Does Canadian English exist?

[inbochum]

Hello,
is there such a thing as Canadian English - by way of accent, pronunciation, intonation ...?

Are native speakers able to tell if a North American is Canadian or from the U.S.?

Only recently i saw a Canadian on YouTube who said that people had complained to her that she pronounced the word "about" like "a boot".
Is this exemplary of a wider range of differences between Canadian and U.S. English?

By the way, i'm not referring to 'Canadisms', expressions that may exclusively be used in CAN...

[Soup]

Hi inbochum

1. Is there such a thing as Canadian English - by way of accent, pronunciation, intonation ...? Yes.

2. Are native speakers able to tell if a North American is Canadian or from the U.S.? Yes.

3. People had complained to her that she pronounced the word "about" like "a boot". It's happens, yes.

4. See Canadian English and see more here canadian english - Google Search

[konungursvia]

Agreed. But Americans often don't notice we're Canadian... many famous TV and film personalities they think are American actually are from Toronto and Montreal... like Alex Trebek, Captain Kirk and Peter Jennings.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Agreed. But Americans often don't notice we're Canadian... many famous TV and film personalities they think are American actually are from Toronto and Montreal... like Alex Trebek, Captain Kirk and Peter Jennings.

Who?

[konungursvia]

Take off, eh!

[BobK]

Originally Posted by inbochum

Hello,
is there such a thing as Canadian English - by way of accent, pronunciation, intonation ...?

...

Of course there is. And it's not just Canadians who think so.

b

[Ouisch]

Aside from pronunciation differences, Canadians refer to the various years in school as "grade six" and "grade 10," as opposed to the US, where we say "sixth grade" and "tenth grade." Also, Canadians tend to follow the British example when it comes to saying, for example, "he went to hospital" (US version: "He went to the hospital").

One odd thing I've noticed, however, is that when I was in Ontario, TV news programs referred to the province as "NewFOUNDland," whereas I've always heard it prounounced as "NEWfundland."

[Soup]

Hi Ouisch

Actually,

• Canadians refer to the various years in school as sixth grade and grade six, etc.
• Canadians use "go to the hospital", not "go to hospital."
• Canadians pronounce Newfoundland with primary stress on the 1st syllable, not the second syllable. It's NEWfoundland, where <oun> is pronounced with a schwa, as you noted (i.e., <u>).

[konungursvia]

Soup is right. I wasn't going to correct anyone, but....

Anyhow, the existence of Canadian English doesn't really alter the fact that it is, academically speaking, a variant of American English, taken continentally. For example, most graphs like http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html demonstrate that Canadian usage is normally the same as that in the Great Lakes region of the US, which is why our news anchors have no trouble getting jobs down there, whereas they would rarely hire an Aussie or a Brit.

[Soup]

Originally Posted by konungursvia

Soup is right. I wasn't going to correct anyone, but....

Anyhow, the existence of Canadian English doesn't really alter the fact that it is, academically speaking, a variant of American English, taken continentally. For example, most graphs like http://popvssoda.com:2998/countystats/total-county.html demonstrate that Canadian usage is normally the same as that in the Great Lakes region of the US, which is why our news anchors have no trouble getting jobs down there, whereas they would rarely hire an Aussie or a Brit.

On that note, I've been living in Asia (Japan, South Korean, and now China) for the past 12 years and over the years my accent has shifted to the kind of accent one hears in USA movies and sitcoms, because I watch a great deal of DVDs. It's not that I want to sound American--I don't even know that I do; it's more so that exposure makes it so. People here, in Asian, even Americans, and people at home in Canada, think I am from the US, all because of the way I sound when I speak English. Interestingly enough, when people find out that I am not American--I tell them so--they automatically start looking for the Canadianisms in my speech. Of course, there are some, "eh?"

Proud to be Earthian!