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Haere Mai
G'day
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Now I'm curious. Is this an "alternative" phonetic spelling for a greeting, or some language I don't understand?
By the way - the complete Canadian (anglophone that is) greeting should read:
"G'day Eh"
As it is customary in English Canada to fill conversational pauses with "Eh", or to use it as verbal punctuation. For example "That's a beauty, eh!", "Geez, it's friggin' cold, eh!", " so you spent the winter in Cuba, eh?" etc.
In French Canada (Quebec), a casual greeting would be:
"Salut!"
Or to anglo-ears, something like "slue". Terms of endearment sometimes used by the inhabitants of Quebec to refer to their anglophone neighbours are a "bloke" or "tete-carre" (square head) - Just in case you wondered. A friend from Montreal found it rather amusing when I told him that in England people call each other blokes as well. Discussing the origin of square-head, we both agreed that the subject of Toronto would be better left alone.
I have a number of articles in mind realting somewhat to this culture - The succulent "poutine" for example - I just hope somebody reads it. I was rather proud of my reply to the Paper Clip forum, but not many seem to give a toss - which is suprising given such a hot topic.
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