Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

But, as someone123 points out, still lots of parents here as well threatening to redden their youngsters' arses.

It might be a minority usage now, but I am pretty sure arse is still used fairly commonly in much of Ontario these days.

Not so much in the West though.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

There are lots of generic Valley Girls in urban high schools and the like too. This is the one that really bothers me. There's a certain melodic flow with which people here speak, whether their accent is rooted in Devon or Waterford. It's warm, genuine, and has a sense of humor. When that's missing, I notice it far more than people enunciating or pronouncing something in a more mainland way. Valley Girls are the best example of that. Raising at the end of every sentence and whatnot.

.

Those valley girl types are kind of what I had in mind.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

"Cottage", "cabin", or "camp" - it depends on what part of the country you are in.

Cottage = PEI
Cabin/cottage = NS (depends if it's located on the seacoast or not)
Camp/cottage = NB (camp predominates, especially in the deep woods)

[Acajack]

Does anyone have instances of accent duality, especially in young people?

I ask this because I notice that a number of my kids' friends have different accents depending on whether they're within their families or outside the family setting.

This is typical of kids whose parents are from France, and to a lesser degree from Africa and Haiti.

These are all kids who speak French within their family setting, but with the accent of the old country.

But when they're outside the home with friends, at school, etc., they speak French with a Quebec accent.

We also have a lot of Arab kids here (especially Lebanese) but they tend to speak Arabic at home (and a Quebec accent in French), whereas most Haitians and Africans for some reason speak in French even when just between themselves as opposed to Kwéyol or African languages like Wolof, Lingala or Mooré.

I ask this because I get the impression that among anglophones, Canadian-raised kids of British parents for example don't have dual accents (though they may have some British expressions they use at home), and generally speak with Canadian accents all the time.

[Marty_Mcfly]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

It definitely is, but there are caveats.

There are pockets of the province that never had an accent strikingly different from the rest of Atlantic Canada to begin with, especially on the west and south coasts. I would be shocked if any of you would even guess Marty-Mcfly was from Atlantic Canada, let alone here. It's a bit like my grandmother, from Grantown-on-Spey near Inverness. She has a very generic accent that could be from anywhere in Canada.

The weird thing is if I'm ever brave enough to look back and watch old home videos shot by my parents, when I was a child and pre-teen I had a slight twangy accent. It pretty much disappeared during puberty.

Local dialect is a give away though. The first time I described something as "deadly" when I lived in PEI was a whole situation. I had no idea that wasn't a common descriptor for something being awesome

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

He also used to say ''by jove'' a lot. Likely something he picked up when studying in London as opposed to growing up in pre-Quiet Revolution Montreal.

He did indeed - that was part of why I always called him "Colonel Blimp".

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It might be a minority usage now, but I am pretty sure arse is still used fairly commonly in much of Ontario these days.

Not so much in the West though.

I don't know if I'd say "commonly", but it's certainly intelligible even if a touch too British usage for contemporary Ontario. Certainly, I could hear my Scottish grandmother saying it, back in the day. I don't know if this conforms to British usage, but I have the impression that some people say it here to seem a bit less crass than if they say "ass".

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Does anyone have instances of accent duality, especially in young people?

I ask this because I notice that a number of my kids' friends have different accents depending on whether they're within their families or outside the family setting.

This is typical of kids whose parents are from France, and to a lesser degree from Africa and Haiti.

These are all kids who speak French within their family setting, but with the accent of the old country.

But when they're outside the home with friends, at school, etc., they speak French with a Quebec accent.

We also have a lot of Arab kids here (especially Lebanese) but they tend to speak Arabic at home (and a Quebec accent in French), whereas most Haitians and Africans for some reason speak in French even when just between themselves as opposed to Kwéyol or African languages like Wolof, Lingala or Mooré.

I ask this because I get the impression that among anglophones, Canadian-raised kids of British parents for example don't have dual accents (though they may have some British expressions they use at home), and generally speak with Canadian accents all the time.

I think such kids here could probably do a pretty solid imitation of their parents accents, but to actually shift gears for public vs private speech would seem odd to me - in fact, I can't quite grasp why anyone would do it.

[SignalHillHiker]

You have to if, for a generation, your accent was interpreted as being stupid. I'm sure someone with a southern drawl looking for work in New York City might be tempted to try on something a little more generic as well.

And then you're just raised with it. Mom answers a 1-800# like Justin Trudeau.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

You have to if, for a generation, your accent was interpreted as being stupid. I'm sure someone with a southern drawl looking for work in New York City might be tempted to try on something a little more generic as well.

And then you're just raised with it. Mom answers a 1-800# like Justin Trudeau.

That makes sense and probably still accounts for at least some of the shifting in Newfoundland accents (although I suspect mobility and electronic media are now bigger influencers). But in a Quebec context, that would imply foreign-born parents instilling disdain for "Quebec French", which seems a bit much.

[GlassCity]

I had a friend I met at school who had family both in Jamaica and Italy. She claimed to speak with a different access in all three situations. She said that she didn't and couldn't control it or even explain it herself. I always thought she was just showing off but looks like it really is a thing!

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

I had a friend I met at school who had family both in Jamaica and Italy. She claimed to speak with a different access in all three situations. She said that she didn't and couldn't control it or even explain it herself. I always thought she was just showing off but looks like it really is a thing!

You mean she speaks English with a Jamaican or Italian (!) accent depending on where she is? The latter, especially, would seem very condescending to me.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

You mean she speaks English with a Jamaican or Italian (!) accent depending on where she is? The latter, especially, would seem very condescending to me.

Condescending? How so? I mean if she's hanging out with her Jamaican family, she'll get a Jamaican accent, and likewise with her Italian family. Here in Vancouver she seems to have some strange hybrid accent going on. If she can't control it, not sure how it could be considered disrespectful.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by GlassCity

Condescending? How so? I mean if she's hanging out with her Jamaican family, she'll get a Jamaican accent, and likewise with her Italian family. Here in Vancouver she seems to have some strange hybrid accent going on. If she can't control it, not sure how it could be considered disrespectful.

Colour me sceptical. Over months or years, one can take on some of the prevailing local accent but to do so quickly seems like an affectation to me (and I wonder if the relatives don't find she still sounds Canadian). But to take on the foreign accent when speaking with someone who speaks English with an accent seems artificial and very inconsiderate to me.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Colour me sceptical. Over months or years, one can take on some of the prevailing local accent but to do so quickly seems like an affectation to me (and I wonder if the relatives don't find she still sounds Canadian). But to take on the foreign accent when speaking with someone who speaks English with an accent seems artificial and very inconsiderate to me.

She's not Canadian at all, she's lived for multiple years in both Jamaica and Italy and is just here for university. I've never heard it and I had trouble believing it myself, but that's why I said that Acajack's example has legitimized it for me.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

But in a Quebec context, that would imply foreign-born parents instilling disdain for "Quebec French", which seems a bit much.

Well, it's definitely possible and even probable in some cases.

On the other hand, the fact the kids adopt the Quebec accent everywhere else certainly shows which accent has "cred" in wider society among young people.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I think such kids here could probably do a pretty solid imitation of their parents accents, but to actually shift gears for public vs private speech would seem odd to me - in fact, I can't quite grasp why anyone would do it.

As I said, I see it all the time here.

But it's not something I've witnessed among, say, families where the parents are from the UK and the kids are Canadian-raised.

And I've known a lot of these people in my life.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by Acajack

As I said, I see it all the time here.

But it's not something I've witnessed among, say, families where the parents are from the UK and the kids are Canadian-raised.

And I've known a lot of these people in my life.

I've known kids of UK or Irish parents who would lapse into exuberantly sweary accents when blind drunk, but that's it.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

As I said, I see it all the time here.

But it's not something I've witnessed among, say, families where the parents are from the UK and the kids are Canadian-raised.

And I've known a lot of these people in my life.

It did not occur in my own family - none of the Canadian-born children of relatives with Scots (Anglo-Jamaican in one case) accents spoke with anything other than standard Canadian accents. The idea of any of them being obliged to reproduce the brogue at home seems inconceivable.

I can't see any rationale for wanting the next generation to speak English or French like they're from the old country, unless, perhaps, if the plan is to return. As for kids in Quebec adopting the mainstream accent out of the house, I would absolutely expect that.

[kool maudit]

My father is English, and when I was very young my parents' social circle was near-entirely English with a few Aussies and South Africans.

I distinctly remember going to kindergarten and having my teacher remark on my "British accent". I had never been to the country before.

After that year, making friends and so on, it faded and became entirely Canadian. I don't remember speaking differently and there was no conscious change, but I remember adults noticing that about me.