Can Canadians hear their accent?

Chris   Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:31 pm GMT
When searching for information on the Canadian accent on the web, one invariably encounters pages and pages of something to this effect: someone from the US, or the UK or Australia says that they can't tell the difference between the American and Canadian (Western) accent. Then several Americans usually say that Canadians say "oot and aboot", and then another one chimes in and says "no it's more like ote and abote", and then a Canadian insists that they certainly don't sound that stupid, and they have never heard anyone say it like that but that the Newfies probably say it like that. Do Canadians just not notice their Canadian raising? Except for some younger people in Toronto and Vancouver, they virtually all seem to have it. When they talk to people from other English-speaking countries, can they tell that words like "about" are being pronounced differently, or do they perceive both the raised version and the non-raised version to sound exactly the same? I know that some can tell the difference in "rider" and "writer" (except in some areas on the wet coast where they raise /aU/ only and not /aI/ before voiceless consonants), but can they tell a difference of the vowel in "house" vs "houses"?
Guest   Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:36 pm GMT
Can you hear your accent? The answer to that will probaly be the same one you are looking for.
Chris   Sun Jun 04, 2006 2:40 pm GMT
>> Can you hear your accent? The answer to that will probaly be the same one you are looking for. <<
But can they hear that their accent is different from other dialects (especially American), in words like "out" and "about"? Would they hear an accent if the raising was not used?
Guest   Sun Jun 04, 2006 3:44 pm GMT
>>Can you hear your accent? The answer to that will probaly be the same one you are looking for. <<

Ye. I can hear my accent. Does my freakin head in!