Hi group

I am of asian origin and I am proficient in english language. But when I landed in Toronto I was not able to understant the meaning of certain Canadian specific english words like
loonies(spelling??). Whenever someone used it I was like what the heck does this mean, you know. Then later I found out that it meanse CAD1.00(am I correct). Anothner word I still dont understand is "Canuck"(hope it is not derogatory) which is used in American TV shows all the time to refer to Canadians. I am sure there are plenty of words like this used in Canada. I would appreciate if anybody could share some of those words here which will me very useful to me.


thanks for all the help

cheers...rsk

Hah! Yes, a "loonie" is a one dollar coin. It is called a "loonie" because the bird featured on the coin is a "loon" bird, which is Canada's national bird. Looks like a duck to me.

Two dollar coins are called "toonies" or "twoonies." I don't really know why, I guess it's just a play on the word "loonie" for the one-dollar.

Canuck is just a word for Canadian. It is not derogatory. I don't know where the word originates from. Vancouver's NHL hockey team is called the Vancouver Canucks.

What about 'aboot'?

The Canadian accent to me sounds like a cross between Geordie and American!

"The Canadian accent"....what a giveaway!.

I guess I have been here too long....there is no such thing as a "Canadian" accent...thats like talking about an "English" accent eh.

I guess the "noo doot aboot it" thing is more of an East coast thing, Takes a while to pick up on it, but there is actually a wide range of accents across Canada eh.

Anyway...heres one for the original poster

Toque...pronounce "toook" (rhymes with "luke") which would be a wooly bobble hat minus the bobble. Required headwear in the winter to go with your white socks, Sorel boots and plaid lumberjack shirt (from a different post)

Also "twofour" refers to a case of 24 beers from the beerstore, although I am not sure which came first, the twofour, or the May twofour holiday (AKA Victoria Day ...the official start of summer)

I am sure there are others you need to know, but that is half the fun of being new here.

Iain

:lecture:

Canuck - US slang for Canadians in general and French Canadians in particular

French-speaking Canadians living in or near the northeastern U.S. consider "Canuck" to be an offensive ethnic slur. But in the rest of Canada, "Canuck" is a label of national pride, as evidenced by the name of the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. Go figure.


As to the origin of "Canuck," it may have arisen as a blending of "Canadian" and the Inuit (Eskimo) word "inuk," meaning "man." There's also the possibility that it came from Hawaiian, brought over by laborers imported to colonial Canada
Origin and Roots

"Many dictionaries say simply ‘orig. unknown.’ The term is in little use today among canadians, except for the Vancouver Canucks hockey team. One may, on occasion, run into a jocular person (possibly in a U.S. bar) who will say, "oh, a Canuck, hah?" but the word seldom features in ordinary conversation. (It has been traced) through U.S. dictionaries as Canuck, Canack, Cunnuck and Kanuck, the last one (1835) meaning a Dutch or French Canadian. A Dictionary of Americanisms defines Canuck, Canack, and Cunnuck as "colloquial slang appellations for a native of Canada, although (within Canada) almost solely understood to be a French Canadian.

There is a theory that the word is derived from Connaught, a term said to be given by French Canadians to the Irish. There is a suggestion that it may come from the first syllable of Canada, combined with an Algonquin noun ending in –uc. The Oxford Companion To The English Language (defines the term as): "Canuck, 1820’s. Probably from the Iroquoian canuchsa, someone in a kanata (village)…but possibly from Hawaiian kanaka (man), through a pidgin used in the fur trade (in which Pacific islanders were employed), and taken into French as canaque, perhaps being originally applied to French Canadian canoemen. A nickname for a Canadian…but in the U.S. Northeast pejoratively referring to French Canadians."

take your pick!

PARDON ME




OR as i have always said since i got here, PARDON, AM SORRY, SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU WHAT ( East london thing )

Welcome to Canada eh

Well, I saw a holiday program the other night filming from Banff. Some lumberjack shirted, jesus sandled guy said 'aboot' several times! So, it's not just an eastern Canada thing!

As for Loooook (as in Luke), that's a Lancashire/Yorkshire border accent! If you've ever seen Bo Selecta you'll know what I mean!

'Ey you! Buy my new boooooook ya ba**tard!'

i once went swimming in canada and my canadian friends found it highly amusing when i said "swimming costume"

whats so funny aboot that ?

Swimsuit!!!!!!


Come to Nova Scotia and man, you'll find some weird accents!!! Buddy this and buddy that!!!! I was completely thrown when i first came here and even now I have to act as though I'm hard of hearing whenever we go out......what?what?what?????lol

It's certainly a different accent but still is a very special accent

He he! How are you enjoying Darkness?

Enjoying it by candlelight!!!!!!!!!!!

Very serious consideration was given to the placing of two male deer heads on the two dollar coin so that we could call it "two bucks". That's Canadian humor for you.

my kinda people Canada Dry humour!

LOL The fact that you don't find that funny, makes it even more funny. I can just imagine you saying that in all seriousness. I think it's the type of humour that can't really be described properly. A costume means something you put on only for make-believe like at Halloween or in a play. But still, it's funny and I can't explain why exactly.

I think you are the one that is missing the point here
I reckon the poster was LOST IN TRANSLATION :scared: