[net.nlang] About, aboot

ian (07/14/82)

Re: utah-gr!thomas and aboot and about

It's often (offen??) said that you can tell a Canajen from an Amurican
by their pronunciation of this one word. To a Canuck, the Yank appears
to be saying abowwt, while his own pronunciation appears `normal'.
To the Amurican, the Canuck appears to be saying `aboot', while of course
his own pronunciation is correct. Both are saying `about', merely with
differing degrees of dipthongization. Some of my California friends kids
me aboot this too.
	Ian Darwin
	U of Toronto Computing Services

thomas (07/15/82)

My friend from Montreal who said aboot was also totally amazed to find that
the Parisians could tell immediately from his French that he was from
Quebec!
=Spencer