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I wonder why people even voted for California lol it doesn't even border Canada. There's far more people in California who sound Mexican than they do Canadian, I assure you.
I had a Canadian professor who before he said he was Canadian, could pass for a Minnesotan.
Toronto (and Vancouver) is a very diverse city, and while representative for many Canadians, it also comes with a caveat. Theres a large amount of foreign influence in the city, a lot of immigration. To get a more "true blue" Canadian accent you gotta go to less populated more provincial areas. I assure you there's lots of young people in rural Canada who say "aboot." Why wouldn't there be? The year you are born does not affect your accent, the place and people you grow up with does. I think you should consider how many generations those young Canadians who don't say "aboot" have been in Canada for. If they're more recent generations, that has to do more with it than simply their age.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 07-29-2017 at 05:58 PM..
People always say "accents are fading" but its just exaggeration. People say the same thing about Texas accent and I don't see it going anywhere either. Also I googled "Canada rural population" and its about 17% of the population, and thats only including their definition of "rural" as 1,000 people or less. I don't think a town of 5,000 is that much different. Yea theres big cities but its not just that, there's still plenty of people living in more isolated, even if not all that rural, environments.
Last edited by Mike from back east; 07-29-2017 at 05:58 PM..
People always say "accents are fading" but its just exaggeration. People say the same thing about Texas accent and I don't see it going anywhere either. Also I googled "Canada rural population" and its about 17% of the population, and thats only including their definition of "rural" as 1,000 people or less. I don't think a town of 5,000 is that much different. Yea theres big cities but its not just that, there's still plenty of people living in more isolated, even if not all that rural, environments.
A lot of those smaller communities are in the commuter belts of large cities and not truly rural though. I'm thinking of a place like Nobleton which is full of Italians that moved up from Vaughan and Toronto.
36% live in the Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver metropolitan areas
22% live in metropolitan areas of 500,000 to 2,000,000
17% live in metropolitan areas of 100,000 to 500,000
10% live in urban areas of 10,000 to 100,000
16% live outside of metropolitan areas and urban areas of 10,000+ (ie true small town/rural)
I'd say that towns like Sault Ste Marie, Trois Rivieres, Chatham, Chilliwack, Red Deer, Regina, etc that are around 50-300k are still relatively provincial and reflective of old stock Canadian culture.
But I still don't hear rural Canadians say "aboot". It's closer to "aboat", which is different from how most Americans say it, but still not "aboot".
Although I agree the Canadian accent has a lot of similarities to the Minnesota accent, there are still differences, like we don't pronounce "roof" as "ruff", we pronounced it as "rewf".
Minnesota and North Dakotans that I have noticed. Most of my family lives in Ontario, Canada and my stepmom has family in North Dakota and Minnesota.
It’s very noticeable to me, in fact when I met one of my daughters ex-boyfriend’s, I immediately asked him if he had Canadian heritage based on his slight accent and the answer was that most of his family was from Minnesota. Same with my hairdresser, first time I met her I inquired about her background and she was raised in Minnesota. There’s no mistaking it!
A stronger Upper Midwest characteristic is the a/ae sound merger of words such as: drag/nag/magazine/agriculture.
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