5 US States

Staates   Thu May 28, 2009 10:40 pm GMT
Which 5 states in the US have the closest accent to a Canadian accent? Is there one state that has the very closest accent?
freequebec   Thu May 28, 2009 10:50 pm GMT
nobody has the same accent that french canadian.
erzsebet   Thu May 28, 2009 11:52 pm GMT
Which Canadian accent? People from Newfoundland and the Maritime provinces, for instance, have a very different accent from those out in the West.
Staates   Fri May 29, 2009 12:45 am GMT
I mean the standard newscaster-style accent. Not the more obscure regional accents. The one in the Western part of the country.
eeuuian   Fri May 29, 2009 2:04 am GMT
I suppose it'd have to be northern states. Possibilities:

Northern Washington/Idaho - Southern BC

Northern Montana -- Southern Alberta/Sasketchewan

Northern N. Dakota, etc. -- Southern Manitoaba, etc.

Eastern Maine -- Western New Brunswick
Travis   Fri May 29, 2009 1:34 pm GMT
Definitely not Wisconsin, or at least southern Wisconsin, which takes on strongly Inland North-type features even though it does have things like Canadian Raising, monophthongal tense mid vowels, and like.
minn   Fri May 29, 2009 1:47 pm GMT
What about Minnesota? Isn't it similar to Canada?
minn   Fri May 29, 2009 7:49 pm GMT
Which is closer, a Wisconsin accent or a Coloradoan accent?
Milton   Fri May 29, 2009 8:32 pm GMT
I would say, the closest ones are:

1.BC-Washington state (with higher frequency of rounded [Q] cot/caught/Don/Dawn vowels in BC, especially by older women and by younger males) and
2. NorthDakota-Manitoba (Fargo dialect)

///Which is closer, a Wisconsin accent or a Coloradoan accent?

Wisconsin accent is not close to Canadian accents...

Coloradoan accent phonologically is identical, phonetically less so, only some accents are similar to the Coloradoan accent, for example the urban accent of St. John's NF: ball [bAl], boll/bole [bol], bold [bold], bald [bAld]
you can hear it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sa3CY9YauGQ
minn   Sat May 30, 2009 1:33 am GMT
Isn't the Wisconsin accent closer than a Michigan accent though?
Threadler   Sat May 30, 2009 2:36 am GMT
How about Niagra Falls, NY vs Hamilton, Ontario
minn   Sat May 30, 2009 1:57 pm GMT
I think the situation in NY/ON is similar to that of Detroit and Windsor.
minn   Sat May 30, 2009 1:58 pm GMT
I think the situation in NY/ON is similar to that of Detroit and Windsor.
Kaeops   Sat May 30, 2009 2:10 pm GMT
Vermont-Anglophone Quebec (Montreal) sound so close, that ABC tv station from Vermont also advertises in Montreal:

http://www.abc22.com/
Burlington, Plattsburgh, Montreal
minn   Sat May 30, 2009 2:52 pm GMT
But newscasters sound the same everywhere.