ENGLISH USAGE
WIDE DIVERGENCE
CANADIAN ON NEW ZEALAND
(From "The Post's" Representative.)
VANCOUVER, August 30,
-"The Commonwealth of Englishspeaking People" may be the cliche frequently employed to describe the British Empire, but M. L. Sweeney, Vancouver business man, has some doubts about the aptness of the phrase.
Describing a fifty-day visit to New Zealand, Mr. Sweeney confessed that "English as she is spoke" in New Zealand is liable to confound the average Canadian.
"I wanted to send some goods by truck to a railway station to be shipped to Auckland by train," explained Mr. Sweeney. "But the clerk thought I was crazy."
"You see, in that country they call freight cars 'trucks,' and trucks 'lorries.' And anyway, you can't 'ship'
things by train, you 'rail' them," he explained. "Goods are 'shipped' by boat.
"It was a good thing I didn't want to ship lumber. They call garbage 'lumber,' and what we call lumber they call 'timber.'" ,
Apart from his difficulties with New Zealand colloquialisms, Mr. Sweeney was impressed by the country and its inhabitants.
"They're a wholesome, happy, friendly people. I think they're swell people and they have a delightful country."
Permanent link to this item
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 28
Word Count
191ENGLISH USAGE Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 78, 29 September 1938, Page 28
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