Can you tell Canadian English from American English?
 

That's pretty much the question. :)



By watching this video, if you had absolutely no clue who Avril Lavigne was, would you be able to tell she is Canadian cause of her accent?

Or like, Kate from Lost, was there something Canadian about hers?

I don't want you guys telling me how Canadians say "aboot" or "eh" at the end of each sentence all the time, I wanna know if you actually find there is an obvious audible difference between Canadian English and the standard American English. Easy, right? :D

I always thought Kate from "Lost" and Avril Lavigne were American, in all honesty. There's some cosplayers on youtube I thought were American until they explicitly said on one video they weren't. I also remember a guy coming into a shop one day and asking 'who's the American?' and him flipping out because he was Canadian . . . so no, I can't honestly hear a difference at all XD

Edit: I think that American accents are so diverse - for example a Texan is nothing like a New Yorker - and we're exposed to American accents on a daily basis, that for the untrained ear it's just easy to assume that the Canadian is American, and their accent is just another subset of American accents.

I am going to second the edit of RobinMask`s post.

American accents are incredibly diverse. It`s virtually impossible to be familiar enough with all of them to be able to distinguish between those that are "American" and those that are "Canadian". Especially as there is a huge amount of overlap between them.

I have not met enough of either canadians or Americans. too often when I do speak to someone who to my ears sound American-- I can be mistaken because they are actually Canadian.

of course on Tv programmes it varies-- some American women sound really nazal-- not always pleasant.

But they must vary enormously really.

I can tell a Canadian from an American if they also speak french; there's sometimes a little twang that gives it away. More usually though, I can spot canadians because they kind of have different body language; I can't put my finger on it but it's nothing to do with their accent.

It's not quite fair to say Kate from Lost, as her character is American.

It depends where they are from. I've heard American people speak, and my relatives are from Canada, and to me there is a difference, but it depends on where they are each from.

American and Canadian newsreaders for example, sound the same to me, but because of diverse regional accents it can be easy to tell them apart on other occassions. That's how it feels to me, as an outsider, anyway.

I have limited experience with this, but I live in Toronto Ontario (which is in Canada).

I've been to several places in the states, such as New York and Los Angeles. Both of which seem to have English that would be pretty much the same as the English from my home town. Nothing struck them as odd about me, so I fit in like an American.

I think other places in America might have different accents though. Some people just think about the southern accent as being "American" when not all of them talk like that.

The strange thing is, I heard in Europe they can tell the difference between American and Canadian? (is this true)?

I know I was in Malaysia, and some guy asked if I could move to the side a bit for him to sit, and he asked if I was Canadian after I replied.

I'm from England and I feel like I can notice a difference. But I've never tried directly comparing lots of them or anything...

Oh, maybe there's an attitude difference or something of the sort too. I guess it really varies from person to person.

There is a difference.. but it depends on what area and how heavy the accent is. Honestly, I think the words that a mostly different are how Canadians pronounce 'house' (kinda like heuws) and 'bag' (baig)..

The thing is, this is a common accent in parts of the US too. I can hear how she pronounces the ou sound in that video, but it doesn`t stand out as Canadian. Just definitely not southern US - and I would likely have guessed "Northern US or Canada".

French Canadians are quite different, and often have a pretty clear French accent in English.

I live in the greater lakes region and I honestly can't distinguish between the so-called Canadian accent and some of the accents from the Americans around me. Unless maybe said Canadian is from Quebec -- and even then, I might definitely assume they're French.

Also, I've never been, but I'd assume that there are some Alaskans that may share accents with Canadians.

To me it sounds like she is speaking in a "californian" accent. While it's very convincing, when she said "about" it was obvious that she wasn't from california, or wherever she is trying to sound like. To me, I can tell when someone is Canadian, or at least from (like others have said) nothern US/Canada. I don't know if this is representative of all Canadians, but I've notice they tend to overpronounce (coming from a Californian). Also, I hear words like "been" being prounced as "bean" and other small things like that which I honestly can't think of right now. One more thing is that I've noticed more Canadians than I have Americans pronouncing "pronunciation" as "pronounce"-"ciation". There can also be a slight intonation difference as well... while it's pretty close to American intonation, every now and then there is something that sounds slightly to very English.

So I think that if the Canadian was trying REALLY hard to try to sound like they weren't from Canada I'd have a hard time. If they were just talking as usual, I think I'd have a chance at picking it out.

Canadians always say "Ayy" at the end of a sentence, and "Aboot" instead of about.:)

Here is a good visual map:

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/

http://aschmann.net/AmEng/#LargeMap

For me, I usually can't tell the difference between the two.

BUT there are a few trigger words that when spoken by a Canadian will be able to make me tell whether it's a Canadian accent or not. e.g. 'about'

What the hell *is* an American accent anyway? {You can tell by the 'o' sounds. Especially when she says 'about'.} But yeah. Uh. America isn't just one whole accent...

*plooka plooka*

Okay, when I say Canadian English I mean native English speakers from Canada -Ontario, for instance- NOT the ones who speak French. I know those are easy to pick out.

Who said "America is one whole accent", smart ass? Go back to my original post and you'll find I said "standard American English", and if the word "standard" still doesn't give you a clue as to what kinda accent I'm talking about then I guess you got lots of television to watch, because there is such a thing as an standard American accent.
----

I found it hard to believe when I found out that Jim Carrey was from Canada. I couldn't have told from his movies nor from the interviews I'd seen with him in which, I guess, he speaks with his natural accent, which ought to be a Canadian one by default.

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.

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

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.

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*

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.

^ 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*

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?

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*

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. :D 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?

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.

Yeah? You find Jimmy Kimmel's accent to be Italian-American? hahah that's fuuny. :D It sounds pretty standard to me, but maybe it's cause I grew up hearing mostly Newyorkian and Californian accents and these are the ons that sound most "normal" to me. So yeah I guess I can be a bit biased... cause like, when watching LOST, there are many accents in that show, and to me Jack's was the one closest to what I'd say is standard, but then again someone else might disagree with that.

I agree with the rest of your post above.

hmm i never really thought about it:confused: interesting....

I've never really though about the differences between American and Canadian accents, but now, that would explain a lot....actually, maybe not.

In the video game Silent Hill 3, the voice actors, especially Heather Morris, spoke in a weird way. At first I though it was bad acting. Then I though it might have been a Canadian accent when I was reading this thread. I looked them up, and none of the actors were Canadian. Now I'm just confused.