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From first hand experience - I think this is very accurate! Those damn aboots!! There are some other key words that just SCREAM i'm not from here - I'm Canadian lol.. On a 'positive' note - they are often surprised that I spoke 'fluent' English.
Well the accents have never been vastly different since the founding of the continent - remember, it was the same people from the UK that split up into Canada and the US, it's not like they came from different countries aside from the French Canadians.
TV and media definitely have a huge influence on how you speak. Otherwise, how do you account for people in say Texas or New York having a neutral sounding accent? I know people that sound like newscasters even though they grew up around people with heavy Jewish or Italian New York accents. They sound more like someone from California than someone from New York - it's partially because of media influence growing up and hanging out with friends that also have a neutral accent. Sometimes it's also an urban vs suburban influence. Often people from the suburbs in any state sound fairly neutral, whereas in more of the urban pockets, they have heavier local accents.
I don't think it's so much TV but rather education and the fact that many of these people don't have deep roots in those areas. I also think that the accents in places like NYC have never been as strong as some people think. It's not like everyone in the 1930s in Manhattan talked like a gangster.
As far as regional comparisons go, I find the neutral Canadian accent to be much closer to California than any other state, even any of the midwestern states. Then again, neutral is neutral anywhere you go in North America. But I think the extreme midwestern or upper midwestern accents sound nothing like neutral Canadian accents. Neutral Canadian accents sound more similar to how the average person on the west coast would speak outside of the valley girl outliers.
I disagree with that. I went to British Colombia. While there are a few women I've heard with Californian type accents, mostly in Vancouver. I've heard more people that with accents which sounded similar to Upper Midwestern accents like Minnesota. Especially outside of the cities.
The Canadian Border Official I've dealt with sounded like this guy.
It largely depends on region and speaker. to my Californian ears, Canadians sound more like me than a person from Oklahoma does. Pamela Anderson sounds exactly like most women from California. Jim Carey is almost the same but words like "sorry" and Progress" give him away as he uses the long "O" sound.
No I dont think Canadians sound like Americans. I have lived in both countries and to me there is a very clear difference.
Agreed. Even accents that are suppose to sound similar to Canadian accents (mid-Western, etc) still sound different.
Also, using actors as an example of accents is not a good representative. Many of them change their accents or go through voice training. Plus Pamela Anderson haven't lived in Canada since the '90s.
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