amchara, posts by tag: language - LiveJournal

I started my previous post about Canadian accents and then realized that I didn't know much about the linguistic lingo so I ended up ranting more about my own accent and attitudes towards it than anything else so, er, oops? Never let it be said that I'm not self-centred. :P

So I'm cutting and pasting and adding a bit more to this post, which is the one I originally set out to write last night, talking about the Canadian accent in general and how it can vary, depending on the region.

Disclaimer: I'm not a linguist and so all the rest of this post is based on my own experience and helped a great deal by Wikipedia to back up these claims. So, take that how you will.

The stereotypical Canadian hoser accent you see in movies like 'Wayne's World' and various other tv shows, where they pronounce words like 'aboot' and 'soory', is generally considered the 'hick' accent, (at least, by my generation) and you'd more likely find it in small towns/rural areas of the country, while in the big cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa) you'll probably find the 'generic American newscaster' voice more often. I think the trend among my generation is to aim more for the latter pronunciation rather than the former.

But in addition to the general 'Canadian Accent/Canadian English' there can still be a large variation depending on which province/region you're in.

I think a good way to show this is to take how people say the word 'Toronto' (the largest city in Canada, located in Ontario).

- Someone from the West Coast, (British Colombia) would pronounce it like Tore-on-toe, with a little more enunciation on the vowels. Pacific-Northwest English/B.C. English.

- If they were from Alberta (the next province over), it would sound similar, but with more of a mid-western drawl - Tore-oon-'oe. They may or may not add in the 't' at the start of the last syllable, and the further away they were from the bigger cities, (Calgary and Edmonton), the more likely they'll have a cross between this pronunciation and the Prairie one.

- People from the Prairies (Saskatchewan or Manitoba) would probably say it like Ter-ahn-ah or Ter-on-'o. Prairie English.

- Ontarians tend to clip their r's and t's, especially when combined with 'o' or 'a', so it tends to come out more like Trawno. One major exception is the Ottawa Valley, which is influenced by the Irish and Scottish immigrants who settled in the area.

- And then you have Quebec, where there is a small anglophone population who have accents similar to the Ontarians, but with a tiny influence of French, so their 't's sound more like softer 'd's, although I'm not sure it really applies to this example, so they'd probably say it like Ontarians, although maybe with more enunciation of the vowels and the 'r'. Quebec English

- And the majority francophone population in Quebec obviously have French accents, which generally sound a little bit more 'rushed', with the endings dropped or merged into the next word, so the accent is sometimes considered more of a dialect of French (Quebec Joual), than an accent. I don't know enough about French accents to really tell the difference, but here are a few articles that explain it - Quebec French and Quebec French pronunciation.

- Someone from the East Coast (PEI, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick or Newfoundland) would probably say Ter-on-ah, with a nasal emphasis on the vowels and and a lilt on the end. It's influenced by the Acadian-speaking and Scottish Gaelic-speaking settlers who settled in these areas. Maritime English and Cape Breton Accent.

- More of the Acadian accent: (found in New Brunswick and parts of PEI and Nova Scotia) which is a mixture of French accent/East Coast English accent, with its tendencies to pronounce 'j's as more of 'sshoe' sound, so 'jelly' would sound like 'shelly'. In the area of Moncton/Shediac in New Brunswick there's also a dialect of French called 'Chiac', which is almost a hybrid language of French/English. It's not too far away from where I'm originally from, and since my family would often go for shopping trips to Moncton and hear it all the time, I'm pretty sure I could pull off some Chiac. :P Ej vas driver mon truck à soir pis ça va êt'e right la fun.

- And then there's the Newfie accent, which I covered a little bit earlier, but really needs a category of its own. It's probably the most recognizable accent in Canada- and if you have one, everyone knows that you're from Newfoundland (or 'Nuefanlan' as they would say.) It's hard to describe unless you hear it yourself. Newfoundland English and Dictionary of Newfoundland English.

If you wanted to hear examples, I recommend heading to The International Dialects of English Archives or Speech Accent Archive where you can hear examples of most of the Canadian accents I talked about. I particularly recommend the Newfie ones, which are a lot of fun to hear.

All right, I'll give it a rest after this post, no more entries on accents for while. :)

I was cheerfully whittling away at my poli sci. essay when I came across ethrosdemon's post on American accents and dialects as a link on my flist. I've always had a fascination with different accents, and so I felt the need to ramble on at length with my own impressions of them, particularly my own.

I think I have a love/hate relationship with my native accent. Much as the 'southern accent' in the US has stereotypically been considered red-neck and hickish, the same is considered true for the accents and dialects in the East Coast of Canada. Because of this, and because I'm considering broadcast journalism as a career, I've made a conscious effort since my early teens to suppress the Islander accent and adopt more of the 'newscaster' accent, basically, generic Midwestern/Canadian.

It's funny, because while I love almost everything else about the Island, our accent drives me crazy. Maybe it's because it seemed that every time I heard people in high school make ignorant remarks, they did it in the broadest of Islander accents, especially the hockey jocks who thought they were tough shit and all that.

Maybe it was because there were times when I was growing up where my dad or grandfather (who were both born and raised in PEI, but hardly have the accent) would correct me on my pronunciation, and say that I sound like a Tignish fisherman, which is undesirable in their eyes, I guess. I also lived in Charlottetown, the capital, and while it's not much more urban than the rest of the province, there was still some of the typical townie and hick rivalries that went on.

Or maybe it was more my own growing awareness of how the rest of Canada often views Atlantic Canadians as a bunch of farmers and fishermen who are lazy slackers and mooch off the richer provinces; and it seemed that every documentary/news story that portrayed us in a bad light, there was the accent, in full glory.

I know that I probably shouldn't be ashamed of my accent but I can't seem to shake the negative connotations I have of it, it's been too ingrained in me that possessing an Islander accent is a liability and not an assent. I love listening to other people's accents from wherever in the world, but I can't stand my own. Which, huh. So, is it a self-loathing thing? Culturally ingrained prejudice? I swear when I started to write this post, I didn't mean to be so negative towards it, but this is what came out. Interesting, no?

What are your experiences with regional accents/dialects? Positive/negative? Have you ever been told that you need to change it?

Okay, wait. Let's get a bit more positive. Fact of the matter is, I do like the accent I normally speak with right now. What about you? Do you love your accent? Certain phrases that are unique to your area of birth/place you live right now? Despite not being the biggest fan of the Islander accent, I do happen to like some of our phrases and slang. 'It's right slippy out today' is one of my personal favs. :)

Also, if you have a mic and the time: record yourself speaking for say, 30 seconds and post it as a mp3 (using yousendit, or whatever) here and I'll take a stab about guessing where you're originally from based on your accent. Others can play and guess as well!

Obviously you can't do the same for me, but if you want to hear what I sound like, click here and select the file WS_20072 to hear me, and if you'd like to hear a typical 'Island accent', select the file princeedward1. :)