Wednesday 14 January 2009

mouth full of mush

Rosey and Cass were hosed from the beginning when they learned to talk.

I guess we should have suspected they'd have trouble, what with B and I having such different accents,* but it's not the type of thing you worry about when you decide to have children. You just don't think about how the differing ways you pronounce vowels**, for pete's sakes, are going to screw up your children's pronunciation.

Which is why my daughter says Ub for up. (And gets all offended if you call her on it, because to her head? Totally speaking clearly.) And woe betide you if you call her Ub. After her head stops spinning around, she'll fix you with the most indimidating glare she can muster and say 'I said UB! My name is not Ub!'

But it's fun to say. And it's kind of fun to wind her up, too.





*My mother: Y'know, honey, you're starting to sound Canadian.
Me: Really? (thinking: Then why oh why do I have to repeat myself so often?)

later, the same day:

Kids at Cass's school: Your Mom talks funny.
Cass: (Totally unconcerned) Yeah, she's from away.

**I'm sure you think I'm joking. You should hear the lengthy SCAL-op versus SKAAL-op debates that B and I can diatribe out. We are not pretty.

15 comments:

Unknown said...

And I'm sure you've been told to just throw an 'eh?' at the end of every sentence and you'll fit in!

We had family friends from London, Ontario and the Aboot was rather pleasant to hear.

Chantal said...

I am canadian and I have had the SCAL-op SKAAL-op debate as well. We spent our honeymoon in Cape Bretton, in Baddeck and when we got there the first thing our BnB owner did was correct the way we said Baddeck. :)

witchypoo said...

Maritimers are the only ones who pronounce Skaal-op properly. Even Upper Canadians get it wrong. Who the heck fishes for them, huh? Huh?
Us, that's who. It's what we call them, eh?

Anonymous said...

"She's from away." AWESOME.

xo
Flicka

MARY G said...

I'm from Essex County where we grow more *to MAY toes* than anyone. Central Canadians also pronounce 'ant' and 'aunt' identically.
This is just hilarious. I hope you hang in there in spite of the Maritimers. I can't do the SKAAL thing no matteer how hard I try.

Magpie said...

Nothing like fighting about words to get people all riled up, huh?

Lone Grey Squirrel said...

Would you be from "a-way" or "a-weigh"?

Elizabeth said...

Honestly we DO NOT say Aboot!

alison said...

Hey, 'ant' and 'aunt' ARE pronounced the same. And I've never said 'aboot' in my life. I am guilty of the 'eh' though.

I love that Rosey said you were from 'away'. That's so east coast.

Mandy said...

I grew up in Canada with an American mom and a British dad... no one spoke properly in our house.

:)

Pam said...

Accents are important, though. Both of our daughters are attached to English chaps (we're Scottish) and I would feel very strange if our (non-existent) grandchildren spoke with English accents. I have nothing against English accents. But it would be odd.

Mike said...

Yeah the wife and I have the same problem. She's from Northern California and I'm from Southern California. People get confused by our conversations all the time...

kimmyk said...

where ya from that you talk funny?
i like different people speak.
it's different and fun!

Major Bedhead said...

It's a Skahl-op, just like it's an Ahnt, not an ant. Pah-jah-mas, not pah-jam-as. Praw-cess, not proh-cess. SODA, not pop. And learn how to drive around a rotary, for the love of god and all that's holy.

So, yeah, married a Canadian, too.

Caro said...

How funny. Scallop in Maine (where we used to live) and scallop in CA (where we live now) are completely different pronunciations.

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