Anorak, butter tart, ballicatter, kayak, stubby, toonie--these are familiar Canadian words. But where did they come from? What quirks of language and fate have made them truly Canadian? Even though we speak the same language as the Yanks and the Brits, Canadians have a unique dialect that is recognized around the world, and each province has its own eccentricities. Edrick Thay presents well-known and obscure Canadianisms in this often-humorous glossary of words from across the country: • all-Canadian words--Canuck, hockey, loonie, Medicare, tuque and the ubiquitous eh • Québècois words--tourtiére, cretons, shivaree and Bombardier • words from Ontario--BeaverTails, reeve, Wonderbra and zipper • West Coast terms--potlatch, hooch, Nanaimo bar and skookum • words of the sea-faring Atlantic provinces--screech, ballicatter, slob ice and blue nose • aboriginal words--skookum, potlatch, chinook and high muckamuck • western Canadianisms--canola, Bloody Caesar, bunnyhug, Métis and stubble jumper • and words of the North--inuksuk, Klondike, mukluk, pingo and toboggan.

Diana French was raised on Quadra Island. In 1951 she followed the road west to teach in a one-room school in Chezacut, a community of three ranches twenty miles off the Chilcotin Road. She then married Rob French, the son of Chilcotin pioneers. In 1970 the Frenches settled in Williams Lake and Diana worked as a reporter and later an editor of the Tribune. She is currently on the board of the Open Learning Agency, and is curator of the Museum of the Cariboo Chilcotin. (Harbour Publishing)

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