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I wonder if the OP realizes that both countries have such broad, varied accents that there really is no "American" accent and no "Canadian" accent.
My Chicagoan (Shi-CAW-go) accent is pretty flat, and folks from NY and the East coast, parts of the West coast, and definitely teh sawth sound alien to me. And the Canadian accent oft parodied in movies is actually from Nova Scotia (NOOOO-VAH SCOOOO-SHA!). Folks from Vancouver, B.C., both those whose first language is English and other new arrivals from the old Empire sound totally different from them. A friend of mine from Edmonton sounds similar to I, however, the "aboot" (vs. aBOUt) and "ssshedule" (vs. SKEDULE) and "pro-cess" (vs. PRAW-cess) stand out.
Basically, take any two people from any two places and you will get mostly those who sound anything from nearly the same to vastly different.
It takes a couple of minutes for me to tell the diff between Canadian and American. The "out and about" usually does it for me.
Australian and British I can tell apart quite quickly. Australians actually have a strange accent to my ears. It is like they speak keeping their mouth somewhat closed. Are there lots of flies in Australia? Australians have the most bizarre sounding "no" in the English language. Sounds weird to my ears. No offense, but I think the Australian accent is the worst of the English language. Just not pleasant to my ears.
Favorite accent is of course the original, the UK. Pretty much any UK accent is very pleasing to the ears. I also love how different UK accents can be over short distances.
I can tell American accents, particularly well in my region. I can pick out Baltimore very quickly (the most similar to Philadelphia), NYC, Boston, the South, Midwest, etc.
The fact is, Canadian accents and American accents are part of a North American English spectrum.
I mean, If Canadians don't sound like 'Americans', then Texans sure as hell don't either since the average Canadian accent and the average American accent are far closer to each other than their nation's respective outlying accents.
If the biggest 'tell' for differentiating a typical Canadian accent from an American one is the vowel sound in 'out and about', then you are splitting hairs.
If the biggest 'tell' for differentiating a typical Canadian accent from an American one is the vowel sound in 'out and about', then you are splitting hairs.
I don't think it's splitting hairs, I think that's just the smoking gun. Canadian accents have a different tone but once they say 'about' or 'house' my suspicions are confirmed a person is Canadian. Unless they're actually from Wisconsin or something
As mentioned there is a pretty general standard north american accent. The general US neutral accent and the general canadian accent are pretty damn interchangeable.
When you think of how many canadian entertainers there have been in hollywood have any of them actually had to change their accents for roles as british or australian actors do?
As mentioned there is a pretty general standard north american accent. The general US neutral accent and the general canadian accent are pretty damn interchangeable.
When you think of how many canadian entertainers there have been in hollywood have any of them actually had to change their accents for roles as british or australian actors do?
Well, Carly Foulkes, the T-Mobile girl had to change her pronunciation of 'mobile' from the Canadian (mow-by-ol) to American "mo-bol". I think they do have to get rid of their accents to a certain extent yes.
Accents and local pronunciations are different things. I've heard mobile pronounced "mo-ble" as many times as "mo-byle" in canada probably more to be honest.
The same goes for schedule where i hear "sked-dule" more than "sheh-dule" even though i believe the latter is the correct canadian pronunciation. Hell on tv the first couple of seasons of 24 had an almost all canadian cast and i never noticed any of them changing their accents to play americans.
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