“Us, Canadians, we don’t really have an accent.”
Oh, but yes, we do!
We don’t notice it because we’re used to it. It is
expected of people to only notice other accents apart from their own. To be
quite honest, I had to do a bit of research to know more about the Canadian
accent because even I, had difficulty recognizing my own accent apart from
others.
Even though it was the British that were one of the
first to explore our country, the Canadian accent is very similar to the
typical American accent. Perhaps it’s the fact that we’re neighbours, but we do
have our differences. What are the differences you may ask? Well generally
speaking, Canadians are known to pronounce the “ou” differently in certain
words such as “about” and make it sound like “aboot” or “aboat”.
This resembles
the Scotland dialect, as well as the Geordie accent from Northern England.
Another thing is the pronunciation of the letter ‘Z’ as “zed” is more common
here than “zee” like the way our fellow American neighbours pronounce it.
Apparently, we also pronounce words like “milk” and “miss” differently to make
it sound like “melk” or “mess”. Weird, eh?
This brings me to my next point. Why do Canadians say
“eh”? Where does it come from? It is not sure where the famous expression
originated from but we do know for a fact that it is part of our dialect. It is
just a different, and a more polite, way of saying “huh”.
On the other hand, our accent isn’t the same
throughout the entire country. The Maritimes, Quebec, and other areas that have
a high population of French speakers have more of a Europian accent when it
comes to speaking English due to the influence of their native language being
French.
The first
time I truly grasped the concept of the Canadian accent was when I saw Russell
Peters’ stand up performance talking about it on Youtube. It was the funniest
thing I have ever seen because it was so true, but a little too exaggerated of
course. Check it out it by clicking here. (Warning: Coarse Language).
I must say I am guilty of some of these previous pronunciations
and I have heard others say it as well, but I think most people exaggerate it
way too much when imitating our accent. Next week I would love to explore the
various accents throughout the United States so stay tuned!
Sources:
I absolutely love this post! Your blog will be extremely interesting to read and I find that beginning it with our Canadian accent was a great way to start it off; it is a great way for me (and your readers) to relate and connect with your topic. I personally find it hilarious when people talk about how Canadian's have an accent. I have been on a couple of cruises where they would nickname me "Canada" or "Eh" and they would call me out on the ways that I pronounced words like "about" or "boat". I thought I was saying them the correct way, however, people from all around the world could say the exact same word hundreds of different ways! I guess it is just one thing that makes us all unique.
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to see what you write about next!
Haha this is so true! Anytime canadians are mentioned im social media, on tv or in a movie, there is always a need for people to add an "eh" when copying our "accent". I personally never understood why people around the world thought about the way we spoke like that. However maybe that is because i just never found myself or the people around me saying it. That also explains how we, specifically, are affected the american accent for the reason that we live right across the border as you said. Anyway this was a great post Keri, can't wait to read more!
ReplyDeleteI find it so funny that we don't notice our own accents! I love the topic that you have picked and I can't wait to hear more about the different accents around the world! To be honest, before I read this blog, I didn't think us Canadians really had an accent.
ReplyDeleteThis topic is one that I can relate to. I had always been one to think that I don't have an accent. However, few summers ago I went to a conference in Indiana for a week where I met many Americans, and was made of fun of for many of the things that you mentioned in this post. I was constantly being asked to repeat words such as "about", and if I happened to say eh it provoked quite the reaction. It's funny how there are obvious differences even though we live so close.
ReplyDeleteLauren the same happen to me! When i went on a cruise all the americans kept making fun of us because apparently we pronounced boat weird. They said we "over pronounced the o". They would yell all around the cruise" aboot" But do we really sound like this? and do we really exargerated it that way. Hearing it from many other people make it that much more realistic. Im fine with it i am proud to have a Canadian accent.
ReplyDeleteI think it is truewe sound American to some extent to, when i was in Paris a couple a Parisiens thought i was American becuase of my accent. I made sure to correct them though
I find it so funny that we don't notice our own accents! People say that we say eh all the time. When I went to cedar point, my sister was wearing a canadian shirt. When a group of American noticed my sisters shirt, they asked us to speak. They were amazed by our accents. They also asked if we live in igloos and rode our polar bears to school and what the name of our pet penguin was. My sister and I played along and said our igloo is north of 45 igloo st. that our polar bear was to lazy to bring us to school and our pet penguins name was tuxedo.
ReplyDeleteI find it so funny how we don't realize our own accents till we are in a different country. My experience with this happened when I went to Paris and England. Tell me just say i couldn't understand the "France" french at all. They talk way to fast and use all these different accents that I have never experienced in Canada. The same in England .....of course as soon as we planned in England everyone was starting to speak in their "fake" British accents! It was very interesting to see even tho both Canada and Britain speak English, there are many differences involved. But to be honest, the whole "EH" thing in Canada is what makes us unique in the world and if people think we live in igloos so be it! I AM PROUD TO BE A BILINGUAL CANADIAN !!
ReplyDeleteVery funny blog.
ReplyDeleteSigh, I can relate to all your accent problems. My french family says I have a heavy Canadian accent. In Canada, everyone tells me I have a French accent. In other words, it seems I have an in-between accent that doesn't properly belong to either culture.
I have the exact same problem! It does suck having an accent that doesn’t really fit anywhere, but I think it’s still cool because that makes you more unique. Plus, people from both cultures will be fascinated by your own customized accent so you win. Haha.
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