Hi all,
I was reading the "Is there a difference between American and Canadian Accents" thread from 2002, very interesting stuff!
I think the thread is also evidence of the link between accent and culture and thus all of the strong feeling that surfaced in theat thread.
By day I am a project manager for an Insurance Company (boring) but in my spare time, I am a part time linguist, I love learning about language, accent and all things related. As well as English, I am partially fluent in Spanish.
At present, I am studying Canadian accent form and placement. Canadian has to be one of the most aesthetic and historically laced English speaking nations in the world in terms of accent.
Before I go on, I just want to say one thing. One can try to apply science to accent and intonation and one CAN get so far. However, in the main, the study of accent is subjective.
I say this because think about the following statement from an Ontarian Canadian "I have never heard the 'aboot' pronounciation in my life. They must just say it in Eastern Canada".
I don't mean to provoke but a person from a certain area is not necessarily the best placed to comment on a particular phenomenon of accent that is observed in that area.
We all intrinsically think that our accent is comprehensible and our way of talking "normal".
I am from the North East of England - an area where pretty much all in the UK agree a STRONG regional accent is present. People from this area (cities including Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesborough) talk with an accent that is thought to be heavily influenced by Scottish (the England/Scotland border is only 70 miles from my home), and Norwegian (Strong maritime ties between South West Norway and North East England exist and Norway is closer to Newcastle than France is).
This makes for a guttral and sometimes harsh accent, that can be hard to understand for people from Southern England and Wales (seems to be somewhat easirt to understand to the Scottish and Irish).
However, people frommy area would never agree that we "talk funny" or pronounce things strangely!
The way that some Canadian people pronounce words with [ou] such as "about" has a technical name which is "Canadian Raising". I have found strong evidence of it in Eastern Canada but have also found it as far west as Saskatchewan. My studies have unfortunatel only reached that far west at present so I am not discluding West Coast Pacific Canada for any reason other than I haven't got that far yet!
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to share the findings of my studies in Canadian accent.
Please try to take the following statements as objectively as you can but of course, feel free to challenge!
- The Canadian accent is characterized by strong colouration or the letter "R" that is evident in all primary English speakers throughout the continent of North America. (Thus to those further in Geography from North America, such as Europeans, this is the essence why they are likely to find that "American and Canadians sound similar".
- However the Canadian accent "generally" contains artifacts and intonations more closely related to regional accents within the British Isles and Ireland. This is a generalism but is more closely noted in the Eastern half of Canada (excluding primary French speakers), as compared to the Western half of Canada.
- In Eastern Canada (defined in tihs study as as Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) there is a high degree of evidence of regional British accents. In the main I found more evidence of similarities to Irish regional accents than to Scottish accents but this differs locally.
- Specifically, I noticed a stunning level of Irish accented English within the overal compound accent in Nova Scotia. The existance of coloquialisms such as adding "bye" (boy) to the end of sentances is 'very irish' in it's form and intonation.
- The above was also noted in Prince Edward Island area.
- In the area South West of Halifax, Nova Scotia, I noticed what I would again describe as a stunning placement of the South West English accent. In this regard, it is interesting to note the amount of place names in Nova Scotia that are shared with place names in South West England (Truro being a good example).
- The above accents were blended with a more general "North American" intonation, specifically colouration of the letter "R".
- The use of the coloquial term "Eh" in Canadian language is also very common in many parts of the British Isles and Ireland, including Northern England, Scotland and some parts of southern England.
- I think a lot of people in the 2002 thread on this subject misunderstood the Canadian "ou" pronounciation as in "about". This was typically described as "aboot", but phonetically, Canadian people do not pronounce the word as "aboot". In fact, it is more accurate to write the description as "abuwt". There is a strong sense of the letter 'w' in the Canadian Raising artifact.
- Describing it as 'aboot' alludes to the sound in the nonsense 'ooooh!' and this is not the described sound. 'oo' lacks in the prevelence of the 'w' sound. 'ou' is also lacking in the definate 'w' that comes before the subsequent consonent in words like "about" and "out".
- 'Canadian Raising' is more prevelent in Eastern Canada and less as one travels west. however it was observed in the Regina area of Saskatchewan.
I was reading the "Is there a difference between American and Canadian Accents" thread from 2002, very interesting stuff!
I think the thread is also evidence of the link between accent and culture and thus all of the strong feeling that surfaced in theat thread.
By day I am a project manager for an Insurance Company (boring) but in my spare time, I am a part time linguist, I love learning about language, accent and all things related. As well as English, I am partially fluent in Spanish.
At present, I am studying Canadian accent form and placement. Canadian has to be one of the most aesthetic and historically laced English speaking nations in the world in terms of accent.
Before I go on, I just want to say one thing. One can try to apply science to accent and intonation and one CAN get so far. However, in the main, the study of accent is subjective.
I say this because think about the following statement from an Ontarian Canadian "I have never heard the 'aboot' pronounciation in my life. They must just say it in Eastern Canada".
I don't mean to provoke but a person from a certain area is not necessarily the best placed to comment on a particular phenomenon of accent that is observed in that area.
We all intrinsically think that our accent is comprehensible and our way of talking "normal".
I am from the North East of England - an area where pretty much all in the UK agree a STRONG regional accent is present. People from this area (cities including Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesborough) talk with an accent that is thought to be heavily influenced by Scottish (the England/Scotland border is only 70 miles from my home), and Norwegian (Strong maritime ties between South West Norway and North East England exist and Norway is closer to Newcastle than France is).
This makes for a guttral and sometimes harsh accent, that can be hard to understand for people from Southern England and Wales (seems to be somewhat easirt to understand to the Scottish and Irish).
However, people frommy area would never agree that we "talk funny" or pronounce things strangely!
The way that some Canadian people pronounce words with [ou] such as "about" has a technical name which is "Canadian Raising". I have found strong evidence of it in Eastern Canada but have also found it as far west as Saskatchewan. My studies have unfortunatel only reached that far west at present so I am not discluding West Coast Pacific Canada for any reason other than I haven't got that far yet!
Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to share the findings of my studies in Canadian accent.
Please try to take the following statements as objectively as you can but of course, feel free to challenge!
- The Canadian accent is characterized by strong colouration or the letter "R" that is evident in all primary English speakers throughout the continent of North America. (Thus to those further in Geography from North America, such as Europeans, this is the essence why they are likely to find that "American and Canadians sound similar".
- However the Canadian accent "generally" contains artifacts and intonations more closely related to regional accents within the British Isles and Ireland. This is a generalism but is more closely noted in the Eastern half of Canada (excluding primary French speakers), as compared to the Western half of Canada.
- In Eastern Canada (defined in tihs study as as Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island) there is a high degree of evidence of regional British accents. In the main I found more evidence of similarities to Irish regional accents than to Scottish accents but this differs locally.
- Specifically, I noticed a stunning level of Irish accented English within the overal compound accent in Nova Scotia. The existance of coloquialisms such as adding "bye" (boy) to the end of sentances is 'very irish' in it's form and intonation.
- The above was also noted in Prince Edward Island area.
- In the area South West of Halifax, Nova Scotia, I noticed what I would again describe as a stunning placement of the South West English accent. In this regard, it is interesting to note the amount of place names in Nova Scotia that are shared with place names in South West England (Truro being a good example).
- The above accents were blended with a more general "North American" intonation, specifically colouration of the letter "R".
- The use of the coloquial term "Eh" in Canadian language is also very common in many parts of the British Isles and Ireland, including Northern England, Scotland and some parts of southern England.
- I think a lot of people in the 2002 thread on this subject misunderstood the Canadian "ou" pronounciation as in "about". This was typically described as "aboot", but phonetically, Canadian people do not pronounce the word as "aboot". In fact, it is more accurate to write the description as "abuwt". There is a strong sense of the letter 'w' in the Canadian Raising artifact.
- Describing it as 'aboot' alludes to the sound in the nonsense 'ooooh!' and this is not the described sound. 'oo' lacks in the prevelence of the 'w' sound. 'ou' is also lacking in the definate 'w' that comes before the subsequent consonent in words like "about" and "out".
- 'Canadian Raising' is more prevelent in Eastern Canada and less as one travels west. however it was observed in the Regina area of Saskatchewan.