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I watch a lot of HGTV, and when one of the shows comes on that doesn't identify where the homeowners/buyers are from, I can always tell if the show is in Canada within the first minute of them opening their mouths. The hosts on that network who are Canadian also have obvious Canadian accents. About the only native of Ontario that I have ever had to listen extremely closely to to discern his accent is Alex Trebek, but then I think he has spent years on American TV consciously trying to sound like an American. Michael J. Fox has a very discernable Canadian accent.
We only live about an hour from the Detroit/Windsor border and visit Canada from time to time. The things I notice the most are the "oat and aboat", the "I'm sorey, but I will be out of that product until tomoreow. When I get some more in, they will cost ten dolers", and the "eh" (I hear this one a lot, even in southern Ontario!)
Canadians are extremely nice people as a rule, their country is neat and pretty, and who really cares if they talk with an accent? Personally, I find it charming.
The people on HGTV aren't reflective of all Canadians and are probably just bumpkins. And Michael J Fox has such a heavy slur from Parkinson's disease I don't know how you could discern any type of accent with him, Canadian or otherwise?
Canadians most certainly have accents. A lot of that is due to them retaining more British pronunciations and spellings (i.e. in many Canadian cities, "been" is pronounced "bean" rather than "bin", "record" is pronounced "recORD" rather than "RECKerd", and of course the "realize vs. realise" dichotomy - both spellings are common in Canada but 'realise' is still more prevalent, even with the heavy US influence).
The accent I am most familiar with is the one spoken in the Prairie Provinces - they have a rhotic accent similar to most US dialects, and is a lot like an Upper Midwestern/Minnesota accent in that "out" and "about" are basically "oat" and "aboat" (now the Minnesota "aboat" and the Manitoba "aboat" are pronounced ever-so-slightly differently, I think the MN version has a slightly rounder "o" sound) . Newfies have their own distinct accent, and to an untrained ear, can be virtually indistinguishable from a classic Irish brogue.
Well In Ontario we don't talk like that. We sound American, none of this "Aboat" stuff. I definitely don't have a Canadian accent.
Well In Ontario we don't talk like that. We sound American, none of this "Aboat" stuff. I definitely don't have a Canadian accent.
OK, so you're the only person on Earth who doesn't think Canadians have accents. We get it. Please stop repeating the same argument over and over. No one agrees with your assessment.
OK, so you're the only person on Earth who doesn't think Canadians have accents. We get it. Please stop repeating the same argument over and over. No one agrees with your assessment.
Have you actually ever heard an Actual Canadian speak? If you did you would find we sound hardly any different.
Probably because Canadians do have accents. Everybody has an accent. The "neutral" accent people like to say exists/they have is still an accent.
Canadians and those from the northern Midwestern US I've come across have quite strong accents. I do hear "aboat", "house" is said oddly to my ears, so is "mom", other words with the O sound especially.
Have you actually ever heard an Actual Canadian speak? If you did you would find we sound hardly any different.
He is from Michigan of course he has. Everyone in Michigan sees (and hears) Canadians, and many Michigan people see them daily. Everyone has an accent, no matter where you live and Canadians are no different.
The people on HGTV aren't reflective of all Canadians and are probably just bumpkins. And Michael J Fox has such a heavy slur from Parkinson's disease I don't know how you could discern any type of accent with him, Canadian or otherwise?
The people on HGTV that I am referring to are both the home buyers/sellers and the licensed professionals who assist them. Most of the buyers on these shows are actually city dwellers from around Toronto who are educated professionals. Who else could afford to pay over $500,000 for a 1,200 sq. ft. attached house?
I was referring to Michael J. Fox back when he was a pre-Parkinson guy in his early twenties on "Family Ties". He pronounced "tomorrow" like "tomoreow", and "sorry" like "sorey".
Canadians most definitely do have a noticeable Canadian accent. What I can't figure out is why it bothers you so much for people to tell you that. If I was Canadian, I certainly would not care, it would be one of the things that made me uniquely Canadian. It's not like it's an annoying or ugly accent. Like I said, I find it quite charming, much as I find it charming that you call your rest stops along the expressways "en routes" and have French translations on every road sign. Canada is not the U.S., nor should it try to be. Canada is just fine being Canada...eh?
It's important to recognize, however, that there isn't just one "Canadian" accent. Whenever you have 35 million people stretched over 3.5 million square miles, settled by persons from different countries of origin, you're going to hear variations in how people speak.
On city-data we often talk about "southern" accents or "northern" accents, but we recognize that there are variations within each of those regions (though the differences within each region may be harder to distinguish for someone who isn't from there). Same has to be true in Canada. Try being from Calgary and trying to communicate with a Newfie.
The OP has an accent (everyone has an accent of some kind). It may not be the hockey accent most Americans think of, but I bet if 100 people from the US listened to the OP speak for a few minutes, they'd hear some giveaway to his/her origin.
One example for fun, this is Sandra Rinomato, born and raised in Toronto, had a popular HGTV show "Property Virgins" until a couple of years ago. She's a city woman, well educated, does business in Canada and the US, and isn't from some backwater. Yet you can tell just by listening to her for a minute or two that she's not from the US. It may be hard to tell at first, but there are several things she says that people south of the border would notice as different (and probably somehow Canadian).
Here's a video: Sandra Rinomato - Realty Check Video - YouTube
Just a few things I noticed listening for the first two minutes (I didn't even finish the video):
0:23 "mouths" = "moaths"
0:32 "not = "noat" or is it more like "nawt" couldn't tell but it sounded different
0:51 "dollars" = "dole-ars"
0:52 "house" = "hoase"
1:01 "out" = "oat"
1:23 "house" = "hoase" again, twice more in rapid succession
1:58 "a lot" = "a loat"
and so on...
Yes, but some people speak neutral. Canadians have no accent, we sound just like people in parts of new york, California ect. where the accent is untraceable.
Right.
How do you say "roof?" How do you say "about?"
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