How Canadian are you?

[Paul Reid]

83

I'm the only one in my family that calls it a chesterfield - and I call french fries chips. But I call crisps (potato chips) chips too. Used to call the bonnet a hood and sadly, my kids are calling a pop a soda.

[Chiffed]

I remember lacrosse as a girlie game from my sister's very British "Chalet School" books (we had an unarticulated anti-gender-stereotyping policy under which she, in exchange, read my Biggles books).

Lacrosse (not hockey) is Canada's official national sport. The field variety, played on a small soccer pitch, requires far too much running, and not nearly enough blood. Box lacrosse, on the other hand, is played in a concrete hockey rink with plywood sides, and it makes goon hockey look positively delicate. It can be blindingly fast, and usually doesn't rely on boring 'dump and run' strategy like pro hockey. Like hockey pucks, you do not want to catch a lacrosse ball in the teeth.

Go Shamrocks!!!

[SteveShaw]

83

I'm the only one in my family that calls it a chesterfield - and I call french fries chips. But I call crisps (potato chips) chips too. Used to call the bonnet a hood and sadly, my kids are calling a pop a soda.

So what do you call a car bumper then? And a hoover? And do you pronounce "tomato" properly?

[Chiffed]

83

I'm the only one in my family that calls it a chesterfield - and I call french fries chips. But I call crisps (potato chips) chips too. Used to call the bonnet a hood and sadly, my kids are calling a pop a soda.

So what do you call a car bumper then? And a hoover? And do you pronounce "tomato" properly?

We have a lot of deer here, so bumpers are either bumpers or cattle-pushers. Our vacuum is actually a Hoover, so we call it either, and my family is evenly split between tomato and tomahhhtoe. Oh, and my dad calls a schedule a shed-yule. He still refuses to call a schitzophrenic a sh!tsofrenic. So much for consistency.

Bill Bryson's The Mother Tongue, English and How It Got That Way is a fun read for those who want a light look at regionalisms.

[s1m0n]

I remember lacrosse as a girlie game from my sister's very British "Chalet School" books (we had an unarticulated anti-gender-stereotyping policy under which she, in exchange, read my Biggles books).

Lacrosse (not hockey) is Canada's official national sport. The field variety, played on a small soccer pitch, requires far too much running, and not nearly enough blood. Box lacrosse, on the other hand, is played in a concrete hockey rink with plywood sides, and it makes goon hockey look positively delicate. It can be blindingly fast, and usually doesn't rely on boring 'dump and run' strategy like pro hockey. Like hockey pucks, you do not want to catch a lacrosse ball in the teeth.

Go Shamrocks!!!

I think the Lacrosse comment in the survey was a joke--it's our official national sport, being descended from a game played by the Hurons/Iroquois but it's hugely eclipsed by our unofficial national sport, which is (ice) hockey. As I recall, the mention of lacrosse in the survey came after a question naming three hockey players.

[Innocent Bystander]

...There is a theory that the Hurons got their game of Lacrosse from early Norse settlers...

[cowtime]

Here's your score: 61

Respectably Canadian. And really what more do you want? Really ought not to presume too much. That just wouldn't be right.

Weird considering the farthest north I've ever been is barely over the Mason-Dixon line. I don't know any Canadians either. [/quote]

[Roger O'Keeffe]

In Belfast it was always a "settee".

I have an uneasy feeling that this is the sort of thing that could be a marker of religious affiliation in Belfast

I learnt "couch" in 1950s Dublin, "sofa" would also seem normal. "Settee" would strike me as either Victorian - what your grandparents might call it - or provincial.

[SteveShaw]

In Belfast it was always a "settee".

I have an uneasy feeling that this is the sort of thing that could be a marker of religious affiliation in Belfast

I learnt "couch" in 1950s Dublin, "sofa" would also seem normal. "Settee" would strike me as either Victorian - what your grandparents might call it - or provincial.

Everybody called it a settee in the north of England. "Couch" was a bit posh and "sofa" merely betrayed unutterable affectation.

[Rod Sprague]

As a young child, I spent days with a well to do Spanish speaker and when my parents were not in school or working, at home with them. The Spanish speaking woman basically adopted me, as my parents couldn’t afford child care and I was apparently remarkably cute and well behaved. I was completely bi-lingual. Then my parents and I moved away and my family and I spent a summer on Prince Edward Island. When I talk to Canadians, I have a very odd accent!

Rod

[Nanohedron]

...merely betrayed unutterable affectation.

Here in Minneapolis, that would apply to "settee" and "divan". A chaise longue would be another beast altogether, if you're into antique shops and period repros. "Fainting couch", I think, is the alternate term.

It's bad enough that people here will pronounce it "chase lounge".

[Flyingcursor]

William Shatner is Canadian by God!

[djm]

William Shatner is Canadian by God!

That's okay, you can keep him. No, really. I insist. We've got lots of them. You can keep Lorne Greene, too.


djm

[SteveShaw]

...merely betrayed unutterable affectation.

Here in Minneapolis, that would apply to "settee" and "divan". A chaise longue would be another beast altogether, if you're into antique shops and period repros. "Fainting couch", I think, is the alternate term.

It's bad enough that people here will pronounce it "chase lounge".

A divan is a bed, surely. I await the inevitable riposte.

[djm]

A divan is a bed, surely. I await the inevitable riposte.

Is that a four-riposter bed?


djm