Ooo, Eh

This morning, CBC's Sunday Morning news program re-ran a feature from last fall. In it, CBC asked nominees for the Governor General's Literary Awards for uniquely Canadian words.

See the piece here. It's well worth the watch. You get to learn a little Canadian history, too, with the Trudeau/fuddle-duddle discussion.

The title of this post is one of my husband's favo(u)rite expressions. He doesn't say it often; he doesn't "eh" at all that much. But on occasion, he says it. And "eh" is one of those expressions I think Americans don't understand.

However, let's stick to "ooo, eh" for now. "Ooo, eh" is not an "aww" response, as for deer or fawns. It's a form of "wow"--when the storm rolling across the landscape inspires awe, when the northern lights are bouncing away in the sky, when a tree falls and narrowly misses hitting the car.

"Ooo, eh" is also not a question, though sometimes a rising tone of voice makes it sound a little like one. In fact, "eh" generally isn't a question and doesn't call into question the accuracy of the previous statement. It's like saying "ain't that right" or "huh" at the end of a statement. They aren't questions, either.

But the general use, or not, of "eh" is a topic for another post. Go watch the Canadian Word segment.