As always, fantastic article. Love the thoughts about particular cities and places being a language. It can be a lonely space to be when you have these very two disparate languages and no one else understands you or at least only half of you. I think that makes chance encounters with folks that do happen to know both of those places, who speak both languages, extra special. In my case, there are very, very, very few people in the world who have spent significant time in both Macau and Winnipeg. Besides my siblings, there is a family friend of ours, who is originally from Syria but fled with her family to Macau, lived there for 4-5 years, until they immigrated to Winnipeg. She is the only other person that I see on a regular basis, besides family. There is always some sort of amazing energy when hanging out with her and talking because of the ability to not have to restrain myself from spouting off all types of examples, comparison, memories when talking about either place.
I think you are right though about their being some uniqueness to speaking both dialects of "prairienese." I would imagine the experience of people moving away, particularly from places like Winnipeg or Edmonton, are generally to much larger cities, where there will be more potential opportunities to encounter folks from those cities and be able to converse in their particular hometown vernacular. Anyways, just a thought perhaps. Once again, always appreciate your thoughts on things like this Tyler.
Thank you, Michael. I was worried this one might be a bit out of left field for most people to connect with, but I'm glad that at least somebody did. It sounds like you experience something similar to me. Beyond my partner and their family, nobody I meet in Winnipeg really knows Edmonton, the vast majority have never even been. I occasionally come across people who've been to Winnipeg in Edmonton, but it's never an in-depth knowledge, except sometimes from people who moved from there to here. I do meet more people here that have an interest in visiting Winnipeg than vice-versa, however, but I think that's more due to the kinds of people I come across out here vs back in Manitoba. But yeah, the number of people who can "speak" Edmonton and Toronto or Winnipeg and Montreal is probably higher than Edmonton-Winnipeg.
As always, fantastic article. Love the thoughts about particular cities and places being a language. It can be a lonely space to be when you have these very two disparate languages and no one else understands you or at least only half of you. I think that makes chance encounters with folks that do happen to know both of those places, who speak both languages, extra special. In my case, there are very, very, very few people in the world who have spent significant time in both Macau and Winnipeg. Besides my siblings, there is a family friend of ours, who is originally from Syria but fled with her family to Macau, lived there for 4-5 years, until they immigrated to Winnipeg. She is the only other person that I see on a regular basis, besides family. There is always some sort of amazing energy when hanging out with her and talking because of the ability to not have to restrain myself from spouting off all types of examples, comparison, memories when talking about either place.
I think you are right though about their being some uniqueness to speaking both dialects of "prairienese." I would imagine the experience of people moving away, particularly from places like Winnipeg or Edmonton, are generally to much larger cities, where there will be more potential opportunities to encounter folks from those cities and be able to converse in their particular hometown vernacular. Anyways, just a thought perhaps. Once again, always appreciate your thoughts on things like this Tyler.
Thank you, Michael. I was worried this one might be a bit out of left field for most people to connect with, but I'm glad that at least somebody did. It sounds like you experience something similar to me. Beyond my partner and their family, nobody I meet in Winnipeg really knows Edmonton, the vast majority have never even been. I occasionally come across people who've been to Winnipeg in Edmonton, but it's never an in-depth knowledge, except sometimes from people who moved from there to here. I do meet more people here that have an interest in visiting Winnipeg than vice-versa, however, but I think that's more due to the kinds of people I come across out here vs back in Manitoba. But yeah, the number of people who can "speak" Edmonton and Toronto or Winnipeg and Montreal is probably higher than Edmonton-Winnipeg.
Did you really call the German language ‚sexy, beautiful, and fancy‘? That is a first for me and I am an almost fifty year old German. 🤣
Hey, there's a first for everything! But yeah, it's a very underrated language IMO and I wish more people saw the merits to it.