What countries accents are combined to make the CANADIAN accent?

Show all answers

â™¥.<333

im canadian...and i have never heard anyone say that in my life...and dont try to tell me that i dont know how we speak

chick-a-dee

There are some distinctive regional accents in Canada, which can have some unique pronunciations, however your list is completely false. I've lived in five provinces, on both coasts and centrally, and I don't know anyone who pronounces any of those words that way. The only time I've ever heard it pronounced "aboot" for example was by a person from Minnesota.

The generic Canadian accent is just that - generic. It doesn't have significant contributing accents from particular countries. For the more regional accents there can be more specific causes, for example on the East Coast the french-Acadian accent changes the English accent in some towns. Lord knows what happened to the Newfies (probably the Irish though).

Most Canadians, no matter what province they are from, do have roughly the same accent, and most slang terms are country-wide as well.

Here are some particular examples:

Lieutenant is pronounced the British do rather than the Americans.
B'y is the common Newfie pronunciation of Boy
Slippy is the common PEI pronunciation of slippery
Bagel, Car and Theatre vary slightly in pronunciation of the 'a' sound in each word as you travel across the country.
While you won't hear "aboot" in Canada, in some areas you may hear "aboat"
While you won't hear "prOgress", you are more likely to hear "prOcess"

Leah

well... the canadian accent is pretty international because of the influences it has from so many different cultures. i have a friend that's chinese but because she grew up in an international school with so many different accents around her, her accent is quite close to a canadian one. but it all depends on where you go in the country. and for the record... half of the words that people think canadians say "weird" are myths.... like all the words you mentioned there...i don't say any of them like that and neither does anyone i know.

Jyn B

The Canadian "accent" (we don't think we have accents, lol j/k) is basically it's own. Maybe once upon a time you could tell where the different influences came from but now, Canada just talks like Canada, though each coast differs. I come from western Canada and therefore, the east coast Canadians have accents to me.
Like it's been said already, I don't know anyone who pronounces those words like that. When I visited California I found that some words we pronounce SLIGHTLY differently. For example, I say YAhoo whereas the Americans are saying it more like YAWhoo. I say MAzda they say MAWzda. I say SUllen, they say SOllen. I say CUlt, they say COlt (that was really confusing, couldn't fingure out why there were mentioning guns/horses while were were talking about cults).
Also, I've heard tell that Canadians have the most acceptable way of pronouncing things, I know this because I went to a school to learn to teach English as a second language and they were thrilled to have me because when looking for teachers, schools look for Canadians because of the way were pronounce our words.

Karen L

Hmm. I've lived in Canada 55 years now and have never heard squarrel or gerarge. As to what countries' accents combined to make the Canadian accent(which varies from place to place with the East Coasters having the most noticeable accents), it would be English, Irish and Scots, not necessarily in that order. I too have heard that the accent and speech patterns of an educated Canadian, particularly an Ontario one, are one of the most easily understood in the world. It's relatively accent -free, uses good grammar, is clearly spoken, and really doesn't have a lot of peculiarities. Broadcasters all over North America speak what is basically good Canadian English since it's easily understood by almost any English speaker.

ashmo_13

i am canadian and in a recent trip to nashville people i met asked me why i didnt have a canadian accent.. i was very confused as to what a "canadian accent" is. I don't and do not know anyone that says "aboot" and squarell?!?!?!?!

Mexico4me

Hmmm. Didn't realize Canadians had an accent at all. I too have never heard "squarell" or "gerarge". Newfoundland and the East Coast has a different dialect than the rest of Canada, but for the most part, I am not aware of accents.
Now the U.S. has accents!
They often say "Ruff" (Roof), "Terlet" (Toilet), etc. There's the Southern Drawl! New York has a very distinct accent...think Archie Bunker. I drive down to Montana, which isn't far from here at all, and I can immediately hear the accents.
I guess no one thinks they have an accent, they think everyone else does...LOL

John M

Canada's accent isn't at all like people think it is. We don't say any of the words like you think we do. There are only a handful of people in Canada that actually talk like that. Lots of people think we do because American movies make it seem like that's how we all talk. Well it's not. Certain parts of Canada are different.

Jimmy C

I have heard the pronunciations you mention. They are more likely to say "aboat" though. "Squarell" is similar to "meer" for mirror.
The Canadian accent changes across the country, although the differences are subtle for the most part. Overall it is similar to american, and is influenced by american accents. Although the language is supposed to be the same spelling as in England, they favour american pronunciation and spelling in many cases, as in words like route, which is mispronounced as rout.
parts of eastern canada still use language from shakespearian england, and the irish and scottish influences are noticeable there. In the west there is more american influence, with a casual drawl in some parts of the BC interior.
I have heard a few Canadians say they have no accent, which I always find amusing, as if they are the only people in the world without an accent. All languages have accents, which are indications of where a person is from and what standard of education was achieved.
The Irish and western english working classes had a major influence on the american and canadian accents, which is why they pronounce a T as a D. Those were the first people to emigrate to north america and form the accents.

Eric S

The Canadian accent is I think a hybrid between the UK's accent and the US accent.

It is a strain of the US accent that had more British influence in it because of the lagtime between Canadian independence and US independence. That's what I think.

For those number of years when Britain controlled the lands to the north of the independent USA.

Tyler

you might find a few British mannerisms, however, by every year, they decrease. i think now, in 2008 our accent is purely unique.

(however, for example if you were to listen to recordings of Canadians 60+ years ago, their accent would sound very British i bet.

Enter Your Message or Comment

User Name:
User Email:
Post a comment: