I used to be a real prig about the English language. Heck, I still am, but a linguistic perspective has mellowed me out a bit. Anyway, you may have noticed that I use strictly non-American spellings as much as I can. It's more of an affectation than anything else. Here's a little poem I wrote about Canadian pronunciation. The question mark is supposed to be as big as the E and H, but I really couldn't find any easy and predictably sound way of reproducing it in HTML, so I gave up.

Canajans Speak,


Canajans cry out, from    nearen              far:
"Przrv r                  lang-               wich!"
Canajans,                 when                writing,
take                      special             care,
to                        em-                 pha-
sise                      vowels.             "S'awnr,
nod                       'honor,'            you
fools,"                   they                say.
When Canajans move        from Tronna t'Albirda, they
find                      them-               selves
in a                      new                 neigh-
bour-                     hood.               Being
gener-                    ally                friendly
people,                   they                stop
to talk                   to                  their
new                       naybrs.             Why
can't we pronounce? The   Birdish             manage.      ?

by Damon Harper

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