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I was thinking that. I would need to hear British Columbia type accents to know if they don't sound like that.
Although I was wondering if maybe the mountains, once, made connections weaker than in the Plains. I'd think in older times going from North Dakota or Minnesota to Manitoba could possibly have been easier than going from Portland to Vancouver. Some rivers in the Upper Midwest connect to Canada and flatter land was often easier to travel. Maybe that's irrelevant though.
Honestly most of the people in BC sound no different than a person in Seattle or Portland. You are probably more likely to hear an Asian accent in BC lol.
But in all reality there is a difference between western Canadians and those from eastern Canada.
Honestly most of the people in BC sound no different than a person in Seattle or Portland. You are probably more likely to hear an Asian accent in BC lol.
But in all reality there is a difference between western Canadians and those from eastern Canada.
Actually there really is a difference in accent as well as intonation between BC and the US side of the Pacific NW- definitely more than the difference between BC and Ontario (Canada is an interesting case of a vast country with minimal accent differences).
Hear the newscasts between Vancouver and Seattle and you cant tell the difference?
Actually there really is a difference in accent as well as intonation between BC and the US side of the Pacific NW- definitely more than the difference between BC and Ontario (Canada is an interesting case of a vast country with minimal accent differences).
Hear the newscasts between Vancouver and Seattle and you cant tell the difference?
I disagree. There are many people from eastern Canada who move to BC and Alberta. But really there are plenty of people living here in Vancouver who sound no different than someone living right across the border in Washington state.
There is a noticeable difference in accent among those who grew up back east and those who grew up in the western provinces.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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Anyone who attributes the Upper Midwest's accent to purely immigrants doesn't see the undeniable differences between them. 'Ya know', the 'ou', as in the word 'house' being pronounced more like the 'oa' in oats....the Upper Midwest is influenced by Canadian dialect in the same way that the Lower Midwest is influenced by Southern dialect. In addition, the whole Great Lakes region has Canadian tendencies in their dialect. Occasionally you will get people from these regions who talk exactly like somebody from the South or from Canada, but mostly you'll just get people with a couple of influences, and some with just the typical flat Midwest accent. It seems like a lot of the traditional American dialect is dying out among the younger white generations, especially in the big cities. You probably don't get as many of these accents in the West because the West was settled much later than the east was, and the people who settled it probably had been in the U.S. long enough that some of their ties to their ancestors had been considerably eroded. I do know for a fact that it was mostly Northerners that settled California, and logically probably settled many of the states along the Canadian border. I think it is as many said on here...the West just didn't have the kind of foreign immigration and settlers to it that the East did.
Being from Ely originally...I can tell you that you are all right...we do raise our vowels here, but we also lengthen them...but I can still tell a person from Manitoba from 10 miles away blindfolded, with earplugs by the way they talk (and act)...Ontarians are a bit harder to tell, but I get it eventually...
I've been to some conventions in out East and get told "God...the flight from Germany must have been murder..." and in CA and Seattle, I always get complimented on my English and sometimes they welcome me to my own god-dang country...really annoying sometimes, do I have to wear a giant Minnesota flag as a cloak or something so people get it!
I was told by a debate coach (in a nice way) I have probably the thickest Minnesota accent she has heard though, that may be why...
The only places that "get it" is Texas and Louisiana, people always seem ask me "So how was the drive down from the Cities (or Chicago)" and in Tuscon, a waitress asked us after a while "So you guys from Minnesota, Wisconsin or Canada"...I don't know why THEY seem to get it, when everyone else doesn't!
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ArcticWolf88
Being from Ely originally...I can tell you that you are all right...we do raise our vowels here, but we also lengthen them...but I can still tell a person from Manitoba from 10 miles away blindfolded, with earplugs by the way they talk (and act)...Ontarians are a bit harder to tell, but I get it eventually...
I've been to some conventions in out East and get told "God...the flight from Germany must have been murder..." and in CA and Seattle, I always get complimented on my English and sometimes they welcome me to my own god-dang country...really annoying sometimes, do I have to wear a giant Minnesota flag as a cloak or something so people get it!
I was told by a debate coach (in a nice way) I have probably the thickest Minnesota accent she has heard though, that may be why...
The only places that "get it" is Texas and Louisiana, people always seem ask me "So how was the drive down from the Cities (or Chicago)" and in Tuscon, a waitress asked us after a while "So you guys from Minnesota, Wisconsin or Canada"...I don't know why THEY seem to get it, when everyone else doesn't!
Are you talking like as thick as in Fargo? I definitely could understand that was American, and I'm not American.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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I kind of would have to agree that the diverse settlement patterns are what made the Pacific Northwest less influenced by Canadian speech patterns than the Upper Midwest. The Upper Midwest has a very light Canadian accent that includes some, but not all, of typical Canadian pronunciations. I don't agree that the Upper Midwest accent has no Canadian influences though...I have a friend from Toronto who speaks with the accent, and I know people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan whom I've heard the same dialect from. You can also find this dialect in Upstate New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Any state that borders Canada or is on the northern tier of the U.S. outside of the Pacific NW is going to have some type of Canadian influence. The Great Lakes accent is shared by both extreme southern Canada and the extreme northern U.S.
Something else to keep in mind is that British Columbia does not have the same accent as Ontario and central Canada. It is markedly different.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stlouisan
I kind of would have to agree that the diverse settlement patterns are what made the Pacific Northwest less influenced by Canadian speech patterns than the Upper Midwest. The Upper Midwest has a very light Canadian accent that includes some, but not all, of typical Canadian pronunciations. I don't agree that the Upper Midwest accent has no Canadian influences though...I have a friend from Toronto who speaks with the accent, and I know people from Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan whom I've heard the same dialect from. You can also find this dialect in Upstate New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. Any state that borders Canada or is on the northern tier of the U.S. outside of the Pacific NW is going to have some type of Canadian influence. The Great Lakes accent is shared by both extreme southern Canada and the extreme northern U.S.
Something else to keep in mind is that British Columbia does not have the same accent as Ontario and central Canada. It is markedly different.
People in the big cities like Vancouver and Toronto just have a pretty bland North American/GenAm type accent with a few Canadianisms. Never heard of a 'BC' accent before. It seems the accent is strongest in rural areas and the north. Basically, a strong Canadian accent seems to have some Scottish/Native American characteristics. Sounding sort of 'robotic', a very prominent long 'o' sound. Kind of a dorky accent, tbh.
As a Canadian who has been to Washington State several times, and Michigan several times, I find the Pac NW accent to be far more similar to our accent than our accent. The midwest accent isn't very similar to the Canadian accent at all.
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