What's your favourite Canadianism, eh?
From toque to stagette to keener, there are many words uttered only in the Great White North.
"The thing that surprises me the most is how just ordinary every day they are," Katherine Barber told CBC Saskatchewan's Blue Sky. She was the editor of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and is often referred to as Canada's word lady.
"We don't even realize they are Canadian. It's not until we go away we realize we use them."
She said a good example of that is the word eavestrough which is used only in Canada. Most other English-speaking nations call it a rain gutter.
She said "slough," a small body of water, is a prairie term, as is parkade. Also using the term "stalls" to mean "parking stalls" is prairie phrase.
Another uniquely Canadian phrase? Shit-disturber. Barber says other English nations used the word "stir" instead of "disturb." She told Blue Sky host Garth Materie, of course, most Canadians are far too polite to use the term on air.
She said the Oxford English Dictionary contains several Canadianisms, but words like stagette and keener were only added recently.
CBC Radio Saskatchewan's Blue Sky asked listeners for some of their favourite Canadian words and phrases. What are some of yours?
