In English please?

[starbkjrus]

True, true

But, as we know, when people become interested and engaged the topic develops.

I see you have edited your initial post as " waste of time".
Hmm, maybe if on the surface of having the simple question answered - but you have certainly put your finger on something that engages - and in that aspect is certsinly not a waste of time.
I thank you for (unintendingly) bringing up the issue

I have to agree with Patrick. Thank you for bringing up this topic. I'm quite enjoying the discussion.

[Peter C.]

Actually, Peter, Steve was exaggerating. It was funny, but apparently misleading. Given that 90% of Canadians live withing 100 miles of the USA border and we have been exposed to US mass-media for our whole lives, our linguistic idiosyncrasies have mostly vanished - merged into a sort of Los Angeles/New York universal American English. Part of the issue is that kids always think "the other" is better, so they imitate US spelling and pronunciation.

By the way, you will find that the cricket definition for wicket is the third in The Concise Oxford Dictionary. The usage Steve refers to once was common in England. In the case of a post office or bank, the wicket is the little window through which you make your transactions. This just proves that language evolves.

If you took 50 people born and raised in Canada in the last 40 years, I doubt that more than twenty would know any definition for wicket, and of those twenty, I'd guess that seventeen would have the cricket definition.

Thank you for the clarification Ron. You made me reach for my dictionary. I have an Oxford English dictionary from Britain and a US Oxford dictionary which is still packed from our move.

The British one puts the cricket definition first.
The second is a small door in a large door (like a hanger sliding door) so that people can enter without opening the large door.
The third says a meaning in the USA is a small opening in a door or wall, usually closed with a sliding door, so I guess that covers the post office window.

So our languages are quite different.

I probably have more relatives in Canada than I have in the UK but the last person in my family to meet our Canadian relatives was my aunty about thirty years ago. I don't even have any addresses.

Peter

[Peter C.]

The swamper was hucking skookum rocks at a toboggan from the bathroom.

(The truck-driver's assistant was throwing large stones at a flat-bottomed sled from the restroom.)

But chesterfield, hucking and skookum are vanishing words. I haven't heard any of them in years except in conversations like this.

You still hear chesterfield in antique circles in the UK but I have never heard of hucking and skookum. Rocks are large stones so does skookum rocks mean enormous rocks?

Peter

[Beertigger]

NOTE: Wisconsinites DON'T talk like people from the UP (Upper Peninsula of Michigan). There are differences...that I'm pretty sure only people from those two areas can pick out.

Oh, fer shure. Spent mah first fiftin yeers in Oh Clare (Eau Claire). Uff da!

[Frank McGrath]

This is why I miss Monarch of the Glen. I could hear it.

[Roan Carter]

For example P1M once responded to my post with "guid oan ya". I believe translated he said "get your bloody hair cut, you look like an effing girl". I hope this helps.

Well, there went my keyboard with bullion soup all over it.

[wsk]

Communication consists of two parties - why is it always the one who has something to say that has to adapt to everybody else?

That's because listeners are lazy. If as a listener we have to struggle to figure out what the speaker is saying, we won't hear - unless it's life or death. And maybe not even then.

PS
Just a question: how do people who have problems accepting a quasi phonemical approach to writing deal with short-form messaging such as synchronous on-line chatting, sms-ing etc. (A serious question, as this is part of my job)

The tl;dr shorthand is the same sort of thing (tl;dr = too long; didn't read). I've seen that used two ways: as a reply to a long message, and at the end of a long message preceding a summary or synopsis.

[Phil]

Here is a chance for you all to hear a bit of Scots and if you understand it a laugh as well. I think it will be on the internet - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1384312007

[beloitpiper]

Oh, fer shure. Spent mah first fiftin yeers in Oh Clare (Eau Claire). Uff da!

Or on St. Patrick's Day: O'Clare!

Gid te see anader Sconnie an deh bords!

[Archangel]

Here is a chance for you all to hear a bit of Scots and if you understand it a laugh as well. I think it will be on the internet - http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1384312007

You can hear it on this page. It's under Songs and click on play all. There actually not songs but radio clips.
It's pretty irreverent but that's Scottish humour. Oor Father is an interesting discussion between Father and Son about creation. The Cruel Sea has a great Scottish style of flight safety guidelines.

Preview it before playing it for your pre-teens but, then, a lot of adults won't be able to follow it either.