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It was a light-hearted article, but the maple syrup issue made me wonder, so I (unbelievably) did some checking. The quote about "poutine, Nanaimo bars, and bu
by ckcheng 11y ago
It was a light-hearted article, but the maple syrup issue made me wonder, so I (unbelievably) did some checking.
The quote about "poutine, Nanaimo bars, and butter tarts" was in the context of "Some words refer to things Americans don’t seem to have:".
But apparently Americans do have maple syrup: "Vermont is the largest producer in the United States, generating about 5.5 percent of the global supply" [1]. Vermont apparently produces more maple syrup than Ontario [2].
Anyway, the majority of maple syrup comes from Quebec, but does it really count as a culinary gift of Canada? Apparently maple syrup is a First Nations' culinary gift that existed before Europeans settlers arrived [3].
On the other hand, recipes for poutine and Nanaimo bars date only as far back as the 1950s, and butter tarts to 1900 (says Wikipedia). For context, consider that Canada became a country in 1867.
So I guess it does make some sense for maple syrup not to make the list.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_syrup
[2] http://www.maplesyrupworld.com/pages/Top-Regions-Producers-of-Maple-Syrup.html http://www.maplesyrupworld.com/pages/Top-Regions-Producers-o...
[3] https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/syrup https://www.historicacanada.ca/content/heritage-minutes/syru...
- colomon 11y agoRight, maple syrup goes back to colonial times, and we still make enough in Michigan that with a little effort you can always buy locally produced. At least some Michiganders say "eh", too -- my impression is it is especially common in the UP. It's not at all surprising, the border here has been pretty porous for centuries. When I was a kid, we'd have to cross over to Canada for Chinese food or hard-packed ice cream cones...
- jghn 11y agoI deal with a lot of folks from very northern New England and NY and I find they usually have some canadianisms in their speech pattern. As you say it's not surprising, it's not like accents stop on a dime when a border is reached
- maxerickson 11y agoI grew up in the UP, but never picked up a strong accent (my parents had moved there). Visiting rural Ontario was a quite amusing experience, the use of eh in the UP is occasional and often ironic, in the area I visited, it was punctuation.