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What is the relationship between the North Central/Upper Midwest accent and the Inland North/Great Lakes accent? Furthermore, what is the relationship between these two dialects and Canadian English as spoken in Ontario and the Prairies?
All of these accents, while distinct, sound somewhat related to my ears, though I am by no means a proper linguist.
Modern Canadian English sounds nearly identical to Californian English. I am Canadian and we do NOT have Midwest traits in our speech at all. Midwest and Canadian English is totally different. And we don't say "aboat" anymore in Canada, that's long gone.
Midwesterners get their accent from the Norwegians. And the "Canadian raising" (which is dead in Canada) that exists in this region is not from Canada, but from the additional scots influence.
Modern Canadian English sounds nearly identical to Californian English. I am Canadian and we do NOT have Midwest traits in our speech at all. Midwest and Canadian English is totally different. And we don't say "aboat" anymore in Canada, that's long gone.
Really? Because Californians have some pretty distinct vowels that differentiate them from other American accents. I find that Canadian accents sound closer to a bog standard General American accent than Californian.
Modern Canadian English sounds nearly identical to Californian English. I am Canadian and we do NOT have Midwest traits in our speech at all. Midwest and Canadian English is totally different. And we don't say "aboat" anymore in Canada, that's long gone.
Midwesterners get their accent from the Norwegians. And the "Canadian raising" (which is dead in Canada) that exists in this region is not from Canada, but from the additional scots influence.
Trust me, Canadian raising and saying "aboat" are far from dead in Canada! To say they are long gone is ridiculous!
And there are some Midwestern traits in speech that do leach across the border, especially here in the Windsor area.
Trust me, Canadian raising and saying "aboat" are far from dead in Canada! To say they are long gone is ridiculous!
And there are some Midwestern traits in speech that do leach across the border, especially here in the Windsor area.
Not to mention there is a much larger swath of the Midwest who don't have roots in Norwegian than who do (German ancestry is probably the highest in most Midwestern states), meaning it definitely doesn't "define" the Midwest accent.
Trust me, Canadian raising and saying "aboat" are far from dead in Canada! To say they are long gone is ridiculous!
And there are some Midwestern traits in speech that do leach across the border, especially here in the Windsor area.
That MAY be the case for you in Windsor as it's a working class city, but for those of us in Toronto "aboat" is uncommon and weird. I don't think you realize just how American younger people are sounding these days. We do NOT want to sound Canadian.
Not to mention there is a much larger swath of the Midwest who don't have roots in Norwegian than who do (German ancestry is probably the highest in most Midwestern states), meaning it definitely doesn't "define" the Midwest accent.
Germany, Norway, Sweden, Scottland, Finland, Holland.. That's where the Midwest speak came from. Immigrants of those descendants. It didn't come from Canada. 95% of the Canadian population lives in southern Ontario which no where near Minnesota. No Significant Canadian population live on the border with the upper Midwest either. See? They're not related.
What is the relationship between the North Central/Upper Midwest accent and the Inland North/Great Lakes accent? Furthermore, what is the relationship between these two dialects and Canadian English as spoken in Ontario and the Prairies?
All of these accents, while distinct, sound somewhat related to my ears, though I am by no means a proper linguist.
One of the most distinctive linguistic features of this region as a whole is the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, which is present from Syracuse west all the way to Minneapolis.
Besides that, rural Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois tend to have more of a Midlands Accent; Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa and the Dakotas have the more distinct North Central Accent. Michigan is interesting; in the Lower Peninsula, the accents can be close to those in Indiana and Ohio with a significant influence from Detroit's urban, working poor. The Upper Peninsula has one of the most distinct accents anywhere in the country, similar to-- but not identical to-- the accent found in Minnesota's Iron Range.
Not to mention there is a much larger swath of the Midwest who don't have roots in Norwegian than who do (German ancestry is probably the highest in most Midwestern states), meaning it definitely doesn't "define" the Midwest accent.
Right, the areas with the accent are generally not very well populated.
You can hear it most in the Michigan UP, northern Minnesota, North Dakota and maybe northern areas of South Dakota. There's a similar accent that often gets lumped in, although it came more from German than Norwegian, and it's in areas of Minnesota, South Dakota and maybe far northern Iowa.
The populated areas of the Midwest have nothing in common with this "norwegian" or "minnesota" accent as it's often called. In Minneapolis I don't hear it, they're pretty much "exempt" from the accent and also happen to have a majority of the population. Many people just roll their eyes when the accent is mentioned.
It's much more a folklore thing at this point than widespread. People associate it with the parody accent in the movie Fargo or Drop Dead Gorgeous - but that's a very extreme version of any accent you would hear in mainstream areas of those states.
Last edited by Chicago60614; 10-16-2015 at 09:04 AM..
Modern Canadian English sounds nearly identical to Californian English.
I've tried to argue this multiple times in countless threads on CD and everyone acts as if I'm completely insane.
I think, in general, most Americans have no idea what Canadians sound like.
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