I once blogged about the difference between the letter Z (here) in the UK and in North America. It was only the tip of the iceberg as far as pronunciations and language differences between these English speaking nations (I should note, out of respect, that Canada actually has two languages... French and English. Oh and the US will probably have to include Spanish as it's other langauge some day soon).
Most people can instantly think of a few words that the UK and North Amercia pronounce differently, such as tomato, but the one word that tickles me everytime I hear it is Herb.
For some reason North America says 'erb and drops the H. When I was living in england the only time I would hear herb said like that was from the Carribean accent so to see a 70 year old checked/checkered (depending where you are!) shirt wearing Canadian say 'erb really makes me chuckle and seems really out of place.
In many instances words mean different things over the water.
In British English pavement means the sidewalk. Chips means fries, pants mean whitey tighty underwear and fanny means vagina!
"We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, the language"
Oscar Wilde , (The Canterville Ghost, 1888).
This Wikipedia article goes really deep into the differences between the languages.
I really love the fact that the differences exist. Here in Montreal I'm teased about not speaking properly and the differences in our english provides at least a small amount of entertainment everyday.
If you can think of any other words that are differently understood between versions of English (or any other language for that manner) then I would love to hear about them.
