We are watching "Corner Gas" while we wait for our game to start. We heard a word that we barely recognized, and deciphered from context.
How do you pronounce "decal"? You know, a transfer, a little plastic or paper thingy with a picture that you can move to another surface? Like a sticker, but more permanent?
Also, do you remember my observation that Canadians shorten many words to one syllable? Cash (in the US, it's check-out or cashier), and names like Cath and Barb? I thought of another one. Chevrolet. In the US it's Chevy. Folks here call it a Chev.
Anyway, let me know how you pronounce the word "decal," meaning some type of non-removable sticker.
39 comments:
Something like 'deck-al'?
I say "DEE-cal." Canadian-born Canadians say "DECK-le."
I actually sound pretty Canadian these days, but this is one pronunciation I will never, ever pick up. It still sounds ridiculous to me, after more than ten years.
Deck-el, though I've heard it pronounced dee-cal (like decaf).
I say "DEE-cal", and I'm Canadian-born. My DAD and old folks say "DECK-le". :)
Ya know eccles cakes? Make it singular and add a 'd': deccle.
I had a bunch of examples once upon a time where first syllable pron. with a short vowel = the noun and with a long vowel = the verb or adjective. I'd listen up on t.v. (or notice after the fact) and this rule was much less regular in the US.
The only example I can think of off the top of my head is 'detail'. "He was correct in every d[I]tail" vs. "He d[ee]tailed the events of the crime" "That's a d[ee]tailed list"
Is that 9-1 in the bottom of the 5th?! Geez, dontcha want to cheer for Colorado just a little to get it interesting?
When I was a kid making model planes I always said "dee-kal". I don't know if it was my English mother directing that pronunciation, though. (Plus I was really hopeless at getting those delicate little stickers to float off the paper and onto the models.)
It was much later in life when I began to hear "deck-le". I hate the pronunciation as well -- but I have no idea whether it's uniquely Canadian. It's only the most bizarre phonetics that would result in that pronunciation. Ugh.
Probably Saskatchewanians are to blame if it was on Corner Gas. Pfft. Stupid Saskatchewaners. (And I'm not just saying that because Sask beat Hamilton the last two weeks in the CFL... well, maybe a little.)
"Dee Cal"
I have never heard any of the variations the commenters have mentioned so far. I'm a bit surprised.
I should mention that I live in Southern California, and also that I have worked in the safety related industry for over 15 years where labels, decals, and stickers play prominent roles.
So I use the word all the time. Perhaps some do say "DECK-le," and I must have ignored them.
Thanks!
I say DEE-cal, and had never heard the pronounciation DECKle. Allan and I didn't even know what the word was.
this is one pronunciation I will never, ever pick up. It still sounds ridiculous to me, after more than ten years.
I can relate. :)
I say "DEE-cal", and I'm Canadian-born. My DAD and old folks say "DECK-le". :)
Ah-ha! Interesting :)
I have never heard any of the variations the commenters have mentioned so far. I'm a bit surprised.
I was too!
I should note I don't often have occasion to say or hear the word "decal," so I doubt I'll have much practice. But DECKle? I don't think so.
Is that 9-1 in the bottom of the 5th?! Geez, dontcha want to cheer for Colorado just a little to get it interesting?
NO!
In a 7-game series, it's bound to get interesting, likely many times. A blowout at home to open the series is &*($#@! excellent!
Probably Saskatchewanians are to blame if it was on Corner Gas. Pfft. Stupid Saskatchewaners. (And I'm not just saying that because Sask beat Hamilton the last two weeks in the CFL... well, maybe a little.)
Heh, I missed this comment earlier. Oh yes, I'm sure it has nothing to do with that. :)
The only example I can think of off the top of my head is 'detail'. "He was correct in every d[I]tail" vs. "He d[ee]tailed the events of the crime" "That's a d[ee]tailed list"
I feel like I know lots of examples of this... but can't think of any others.
Where I grew up, there is a bridge across the Hudson River called the Tappan Zee Bridge. (There are many Dutch place names in that area.)
It's pronounced TAP-in-zee.
"Tap" as in tapping your feet to music, accent on 1st syllable, run together like one word. TAPinzee.
In NJ (and not on either side of this bridge) there is a town called Old Tappan.
It's pronounced Old t'PAN.
Barely a vowel, accent on 2nd syllable.
This is the first time I have ever come across another way to pronounce decal. I have never once heard anything other than the accepted "deccle" here in Nova Scotia. I don't think it's generational, either. I know you think it sounds strange, but rest assured I think your way sounds stranger. ;)
I know you think it sounds strange, but rest assured I think your way sounds stranger. ;)
You mean you think it sounds just as strange. Of course that would be the case. A foreign word is a foreign word.
But stranger? No. I didn't know what the word was when I heard it.
Word pronounciations are one of those things that interest me to no end since moving here.
I say "DEE-cal" (US midwest)
But there are so many more:
(my pronunciation | Canadian)
Mazda
Mauhz-duh | Maaz-duh
Pasta
paws-tuh | Paas-tuh
Nissan
knee-sawn | Ni-san (like nick)
Buena Vista
Buwayna Vis-tuh | bonna vista
Process
Prah-cess | Pro-cess
Don't get me started about out and about! :-)
We note the "pawstuh" thing all the time!
I told my former co-workers that in the US, they would sound like hillbillies - "eating pawstuh after seeing a drawmuh at the thee-ay-ter". After that, they made fun of how I said paaahsta and haaackey on a daily basis. :)
They say hawckey here. I say hahckey.
Process and progress are getting a little easier for me to hear (although I still say them like an American), but I don't know if I'll ever get used to pawstuh.
PS: oot and aboot have been well covered on this blog. Let's not go there! :)
I always love it when people tell you that you don't pronounce a name correctly when you are the authority on that name.
For instance, people ask me about my last name, Montague. People often mispronounce it "mon-tang" (no clue why, it's not even close to that and there's no second "n", anyway). Occasionally I'll run across a moron who, after I politely correct them, will subsequently correct me and say I'm pronouncing it wrong.
It's *my* name! Aren't I the authority in that regard?
Similarily, I used to work at Missinaibi Provincial Park, which is on the Missinaibi River in Northern Ontario. Close to that park is the town of Missanabie. Yep, different pronunciation. But there are *so* many people in Southern Ontario who are more then willing to dispute the name of either the River, Park or Town (they think they're all the same). Having lived and worked there and knowing the local pronunciations doesn't matter to these people, I must be wrong, even when I show the different spellings on the map.
I always love it when people tell you that you don't pronounce a name correctly when you are the authority on that name.
I know!! That is very annoying.
I have had many people tell me the "correct" pronounciation of my own last name!
On 1st look, most people mispronouce my last name. I'm used to it. I sometimes correct, and sometimes don't, depending on the situation.
It's not a huge big deal, almost everyone does it, but after I correct, don't argue with me!
For the record, it's KA-minker, not kaMINKer. Accent on the 1st syllable, a as in cat.
Most people say kaMINKer.
Occasionally someone pronounces it correctly without prompting and I express happy surprise. :)
Montang? Geez.
I'm always very heistant to pronounce a place name if I've only seen it in writing. I like to hear it first.
I think at wtmc2 we were discussing "Agincourt". English or French or something in between...
Historically, I've pronounced it "DEE-cal" but my ex was a bodyman and painter and in that industry it's pronounced "deck-ULL"
<-- Canadian from Hamilton, ON
Can we really trust Corner Gas on dialect? Some, if not all, of the characters say soda instead of pop! (Normally I'd assume it's a deliberate attempt to accomodate a broader North American audience, but this is a show where the Canada Fitness shuttle run is a plot point.)
Re: names - my real name is one letter off from the name of a TV character. Usually people mispronounce it, I correct them nicely, and they get it right from then on. But there was one person who continued to mispronounce it on the basis that it was a compliment, because it's her favourite TV show.
(And I have no insight on decal beause I've never used that word in my entire life.)
Can we really trust Corner Gas on dialect? Some, if not all, of the characters say soda instead of pop!
Do they really?? I know I've heard at least one character on that show say pop - because it was the first place I'd ever heard it! (Outside of a road trip to Ohio - but never on TV.)
Re: names - my real name is one letter off from the name of a TV character.
Great, now we're all wondering. :)
But there was one person who continued to mispronounce it on the basis that it was a compliment, because it's her favourite TV show.
[eye rolling]
ImpStrump, did you ever find out why Corner Gas looked different the other night?
My last name is also a first name to many people(sounds the same but spelt oddly), so when asked for my last name people usually skip a beat but I launch into the spelling and they catch up. Once in high school though the conversation went like this:
admin lady: Last name?
me: Sallie, S-A-L... (not my real last name)
admin: No, your last name.
me: Sallie, SAL-L-I...
admin (exasperated): No, your LAST name!
me, being a snot nosed teen in mock exasperation and much eye-rolling: SAL-lie!
The saddest part for that woman though was that my name was the same as the name of my school. Really shouldn't have been a foreign concept.
The saddest part for that woman though was that my name was the same as the name of my school.
That is sad!
Lacey definitely says soda. I think Oscar might say pop. I googled, but either no one else has noticed it or it's ungoogleable.
I have no idea why it looked different either, but I got about half a dozen hits from other people wondering the same thing.
Lacey definitely says soda. I think Oscar might say pop.
I'm pretty sure Oscar says pop. I wonder if they're playing up Lacey as outsider. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit.
I have no idea why it looked different either, but I got about half a dozen hits from other people wondering the same thing.
Heh, that's cool.
Oh ew, I hope that's not an attempt to play Lacey as an outsider. Having her say soda would be about as authentic as having her identify Corner Gas as a petrol station! They can do better than that!
My Dad says you guys all need to calm down and have a cup of DECK-af. :)
My Dad says you guys all need to calm down and have a cup of DECK-af.
:-)
Huh.
I've always said, duh-CAL. It *is* French, after all...
ya, and we wear toques and Americans where ski hats and we might have a leaky roof, but in Chicago they might have a leaky ruff....and boy was I surprised the first time I ordered a sandwich with chips in the US and didn't get French Fries. My friend in Chicago doesn't know what I'm talking about if I talk about elastic bands. He says they're rubber bands, and that elastics are found in the waistbands of underwear. Isn't language a beautiful thing?
Isn't language a beautiful thing?
I love it. Vive le difference.
So many regional distinctions have been erased. I hope we never see the day when we all sound alike.
The word comes from the French décalcomanie wherein the first syllable rhymes with "day". I would see deh-cal as a slight shortening of that phoneme but still closer to the original French pronunciation than dee-cal.
The origin of the word is from the French décalcomanie, the first syllable of which rhymes with "day". The second syllable rhymes with "cull". I see (and hear) the shortening of the first phoneme from DAY-cul to DEH-cul as a more natural compromise than from DAY-cul to DEE-cal. But, Americans obviously love their long vowels and put more emphasis on first vowels then the English do like saying REE-lax versus r(uh)-LAX, I can see why DEE-cal sounds more correct to the American ear.
I was just arguing with my American-born wife about this. Sometimes, the Americans get it wrong, like on words of French origin (niche - they say "nitch").
But in this case, I fell into the category of oldsters who say deckle.
But, the thing that proved we Canadians are the weird ones (in this case) is that the British also say dee-cal.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/decal
http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=decal
The Americans "get it wrong"? No. They're speaking their own language. They can pronounce things differently than others who speak another language. It's not wrong.
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