Help! What is a Canadian Accent? (vacation, winter, Irish)

[jerseygal123]

I have friends in MN and they're heavily influenced by the Canadian vowel. OOT (owt) it is.

[geog-fanatic]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

How would a southerner or Georgian pronounce "cot" ?
Which words have that sound?

"Cot" could be pronounced a couple of ways, depending on which part of GA you live:
(1) It is pronounced exactly as spelled, with a short "o" sound.
(2) It can be pronounced with an extra vowel thrown in, something to the effect of "co-it" or "co-et", still keeping the short "o" sound.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by geog-fanatic

"Cot" could be pronounced a couple of ways, depending on which part of GA you live:
(1) It is pronounced exactly as spelled, with a short "o" sound.
(2) It can be pronounced with an extra vowel thrown in, something to the effect of "co-it" or "co-et", still keeping the short "o" sound.

I'm still not sure what "short" vowels are.

We only have two sounds for each vowel, "O" as in donut and "o" as in "doll"...

Are there three kinds of vowel sounds for the letter "O" in places like Georgia, or the East Coast?

(Perhaps a better example is the names Don and Dawn are supposed to sound different spoken in certain regional American accents, while there is no difference here.)

[geog-fanatic]

My apologies - After I posted it, I realized some other areas probably do not refer to vowels as long or short sounding. Yes, "doll" would use a short "o". I guess a better interpretation would be the "ah" sound.

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by geog-fanatic

My apologies - After I posted it, I realized some other areas probably do not refer to vowels as long or short sounding. Yes, "doll" would use a short "o". I guess a better interpretation would be the "ah" sound.

How about the names Don and Dawn?
Aren't those both short "o" sounds?

Also is the word "Cot" really a word? Does it mean a bed, like a camping cot?
I'm sorry that's one word I think I've only heard but not seen it spelled.

[MidniteBreeze]

I'm from Minnesota and most "outsiders" can't tell the difference between a Minnesota accent and a Canadian accent (or for that matter, the difference between a MN accent and those of northern WI or even the U.P of Michigan...guess it just all sounds "northern" to them.)

I am usually pretty good at picking out a Canadian though...a big givaway for me is some of their "a" sounds. Like the word "bad" sounds almost like if someone were sort of dragging out the "o" sound in the word "bod." Not quite, but that's about as close as I can come. Similarly, the word "dad" sounds kind of like the last name "Dodd" (again, with the o sort of dragged out) and so on.

And yes, there is a difference in the way Canadians say the word "about" (even when compared to us Minnesotans who are notorious for our strong "O" sounds.) It's not as exaggerated as a-BOOT....I guess the best way to describe it is the "American" way sounds like the word "bow" as in "take a bow." a-BOWt. The Canadian way sounds more like the word "bow" as in the kind you would put in your hair. a-BOWt.

Another thing is Canadians' tendency to add an upward lilt to some of their sentences, almost as if they were asking a question. I remember one guy giving us directions when we were up there..."you take a left at the stoplight? Then you go straight for about 3 kilometers? Take a right on 4th street? And the hotel will be on your left."

And of course there's that quintessential "eh." I know not everyone from Canada says it...but really, it's nothing to be ashamed of. Plenty of northern WI and Yoopers (people from the U.P. of MI) say it too. "You gotta put a new worm on dat hook if you wanna catch dem crappies, eh?

[geog-fanatic]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

How about the names Don and Dawn?
Aren't those both short "o" sounds?

Also is the word "Cot" really a word? Does it mean a bed, like a camping cot?
I'm sorry that's one word I think I've only heard but not seen it spelled.

In your neck of the woods, and in much of the US, Don and Dawn will sound the same with the short "o" sound. In the south, most people use a slightly different pronunciation for "Dawn". I cannot find a good way to write this sound, but your mouth would be more rounded when speaking the "aw" part than it is when speaking the "o" in "Don".

Yes, a one-person bed or camping cot would be a good description for the word "cot". Many cots are made of a mesh-like material and attach to metal bars.

BTW - I love the Canadian accent. I work with someone who originally hails from northern Ontario, and I could listen to him talk all day.

[ColdCanadian]

About "eh"

I have not done any research on it but asked my dad and he said that "eh" did not really exist here before the 1950's. He started hearing it often after television came out. Hockey was and is very popular. Sometimes they'd interview hockey players and some of them were French Canadian. My dad figures it was a French Canadian players saying "hey" that started English Canada's "eh" phenomenon.

In a newspaper I saw a few years ago they had an article how "eh" is dying out, or becoming less common.

[ProLogic]

Pretty mild accent. They pronounce Router as "Rooter" and "About" like "Aboot". Reminds me of a light Irish/Scot accent.

[inkguy]

"eh" came about sometime in the '50s.. French Canadian influence from the hockey players.