# Canadian accent - related to Geordie? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 28, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431 "2014-05-28T02:46:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/1 "2014-05-28T02:46:13Z")
I find it interesting that in Newcastle upon Tyne and North East England in general people pronounce about as “aboot” and right as “reet” and round their o’s in words like “so” because I think of these linguistic features as Canadianisms. The Canadian accent is pretty Americanized among a lot of people but people with broad accents especially in the Prairies and Northern Ontario can sound very much like Geordies or Lowland Scots with a touch of French influence. Was Canada in general heavily settled by people from North East England? I know there was a huge number of Scots that moved there and you generally encounter names like Robertson and Pattinson quite often, which are native to England’s far north and the Scottish Lowlands. People often conflate Canadian and upper Midwestern accents. Canada doesn’t have that much Scandinavian heritage compared to Minnesota nor do I think there was that much migration between there and Canada, but Geordie is very similar sounding to Norwegian and Danish due to the Danish and Norse-Irish influence in the kingdom of Northumbria. So that could explain the similarity. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/2 "2014-05-28T02:49:33Z")
Wait a sec - I already made this thread. 😃 Delete it. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/3 "2014-05-28T10:18:59Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/4 "2014-05-28T12:54:20Z")
Yes. People in Canada have accents due to the people who settled here. There’s no such thing as a “Canadian accent.” People in Newfoundland do not sound like people from British Columbia, etc. What was the question? ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/5 "2014-05-28T13:46:43Z")
Do we, in the main, sound like north-eastern Englishmen. Not so much. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/6 "2014-05-28T14:53:32Z")
Perhaps its the cold. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/7 "2014-05-28T15:23:11Z")
I’ve spoken to Nova Scotians and Prince Edward Islanders and _they_ are the ones who talk _aboot_ stuff, eh and more or less sound Scottish. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/8 "2014-05-28T15:27:54Z")
Also note that the US Upper Midwest (especially the Dakotas) also has a heavy _German_ influence, which is also found elsewhere in the country as well (Pennsylvania being of note). This comes out sometimes in terms of English speakers using German word order and/or using calques from German. E.g. “Do you want to come with?” from _Kommst du mit?_ and “Stupid-head” or “dumbhead” from _Dummkopf_. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/9 "2014-05-28T17:29:02Z")
I thought it was Scottish influence. I’ve noticed greater links between Canada and Scotland than the US and Scotland, but this could be confirmation bias. There is, obviously Nova Scotia in Canada, whereas Americans have New England (as well as New York, New Hamshire, etc.). ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/10 "2014-05-28T19:57:22Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > I find it interesting that in Newcastle upon Tyne and North East England in general people pronounce about as “aboot” and right as “reet”… I have what one might term an ordinary Canadian accent, and I don’t say those words like that, nor have I heard any other Canadian speak like that. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/11 "2014-05-29T01:46:01Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Yes. People in Canada have accents due to the people who settled here. There’s no such thing as a “Canadian accent.” People in Newfoundland do not sound like people from British Columbia, etc. > > What was the question? I guess when I say a “Canadian accent” I mean the dialect spoken south of the 60th parallel and anywhere between Ottawa and Tofino. I’d be excluding the North and Maritimes, and Newfoundland and Quebec of course. Just like when people say an “American accent” they tend to mean the accent spoken in western states and in certain parts of the Midwest and urban Sunbelt. ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent-related-to-geordie/689431/12 "2014-05-29T01:47:28Z")
> [@EmilyG](#): > > I have what one might term an ordinary Canadian accent, and I don’t say those words like that, nor have I heard any other Canadian speak like that. That’s what it sounds like to me, a lot of the time. It’s more like “aboat” and “rate” though, if I was going to phonologize them. It’s proven fact Canadians are blind to hearing their own accents. My Canadian friend says I have a “drawl” yet in my mind I sound the same as people on television. People can’t really hear their own accents unless they have a reference to compare it to in real life … the mind processes recorded voices differently.