I'm Irish.Why do people think I'm Candian?

Guest   Mon Sep 08, 2008 9:15 pm GMT
>> To most of us Brits they sound much like the Americans except for the main giveaway - the pronunciation of the "ou" sound in words like "out" and "about".
<<


But that's just it--that's a feature many Canadians have (that relatively few Americans have) that it has in common with Irish English.
WRP   Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:43 pm GMT
If you look at Canadian/US expat boards it seems to be pretty common that both are mistaken for Irish so it doesn't seem that surprising that it happens the other way around.

It's rather difficult for Americans and Canadians to tell which is which most of the time without listening carefully (obviously some accents are stronger than others). In my experience the most reliable way isn't accent at all, it's whether people say 5th grade (American) or grade 5 (Canadian) (obviously that works for all school grades). I have some serious doubts about people from the UK correctly identifying the subtle differences between the two.

Anyway, I don't think people are detecting a way that Canadian accents are closer to various Irish accents, I think they're being polite. They don't want to offend Canadians who don't like being mistaken for Americans.
Guest   Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:03 am GMT
They're saying "Canadian" to be polite; they probably meant "American" but would think you'd take it as an insult. I doubt British people are familiar with the one or two minor little nuances that differentiate Canadian and American accents since they sound 99.9% the same.
Guest   Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:07 am GMT
Since when is that "oot" thing common in Irish English? I've only ever heard it in Scottish, which is where it came from in the Canadian dialect. No Irish connection whatsoever. So it'd make sense if you were Scottish and then were mistaken for being Canadian with the oots and shit.
Guest   Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:56 am GMT
>> Since when is that "oot" thing common in Irish English? I've only ever heard it in Scottish, which is where it came from in the Canadian dialect. No Irish connection whatsoever. So it'd make sense if you were Scottish and then were mistaken for being Canadian with the oots and xxxx. <<

Yeah, but not many Scottish dialects sound very close to North American English. And yes the "oot" thing is very common in Irish dialects--although it's much milder and not very close to "oot" just a slightly raised "out"--very similar to a mild version of Canadian raising. Listen to Miles O'Brian on Star Trek DS9. He's Irish, I think. His accent is very light, and does seem close to a North American one (although not as close as some.)
Guest   Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:58 am GMT
>> They're saying "Canadian" to be polite; they probably meant "American" but would think you'd take it as an insult. <<

That could be the case. Many Canadians will get annoyed at constantly being called "Americans", whereas an American would never be insulted at being called a Canadian--they will simply correct you (or not, depending on if they say they're Canadian while travelling.) with no hard feelings.
Uriel   Tue Sep 09, 2008 6:59 am GMT
Irish accents often sound like that have a high degree of kinship with American accents. Not all of them, but a lot.

There is also an accent in Canada that sounds very oddly like a cross between the two -- it has Canadian (or American) pronunciation coupled with the Irish sing-song rhythm. I don't know much about it and I have never heard it in movies or TV, but I heard it in person on my way through British Columbia once -- on not one, but several people. I assume it's a regional thing. It was very striking and unusual! A little like the Fargo/Minnesota thing, but more Irish than Scandinavian, if anyone is trying to picture what it sounded like.
AJC   Tue Sep 09, 2008 7:38 am GMT
The spelling "oot" is meant to represent something entirely different in Scots (or the dialects of northern England) than it does when trying to represent Canadian pronuncuation. I really wouldn't think there is any connection there at all.
Veronica   Tue Sep 09, 2008 7:58 am GMT
Thank you all so much for the input. It's been very interesting to read all your comments. I think I've now got a few things to go on. I'm also going to work on developing my new Canadian persona - I'm thinking of something along the lines of being the secret love child of Brian Adams and Celine Dion. Throw in a couple of maple leaves and I'm practically native.
Sho   Tue Sep 09, 2008 12:00 pm GMT
If I heard this guy speak on the street, I would definitely guess he's North American, though he's really Irish.
http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=135
Guest   Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:37 pm GMT
>> If I heard this guy speak on the street, I would definitely guess he's North American, though he's really Irish.
http://accent.gmu.edu/searchsaa.php?function=detail&speakerid=135 <<

Yeah, me too.


>> I'm also going to work on developing my new Canadian persona - I'm thinking of something along the lines of being the secret love child of Brian Adams and Celine Dion. Throw in a couple of maple leaves and I'm practically native. <<

That should be fun. A few years ago I did something similar. I learned how to do a Russian accent, and pretended to be from Russia (and in my own country, too, lol (I'm American)) I struck up lots of conversations with people, and talked all about Russia, and what life was like back during the Soviet Union, I made up lots of interesting stories.
Rene   Tue Sep 09, 2008 2:57 pm GMT
I met a Canadian woman who I thought might have been Irish, but had lived in America for a really long time or something. It has to do with the vowels and that "lilt" (I'm currently dodging bullets, but I could think of no other word). It was just like Uriel described it, defninately not your typical Canadian accent. I asked the woman about it and she said that tons of people ask if she's Irish.
Uriel   Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:48 am GMT
Where was she from? I couldn't tell if it was a BC thing or not, because not everyone I ran into there had it, but I also didn't feel like asking people I met, "Hey, you talk funny -- where'd you pick that up?" But it seemed to be more common up north, closer to Alaska. I think I noticed it a lot in Prince Rupert, although lots of people there were also from out of town. Our neighbors in the campground mentioned being from somewhree inland called Houston (not the one in TX, obviously), and they definitely had a very strong version of this accent. Alaskans didn't seem to have it at all.
Veronica   Wed Sep 10, 2008 1:30 pm GMT
^met a Canadian woman who I thought might have been Irish, but had lived in America for a really long time or something. It has to do with the vowels and that "lilt" (I'm currently dodging bullets, but I could think of no other word). ^

This is really interesting as it has just reminded of something I'd completely forgotten. A few years ago I was on a tour and there was a girl in the group whom I thought sounded Irish but maybe had been living in the UK for a number of years. She even looked Irish and had an Irish sounding name but it turned out her parents were British but she had been born and raised in Canada, and lived there until she was 18. She said people were always asking her if she was Irish.
Guest   Sun Sep 14, 2008 10:57 pm GMT
<<Northern Ireland is part of the UK. >>

<<But northern Ireland (specifically Donegal) isn't>>

donegal isnt in NI, and NI is part of UK