posted
As regards the commentators, well, you'd think after listening to them for an hour I'd remember, but nope. I think at least one was a Brit, other might have had an "American" accent (we can't tell the difference between US and Canadian accents): certainly some of the games I saw on the BBC or on British Eurosport had that combination.
Plus, in the studio with the actual Olympic Grandstand presenters they had P.Y. Gerbeau, a French guy who ran the Millenium Dome and apparently used to play ice hockey, plus one Canadian ex-player whose name I didn't catch.
posted
Just to show that there are no hard feelings, President Bush announced today that he's decided to annex Canada, except for Quebec. Welcome to the Union!
Registered: Oct 1999
| IP: Logged
See? He's not so dumb. At least, not so dumb as to actually WANT Quebec to be part of his country.
-------------------- "The best defense is not a good offense. The best defense is a terrifyingly accurate and devastatingly powerful offense, with multiply-overlapping kill zones and time-on-target artillery strikes." -- Laurence, Archangel of the Sword
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Whoopdie f***ing sh*t. As evidenced in Collateral Damage, no one gives a sh*t about the Canadians.
-------------------- Fry- How will we get out of this? George Takei's head- Maybe we can use some kind of auto-destruct code like one-A, two-B, three-C... (Bender's head blows up) Bender- Now everybody knows! -Futurama's obligatory Star Trek episode
Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
Lee: Well, there is no difference between a US and a Canadian accent, if you want to express it in those terms. Obviously, there are different US accents and different Canadian accents. However, since the two groups overlap (in general, someone from northern Minnesota isn't going to sound different than someone from western Ontario, for example), it's really just one big group of accents.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
further on the accents: Alot of Americans think the way alot of Canadians pronounce the word "about" is funny.
Me, I don't know what all the fuss is about.
---
I've noticed that every forum thread on the net that I've gone to that is talking about this hockey thing has the same title: Oh Canada!!!!! (sometimes with five or more exclamation marks, half the time the "X2" is added.
I'm wondering: Did the Canadian sports writers start that filthy meme, or is it just too obvious to pass up?
Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged
posted
Adding to the loonie story, it was the American news people who screwed up and put a $2 coin - the toonie, as we call it - on their news reports. The toonie is the one with the silver ring around a golden centre. Our $1 coin is a solid golden colour, with a Canadian loon on the tails side, hence the name.
[Insert random dumb joke about Canadian vs. US currency here. Be creative.]
It was nuts here in Calgary. People poured out into the streets at taverns all over the place, we had to shut down 4th Ave for a while for the impromptu parade, and the huge party from the Canadian Olympic Park (where most Canadian athletes, and many American and international Olympians train) was filled with hundreds of cheering fans who were watching the game at a special party there.
Equally entertaining was the reception we gave 80+ returning athletes this morning at the airport. Most of them hadn't slept the night before, partying at the closing ceremonies and various locations around Salt Lake City, then leaving for the airport at 2:00am for the flight back here. Then when they got off the plane eight hours later, they had to deal with a big welcoming party at the airport. A notable fraction of the athletes were wearing "Get lost, I wanna SLEEEEEEP!" looks on their faces as they were drowned by fans and media people.
Mark
[ February 25, 2002, 23:48: Message edited by: Mark Nguyen ]
posted
Tim: I'm sure if you gave me a whole bunch of accents to listen to, I'd be able to pick between them and say, this one's US, that's Canadian, the other's Pepsi. . . But generally I can't identify any one accent straight off. Must do a search, I'm sure there'll be a webpage somewhere!
posted
Lee: Well, if you listened to an Alabama accent vs. a Newfoundland accent, then, yeah, I should hope you could tell the difference. But trying to determine the difference between a northern US accent and a southern Canadian accent is rather futile. It's like trying to use accents to tell if someone is from Kentucky or Tennessee. Sure, you have a 50/50 chance at guessing, and some of the more extreme cases might be obvious. But, for the most part, there's no difference.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
While I'm certain everyone will just roll their eyes and say Tom is again making a big deal about how Canadians and Americans are more different than everyone thinks they are, there is most certainly a noticeable difference in accent between Vancouver and Seattle, for instance. There's a certain twanging quality that even the "softest" American accents tend to have that is absent from the Canadian.
Newfies sound just plain weird.
[ February 26, 2002, 13:58: Message edited by: The_Tom ]
-------------------- "I was surprised by the matter-of-factness of Kafka's narration, and the subtle humor present as a result." (Sizer 2005)
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Yes, but you live there, and so are going to be more attuned to subtle differences.
Until I moved up here, I'd had a bit of trouble identifying the difference between Liverpool and Newcastle accents straight off. I usually had to do a comparison in my head (to Dave Lister and Liam Gallagher respectively).
And to make a comparison to Tim's point, in many ways a Newcastle accent is far closer to a Scottish accent than it is to a London accent.
As a rule, the more "working-class" (I hate using that term)a person, the stronger their accent. Going the other way though, accents almost seem to split in two. On the one hand, you get the "posh" accent, where things become horrible over-pronounced. On the other, you end up with what I believe is called a "mid-atlantic accent", of the sort Kelsey Grammer has, where most of the pronounciation varying that happens in accents is wiped out, leaving you with something in the middle.
Registered: Mar 1999
| IP: Logged
posted
Well, either you're confusing Newcastle and Manchester, or you honestly think Liam Galagher comes from Newcastle. I'm not sure which would be worse. . . 8)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
Printer-friendly view of this topic
