# Canadian Accent... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 19, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041 "2001-02-19T02:51:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![RAWisSYDNEY](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4491bb/32.png) [@RAWisSYDNEY](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RAWisSYDNEY)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/1 "2001-02-19T02:51:20Z")
Hi, me and my friends have this kind of tradition thing we do, whenever we go out to like the movies or to the shopping centre (mall) we have whole different identities and i am going to take it one step further and make myself canadian. Does anyone have an pointers of how i could sound canadian? like just some every day words and how they are pronounced (phonetically)? thanks ---
**Author:** ![reprise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ea666f/32.png) [@reprise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/reprise)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/2 "2001-02-19T03:06:47Z")
I believe Canadians speak English - you haven’t got a hope of passing yourself off as an English speaker. And from one Sydney-dwelling wrestling fan to another - read the forum descriptions before posting in GQ if you don’t want Manny to come along and lay the smackdown on you. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/3 "2001-02-19T03:17:43Z")
You want to make yourself sound like a Canadian, eh? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/4 "2001-02-19T03:25:03Z")
Raw, er, uh, Sydney, you will be better off posting this kind of inane chatter to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Turbo\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Turbo\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turbo_Dog)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/5 "2001-02-19T03:31:38Z")
Get a Bob and Doug McKenzie tape and a couple of Yoopers CD’s, and study them. That will get you close enough to be passable:) ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/6 "2001-02-19T04:08:51Z")
Talk like an American, but try to sound humble and intellegent rather than loud and annoying. No kidding: in every foreign country I’ve been to the locals could tell I was North American, but had to ask where I (or the group I was in) were from; they knew we were’t American because we weren’t rowdy and pushy enough. - no revenge replies for the Canadian necessary here; I know what I am mentioning is just a stereotype, but hey… you asked. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/7 "2001-02-19T04:19:33Z")
> [@](#): > > in every foreign country I’ve been to the locals could tell I was North American, but had to ask where I (or the group I was in) were from; they knew we were’t American because we weren’t rowdy and pushy enough. So, are you saying we 'merkins are the _Germans_ of North America? Hmmmm? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/8 "2001-02-19T04:40:18Z")
Well, that’s the general idea the Scots, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Moroccans, and Thais gave me. Canadians and Americans don’t speak the language any different; the general way foreigners tell us apart when we travel is by the degree to which we do or donot try to assert our dominance on the people of that country. (That or by the little flags sewn on our backpacks) ---
**Author:** ![ScoobyTX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@ScoobyTX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ScoobyTX)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/9 "2001-02-19T04:52:01Z")
What part of Canada do ya want to be from, eh? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/10 "2001-02-19T05:37:13Z")
In her book \*Murder Ink,\*Dilys Winn gives a short overview of the Canadian, English and Australian accents: > [@](#): > > The American ear often cannot tell them apart but lumps them together as a commodity vaguely “foreign,” with the Canadian being the most troublsome because one’s inclination is to assume the speaker is an American with a peculiar affectation, or has a head cold, or maybe just suffers from a poor phone connection. ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/11 "2001-02-19T05:41:10Z")
We’re such a big goddamn country and our clusters of igloos are so far apart that we don’t have just one accent. Matter of fact, you’d be stretching it to say we all speak the same language. Why, I’ve got a patent pending on a simultaneous translation device which can be attached to a telephone just so people on the east coast can talk to people in the west… ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/12 "2001-02-19T05:49:36Z")
This Canadian’s from Alberta, now working in British Columbia (either of which are twice the size of Texas by themselves). You do notice some “accents” between provinces (like the Newfies for example), but it’s the same thing in the States; the difference between NewYorkers, southerners, etc… But there’s no such thing as a difference between Canadian and American accents like the difference between Jamaican and Scottish for example. ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/13 "2001-02-19T07:16:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mmmiiikkkeee \* > \*\*…the general way foreigners tell us apart when we travel is by the degree to which we do or donot try to assert our dominance on the people of that country. (That or by the little flags sewn on our backpacks) \*\* Then why do you need the flag on your backpack, if people can tell you apart without it? Incidentally, when you’re travelling, **you** are the foreigner. ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/14 "2001-02-19T09:17:43Z")
Those little flag patches that people, particularly younger ones, sew on there stuff sometimes (Americans too, not just Canadians)- like those worn by soldiers occasionally; not the type of flag that flaps in the breeze. I never had one, so when I’m alone people ask; but sometimes friends you are with have them. Lastly, I’m talking about traveling in foreign lands, therefore the local people are foreigners with respect to your nationality; it’s common sense that when you are travelling you are the foreigner to them. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/15 "2001-02-19T12:38:21Z")
Here in Australia, we can usually (but not always) tell a Canadian from an American accent. The Canadian one seems, I dunno, lighter and crisper, or something. Of course, this doesn’t include the various “strong” US accents like New York, or the South. Similarly, New Zealand accents are very obvious here, but Kiwis going elsewhere overseas get sick to death of being mistaken for Australians. As for pretending to be Canadian… A guy I used to know went with his friend to some little hick town on the edge of the Aussie outback for a weekend drive. They stayed in the local hotel, and spent the entire weekend pretending to be Irish. The locals believed them, the exotica factor worked, and they both got lucky (or so I was told). Give it a go. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2001, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/16 "2001-02-19T15:27:06Z")
What’s all this aboot no Canadian accent, eh? ---
**Author:** ![mmmiiikkkeee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/edb3f5/32.png) [@mmmiiikkkeee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mmmiiikkkeee)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2001, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/17 "2001-02-20T03:55:30Z")
So you like Terrence and Phillip too… ---
**Author:** ![xekul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/838e76/32.png) [@xekul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xekul)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2001, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/18 "2001-02-20T04:47:30Z")
I can’t pinpoint what distinguishes a Canadian accent, but I’ll say that I don’t know anyone here who says ``aboot.’’ It seems to be more of a Scottish thing than a Canadian thing… ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2001, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/19 "2001-02-20T08:30:32Z")
There is no Canadian accent, really. It’s just a few regional accents (as others have pointed out). Come to think of it, I can currently only think of the “maritime” accent, and “rest of Canada” accent (which is a generic “american” accent); in addition to the Québec accent (but that doesn’t really pertain to this topic, does it?). I, for one, am a Canadian who does no use “eh” and does not pronounce it “aboot”. In fact, one of my pet peeves is people even joking about either of those terms. It annoying, not funny. If I wanted to fake an “American” accent, I’d go for either a Texan accent or a very strong New York accent. I can’t really give you any tips on what a “Canadian accent” is, unfortunately (“Just speak normally.”). Maybe someone else can help you. ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2001, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041/20 "2001-02-20T10:07:10Z")
Broadly speaking, there is no specific \ accent. You might or might not be able to tell them apart, depending on where you’re from. (I can tell what part of Delaware someone is from- not bad for a state where you can see the whole thing and then eat lunch. Someone from three states over wouldn’t be able to, most likely.) You can make large generalizations, but that’s about it. Example:Californians have largely lost several vowel sounds, i.e. caught/cot and Mary/marry/merry. Still, it never holds true for an entire group. Interestingly enough, many non-Americans, when asked to affect an “American accent” will shoot for a very twangy southern or a valley girl. One of my Canadian friends lives in Halifax; she tends to nasalize vowels and say “aboot”, but not the way Americans tend to pronounce it. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/canadian-accent/55041.md?page=2)