Work on regional variation in mass/count nouns? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[James Harbeck]

>I seem to remember Doug and Bob MacKenzie (from Second City TV) (two
>very
>stereotypical Canadians) talking about having "beers" -- maybe even in
>their top-40 Christmas novelty song???

Let's see...

Five golden toques
Four pounds of back bacon
Three french toast
Two turtlenecks
and a beer
...in a tree.

Nope, it wasn't in the song. (I think you can listen to it at
http://play.rhapsody.com/bobanddougmckenzie/greatwhitenorth/twelvedaysofchristmas?didAutoplayBounce=true
(I can't, 'cause it detects that I'm not in the US!). Or read it at
http://www.execulink.com/~bobnet/hoser/12days.html .) But, yeah, I'm
sure they talked about beers, plural -- why just have one? Go out and
get a couple beers. Heck, get a two-four.

Oh, I think two-four is a Canadianism, innit? It's a case of beer --
24 bottles (or cans). As it happens, the May holiday in Canada is
Victoria Day, which is always the day closest to Queen Victoria's
birthday, which is May 24. Since people like to celebrate srping with
a lot of drinking, often out at the cottage or campsite or whatever,
the weekend is now more commonly called "the May two-four weekend." I
think last year I didn't hear it called Victoria Day once, not even
on the CBC. This year it's this coming weekend, but I haven't been
hearing any references to it yet, probably because I try not to watch
a lot of TV.

FWIW, though, most Canadians I know talk about going "for a beer",
even though we tend to have two each. If someone says "let's go for
some beers" or "let's get some beers," that means they're _thirsty_
-- one clearly won't be enough.

James Harbeck.

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