How Canadians are mistakenly believed to pronounce "about." It is a common misconception ranking right up there with the idea that Canadians pronounce it "aboot." The vowel
sound is actually a dipthong, beginning at the
sound "
e" as in "
bed" and "get," then transitioning to "oo" as in "igloo," which Canadians do NOT live in. This linguistic phenomenon as
well as the raising of the long i before voiceless consonants is known as Canadian raising. It should be called "Northern raising" because it also occurs in some places in the United States, such as Washington State.
Canadian:
Dude, do you know what Canadian raising is.
American: No, I don't know aboat that. Hahaha, get it? aBOAT? Because that's what you say ahahahahaha! By the way, do you have TV in
Canada?
Internet? Do you ride polar bears?
Canadian: Evidently not... Oh, and I almost forgot, sorry!