Do I have a Canadian accent?

I'm NOT a native speaker of English but I don't have a strong foreign accent.

I began to learn English at the age 12 in Korea.
My first ESL teacher was Canadian; I don't remember which part of Canada she was from though.
My last ESL teacher in Korea was an American from New Jersey.
Now I've lived in Chicago for 6 months.

I'm just curious which area's accent is closest to my English accent.
http://media.putfile.com/doksuri

Do you detect NCVS in my voice file?
http://media.putfile.com/doksuri

Well, there are more non-native influences so no one would say, oh yes, you're from Canada, or some other region in North America. I couldn't hear all of the file, but from what I could hear, your "o" sounds (as in "bowl") sounded like a cross between "o" and "ah", which is not a feature of any particular form of North American English. Also, your l's sounded a little different. The dialect region labelled "Canada" on dialect isogloss maps includes all of Western and Central Canada. The core region is most of the inland areas there. The major cities of Vancouver and Toronto show more variable patterns. This particular dialect is one of the closest dialects to Conservative General American--the accent that most North Americans would consider "accentless"; non-regional; the newscaster style accent. Other areas that are also close to this abstract ideal include the Western and Midland United States. The only difference between the dialect labelled "Canada" on dialect maps is that: 1) it is cot-caught merged like the Western US and some other areas. That means that some words that are pronounced differently by certain regions, such as most of the Northern US. These words include cot/caught; tot-taught; etc. In cot-caught merged areas these words are all pronounced the same. 2) Some people have something known as the Canadian shift, which means that some vowels are sometimes shifted in a way opposite to regions such as the Great Lakes region in the US. You show a little of this, when you said "headed", the vowel sounded more like how a neutral, conservative, old-newscaster style accent, or someone speaking very carefully would say the vowel in the word "cat". The Canadian shift also exists in the Western US, but by a significantly fewer percentage of speakers. It is also very similar to the California vowel shift. 3) Many Canadians pronounce words that have /aU/ (as in "loud") followed by consonants such as p, t, k, f, th, s differently, and thus sound distinctly different when saying words such as "out" and "about" to people that do not have this feature. In fact, people that do not have this feature often mishear it as "aboat" or "oat", for example (although in reality it is distinct from how they would say "a boat" or "oat", but it is similar to how some people would say those words.) The vowel sound is actually "uh-oo" (oo like in moon), rather than "ah-oo". Most Americans do not have this feature, although there are many who live in areas in the US that are geographically close to Canada that also have this feature. A similar phenomenon exists in "i" sounds that is also known as Canadian raising: many Canadians pronounce "writer" and "rider" differently, and some can even distinguish between the two words. This is because the vowel is pronounced differently. This is widespread in the US as well though and applies to a large part of the country near the border, as well as in some other areas. This is remarkable, because in North American English, "t" and "d" are pronounced identically in the middle of words--both as a "d"-like sound called an "alveolar flap". But because of the difference in vowel sounds, many can still distinguish them. 4) Certain words are pronounced differently in Canada by many people (but not all) than in how most people pronounce them in the US: example: "pasta" usually has an "ah" sound in the US, but uses the same vowel in "cat" in Canada.

So anyway, your accent would be loosely classified as General American (but not Conservative General American), and except for the foreign elements would probably be perceived as "accentless" to most North Americans. Most would not identify it to any particular region.

Here is a good article on the Canadian Shift:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Shift

Although keep in mind that it is generally not a noticeable feature to most Americans, except to those that have the opposite shift, the NCVS. It is also found in the Western US (contrary to the article).

your [@] is close to [E]: h/E/ppy, that is so NCVS

yup, you sound a bit nasal, so you have a Great Lakes accent.
Chicago is not a place where neutral accents are used, you should have gone to Seattle, Tucson or Denver instead.

Yes. you sound Canadian, but it's not necessarily your pronunciation but the intonation and the "way" you talk (the rising and falling of your voice, the rhythm, mannerism, etc), but your pronunciation is a bit Canadian as well

>>
Yes. you sound Canadian, but it's not necessarily your pronunciation but the intonation and the "way" you talk (the rising and falling of your voice, the rhythm, mannerism, etc), but your pronunciation is a bit Canadian as well <<

There's no difference between the the intonation and the "way" that one speaks that separates the dialect in Western and Central Canada from Western or Midlands US, and most likely the Northern US as well. The only way that that dialect differs from say that of the Northern US dialect is the pronunciation of the vowels.

<<There's no difference between the the intonation and the "way" that one speaks that separates the dialect in Western and Central Canada from Western or Midlands US, and most likely the Northern US as well. The only way that that dialect differs from say that of the Northern US dialect is the pronunciation of the vowels. >>

No, I can tell the difference between a Midwesterner and a Canadian. Canadians seem to sound as if they are more humble/meek/polite? There's more of a sweetness to the way they talk. Midwesterners do not have that.

>>

No, I can tell the difference between a Midwesterner and a Canadian. Canadians seem to sound as if they are more humble/meek/polite? There's more of a sweetness to the way they talk. Midwesterners do not have that. <<


The humbleness/meekness/polite were probably just the particular Canadians that you happened to meet. As to the sweetness, it was probably the Canadian vowel shift that you heard, contrasted to the Northern cities vowel shift which is often described by people as sounding "nasal".

<<The humbleness/meekness/polite were probably just the particular Canadians that you happened to meet. As to the sweetness, it was probably the Canadian vowel shift that you heard, contrasted to the Northern cities vowel shift which is often described by people as sounding "nasal". >>

In addition to the above, I was referring to the attitude of the speakers. We americans have a different, bolder/harsher/more direct no-nonsense way of talking. Canadians by and large just sound more polite and nicer than we do (a gerneralization I know, but to me...)

>> In addition to the above, I was referring to the attitude of the speakers. We americans have a different, bolder/harsher/more direct no-nonsense way of talking. Canadians by and large just sound more polite and nicer than we do (a gerneralization I know, but to me...) <<

Do you have any published evidence to back that up? I certainly do not think that one can tell the nationality of the speaker by the "attitude" that you hear in their speech. If you really can, then I bet you'd be able to resolve the confusion about whether this speaker: ( http://antimoon.com/forum/t10955-0.htm ) has an American or Canadian accent. So far, about half of the people guessed Canadian, the other American. Many couldn't tell either way. Btw, this also is of "Comma Gets a Cure".

How do you pronounce DOLLAR, DALL?
rounded [Q] pronunciations if more common in Canada, unrounded [A] is more common in the US. General American has [A] in both words, General Canadian (according to Canadian Oxford dictionary) has [Q] in these words.

How do you pronounce DOLLAR, DOLL?
rounded [Q] pronunciations if more common in Canada, unrounded [A] is more common in the US. General American has [A] in both words, General Canadian (according to Canadian Oxford dictionary) has [Q] in these words.

<<Do you have any published evidence to back that up? I certainly do not think that one can tell the nationality of the speaker by the "attitude" that you hear in their speech. >>

Yes, you can.

This is similar to the way some English dialects, and I'm thinking of Australians (and sometimes New Zealanders) at the moment, always seem to end a sentence with a rising intonation--as if they are asking a question, but are really making a statement.

It is maigle (possible) to train your ear to hear different regional and dialectal differences and to deem them to a fairly close accuracy.