Can you tell Canadian English from American English?

[Ghap]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I think it can be summed up something like this;

There is a slight difference between a Canadian accent and a standard American accent. The difference is present in small parts of speech. (Not evident in all parts of speech.) It is usually clear that it is not a standard American accent - however, it is not identifying as a Canadian accent.

I would say that most people would probably be able to point out that it isn`t a standard American accent if they heard the pronunciations that are different than the standard, but NOT be able to point out where the speaker was from. Both because the accent isn`t Canadian only (overlaps into the US), and because the difference is so slight that it normally wouldn`t stand out enough to draw attention. In a situation where the native accent of the listener is VERY different from the standard, they may not really notice a difference at all - only that the accent is different from their local one, and close to the standard.

There is a MUCH larger difference between most regional accents in the US and the standard than between the Canadian accent and the standard. Because of the huge variety in the US itself, I think it would be pretty strange for someone to assume that such a tiny difference in accent would indicate that someone is from outside the US.

An added note on "Standard American English" - there really is no such thing in everyday use. Announcers all play down their regional accents and also often affect their speech to sound "warmer" and more "friendly" (this is particularly true of news programming). They all strive for the "standard", but there is no location where "standard" American English is actually spoken by the majority of the population. Every location will have some kind of difference when compared to the television standard. I think this is why it is so hard to look at the Canadian accent as a distinct accent - the amount it differs from the standard is so low that it is likely lower than most of the English spoken in the US itself.

This seems very well thought out and I can not dispute it.

Tho it must be pointed out I can tell the difference without the moose or aboot business (always fun tho) .

Strangeley if its the odd word i always thought canada'ians and australians sounded similar...untill they finished the sentance.

[YukisUke]

You know, I've never much noticed the accent at all. Not a bit.

[macki06]

yeah i think its a bit difficult to tell because, i for one, do not know a lot of canadian nationals. and a lot of famous canadian actors and entertainers have also neutralized their accents, i think, when speaking in public.
same goes for american regional accents, except for actors who play steriotypical roles like penelope cruz for the latina girl, and will smith for the cool black guy, most of these actors have also neutralized their accents and can deliberately hide colloqualism when needed.

although my impression has always been that, canadians speak in a non distinct similar to nuetral international english accent. like a newsreader or some one from new york i guess.

although, i think, at the end of day, theres really no internationally accepted 'canadian' accent. same as when i were living in the philippines, most people would think and confuse the english accent with the 'british accent'. wherein, after a few months of living in the UK. i think there is no british accent. because there are so many regional accents around, and i think. and sometimes even among the english people there are still minor differences and nuances with how they speak.

i dont think im making a lot of sense, lol. but david foster, will from will and grace, will schuester's wife from glee are famous canadians that i can think of right now. and i dont think theres anything distinct with how they speak apart from they sound american'ish to me.

[Rinai]

I wasn't even being a smart ass. No. I don't watch T.V. {Honestly.} But I can still tell what a Canadian accent is because of the 'o' sounds like I said. {Uh. Yeah. That was just rude so I'll ignore that, Suki.}

*plooka plooka*

[steven]

Originally Posted by macki06

i dont think im making a lot of sense, lol. but david foster, will from will and grace, will schuester's wife from glee are famous canadians that i can think of right now. and i dont think theres anything distinct with how they speak apart from they sound american'ish to me.

I think it's interesting to note that these actors (in American movies/TV shows) are just that-- actors. It is my opinion that they are probably modulating different areas of their speech to fit in with a more "hollywood" accent (which I interpret as standard).

For an example (which is much more pronounced I would think) of such "modulation", think of young white kids who try to talk like their favorite rap stars (like eminem or someone like that). I remembered seeing a whole lot of that in California- where that accent is otherwise nowhere to be found in really white, suburban areas.

To me a central Canadian accent would sound like all those hockey players I used to see on TV when I was a kid-- Dan Aykroyd (blues brothers, ghost busters, etc) has that kind of sound. I don't know if I could tell the difference between that kind of accent and an American mid-western one though (if you watch Fargo, they kind of have that accent going on as well). When it comes to western Canada though, it is really close to American (standard) English as far as my ears can tell... but like i said before there are certain qualities that can give it away including intonation and certain pronunciation.

If it's possible, try finding some youtubers from that region and listen to them talk. I bet you will find some qualities that are distinguishable from American standard English.

[Rinai]

^ Yeah. I think more people are familiar with the 'commercial accent'/'Hollywood accent' {I call it that.} that people see on T.V. When I can watch T.V. I'll like to watch the reality shows because sometimes you can't even really understand a word they're saying because they talk so fast. People who act and all are just trained to speak in a way where it can sound clearly and naturally for their character so yeah. That's that commercial/hollywood accent. Either way, for me, I can tell what is a Canadian accent. But I don't know what people really mean by the standard American English. As far as I had thought, Americans just speak it, English, the way they can or want to. I kind of live in a place where accents are different left and right. {Spanish, Asian, Spanish-American, Muslim, redneck, cowboy/girl-- it's actually really fun to hear everyone buzzing.}

*plooka plooka*

[Suki]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

An added note on "Standard American English" - there really is no such thing in everyday use. Announcers all play down their regional accents and also often affect their speech to sound "warmer" and more "friendly" (this is particularly true of news programming). They all strive for the "standard", but there is no location where "standard" American English is actually spoken by the majority of the population. Every location will have some kind of difference when compared to the television standard. I think this is why it is so hard to look at the Canadian accent as a distinct accent - the amount it differs from the standard is so low that it is likely lower than most of the English spoken in the US itself.

Originally Posted by Rinai

I don't know what people really mean by the standard American English.

Maybe for someone who's been raised in the US it is hard to tell what an standard accent would sound like, but really, there is such a thing.

General American - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Have you really never met someone who spoke with an American accent so plain you couldn't really tell which part of the US that person was from? If so, that would be it. That's plain American, lacking any other specific characteristics. Jimmy Kimmel, for instance.
_________

Does Eminem sound Canadian to any of you?

[Rinai]

Ohhh. OK-OK that's what you mean. And yes. I've spent more of my life in America than my homeland. Hm. As far as I've been through America, there aren't that many people I've met where they didn't have an accent. {I think it's pretty cool you can tell what regions people are from.} But I still think that this standard accent is mainly for commercial use.

*plooka plooka*

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by Suki

Maybe for someone who's been raised in the US it is hard to tell what an standard accent would sound like, but really, there is such a thing.

I never said there was no standard accent - I think you are misunderstanding my comment.
I said there is no part of the US where that accent is spoken by the majority of the population. That is exactly why it is a standard, and why it is not possible to identify it as being from a specific location. It is spoken, exists, is the standard taught in schools, but is not the accent of a region. There are areas that are close to the standard, but they all have some small quirks unique to the region.

The Canadian accent it is very close to the standard US accent, but has a few unique quirks. Most of the accents in the US that are close to the standard have the same number of quirks - so there is no obvious reason to assume that the accent is from outside of the US.

If we think of Standard US English as a solid color - say, red - most similar accents actually in use would be a shade of red. Not pure red, but very close. If we take another cup with a slightly different shade of red (Canadian English) - you`re going to guess that it belongs to the same group as all the other shades of red unless you`re told otherwise.

BTW... I don`t think Jimmy Kimmel is a good example of a standard accent, really - I had never heard of him, but checked a video out online... And guessed where he was from in about 20 seconds. I also guessed that he went to school in California - and was pretty close. He has that Italian-American accent thing going.
Maybe this is only obvious to me because I grew up in the US?

[Ghap]

Reading though the post a lot of explanations have been given.

Im not going to add to the argument as to be honest US/Canadian accent just sound diffrent full stop.

So yes I can tell the diffrence.