Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[go_leafs_go02]

• Video Link

CBC documentary from probably close to a decade ago by now.

[go_leafs_go02]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

Nice find. That's what I was trying to describe in my opening post. You just have drive about 20 minutes out of London before you start hearing this.

I grew up in London, and no way that's true. They sound the same in London and north of London. No difference.

[middeljohn]

It'd be interesting to document the accents of children of immigrants (or people who arrived here when they were young). For example, I'm South African but arrived here when I was 7. I learned to speak english here, so obviously I was taught Canadian english right off the bat. That said, I have never been able to completely lose my accent. There's still a trace (a lot of people don't notice it though) even 18 years later. I've actually had people tell me that I sound more American than Canadian due to my heavy pronunciation of "ow", ie down, clown, round, etc. This also makes sense though, since when I was a kid I tried to mimick what I heard on TV so that I can sound like my classmates and stop hearing about how "different" I sound, lol.

I also seem to put a lot of effort into controlling how I pronounce things it seems, at least on a subconscious level. The reason I say this is because I after a few beers I begin to lose control of it and according to my friends "the South African" comes out.

You can judge for yourselves, this video has me talking:
• Video Link

I have buddies born in Toronto to Pakistani immigrants, from different families, and they also have a tinge of an accent despite being born here. Similar to my accent not sounding South African, they don't sound Pakistani. But there are some words they pronounce thar just a bit ... off.

Originally Posted by go_leafs_go02

I grew up in London, and no way that's true. They sound the same in London and north of London. No difference.

Maybe since you grew up here your ear got used to it so it wasn't noticable. That said, since I started this thread I've begun paying attention to Londoners' accents, and the a-boat thing is much more prevalent here than Toronto. There seems to be a rural influence on peoples' accents.

I know people from Dorchester, Port Burwell, Aylmer and sound like hicks. Some more than others of course. My ear is more finely tuned to this though, as I grew up hearing many different accents. A lot of people don't notice it.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

It'd be interesting to document the accents of children of immigrants (or people who arrived here when they were young). For example, I'm South African but arrived here when I was 7. I learned to speak english here, so obviously I was taught Canadian english right off the bat. That said, I have never been able to completely lose my accent. There's still a trace (a lot of people don't notice it though) even 18 years later.

I came to Canada when I was 5 years old, and I didn't speak English. I've always wondered if my English has a little Russian accent in it, due to my parents, but nobody's ever mentioned it or guessed. Until I give my name I think most people think I'm Canadian.

[rousseau]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

It'd be interesting to document the accents of children of immigrants (or people who arrived here when they were young). For example, I'm South African but arrived here when I was 7. I learned to speak english here, so obviously I was taught Canadian english right off the bat. That said, I have never been able to completely lose my accent. There's still a trace (a lot of people don't notice it though) even 18 years later.

I didn't hear any saffie accent. Actually, you sound exactly like you're from Hamilton. It's a very identifiable urban southern Ontario accent, very distinguished from the west by the more nasal/American long As in words like "Hamilton."

When you said you still sounded like a South African I was expecting something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL-t...6663DE75CF2E19

[middeljohn]

Originally Posted by rousseau

I didn't hear any saffie accent. Actually, you sound exactly like you're from Hamilton. It's a very identifiable urban southern Ontario accent, very distinguished from the west by the more nasal/American long As in words like "Hamilton."

When you said you still sounded like a South African I was expecting something like this:

After reading what I wrote I realize I should've clarified more. When you don't pay attention I sound like I'm from the area (mostly grew up in Oakville). For me, the South African pronunciations aren't there in every sentence, and they're not with the traditional SA accent either.

I'll try my best to explain what I mean.

I speak Afrikaans with my relatives. Afrikaans has a hard R (skip to 2:48 in this video to hear what I mean. The letter A in front of all words is pronounced "aah" whereas when I speak english a lot of times it's like in "angle". Also, vowels are much shorter in Afrikaans than in English.

So there are a lot of contrasts between how a word sounds if pronounced assuming it's Afrikaans vs assuming it's English. Further, there are a lot of words, such as place names, for which there isn't an Afrikaans translation, so when refering to it in Afrikaans we pronounce it as if it was Afrikaans among each other, while we pronounce it properly with other Canadians.

So with all of these contrasts that Ineed to focus on with the constant switching of languages, I sometimes let one bleed into the other. If I've been speaking Afrikaans for a few days straight, for example, there's a higher likelihood of me slipping Afrikaans pronunciation when I first switch back to English.

Listen to me say "Upper James" at the beginning of the video versus when I repeat it at 0:56. The first time I say it my Canadian accent cause I had just started the video and was focused on not sounding like a fob. The second time my trail of thought had shifted to the topic of the video and I accidentally slipped a hybrid Afrikaans-English pronunciation in there for the place name.

Like I said, it's not immediately obvious, but I do sometimes pronounce things a little bit... off. I'm perfectly capable of pronouncing it like my peers, and I usually do, but sometimes the Afrikaans pronunciation slips out.

[middeljohn]

Another thought I just had:

I think it's true for a lot of people who moved around a lot when they were young, say the first 25 years of their life. Different regions have different ways of talking, even within Southern Ontario. So for people who grew up in multiple locations, each time they move they realize how to change their language a bit to blend in better. And then when they go back to a previous location to visit they revert back to how they spoke there.

For example, here in London I am much more focused on dictating Ts at end of words, pronouncing Os as "oh" (eg "no"), and generally ridding myself of GTA slang. Basically I try to use a general Canadian here.

When I go back to Toronto to visit friends there I sound sort of like that "How to speak with a Toronto accent" video (although I've always thought calling people "guy" was ridiculous). In Toronto I call buddies "bro" sometimes "brah" even, instead saying "noh" I'll say "nah". "Yo" gets used a lot as well. I mainly hung out with black, Indian and Pakistani kids in highschool who were also immigrants. I'm white, but I spoke like the non-white kids. The white kids at my high school who mainly hung around other white kids didn't use nearly as many of these colloquialisms.

The following phrases I don't use anywhere else. Just in Toronto you'll hear me say things like:

"Yo bro, what are you sayin tonight?"

"Nah bro, you got it wrong"

"Serious" (said when agreeing with someone, and with the first syllable raised)

[Procrastinational]

Originally Posted by middeljohn

After reading what I wrote I realize I should've clarified more. When you don't pay attention I sound like I'm from the area (mostly grew up in Oakville). For me, the South African pronunciations aren't there in every sentence, and they're not with the traditional SA accent either.

I'll try my best to explain what I mean.

I speak Afrikaans with my relatives. Afrikaans has a hard R (skip to 2:48 in this video to hear what I mean. The letter A in front of all words is pronounced "aah" whereas when I speak english a lot of times it's like in "angle". Also, vowels are much shorter in Afrikaans than in English.

So there are a lot of contrasts between how a word sounds if pronounced assuming it's Afrikaans vs assuming it's English. Further, there are a lot of words, such as place names, for which there isn't an Afrikaans translation, so when refering to it in Afrikaans we pronounce it as if it was Afrikaans among each other, while we pronounce it properly with other Canadians.

So with all of these contrasts that Ineed to focus on with the constant switching of languages, I sometimes let one bleed into the other. If I've been speaking Afrikaans for a few days straight, for example, there's a higher likelihood of me slipping Afrikaans pronunciation when I first switch back to English.

Listen to me say "Upper James" at the beginning of the video versus when I repeat it at 0:56. The first time I say it my Canadian accent cause I had just started the video and was focused on not sounding like a fob. The second time my trail of thought had shifted to the topic of the video and I accidentally slipped a hybrid Afrikaans-English pronunciation in there for the place name.

Like I said, it's not immediately obvious, but I do sometimes pronounce things a little bit... off. I'm perfectly capable of pronouncing it like my peers, and I usually do, but sometimes the Afrikaans pronunciation slips out.

Definitely a bit of a unique accent in the sense that you don't exactly sound Canadian or South African. The blending reminds me of a friend that is from Australia originally, but mostly grew up in the states. His accent isn't quite American. It's close, but it also definitely isn't Australian either. Just a unique blend.

The only pronunciation that especially stood out to me was when you said "actually", it sounded almost more like akchee or something along those lines. Oddly enough, some of your pronunciation also reminds me of some of the first generation Canadians with Asian parents I knew back in Richmond, BC.

Accents are such an interesting thing

[kwoldtimer]

[QUOTE=middeljohn;6451542]It'd be interesting to document the accents of children of immigrants (or people who arrived here when they were young). For example, I'm South African but arrived here when I was 7. I learned to speak english here, so obviously I was taught Canadian english right off the bat. That said, I have never been able to completely lose my accent. There's still a trace (a lot of people don't notice it though) even 18 years later. I've actually had people tell me that I sound more American than Canadian due to my heavy pronunciation of "ow", ie down, clown, round, etc. This also makes sense though, since when I was a kid I tried to mimick what I heard on TV so that I can sound like my classmates and stop hearing about how "different" I sound, lol.

I also seem to put a lot of effort into controlling how I pronounce things it seems, at least on a subconscious level. The reason I say this is because I after a few beers I begin to lose control of it and according to my friends "the South African" comes out.


I have buddies born in Toronto to Pakistani immigrants, from different families, and they also have a tinge of an accent despite being born here. Similar to my accent not sounding South African, they don't sound Pakistani. But there are some words they pronounce thar just a bit ... off.


....QUOTE]

I don't think anyone would hear a South African accent in any of that. There is one oddity, to my ear at least, and that is the way you say "Hamilton". I am hearing something like "Hehmilton" or even "Hyehmilton". You also have a tendency to drop the final "g" in words - sounds like you lived in Saskatchewan!

My favourite Canadian accent memory from my years living in South Africa is the way I would need to repeat "glass of wadder" three times in restaurants before the penny would drop and I'd ask for a "glass of wahtah" so the waiter could understand what I wanted.

[SpongeG]

speaking of pronunciation - i listen to winnipeg radio sometimes and there is a street called pembina - the bc part of me thinks it would be pem-bin-ah but on the radio they say pem-been-a

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

speaking of pronunciation - i listen to winnipeg radio sometimes and there is a street called pembina - the bc part of me thinks it would be pem-bin-ah but on the radio they say pem-been-a

Huh, I always imagined it to be pem-been-ah.

[SignalHillHiker]

I always said it Pem-bin-a.

[GlassCity]

What about emphasis? I think "Pem-BEEN-ah"

[SignalHillHiker]

PEM'buh-na Highway.

[yaletown_fella]

From my limited experience:

Toronto: I'd like a grande lah-tay

Vancouver: I'd like a grande la-tay

Toronto: Did you talk to may-rio ?

Vancouver: Did you talk to mah-rio ?


Apart from this Ive noticed no difference in pronunciation in the two cities.

[artvandelay]

Biggest difference I notice when I'm down in Ontario is the nasal "a". Words like dance and can't are pronounced daince and cain't, it's much similar to what you hear in the Midwestern US whereas the (urban) western Canadian accent is more similar to the west coast US accent.

[Boris2k7]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

speaking of pronunciation - i listen to winnipeg radio sometimes and there is a street called pembina - the bc part of me thinks it would be pem-bin-ah but on the radio they say pem-been-a

Pem-bin-ah is the way I hear the think-tank of the same name pronounced on the radio, so that's what I'd assume.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by yaletown_fella

From my limited experience:

Toronto: I'd like a grande lah-tay

Vancouver: I'd like a grande la-tay

Toronto: Did you talk to may-rio ?

Vancouver: Did you talk to mah-rio ?


Apart from this Ive noticed no difference in pronunciation in the two cities.

People in Toronto pronounce Mario as may-rio? First time I have heard that one...

[artvandelay]

Originally Posted by Acajack

People in Toronto pronounce Mario as may-rio? First time I have heard that one...

Yup, it's the nasal a.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by artvandelay

Yup, it's the nasal a.

Not sure we are talking about the same thing.

It's certainly not like the way the month of May in pronounced. It's more like if you combined the word "mare" (female horse) and "yo".