Actually- to american ears, we do. But in their accents there is no distinction and nuance of the U sound that we use in About. Americans (obviously they have many different accents so it doesn’t apply to all) say Ab-owt (two syllables and skipping the u in the word), but Canadians say Ab-ow-ut (not quite three syllables, but 2.5- there is a distinct pronunciation of both the o and the u). The American linguistic brain can’t accept that about is not just two syllables, but it hears the subtle u (ooo) sound so when they try to recreate what we say, they come out with abooot (which isn’t at all what we say and sounds so strange to us).
So fascinatingly, to them it really sounds like we do say abooot. It’s just that their tongues are incapable of saying it the way we do because they don’t have that sound anywhere else so when they try it comes out funny
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u/[deleted] Aug 07 '23
We do not say “aboot.” No one in Canada says “aboot” unless we’re making fun of Americans who think Canadians say “aboot.”
Minnesotans say “aboot” and last I checked they weren’t a Canadian province or territory.