Y'all ain't from around here...

I remember when we first moved to Nashville, this man said to us, "I kin tell y'all ain't from around here by y'all's accint." Um....our accent!? We got such a kick out of this, we are still quoting this man years later, affecting our most hillbilliest of drawls.

Dayven and I were discussing how people here often ask us where we're from during a conversation. This is a little strange because, for the most part, Canada is a lot like the U.S., just farther north. I figured we blended in pretty well and people don't know we're not Canadian unless we tell them. Dayven said they usually ask him where he's from within the first couple of minutes of talking to him. Although it doesn't happen as often for me, I do get it occasionally. When I first met Wyatt's teacher, she asked me if I was from Texas. Huh?

I grew up in north Florida, which is fairly southern. People say "Hey" instead of "Hi" or "Hello", and they're always "fixin" to do something. Then I went to college and lived in Illinois for a while, so I had to drop the "y'all" and "hey'" from my vocabulary to avoid being teased. Then we moved back to Nashville, where "you guys" seemed out of place, so I picked up "y'all" again, although it didn't always quite feel right. I guess maybe after all this moving around and trying out different dialects, my accent has just flattened out to something indistinguishable.

I asked a couple of my Canadian friends why people would ask where we're from and they said "well... it's because of your accent." Really? This got me wondering so I asked them to clarify. They said it's words with an A sound in them, like "chat". They say it with more of an English A sound like "Chawt" and we say it a bit more nasally. It's also words with an "o" sound. Canadians say "PRO-cess" instead of "PRA-cess", like we do. They say "aboat" instead of about. They also change the inflection on their sentences so that their voice goes up at the end, making everything sound like a question, even when it's not. It's a bit of a misnomer that Canadians say "eh?" a lot. In fact, you won't really hear that much at all, at least not in Alberta. What they say is "hey?" and "right?" It's used along the same lines of "ya know" or "isn't it?". "It's really hot out today, hey?"

Do you know these Canadianisms?

Beaver Tail - a sweet flat pastry with sugar on top.

Poutine (pronounced poo-tine) - french fries with cheese curds on top, smothered in hot gravy.

GST - Goods and Service Tax (like sales tax)

Back Bacon - We know it as Canadian bacon, but don't bother asking for that at the store, same thing goes for "American cheese". It's known as PRO-cessed cheese here!

Hoser - an unsophisticated person

Fer Sher - (for sure) Definitely!

Loonie - a one dollar coin (it has a picture of a loon on it)

Toonie - a two dollar coin

Clicks - Kilometres. Example: I just live 2 clicks down the road.

Eh? and Hey? - like asking "isn't it?" after you state a fact.

Mountie - a member of the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police)

Ski-doo (pronounced ska-doo) - a snowmobile

Molson Muscle - a potbelly

Timbits - small donut holes from "Timmy's" (Tim Horton's is a coffee chain)

Double-double - a cup of coffee from Timmy's with two creams and two sugars.

Regular - coffee with one cream, one sugar ("I'll have two double doubles and a regular")

Tuque (pronounced Tuke) - a snow cap

Two Four - a case of beer. Example: We should pick up a two four to take to the party. (also sometimes called a "flat")

Newfie - a person who is from Newfoundland.

Down South - refers to the United States. Ha!

Jesus Murphey - a common exclamation, sometimes Jesus H. Murphy.

College vs. University - A Canadian college is between high school and university and often teaches trades or practical skills. If you tell someone you went to college, they'll assume you mean trade school, not university where you could receive a Bachelor's Degree.

Washroom - Canadians head for the washroom when they need to use the toilet. Bathrooms are places with bathtubs in them.

Kay Beck - this is how Canadians pronounce Quebec.

Zed - how they pronounce Z, the last letter in the alphabet. "...X, Y, Zed. Now I know my ABC's, next time won't you sing with me...". This still sounds strange to me when I hear it in kids toys.

Twinning - expanding a road from two lanes to four. "They're twinning the highway, which should help with traffic".

They also call their garbage disposals "garburators", their macaroni and cheese "Kraft dinner" or "KD" (it actually says this on the box), their tennis shoes "runners" and I'm sure I could think of more if I sat here long enough.

I'm actually starting to affect the local dialect and find more and more of these words creeping into my vocabulary. I'm sure I'll pick up a Canadian accent before we leave here. When in Rome, hey?