It’s summer, and I have no school, so I have way too much time in my hands. Here’s a video of me speaking, and I’d like you to answer the title question…have fun lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar2rfO1rEKU&feature=youtu.be
It’s summer, and I have no school, so I have way too much time in my hands. Here’s a video of me speaking, and I’d like you to answer the title question…have fun lol.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar2rfO1rEKU&feature=youtu.be
I hear only Canadian.
Same here. I got Canadian in the first fifteen or so seconds, but nothing more. If I had to guess, it’d be Western Canada, maybe Vancouver area, but that’s going on a very small sample size I’m familiar with, so I may be completely off to somebody with more experience with the various Canadian accents. (I only listened to about the first thirty seconds.) ETA: Oh, listening more it looks like I’m wrong–Toronto (based on where the OP is going to school, not any speech patterns.)
I got the Asian, foreign born and roughly southeastern Canadian pieces in the first few seconds. Your accent is fine but it sounds just like I would expect from someone of your background. It isn’t overly strong but it doesn’t hide many details about you either. Just don’t go around trying to claim you are from New Jersey or Texas.
I also detected “Canadian” and suspected a slight Scottish influence, which could indicate a Maritime provinces influence.
Definitely not New Jersey or Texas.
I hear Canadian (Torontonian) vowels but quite diluted by what’s loosely defined as Standard American English.
I’m going to guess that time was spent in the Boston area due to a particular phrase you used: “whatnot.” It’s common in the South, too, but you show no other evidence of Southern influence that I can discern.
Your cadence is decidedly Standard American Eng to me, of a specific generation (recent). There was something else in there that marked the generation for me: you evidence the upward lilt (once considered, when quite exaggerated as “Valley Girl”) in an early part of the recording (something about your brother, maybe?). Since males didn’t start to use that intonation until quite recently, I’d place you at around college age, which of course you divulge at the start.
I detect nothing from your linguistic history pre-school age as self-reported, but this would make sense because children tend to develop the dialect and accent of their school mates regardless of earlier linguistic exposure.
Interesting that you’re presumably in the 90215 area. Hence, the Valley Girl nuance. You’re at UCLA?
EDIT:
Ah, no. I transposed the numbers. I guess you like that music.
I hear “normal”, eh?
There is nothing ‘normal’ about Canadians. That is just what they want you to think and how they get you every time!
In all seriousness, you have a nice speaking voice for an 18 year old. You are quite obviously Canadian to my ear. The only reason that I suspected you are an Asian immigrant isn’t because you sound stereotypically Asian at all. You don’t. I work with a lot of 2nd generation Asian immigrant men and they sound like you do - they use very precise and deliberate language that is a little deferential. Yours isn’t strong at all but it is there. There is no reason at all for you to be concerned about your accent. You have a pleasant voice and speaking style that is close to the North American standard with a Canadian twist. However, if you want to learn to be a superior speaker, you have to learn to take out the pauses, crutch utterances and project more forcefully. That is still something that I struggle with myself even though I am more than twice as old as you are. You have time and the raw material to do it.
I would have guessed Wisconsin. there is something decidedly American about your cadence.
“Whatnot” is not uncommon in Saskatchewan. It found its way into Corner Gas dialogue, and I happened to hear Mrs Piper use it just this evening.
You don’t say.
I didn’t hear “Eh” once that i recall. So on one hand you can’t be Canadian.
On the other hand, I grew up near Canada, although it was Quebec, and I hear the Canadian in you. The Soo in the first couple sentences was the 1st clue.
It sounds a bit strained to me. As if it’s being intentionally accentuated through the clipped cadence and extended pauses in between.
This is not native Torontonian. Small town rural Ontario, perhaps. Throw in some Meritime provinces, “Stay where y’arr and I’ll come where yer to…” sort of thing.
Not familiar enough with the fly over provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan to know if that has any resemblence. Definitely not a Quebec anglo influence.
To my ear, it sounds more Wisconsin and Western Pennsylvania than any Canadian I can easily identify.
For me, it was the Canadian raising in “about me.” I guessed West Canada because it didn’t sound as forward to my ears as the Toronto accent. (That is, the Toronto accents I’ve heard tend to have more of an “eh” sound to the start of that diphthong, while the Western Canadian accents I’ve heard tend to have more of an “uh” start.)
Is that phrase that regional? I use it regularly enough, and I’m from Chicago. I don’t think I have any Southern or Bostonian influences in my vocabulary. (Just out of curiosity, I checked around, and it seems other Midwest dopers use the term, too.)
I heard the Asian part first, in like the first 5 seconds, though I could not narrow it down any further. I grew up around many Asian Americans and it sounded familiar.
You’re probably right that it’s in much wider usage. I was going by books on regional dialects that I use a lot. (Wolfram, et al) Dialecticians use a lot of data to find distinct concentrations of usage; thus, they leave out much of the diaspora.
Thinking about it, “whatnot” seems more formal or “old-style” to me than “whatever,” which appears in place of “whatnot” in many regional dialects and of course in less formal registers. I associate that formality or old-style with places like New England and the South so Wolfram pinpointing it there (non-exclusively) makes sense to me.
Another factor in why I identified “whatnot” as a “tell,” if you will, is that it stood out to me in the context of the rest of his speech as an imbalance in formal/informal.
Yeah, it’s not something to me that feels formal. I agree that “whatever” is a bit more casual, but to my ear, “whatnot” is still pretty colloquial. It might be just a word I like. I vanity searched, and it looks like I’ve used it 165 time on the Dope. (Though some of those might be quotes. The few I checked were me saying them. Certainly, it’s part of my casual vocabulary.)