not likely for most things west of Ottawa (aside from some pockets like Grande Prairie, Alberta or Saint Boniface, Manitoba).
It seems everyone outside of Ontario feels some kind of alienation or other. The west, as you mentioned, but also the maritimes, and especially the Québécois.
Historically speaking, it is the case for Manitoba. Manitoba was founded by French speakers and Winnipeg should be a majority Metis city today. The reason it isn't is because of repression from Ottawa and anglophones. See the Manitoba Schools question and the history of Louis Riel and the Metis treaties.
> It seems everyone outside of Ontario feels some kind of alienation or other. The west, as you mentioned, but also the maritimes, and especially the Québécois.
Yep, and then there's Newfoundland, which isn't even part of the maritimes. (No worries though, they're used to being excluded)
It is true from the Quebec to Manitoba (about the French), but not west of that. The East Coast provinces are more complicated with their own histories.
and it was originally Canadiens, not Canadians :)
>> Their chant "go, habs, go" refers to the "habitants"
The province of Quebec has very strong language laws intended to protect the French language. Heavy-handed? You be the judge. City buses in Montreal were recently "pressured" to stop displaying the chant (one of the most Quebecois things you can say to promote your pride) because it's English. Instead they were told to use the super-common-rolls-off-the-tongue-and-way-better "Allez! Canadiens Allez!"
edit: this was later reviewed because of public pressure about just how stupid it is and now "go" is ok. But the language police still say "go" is an Anglicism and public bodies are obligated to use "exemplary" French, so you can see some of that snooty OG France perseveres - I guess the system works!
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Be sure to also check out how francophone Quebecois have been very effective at revenge - driving out anglophones and allophones from Quebec through vindictive attacks against their language, culture, schooling and employment. It's sad, but I am ultimately glad I will be the last generation of my family born in Quebec. Au revoir and good riddance.
To put things into perspectives, let’s remember that anglophones in Québec, which represent about 10% of the population, have 3 universities, one of which is McGill, and have there theaters and artists, newspapers and tv shows. Many live in Montréal all there life without knowing a word of French, since it is possible to find almost everywhere someone that speaks English. By constrast, it is less and less easy to live only in French in Montréal, since it is not always possible to find someone that speaks French.
The reality in Montréal is that most people are bilingual. Outside older folks, unilingual French speakers are much rarer than unilingual English speakers, which are structurally preserved via the institutions you described. For instance, English-only schooling from first grade to university is available to them, but not to French-speaking households or immigrants. IMHO, it's a disservice to this population. I've had colleague born in Québec deciding to leave because they felt insecure about their professional abilities in French
English is associated with money (historically from colonial forces, and now foreign capital). Montréal, the metropolis, is an island that was unified as a city. Rich English-speaking borough lobbied in 2006 to become independent entities to control their regulations, policies and taxes. This includes the West Island (Dorval, Pointe-Claire, Beaconsfield), and even the very central Westmount near McGill. Nowadays, poor neighborhoods and their french names are erased by condo promoters: Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve is HOMA, Notre-Dame-de-Grâce is NDG, Ville-Mont-Royal is TMR, Pointe-Saint-Charles/ Le Sud-Ouest is Griffin Town
> By constrast, it is less and less easy to live only in French in Montréal, since it is not always possible to find someone that speaks French.
Sorry you went to a restaurant in chinatown that didn't speak french. I hope you can recover safely from that experience. Meanwhile, this is the truth of living in Quebec as an allophone: https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article505933.html
If you read the article you posted, she faced discrimination because she was indigenous. Nowhere in the article was the language she spoke ever mentioned. It’s pretty disingenuous to use this to push a political viewpoint.
She died because she didn't speak french and the staff laughed at her rather than try to communicate with her. If you think racism in Quebec doesn't have a connection with language, you are dangerously misinformed.
Did you actually read the article? Because I did.
The case was well reported in media and they basically all agree that it’s a symptom of systemic racism against Indigenous people in Canada. The hospital staff thought she was on welfare based on her ethnicity in this case, or straight out “bet” on the patient’s blood level in another case in BC the same year. She would have got the same treatment even if she spoke French.
> If you think racism in Quebec doesn’t have a connection with language
Where have I said this? Not everything is about the language though.
I am well read on this case.
> She would have got the same treatment even if she spoke French.
This is simply untrue and I would be happy to hear a source for your position. It happens to allophones and white presenting anglophones:
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/anglophone-accuses-fre...
Feel free to have the last word. My last word is leaving Quebec and never coming back.
I mean, if you read the entire story and all the horrific incidents happening to Indigenous people across the country and still made it about yourself, not much I can say about it.
The original post was focused on history and language, and I added some political spice. Not discussing the politics of language (as in OP) is a bit outrageous.
You're right that French-Canadians are not guilt-free from discrimination et al. Québec only ever had French as an official language, but the last decades we've seen a series of dubious policies