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I should tell you the Newscasters in the United States emulate the Canadian accent because of how neutral it is. Many newcasters working in the U.S are in fact Canadian hired due to their neutral accent. Little known fact.
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"That" accent which is the newscasters accent in America, is "General American", heard most prevalently in states such as Nebraska and Iowa. It is noticeably distinct from the Canadian accent.
If there are Canadians in the US who don't sound like Canadians, I'd say Pamela Anderson. She has completely lost any semblance of Canadian accent, figured she has been in California so long now. Justin Bieber actually sounds very American now too, I think.
I don't understand why Canadians are so ashamed/in denial of their accents. I actually prefer the way they sound - American accents can often sound unsophisticated and hickish to me, even the "general" variety of them. Canadian accents sound more enunciated and strong to me while the American way of speaking sounds slurred, submissive and indecisive. Especially the "valley girl" mode of talking that's been a big thing over the past 25-35 years.
Anyhow I think the alleged receding of Canadian accents is overstated. Yes older Canadians have more distinct accents, but I'd say in general people's accents become more distinct to where they are from as they get older. And I see no reason why younger Canadians won't sound like their parents and grandparents as they age. I also think older Americans have what I'd consider stronger "American accents".
Children tend to have less noticeable accents than adults because they are learning how to talk and on some level just sound "like kids".
I was oat and aboat in Caanaadaa and ay drank melk oat of your bayg, soary is that alreet? I dedent knooo you haad melk in baygs aap in Cheronno, that's a faany thing eh?
No one is "opting" for anything. It's a natural change, I think personally it's because nowadays people are so connected as it's easy to travel and communicate through social media (things like Skype for example). We aren't so separated as regions or countries and people move frequently. It's not uncommon to find someone from California going to college in New York for example then choosing to stay. Accents are changing and decreasing but I still sound different than a Southerner or a Canadian or a Brit or even a Californian (with the so called "general accent" ). It just may not be as dramatic as it used to be.
Even the New Jersey accent, so stereotyped, isn't the same as it used to be.
I don't really see how Skype would influence accents. I mean I don't think most people use it more than say, half an hour a month on average at most? and it's only been around what maybe 8 years or so?
Perhaps television indirectly levels out accents because children learn words from it and pronounce them in a certain way (like noospaper vs nyuspaper for instance), but I still think their older peers are going to be more of an influence on their speech patterns than Hollywood television programs.
Girl, you do have an accent! You may not think so, but you sure do. If you think you don't just because you're talkin' Valley-style like the girls you see on American tv, then ok most certainly your parents and grandparents have accents. Accents are fascinating.
My ex is Canadian, I've been there many times- and there is a distinct accent. I myself can now tell just by a few words even. Crossing the border from Washington State to Canada, you hear the difference immediately, let alone crossing from Upstate NY to Ontario. It's not even just the vowels, or words like 'out', 'sorry', 'again' etc.
It has a different speech style, more crisp and clipped, and the vowels are most certainly pronounced more strongly. To my ears, some white Canadians sound like a mix of Native-Americans/ Scottish even. When Canadians ask questions, they sound different from Americans, there is more of a lilt whereas Americans end with a down note, hard to explain unless you've spent time in both.
There's also a difference in how high class vs.. lower class Canadians speak I should say. That Scottish/native American sound is only prevalent among the poor in Canada. Us high class Canadians speak entirely different. Perhaps your ex BF came from an impoverished background?
I am really not sure how to answer Maxie's question.....Let me think aboot it.
And that's why I don't like these threads. They just turn into which is worse or which is better. I've heard americans sound like hicks and canadians talk silly. That's what these threads generally devolve into.
ps: I've only been to ontario, and from my visit they sounded pretty general american. I think sometimes people just invent the way other sound just to cause pissing contest (aka canadians say aboot or sound like fargo/northern midewesterners, or americans sound like they just walked out of a trailer park)
There is one person on Earth who doesn't think Canadians have accents. Maxie.
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). It just may not be as dramatic as it used to be. 