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Canadian English is unique in that it's heavily influenced by both British and American English, so your typical Canadian could probably find equal enjoyment in both an American sitcom and a BBC Britcom, while an American might find British TV strange, and vice versa.
Canadian French, on the other hand, is a whole different animal.
When I travel in the states, I'm spotted as Canadian and it's not just the accent, it words that we use, like washroom, garburator, referring to grade one instead of first grade, Second World War instead of World War 2 etc and many others that most Canadians don't even realize are said differently in the US.
Some words that we say differently, but there are variations since Canada is massive.
Processed
Pasta
Drama
Mum. Even Canadians who may spell it MOM, say MUM, not MAWM.
Produce
Roof
Vase although some Canadian may pronounce it the American way.
Lever. Most Canadians say Lee-ver, as opposed to LEV-ers.
Permit as in a city permit.
Foyer
...tons of others.
These are all good examples of the uniqueness of Canadian English.
I don't think that beyond the border regions, most people stateside would pick up on these as being Canadian unless they've had some measure of exposure to Canadians for whatever reason.
These are all good examples of the uniqueness of Canadian English.
I don't think that beyond the border regions, most people stateside would pick up on these as being Canadian unless they've had some measure of exposure to Canadians for whatever reason.
They probably just think you "talk funny"!
Some, but you would be surprised at how many people do. Millions of Californians have been to BC for example.
In places like Nebraska, Ohio, Arkansas, probably not so much.
Well, I'm Canadian, but I've lived in the US for a little under a decade. The Canadian accent is pretty recognizable to most people that I've met. I don't really have one since my dad is from GA, and my mom is from NY, but my wife does. It's always one of these:
Sorry - Sore-y
About - Abou-T
House - Houce
Process - Pro-cess
Can't / Won't / Heat (or anything else ending in a hard "T" sound) - Ontario
Ham / Can / Van (Anything with an short A sound, and then an N or M) - Western Canada
***** - Hoore - Northern Ontario
French accent
"The states" / "over the river" - Most Canadians, with the later being Southern Ontario
When I travel in the states, I'm spotted as Canadian and it's not just the accent, it words that we use, like washroom, garburator, referring to grade one instead of first grade, Second World War instead of World War 2 etc and many others that most Canadians don't even realize are said differently in the US.
Some words that we say differently, but there are variations since Canada is massive.
Processed
Pasta
Drama
Mum. Even Canadians who may spell it MOM, say MUM, not MAWM.
Produce
Roof
Vase although some Canadian may pronounce it the American way.
Lever. Most Canadians say Lee-ver, as opposed to LEV-ers.
Permit as in a city permit.
Foyer
...tons of others.
Some of these are spoken in the US the same way as Canada, for example, there are at least two ways Americans pronounce 'vase' (vace, vahz), 'roof' (roof, ruuhf), 'pasta' (pahsta, paaasta), and 'foyer' (foyur, foyay). In some places you will still hear older people using alternate pronunciations of 'lever' (levur, leevur) as well.
But a few are definitely very rare in not absent in the US, such as 'process' and 'schedule' which are usually dead giveaways.
Some of these are spoken in the US the same way as Canada, for example, there are at least two ways Americans pronounce 'vase' (vace, vahz), 'roof' (roof, ruuhf), 'pasta' (pahsta, paaasta), and 'foyer' (foyur, foyay). In some places you will still hear older people using alternate pronunciations of 'lever' (levur, leevur) as well.
But a few are definitely very rare in not absent in the US, such as 'process' and 'schedule' which are usually dead giveaways.
I mentioned that there were variations in Canada, and should have added in the US as well. However, I think it's safe to say, that the majority of people in the US do not pronounce most of these words the same as the majority in Canada.
When I was a kid in Western NY, there were 3 Canadian brothers who lived on our block. We'd play "hahkee" (as we pronounced it) with them. They claimed they were playing "hawkee". They also pronounced dog as "dahhg". (We said "dawg".)
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