Why does it have to be a British or American english only?

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K B

I have to agree with Randy B. We Canadians speak a bastardization form of English. However, and anyone who has ever travelled through England will probably agree, British English is very often a bastardization of itself. Listened to anyone gob off at you in Cockney lately?

It seems to me that what is referred to as British English normally has more to do with spelling than with pronunciation, eg. colour is the British way of spelling color which is the American form. In that respect, most Canadians, especially the older ones among us, write using the British form. But we do use our own vocabulary. We do not use the loo in Canada; we go to the bathroom. We don't tell anyone to shut their gob; we tell them to shut up or to shut their mouth.

With the coming of computers it sometimes seems that hardly any of us write or speak English anymore - we speak and write computerese. E.g. - my bf lol @ me.

Accents have very little to do with whether it is British English or not, even in Britain. In North America, very few people speak with a broad A which is often viewed as British. There are local accents in all countries and you do not have to drive far to hear a distinctly different one in Canada, the US or in England. Someone mentioned Newfoundlanders. I love to listen to them. When they speak to me, they speak a form of English in an accent that I can understand, though it remains distinctly, Newfoundlander. When they speak to each other, they often speak with a much thicker accent and use terms I have never heard before and I do not understand a word they are saying half the time. LOL

French Canadians speak a distinctly Canadian version of French that is really quite easy to distinguish from the French from France - often referred to as Parisienne French. And the French from France and the French from Canada are often very critical of each other's manner of speaking French. Try asking for pommes de terre frites in a Quebec restaurant and watch them roflol @ u. Or ask for patates frites in a restaurant in Boulogne-sur-Mer. They will look at you like you just arrived from outer space.

In the end, what is important, is that basically, we all understand each other and that makes life quite easy as long as you stay in countries where the British colonized and otherwise left their mark, which is a huge part of the world.

Kilty

Canadians (aside from Quebec) speak Canadian English. We use British spelling, for example: it's night, not nite, neighbour, not neighbor etc. We say "leftenant", not "loutenant" (lieutenant). Billboard, gas, truck, wrench instead of hoarding, petrol, lorry and spanner. But many words we use are British for example: blinds, braces, porridge, tap instead of American English which says shades, suspenders, oatmeal and faucet. In Canada we say 'hydro', and some American friends of mine asked--"what the hell does that mean?" So I explained it. We have sasquatch (the mythical beast that roams around British Columbia) and Ogopogo--another mythical beast that swims around in BC.

Probably the most distinctive accent in Canada is the Newfoundland accent (and also the Ottawa Valley). Oh, and I almost forgot, a sofa is a couch or chesterfield. A love seat is for two only-for those winter nights ya want to snug up with yer best gal (or guy).

In conclusion, (and I'm Canadian) I have to ask--do I have an accent??!!??

Carry On..!

Because people often can not tell the subtle differences between the two accents, and vocabulary. Particularly those learning English as a second language. Most schools and colleges advertise for either British or North American accents.

*ajidamoon* the Eh team

I have my Firefox browser set to Canadian English, so I no longer get those annoying "spelling mistake alert" lines underneath words like neighbour, flavour and colour.

Jim Z

Where the heck were you educated? There is English...period. The Americans acknowledge English as their official language, Canadians acknowledge their language as primarily English but also French. There is no such thing as Canadian English, or Canadian French. We have some words that are unique to our history, but not the language.

Randy B

Because "Canadian english" is a bastardization of Brit and US english and for some reason it matters to people which one we are closest too. Many don't realize that US english is just a bastardization of Brit english too so the question should be, which country is closest to Brit english (the true english).

Douglas L

Yes English is English.
The Canadian accent is much closer to that of the USA than Britain.
The Australian accent is much closer to that of Britain than the USA.
I think that is what "some people talk about".

Mo Fayed

Originally there was, but the Quebecois pointed out that this implied all of Canada spoke English, and that there was no setting for Canadian French. So the idea was squashed, and all the Canadian English language packs were securely destroyed.

Possibly.

Snow Globe

People are only referring to general spoken accents: British or North American. Of course this ignores the vast differences in accents across those regions, but if you take the accent of our news announcers as the general model, there are two accents. Peter Jennings served North America well.

paudman

There's no such thing as American english, just english, plus a country that wants to think it invented the language and wants to put its' stamp on it in some form or other. Sorry guys we British got there first.

Jake

we use British English, americans got mad at Britain and went off and changed the spelling of english words to get back at the King, it's pretty childish really...

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