Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I've had heated arguments (even on here I think) with Canadians who claim that people abroad can all distinguish Canadians from Americans based solely on accents. They've even claimed it's true of second-language speakers in places like Sweden, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, etc.

Often their back-up argument is that the foreigners also easily recognize Canadians due to a combination of accent and "niceness".

(As if no Americans are ever nice, and no Canadians are jackasses.)

I have met people who can make the distinction, in the USA but not in third-language countries, but it has been the exception rather than the rule. I have had Europeans claim that they can distinguish Canadians from USAers based on how they dress (fewer pastels among Canadians, apparently).

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I have met people who can make the distinction, in the USA but not in third-language countries, but it has been the exception rather than the rule. I have had Europeans claim that they can distinguish Canadians from USAers based on how they dress (fewer pastels among Canadians, apparently).

Canadians also tend to sport less "lettering" on their clothing, especially names of universities, colleges and high schools.

Though you average person abroad is probably not very attuned to that of course.

[MonctonRad]

Originally Posted by Acajack

(As if no Americans are ever nice, and no Canadians are jackasses.)

It's not that most Americans are not "nice", it's just something in their demeanor, a certain swagger and boisterousness which is generally absent from the Canadian character that gives them away.

In general, Americans tend to drawl their words somewhat, speak loudly, are unreserved in public, dress informally in bright colours, and just in general make spectacles of themselves that you don't see amongst their more modest and restrained Canadian cousins.

I will forever remember this fat American I saw in Charlottetown when I was a teenager, sitting on the steps of the Confederation Centre on Canada Day, playing "America The Beautiful" on his ghetto blaster at near full volume. He was certainly making a spectacle of himself!!!!

[wave46]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

It's not that most Americans are not "nice", it's just something in their demeanor, a certain swagger and boisterousness which is generally absent from the Canadian character that gives them away.

In general, Americans tend to drawl their words somewhat, speak loudly, are unreserved in public, dress informally in bright colours, and just in general make spectacles of themselves that you don't see amongst their more modest and restrained Canadian cousins.

I will forever remember this fat American I saw in Charlottetown when I was a teenager, sitting on the steps of the Confederation Centre on Canada Day, playing "America The Beautiful" on his ghetto blaster at near full volume. He was certainly making a spectacle of himself!!!!

I don't know - I think the overlap is just imperfect enough to highlight the extreme examples.

If I were to take a random planeload of people that were half American and half Anglo-Canadian and quickly guess based on accent, demeanour and dress, I suspect I'd struggle to do much better than 60-65% (chance being 50% + 10% for the easy extreme examples)

I say that as someone who is a native English speaker and in-tune with North American Anglo culture. We're not that different, which irks us more than them.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by MonctonRad

It's not that most Americans are not "nice", it's just something in their demeanor, a certain swagger and boisterousness which is generally absent from the Canadian character that gives them away.

In general, Americans tend to drawl their words somewhat, speak loudly, are unreserved in public, dress informally in bright colours, and just in general make spectacles of themselves that you don't see amongst their more modest and restrained Canadian cousins.

I will forever remember this fat American I saw in Charlottetown when I was a teenager, sitting on the steps of the Confederation Centre on Canada Day, playing "America The Beautiful" on his ghetto blaster at near full volume. He was certainly making a spectacle of himself!!!!

All true.

I just don't think that these things (except extreme ones like that last example) happen often enough or that people are significantly exposed or attuned enough to make an everyday distinction when it comes to Joe Canadian vs. Joe American.

I've also had foreigners working in tourism tell me that anyone that sounds American gets assumed to be Canadian by default because Americans don't get pissed off if you mistake them for their neighbours. Canadians do.

[Acajack]

And while boorish and obnoxious behaviour abroad does on average seem more visible on the part of Americans (and the British), I have certainly witnessed drunk groups of Canadians singing loudly at 2 am on a Tuesday in the historic centre of cities overseas. Since they were singing The Brady Bunch song or SNL sketches (or something of that nature), perhaps the locals labelled them Ugly Americans anyway.

Brits seem to favour Monty Python songs. Or at least they did.

Always look on the bright side of life.

Sit on my face and tell me that you love me.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

All true.

I just don't think that these things (except extreme ones like that last example) happen often enough or that people are significantly exposed or attuned enough to make an everyday distinction when it comes to Joe Canadian vs. Joe American.

I've also had foreigners working in tourism tell me that anyone that sounds American gets assumed to be Canadian by default because Americans don't get pissed off if you mistake them for their neighbours. Canadians do.

I don't. I actually have fun with the usual questions that make the error. My stock answers are "Yes, I'm Canadian" (Are you American?), and "Canada" (What part of America are you from?). The reaction can be quite amusing.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

I don't. I actually have fun with the usual questions that make the error. My stock answers are "Yes, I'm Canadian" (Are you American?), and "Canada" (What part of America are you from?). The reaction can be quite amusing.

Though I am sure you're aware that many Canadians are indeed bothered by that.

Occasionally some might even flip out about it. (Ironically, in total contradiction to the reputation Canadians have for being reserved.)

On a related but a bit bizarre note, a Franco-Ontarien relative of my wife's got all miffed in Paris when people mistook her for Québécois.

She went on about how they were Franco-Ontariens which were not at all like Québécois blablabla...

I am sure the Parisians rolled their eyes and thought, Franco-Onta....quoi????

[jonny24]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I can tell British from Australian reasonably easily though not 100% of the time. Though I've spent time in Australia.

Originally Posted by Proof Sheet

I must admit I find the Australian and NZ accents hard to differentiate but South African is distinctive.

Originally Posted by Acajack

I can distinguish OZ-NZ-SA reasonably well but I went to school in English much of my life and spent quite a bit of time in other Commonwealth countries and circles.

I used to be pretty good at distinguishing Aus/NS/SA (it's a common joke, but fush+chups vs feesh+cheeps really does help)

However, I've been getting worse at it I think. I watch a ton of rugby, I encounter all those accents a lot, but it's so commonly mixed company that they all start to blur. Only in certain directions though. A lot of the time, it'll take me a few words or sentences to realize the speaker is Aussie and not English, but I would never mistake English for Aussie.

It's funny that "house" is a word that Canadians get "caught out" on, I've had that exact conversation with my finacee's family. They spent 5 years in Sydney, and now her dad is dating a girl from Melbourne so we talk about it sometimes and "house" was discussed in depth. She thinks we say it too short, I think she's saying about two vowels too many and swallowing at the same time.. "hay-owgh-se".... She laughed at that

I have a pretty good grasp of "northern" vs "southern" English, but not anything more refined than that. If they have hard R's then possibly "west country". I can notice different Irish accents but have no idea on placing them with any area or class, just that they're different. I have a co worker that's from Belfast so if I hear the odd word said exactly like him then I guess Northern.

Apparently I have the Southern Ontario accent that people think sounds American. I've been getting asked that since I was a kid visiting Toronto and a TTC driver asked if I was American. Nope, just watch a lot of PBS? It sure as hell isn't American though, the second you cross into Buffalo its a whole different thing.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by jonny24

Apparently I have the Southern Ontario accent that people think sounds American. I've been getting asked that since I was a kid visiting Toronto and a TTC driver asked if I was American. Nope, just watch a lot of PBS? It sure as hell isn't American though, the second you cross into Buffalo its a whole different thing.

Though the U.S. has scores of regional accents within it.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by jonny24

I used to be pretty good at distinguishing Aus/NS/SA (it's a common joke, but fush+chups vs feesh+cheeps really does help)

However, I've been getting worse at it I think. I watch a ton of rugby, I encounter all those accents a lot, but it's so commonly mixed company that they all start to blur. Only in certain directions though. A lot of the time, it'll take me a few words or sentences to realize the speaker is Aussie and not English, but I would never mistake English for Aussie.

It's funny that "house" is a word that Canadians get "caught out" on, I've had that exact conversation with my finacee's family. They spent 5 years in Sydney, and now her dad is dating a girl from Melbourne so we talk about it sometimes and "house" was discussed in depth. She thinks we say it too short, I think she's saying about two vowels too many and swallowing at the same time.. "hay-owgh-se".... She laughed at that

I have a pretty good grasp of "northern" vs "southern" English, but not anything more refined than that. If they have hard R's then possibly "west country". I can notice different Irish accents but have no idea on placing them with any area or class, just that they're different. I have a co worker that's from Belfast so if I hear the odd word said exactly like him then I guess Northern.
.

I've noticed over time that I've gotten better at picking out francophone accents from overseas. The French and Belgians and Swiss all used to sound the same to me. Now I am getting pretty good at distinguishing them, especially the Belgians. I heard someone on the radio recently (he was living in Canada) and he had a European French accent and I could tell he was Belgian. Even though he did not use any of the tell-tale Belgian words.

[Acajack]

Got a chuckle over the weekend when I heard a Gatineau radio announcer introduce a song by Pitbull and Blake Shelton by referring to "black" Shelton.

[hipster duck]

Accents in Canada are very class-oriented, much more so than in the US. If you take 2 mangiacake Canadians, I think that most people with some English fluency would be able to tell the difference between a working class person from a middle class person pretty easily. More so, even, than being able to distinguish a Canadian middle class person from an American middle class person.

I've mentioned before that I think one of Canada's British hangovers is a sharper distinction between social classes. Americans have less of that. That's not to say that the American working class has better opportunities for advancement, or are materially better off, or any of that - let alone dragging in the issue of race in America, which Canadians who want to refute my point invariably will.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Accents in Canada are very class-oriented, much more so than in the US. If you take 2 mangiacake Canadians, I think that most people with some English fluency would be able to tell the difference between a working class person from a middle class person pretty easily. More so, even, than being able to distinguish a Canadian middle class person from an American middle class person.

I've mentioned before that I think one of Canada's British hangovers is a sharper distinction between social classes. Americans have less of that. That's not to say that the American working class has better opportunities for advancement, or are materially better off, or any of that - let alone dragging in the issue of race in America, which Canadians who want to refute my point invariably will.

For the record, Quebec also has class distinctions with cues tied to how one speaks French. (And also how you dress - moreso in the latter case than elsewhere in CanUSA in my experience.)

In terms of how you speak being a determinant of class, I am generally talking about people who have names like Marie Dupont or Pierre Tremblay. If you have an anglo name or a name of another origin the parameters tend to be different - sometimes more forgiving, and sometimes more harsh.

That is why francophones from outside Quebec sometimes get frustrated when in Quebec because they feel they're judged for how they speak French - as it's very often imperfect, or at least not what Québécois are used to hearing from someone called Jean-Guy Pronovost.

[someone123]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Accents in Canada are very class-oriented, much more so than in the US. If you take 2 mangiacake Canadians, I think that most people with some English fluency would be able to tell the difference between a working class person from a middle class person pretty easily. More so, even, than being able to distinguish a Canadian middle class person from an American middle class person.

I've mentioned before that I think one of Canada's British hangovers is a sharper distinction between social classes. Americans have less of that. That's not to say that the American working class has better opportunities for advancement, or are materially better off, or any of that - let alone dragging in the issue of race in America, which Canadians who want to refute my point invariably will.

You hear this in metro Halifax where the people downtown tend to have more standard-sounding Canadian accents (and many of them are from out of province) while kids in Cole Harbour or Sackville are more likely to sound like Ricky on Trailer Park Boys.

Lower-class accents tend to disappear over time since there is an advantage to dropping them. Some of my NS relatives will remark that those accents are embarrassing while others don't care.

[goodgrowth]

Originally Posted by hipster duck

Accents in Canada are very class-oriented, much more so than in the US. If you take 2 mangiacake Canadians, I think that most people with some English fluency would be able to tell the difference between a working class person from a middle class person pretty easily. More so, even, than being able to distinguish a Canadian middle class person from an American middle class person.

I've mentioned before that I think one of Canada's British hangovers is a sharper distinction between social classes. Americans have less of that. That's not to say that the American working class has better opportunities for advancement, or are materially better off, or any of that - let alone dragging in the issue of race in America, which Canadians who want to refute my point invariably will.

I don't think Canada is any more or less class-oriented than America when it comes to accents.

[kool maudit]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Though I am sure you're aware that many Canadians are indeed bothered by that.

A lot of Europeans will exaggeratedly bow and scrape if, after asking you what part of the states you're from, you reply with "actually I'm Canadian".

They're just being nice and showing that they are aware of our thing, but I don't really think it reflects very well on us. I think that if a country is going to make such a big deal of differentiating itself, maybe it should actually differentiate itself.

If we wind up conversing about it, I usually say something like "hey, no worries -- it's just the usual 'little neighbour' stuff. I do it to Austrians and Belgians myself!"

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

A lot of Europeans will exaggeratedly bow and scrape if, after asking you what part of the states you're from, you reply with "actually I'm Canadian".

Many are often visibly uncomfortable about having made that type of faux-pas.

Originally Posted by kool maudit

They're just being nice and showing that they are aware of our thing, but I don't really think it reflects very well on us. I think that if a country is going to make such a big deal of differentiating itself, maybe it should actually differentiate itself.
"

It's quite odd to have people wearing an Air Jordan ballcap and a garish Florida State Gators sweatshirt complain loudly about being mistaken for an American, but I've actually been there.

What can you do when you live in a shoe?

[someone123]

Originally Posted by kool maudit

They're just being nice and showing that they are aware of our thing, but I don't really think it reflects very well on us. I think that if a country is going to make such a big deal of differentiating itself, maybe it should actually differentiate itself.

If you think about the rest of the world, it's not normal for foreigners to be able to tell people from different countries apart by how they look or talk. There are a few distinctive countries like Japan or Britain (islands with thousands of years of distinct culture) but most are not like that.

I would not expect most people from a different continent to be able to guess which Latin American or Eastern European or African or Southeast Asian country somebody is from. Or for somebody from Laos to get upset if they are mistaken for Cambodian, but who knows?

[Nashe]

Originally Posted by Acajack

It's quite odd to have people wearing an Air Jordan ballcap and a garish Florida State Gators sweatshirt complain loudly about being mistaken for an American, but I've actually been there.
What can you do when you live in a shoe?

Wear "Roots" gear and avoid all jersey's (even les habs)?

Personally, I don't "sports", but I'd not be caught dead in team-apparel in Europe. Even futbol stuff. Which you'd THINK would be better, but in actuality is WORSE...