Canadian Accents?

[HEyHEY]

I swear after this post, I'll keep it all political in this forum. ;-)

Another poster brought up and interesting point about the way we talk. Personally I've noticed many regions in Canada have accents. Obviously there's the Maritimes...which from place to place differ themselves.... Anyone know what a dooryard is? (Eastern New Brunswick)

Den yeh goht dem newfies der bi. Say this
Whale
oil
beef
hooked

You know sound like a newfie saying "Well I'll be fucked!"
I've noticed prairie people have an abrupt way of saying "TH" as in THey or the.
Vancouverites seem to speak fast and a bit slurry. (As going by complaint's I've heard form Ontarians, and Quebecers trying to learn english.)
Ontario has a wide range of accents too.

SOme in Victoria have a VERY subtle british accent on some words.

Anyone else notice or have anything to contribute?

[salinen]

1. What's this all aboot?

[HEyHEY]

2. That accent is a myth

It's of an "abowt" no boots... :-)

[freeforall]

3. True HeyHey...

I've never heard anyone here say "aboot" for "about." Pure mythology.

[Swede]

6. I watched a show on Discovery.

The American accent goes more like "abutt",Canadian is "abowt",so what Americans here is aboot when we say abowt. They went to a cafe in Buffalo after telling the audience to really listen to them talk,and then back to Toronto. Americans were scrunching up the words and the Canadians were stretching them,though they never did explain why this was so.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. There's at least on "aboot"...

and I heard it when some politician up there was being interviewed.

I swear he actually said "oot and aboot."

I'll grant you it may not be common, but I did hear it.

On edit:

coulda been a Scotsman who moved there and lost about half his Scots accent.

[jeff30997]

4. Well...

Strangely enough,i have a French accent.Maybe it's because i'm French Canadian?(Liberty-Canadian?):)

[HEyHEY]

5. Tu vien de ou?

Desole je ne parle pas francias pour une LONGTEMP...beacoup des fuckups. Aussie, je appri beacoup de francias a l'acadie.

Mais je'tai une etudiant a L'universite du Quebec a Trois Rivereies.

[jeff30997]

10. Thanks for the effort!

I don't know why but i like you HEyHEY !!!

[BonjourUSA]

8. A very charming accent

Some people say that's the ancient French accent. For instance, Louis XIV should have had it but I don't have tapes of him. :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. It definitely exists....

although in the Prairies it's not aboot...it's "abote."

reprehensor and I were an internet relationship. The first time we talked on the phone, we teased each other about our accents.

Myself, being a lifelong Texan, I say, "buuuuuk" for book and "cuuuuuuk" for cook. He had an especially fun time when I talked about my "cuuukbuuuks."

And he definitely said, "abote" and "sothewest." He's lost a bit of it living down here for 4 years, but I picked up some of his. Sometimes I say something, and the accent sounds completely weird, and my friends look at me like :wtf: ?

[Interrobang]

14. The technical term is "schwa."

Most American accents don't have a real schwa sound, and *all* Canadian accents do. You're very right about the transliteration of the sound, though, as it *is* a lot closer to "abote" than "aboot." (I'm from Ontario via Alberta, btw.) However, there's what linguists call an "allophone" problem with most Americans -- they don't have the sound in their native idiolect, so they can't even hear it correctly, let alone pronounce it most of the time.

I tease my American boyfriend about his accent all the time. He's a nice Jewish boy from Long Island, NY, so the major thing I notice is when he says words like, well, "coffee" in particular, he sounds to me like he's saying "kwoffee." Now, he *swears* up, down, sideways, forwards, and backwards that he doesn't say that, but he said it in front of my entire family at a (IIRC) Christmas dinner* one year, and *everybody* heard it!

* Yes, it's technically an "interfaith" relationship, although my family's Christian, neither of is religious (and my Hebrew is better than his!). :)

My current internet crush (I'm so bad!) is from England, and we're having a running argument over whether "salami" rhymes with "army." It doesn't in *my* fully rhotic dialect, but he's (arhotically and erotically enough) lost his post-vocalic "r," so, to him, they both have a sort of "aaa" sound instead of an "ah" or "ar" respectively. (Incidentally, for those Ramones/Hebrew National sausage fans in the crowd, that works for people from Queens, NY, too.)

Ok, that's enough linguistics geeking for one night. :)

[fudge stripe cookays]

15. Interesting!

I love this stuff....

Like how Southern accents developed from Irish/Scottish ones, and New York ones developed from English/Dutch, etc.

And studying German, how many words (their sounds) are similar to English, but developed separately (tanz for dance; pfennig for penny, apfel for apple). More etymologies, but I like the words AND the sounds.

I took a "History of the English Language" class almost 20 years ago in school, and really enjoyed the old, middle and high English differences (reading Canterbury Tales in the original form).

And I love studying genealogy, and discovering what last names mean, such as one of mine-- Crittenden-- from an old Druidic ritual! (Cool, I'm part Druid!)

You may continue to ply me with linguistics geekery! :-)

[Fish08]

23. Southern deleloped from what now?

You say Southern accents developed from Irish/Scottish ones? Now thats something I didn't know. How come they don't say things like "whats the craic?"? Although I guess they do over-emphasise their vowels like in Gaelic so you could be on to something.

And come on, we know Canadian's don't really say aboot but its not like we Irish actually say "top of the morning to ye" either! Maybe we should ask the creators of South Park?

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. I'd have said American Southern sounds somewhat like

a British West Country accent - Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall (which would give a bit of a Celtic influence). There is a bit of a drawl to a West Country accent.

Canadian accents sometimes have a Scottish ring to me - as in "Hoots, mon, there's a moose, loose, aboot the hoose" ;-)

[fudge stripe cookays]

28. My mom told me this years ago....

Something she'd read somewhere. I'll have to ask her if she remembers where. But it was years ago.

Not the words that the people speak, but the actual inflections in the language developed from those original languages.

Because of the English/Dutch in the northeast (Dutch patroons and then English takeover).

And in the south, there were many Scottish and Irish planters (think Gerald O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind."). Supposedly that was responsible for part of the southern accent.

Or not.

[SidDithers]

11. I spent some time in England...

Many of the folk I spoke with thought my central Ontario accent sounded like an Irish accent.

Seeing some Irish TV, they do sound similar.

Sid

[Melsky]

12. I have heard the aboot too

It's not as strong as people do imitations of it, but it's there in some people's accents.

[Zookeeper]

13. I was up in Thunder Bay...

earlier this month and noticed a big difference between the accents of a woman originally from London, Ont., and a woman who is a native of Thunder Bay. 'Not sure I can explain it though...it did occur to me at first that the person from TB might be from a bit farther west.

My Bro-in-Law thought they both had Scottish-sounding accents.

Oh yeah, I also spoke with a woman visiting from Vancouver and her accent didn't sound at all like the other Canadians I met. And she did speak a lot faster.

[Lautremont]

16. What you've really got to hear is a Mennonite accent

Low German by way of Southern Manitoba. I can't even try to phoneticize (?) it for you.

[Cascadian]

17. don't Albertans have an accent?

Just had to ask. I sometimes imagine that the cowboys and redneck types there tend to add a "twang" to the Canadian Brough. Am I right?

John

[freeforall]

22. I've heard the Albertan twang!

LOL, I've been living in Alberta for 26 years and many people do have a twang.

People here (even after all this time) comment on my "Ottawa drawl" - dragging out the "a" vowel sound. I say "garahje," and they say "gerage" for garage. I say "Bahry" they say "Berry" for Barry.

One final note: I'm not even from Ottawa, but Montreal! Born and raised. So what's with the "Ottawa drawl"? Anyone else ever hear of this?

[philosophyqueen]

26. Ottawa Valley accent

Anyone heard of the Ottawa drawl, you mean? Sure, the Ottawa Valley accent is famous! My grandfather had it, although I never knew him.

[achtung_circus]

27. Yes, especially rural Alberta

I moved back to TO after 25 years. I have the twang, I am told. It's wearing off, but in some circumstances it comes back. Mostly when I'm talking to rural Ontarians for some reason.

[fudge stripe cookays]

29. You're right.

My brother-in-law, the northern Alberta redneck, has the strongest, strangest Canadian (yet twangy) accent I've ever heard.

It sounds like he's constipated when he talks.

[Cascadian]

18. We used to have an accent in the Pacfic Northwest

It was a cross between a Midwest accent with a slight Canadian brough but since everybody, especially the Californians moved in, that dialect has become diluted with "dude" and "fershur" and "it's like y'know!".

And so goes our vanishing Northwest culture....

John

[MrPrax]

20. I have noticed that as well...

whether in Seattle or Vancouver, that nasally California twang (as well as the preference for slang) has creeped in the language.



Especially pronounced in the wild and wooly suburbs of Tacoma and Surrey!!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

32. When I moved from the Midwest to the Pacific Northwest

in the mid 1980s, I noticed that the accent sounded closer to Canadian than anything I'd heard elsewhere in the States.

[TrogL]

19. My accent

Southern Ontario badly contaminated by Buffalo New York (blame TV newscaster Irv Weinstein) with a bit of Trawna thrown in.

[Lefty48197]

21. There is one word that is a dead giveaway, my Canadian friends

The word is "out". You pronounce it "oat". Admit it.

[Screaming Lord Byron]

25. Nah. It's more of an owwwt for me.

But then, I do have a drawl.

[enigmatic]

30. My Mom..

is from the UP of Michigan and had an sccent that was right out of Bob and Doug McKenzie; my friends used to call me just to hear her say, "eh" after every sentence!

[ironflange]

31. My in-laws are from Milton, Ont

And there's a slight accent at times. Strangely, Mrs. Ironflange has a little more of an accent than her folks, and she's never lived in the Toronto area. She was in New England for most of her teengae years, maybe that's where it comes from. Words like "bank" come out more like "bink." She really hates it when I comment on it, too, so she better not see this. :scared: