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Not really, at least for me around the Great Lakes. Canadians I have met sound just like their American friends across the water. When talking about the stereotypical Canadian accent, I have trouble distinguishing that from rural northern-midwestern US citizens.
Just today I was looking for YouTube videos on how to kill earwigs. I found one by a buy in Canada, and I thought of this thread. He was so obviously Canadian. The way he kept referring to the earwigs he caught as "fellas," even. "Let's see how many of these fellas I got..."
There really isn't even one spoken sentence that a Canadian utters, that isn't obviously different from an American.
And even if an American is from Austin, TX, as a previous poster who claims not to be able to tell the difference -- I just don't see how someone can claim that.
Even in Austin, TX, which I also know well - if someone from Austin made a video about earwigs in the garden, they wouldn't say, "Oh, lets see how many of these fellas I caught today, eh?"
You'd have to be completely dense not to notice that these people were not only not from TX, but that they also didn't fit any norm from any US television show you'd ever seen --- unless you weren't originally from the US.
Very interesting topic. It got me to thinking and wondering.
I think most white Americans are unable to tell a Canadian from another white American based solely on their accents - or their looks, for that matter.
I think most American accents from all regions of the Lower 48 States - excluding the South - talk and sound like they could be from Canada rather than the American South. Most people from say, Omaha and San Diego talk with an "accent" that sounds more like they could be from, say, Regina, Saskatchewan or Vancouver, British Colombia than being from, say, Colombia, South Carolina or Montgomery, Alabama.
Noticeably different, but I have an ear to pick up linguistic differences.
I have relatives in Canada & have been there many times.
The main things are the vowels.
"OU" words - more rounded and less drawn-out
"A"- flatter and more clipped
Also Canadians pronounce "T" sharply whereas Americans often drop the "T" in words like cenTer, renTal
Canadians often make a statement but sounds like a question (not to the extent as Australians though) a lilt in speech.
Americans often ask a question, but it sounds like a statement (ends with a down note).
The "style" of speech is just different, sometimes it is hard to explain but it is just "different" (though the Southern accent deviates more from the General American)
Also Americans OVERUSE "uh-huh" and other sounds like "mm h mm"
Apparently Canadians are not likely to murmur those things (I would say the rest of the Anglosphere are not inclined to murmur those- mainly Americans)
To the OP- watch videos of American newscasts vs Canadian newscasts, the differences are there.
Accents are fascinating!
Last edited by krosser100; 11-03-2018 at 09:49 PM..
Should I say the differences are also clear when you bring in the race card?
Canadian-born Blacks in Toronto have a COMPLETELY different accent from African-American Vernacular.
Me as an Asian-American, I find my California accent is SUBTLY different from Canadian-born-Asians. Subtly I say because I think Canadian-born-Asians generally do not have as strong of the "stereotypical Canada" accent as the Whites there?
I work in an organization that has Canadians spending part of the year with us. For the most part, it is hard to tell the difference but some words are dead give-aways, such as "about" or "been" and a few others. I don't hear them say "eh", which I have heard a lot when I have been in Canada.
Living in Houston and having grown up near the Canadian border, some locals say that I have a bit of a Canadian accent. I, of course, don't think I do, but I have gotten this remark several times.
Conversely, Canadians have told me they can pick out Americans fairly easily by our frequent use of the word "huh" (it's like our version of "eh")
Yes, you can tell them apart. Canadians say 'aboat' or 'aboot' instead of about and end their sentences with 'eh'. Canadians from Quebec are obviously even easier to tell apart because of their French accents.
I would love to do an experiment and put 13 people in a room, 1 person each from say, Seattle, San Diego, Boise, Denver, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, DC, Syracuse, Toronto, Regina and Vancouver, and have each person read out loud a paragraph in a book in front of 100 people and have each one guess which 3 are the Canadians based on their accent. I would bet my next social security check that no more than 10 out of those 100 people would be able to corectly guess which 3 are from Canada.
Should I say the differences are also clear when you bring in the race card?
Canadian-born Blacks in Toronto have a COMPLETELY different accent from African-American Vernacular.
Me as an Asian-American, I find my California accent is SUBTLY different from Canadian-born-Asians. Subtly I say because I think Canadian-born-Asians generally do not have as strong of the "stereotypical Canada" accent as the Whites there?
All the Asian Canadians I know that were born here, speak exactly the same as any other person born here. You can't tell they're Asian over the phone for instance.
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