Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian?

Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian?

Postby J Kendrick » Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:23 pm

When did it suddenly become acceptable in the Vancouver media to pronounce the word 'Route' in the American form as "ra-ut"... instead of the proper English/Canadian pronounciation of "root"?

Recently, it has been regularly heard on News1130... and now we're hearing it on Global...

Pronounced in the American form.... as ra-ut... or rowt... it's a very different word. When pronounced in that form... it is rout ... without an 'e'... which is a very different word that means either a disorderly defeat or to cut a groove into wood or metal.

We are not American... We say Zed.. not Zee...
... and when we see the word 'route' ... we pronounce it as "root"...

So... Please... Get it right... ;-)
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby slowhand » Wed Sep 05, 2012 7:43 pm

I really got a feeling of Deja Vu on this topic. I remember a discussion in the early Seventies when the Vancouver newspapers responded to criticism of their American spelling by saying that it would have cost more to change all their American sourced stories than it did to change the Canadian ones and order their own writers to spell American.

These days, there is an upside to the lack of consistent ways of saying words on radio and television. It avoids the old problem announcers faced if they moved very far and had to learn new ways of saying things. It also allows voice tracking into distant markets. There really are different ways of saying things in different parts of the country and it has changed over time. Thinking about how head office likes to micromanage everything these days, everybody would have to talk Toronto talk if this ever became an issue.
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby J Kendrick » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:15 pm

Our former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau, had famously said that living next to the U.S. is like sleeping with an elephant:
"No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast... one is affected by every twitch and grunt."

We did not allow the U.S to invade and take over our Canadian individuality... by force of arms... back in 1812...

Neither should we ever allow the U.S. to invade and take over our Canadian individuality now... 200 years later in this year of 2012... merely by the force of their influence over both our media and the internet.

We are the Borg. Resistance is futile.

Oh, Yeah? Says who?...
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:18 pm

Hearing "Americanisms" is like fingernails on a blackboard. other "isms" sem(eye) trailer instead of sem(ee) trailer, or Mos(cow) instead of Mos(coh). Perhaps there are broadcasters who might benefit from the "News Writing Style Guide: Online stylebooks" (produced by the Canadian Press). http://www.thecanadianpress.com/books.aspx?id=182

At one time the CBC also produced a pronunciation guide for place names in Canada. Doug Short our instructor in "Announcing" at BCiT provided a copy to each of us as we started the course. (misplaced my copy years ago).
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby J Kendrick » Wed Sep 05, 2012 8:53 pm

Tape Splicer wrote: At one time the CBC also produced a pronunciation guide for place names in Canada. Doug Short our instructor in "Announcing" at BCiT provided a copy to each of us as we started the course. (misplaced my copy years ago).


I still hear Doug's words ringing in my ears. :-)

I might still be able to find my copy around here somewhere... if I dig hard enough...
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby The Unknown Copywriter » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:25 pm

J Kendrick wrote:
Tape Splicer wrote: At one time the CBC also produced a pronunciation guide for place names in Canada. Doug Short our instructor in "Announcing" at BCiT provided a copy to each of us as we started the course. (misplaced my copy years ago).


I still hear Doug's words ringing in my ears. :-)

I might still be able to find my copy around here somewhere... if I dig hard enough...


I have a copy of the BCIT "Punctuation Guide" (still follow it!) and "Audition Scripts".

I remember the list of how to pronounce famous composers, but I don't have a scan of it...perhaps it's still stashed away, as well.
T.U.C.

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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby Tape Splicer » Wed Sep 05, 2012 9:46 pm

If I recall, the "Audition Script" was several pages long; I think it was a driving tour - a narrative describing the Nevada desert and mountain country - The coulors, the vegetation, the sky and clouds etc.
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby Neumann Sennheiser » Wed Sep 05, 2012 10:06 pm

Having lived in the states for a few years now, I've gradually come to assimilate some "Americanisms" into my speech patterns; I almost always say zee instead of zed and I tend to use the more elongated drawl in words like house and about.
I still get pegged as Canadian by even the most casual listeners though, so the occasional "a-boot" most certainly still does slip out.
In the case of route, however, I just can't get comfortable with the "rowt" way of saying it. I hear it used both ways here, rowt and root, so it may be more of a regional dialect thing rather than American in general. It's a lot like "aunt" and "awnt", the second version heard more on the east coast.
The pronunciations of Iraq and Iran are also contentious. Most media and those who try to be correct about it say "ee-raq" or "ee-ran" but, more often, you'll here it pronounced as "eye-raq". Those in the military who have actually done tours there always say it that way.
Could be lazy speech habit or intentionally derisive.
I've not yet felt it a safe question to ask which.
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby WheresFredTaylor » Thu Sep 06, 2012 8:55 am

America is the better country. Why are we complaining?
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Re: Vancouver Media speaking American... instead of Canadian

Postby Mike Cleaver » Thu Sep 06, 2012 11:26 am

One of the good things about Microsoft Word (and I presume other word processing programs) is the ability to add words and change spelling in the included dictionary function so that the American spelling disappears and is substituted by the Canadian or more properly, British version.
It takes only seconds to make the change the first time and then the dictionary "remembers" your changes.
Any writer and I don't care how good you think you are, should use spell check before hitting the "send" button.
I rarely keyboard any more, only for short messages.
The rest, longer documents, are done by voice, using the program built in to Microsoft 7.
Using voice commands allows you to change the dictionary that way too.
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