And I, a Canuck, live in Australia, but never in my long years
of teaching Canadian kids, or living with an Australian-Canadian
husband have I heard anyone make "about" rhyme with "boot"
or "house" rhyme with "moose". The differences are subtle
but perhaps "out" is more like an American saying "ouch".
Jill Jones wrote:
> on 6/1/01 12:28 PM, Mark Weiss at [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
> > I was married to a woman from Toronto and have known a lot of folks
> > there--lived briefly on the outskirts, now I'm told near the center of
> > town. "Tronno" or "Tronna" (more usually) is the normal pronunciation, I
> > suppose like maudlin for Magdalen. Or Wooster for Worcester. Or Balimer or
> > even Balmer for Baltimore. Anyone care to add to the list? It's a long one.
> >
> >
>
> Well, Melbourne is Melb'n or Melben not Mel-bourne, it's Canbra or Canbrer
> for Canberra and Brisb'n or Brisban for Bris-bane - the stress is on the
> first syllable rather than falling equally. And, unfortunately Ostralia is
> becoming Ostraya. And there's heaps more. For instance, a small town with
> the Aboriginal monicker of Goonoo Goonoo is pronounced Gunna G'noo.
>
> But, as with Candice, that 'aboot' says Canadian to me if nothing else does.
> And some Austrayans get rather tragic kicks by asking New Zealanders to say
> the next number after five - it's somewhere between 'sex' and 'sux'. No
> wonder they think we're a bit thuck, eh. But how does the rest of the world
> tell the diff? I was in a shop in Paris once and the woman at the counter
> asked if I was from New Zealand and I said no. She said she only asked
> because they get a bit snippy when they're mistaken for Australians. Fair
> cop, I guess.
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