Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[Denscity]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Isn't it a contraction or simplification of "you bet you"?

You might be right there lol.

[Acajack]

In any event, I never got the impression "you betcha" was only or mostly a coastal BC thing.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I guess the definition of the accent region or accents within the region might be variable?

That Principal Victoria character from South Park that kool maudit had me discover is what I'd have in mind, and a large area of the U.S. including much of the Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.) and arguably all the way to the west coast, has millions of people who sound like that.

Some of you guys may have very trained ears, but to mine and most people's, it's very hard to tell that accent apart from that of your average English-speaking Canadian.

I recall an undergrad professor of mine, back in the day, who was from Indiana. Apart from the usual markers, you had only to hear her say “flayshback” (flashback) or “ruhts” (roots) to know that she was not Canadian.

[theman23]

You betcha sounds far too enthusiastic and colloquial to be a Vancouverism. The appropriate response here is to avoid eye contact and pretend to have not heard the question.

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by rousseau

Plus, with most Canadians perceived to be white (the multicultural aspect isn't so well known)

Canada branding itself as a multicultural country isn't well known elsewhere?

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

Exactly. I have noticed people I know from St. Catharines or Windsor or Sarnia do tend to have a slight american inflection in their voice. As well, they do tend to use words like 'sneakers' or 'soda' and rarely use the letter 'u' in words or use imperial measurements more than other canadians especially regarding the weather.

It's the Southwestern Ontario accent. You'll heard it South and West of the GTA. And yes, many they do use American terminology and measurements more often.

I know this from family members from London and friends from Sarnia and Hamilton. The most common differences I've heard are with how the letter "A" is pronounced in many words. And they would laugh at how I would say those words. Some examples that I can think of:

banana

pyjamas

pasta

can and can't

man

plan

bag

They pronounce those words much more like neighbouring Americans do.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Canada branding itself as a multicultural country isn't well known elsewhere?

All Anglo countries have this to a degree. Speaking to, say, Syrians or Afghans in Stockholm, all know Canada as a potential emigration-destination, and many have family there. But Australia and the UK come up too. One guy I met recently while he was driving Uber said he really liked the idea of Canada but maybe Australia would be better for him as he hates the cold.

[kool maudit]

One thing I notice about these encounters is that the New World is always the favourite, with Europe a second choice. I am in Copenhagen right now and my cab driver, from Afghanistan, was really doubtful when I said I didn't think I could make more money in Canada. He was very "why are you here?", as if I was from a far wealthier and more advanced country. But Scandinavian GDP per capita and metropolitan GDP levels are ahead of Canada.

[kool maudit]

One thing he might have been tuned into from his community, though, is that guys from Afghanistan might feel they can go significantly further in Canada. I could see that being true. Afghanistan scans as underclass here in a way Canadians wouldn't treat it.

[Dengler Avenue]

It's the Southwestern Ontario accent. You'll heard it South and West of the GTA. And yes, many they do use American terminology and measurements more often.

Djeffrey immediately comes to mind.
Me: Guys, metrics please...
Djeffrey: Since you know how to convert between ft and m, I’ll continue to use ft.

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by Loco101

It's the Southwestern Ontario accent. You'll heard it South and West of the GTA. And yes, many they do use American terminology and measurements more often.

I know this from family members from London and friends from Sarnia and Hamilton. The most common differences I've heard are with how the letter "A" is pronounced in many words. And they would laugh at how I would say those words. Some examples that I can think of:

banana

pyjamas

pasta

can and can't

man

plan

bag

They pronounce those words much more like neighbouring Americans do.

I have that accent. You may think we sound like the neighbouring Americans, but trust me, that "a" sound shifts again, immediately at the border, and is very noticeable to us. Not the same.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Canada branding itself as a multicultural country isn't well known elsewhere?

I guess one could say "elsewhere" is bigger than the U.S.

But in the U.S., in a lot of circles Canada has a wilderness image with lumberjacks, hockey players and some French guys thrown in the mix.

It doesn't really evoke images of Chinese, South Asian or black people, and any non-Europeans are probably asssumed to be mostly Indigenous.

Kinda like a super-sized Alaska.

[wave46]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I guess one could say "elsewhere" is bigger than the U.S.

But in the U.S., in a lot of circles Canada has a wilderness image with lumberjacks, hockey players and some French guys thrown in the mix.

It doesn't really evoke images of Chinese, South Asian or black people, and any non-Europeans are probably asssumed to be mostly Indigenous.

Kinda like a super-sized Alaska.

Bob and Doug Mackenzie or Monty Python's Lumberjack Song still are the image most people have of Canada.

Probably not unlike Crocodile Dundee is how people think of the Aussies.

I have an Adam West style take on it - you can either live it up like he did with his portrayal or Batman or one could live it down. The live it down folks are less fun.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by wave46

Probably not unlike Crocodile Dundee is how people think of the Aussies.
.

If you think about it, most of us can imagine Australia to be similarly multicultural to our own country, but still the instant image we have of that country isn't an urban Philippino-Australian hipster artist in western Sydney, is it?

[Capsicum]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I guess one could say "elsewhere" is bigger than the U.S.

But in the U.S., in a lot of circles Canada has a wilderness image with lumberjacks, hockey players and some French guys thrown in the mix.

It doesn't really evoke images of Chinese, South Asian or black people, and any non-Europeans are probably asssumed to be mostly Indigenous.

Kinda like a super-sized Alaska.

Well, when I asked if people were aware of Canada having a large Asian population in the general city forum, responses ranged from the idea that most people don't think too much about Canadian minorities all the way to "of course we know Canada is diverse, don't try to portray us (non-Canadians) as ignorant".

Also what about the last several years' "brand" of multiculturalism that Trudeau has displayed to the world (among non-Canadians under a certain generation watching in the age of social media etc., it's Justin, not Pierre, who's the image of Canada's promoter of the "mosaic"). All the talk about how Canada welcomes refugees/immigrants etc. and incorporates them, how a "Canadian is a Canadian".

We may tire of this and see it as tacky, but does it not filter to the rest of the world in at least some consciousness among those even a bit worldly? Or is it only to show off to Canadians ourselves (we Canadians show off how diverse we are to each other, not to the world? But I don't think so, much of Trudeau's branding, however faulty, is geared to the international stage).

Or is it a generational thing -- maybe under 30s and 20s are the ones being exposed to Canadian diversity through media that portrays people like Lilly Singh, Drake etc. (albeit still often very GTA-based and very Americanized).

Are we still in a world where despite all the diversity "show and tell" all through the Anglosphere if not the "west" (e.g. diversity in ads, and even stuff that becomes argued as over-the-top for historical accuracy like portraying black Vikings in Europe etc.), Western countries (setting aside the Latin American world) are seen as almost all "white" except for the US and that's heavily due to African Americans in pop culture (and without them, people forget non-white Westerners exist and have existed for generations).

I just find it interesting that the US is portrayed as this super "nation of immigrants" but Aussies and Canucks are consistently treated as if only the founding group of settlers, the rugged wilderness men, populated the terrain (aside from the natives) and then, like no one else came after (or concurrently).

Even not talking black and white, even the idea that Australians can have a Greek name, or Canadians can have a non-English or non-French name that's say a long Eastern European name, is less in the consciousness than I would have thought -- the idea that we got "Ellis Island" style immigration isn't even on the radar, people know Leonard Cohen etc. but seem not to make the logical leap that's not too much of a stretch that if immigrants came to America, they came to other "New World" places. If enclaves like Little Italies or Chinatowns can exist in Manhattan, why is it any more of a stretch to portray that they exist in Toronto, Sydney or for that matter, Buenes Aires, Havana, Paris, etc).

Why is it so hard for people to imagine places other than the US (even literally the country closest to the US, overlapping with it culturally so much that any immigrant who moves to one, or at least the English-speaking part of it, and tries to "assimilate" to one, can said to practically assimilate to the other) than "diverse" in this way?

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Why is it so hard for people to imagine places other than the US (even literally the country closest to the US, overlapping with it culturally so much that any immigrant who moves to one, or at least the English-speaking part of it, and tries to "assimilate" to one, can said to practically assimilate to the other) than "diverse" in this way?

I think this is actually a bit more of a one-way street (ie I don't think immigrants to NYC take on many Canadian traits, cultural or otherwise), but I do get your point.

[wg_flamip]

Originally Posted by Denscity

Why does Sarah Palin sound like she's from Minnesota?

Sarah Palin was raised in an area that had been settled only a few decades prior by people from rural Minnesota as part of a New Deal project. Being relatively isolated, the original variety of English brought by the settlers is still spoken by their descendents there.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Capsicum

Well, when I asked if people were aware of Canada having a large Asian population in the general city forum, responses ranged from the idea that most people don't think too much about Canadian minorities all the way to "of course we know Canada is diverse, don't try to portray us (non-Canadians) as ignorant".

Also what about the last several years' "brand" of multiculturalism that Trudeau has displayed to the world (among non-Canadians under a certain generation watching in the age of social media etc., it's Justin, not Pierre, who's the image of Canada's promoter of the "mosaic"). All the talk about how Canada welcomes refugees/immigrants etc. and incorporates them, how a "Canadian is a Canadian".

We may tire of this and see it as tacky, but does it not filter to the rest of the world in at least some consciousness among those even a bit worldly? Or is it only to show off to Canadians ourselves (we Canadians show off how diverse we are to each other, not to the world? But I don't think so, much of Trudeau's branding, however faulty, is geared to the international stage).

Or is it a generational thing -- maybe under 30s and 20s are the ones being exposed to Canadian diversity through media that portrays people like Lilly Singh, Drake etc. (albeit still often very GTA-based and very Americanized).

Are we still in a world where despite all the diversity "show and tell" all through the Anglosphere if not the "west" (e.g. diversity in ads, and even stuff that becomes argued as over-the-top for historical accuracy like portraying black Vikings in Europe etc.), Western countries (setting aside the Latin American world) are seen as almost all "white" except for the US and that's heavily due to African Americans in pop culture (and without them, people forget non-white Westerners exist and have existed for generations).

I just find it interesting that the US is portrayed as this super "nation of immigrants" but Aussies and Canucks are consistently treated as if only the founding group of settlers, the rugged wilderness men, populated the terrain (aside from the natives) and then, like no one else came after (or concurrently).

Even not talking black and white, even the idea that Australians can have a Greek name, or Canadians can have a non-English or non-French name that's say a long Eastern European name, is less in the consciousness than I would have thought -- the idea that we got "Ellis Island" style immigration isn't even on the radar, people know Leonard Cohen etc. but seem not to make the logical leap that's not too much of a stretch that if immigrants came to America, they came to other "New World" places. If enclaves like Little Italies or Chinatowns can exist in Manhattan, why is it any more of a stretch to portray that they exist in Toronto, Sydney or for that matter, Buenes Aires, Havana, Paris, etc).

Why is it so hard for people to imagine places other than the US (even literally the country closest to the US, overlapping with it culturally so much that any immigrant who moves to one, or at least the English-speaking part of it, and tries to "assimilate" to one, can said to practically assimilate to the other) than "diverse" in this way?

I think it takes time for stereotypical imagery to catch up to the reality on the ground.

For example, except for San Francisco city proper, most people don't associate California with people of Asian origin, and yet they are quite a bit more numerous than African-Americans in that state. And have been for quite some time. I'd say most people would expect the state to have way more African-Americans than it does.

Likewise, Japanese-Brazilians have been in that country for many generations, and are a bit of a "surprise" demographic for many people around the world. The stereotype for Brazil is white people, black people and "pardo" people. Not really people who look Asian.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by Loco101

They pronounce those words much more like neighbouring Americans do.

One linguist on a CBC segment about BC brought up how people in this province often pronounce "bag" as "bayg". She kind of struggled to find other examples while vaguely affirming that BC has a rich linguistic landscape (I guess aside from indigenous languages). Some people in the interior or north here do have thick accents of the typical rural Canada variety.

I have known older people from Ontario who said things like "warsh", which seemed turbo American to me at the time, although I have since spent significant amounts of time talking to Americans from bona fide cotton states so my norms have shifted.

When I lived in NS, many visitors from places like Massachusetts were somewhat exotic and stood out like a sore thumb in terms of Yankee accent and mannerisms (e.g. asking a question or making some statement about their personal life without any introduction whatsoever).

[lio45]

Originally Posted by someone123

When I lived in NS, many visitors from places like Massachusetts were somewhat exotic and stood out like a sore thumb in terms of Yankee accent and mannerisms (e.g. asking a question or making some statement about their personal life without any introduction whatsoever).

Reminds me when Acajack mentioned some older American gentleman (complete stranger) making a casual remark to him, while they were being temporary neighboring urinal buddies in a restaurant bathroom. Perfect example of something you won't see in Anglo-Canada