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Just aboot, eh. That's the only way I can tell a Canadian accent apart from the way we speak in New England. BTW, do Canadians call a down comforter a puff? Just wondering because my mother's family lived--and some still do--on the Canadian border and that's what they called it.
Being that I'm from MICHIGAN - a state of about 10 million people, and everyone I know talks a lot like me, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakotas, etc. We probably have a higher population than Canada. Maybe 40 million in the Upper Midwest.
In my experience, the 'eh' of Canada is pretty much similar to the 40 million AMericans who also use 'eh'. However, that's that Canadian sound isn't so common out on the West Coast. Than you take out Quebec, and maybe only half of Canadians (15 million out of their 33 million) might have the steretypical Canadian talk with the 'eh'. But, being from Michigan, it sounds pretty much just like us.
I've never considered myself to speak like a Canadian though. We have the bigger population of 'eh' people in the Upper Midwest than they do in Canada.
Only another Upper Midwesterner would agree with me though. The U.S. is so huge, that the only idea that anyone outside of the Upper Midwest even speaks like that, is from the movie, Fargo. Otherwise, I think most Americans just assume that everyone speaks like them, wherever they are from themselves.
The accents in border areas often seem to bleed into one another. I have heard people from the upper Mid-west sound like Canadians with certain words especially like "house", "about" and the like. And some Canadians have a more US pronunciation of those words. Sometimes when I am in Oregon and Washington state I feel like I am in a kind of no man's land between the two countries what with state run alcohol sales and the like.
I can tell apart Canadians from Americans without hearing them, their stance and clothing are very diferent. They remind me of Europeans 40 or 50 years ago, or rural people in France or England attending some produce market 40 years ago. Many dress in a rather peculiar way, they remind me of those river pirate movies.
Why do they constantly bash Americans when they talk to foreigners? Do they do it to generate goodwill or make friends? Bashing Americans is something entirely out of fashion in Europe except among far left groupies that smoke lots of haschisch, so when people hear them, many think they are envious. I don't know why do they do it, maybe not all but a lot of them.
No, no we don't. Some people do and I can't stand it. Much like "pellow" instead of "pillow".
I'll tell you right now though that I hear melk and pellow coming out of Americans 10x more than I do Canadians. Maybe west coasters say it, but not in my neck of the woods. That's a Michigan thing as far as I'm concerned.
lol.....Ironically I think thats a sign of the 'California Vowel Shift' where i becomes e so a little bit becomes a little bet...now why Canadians might sound like that I don't know
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