Accents

Posh gits.

They do attract a much better class of clientele.

I'm only an Aldi man and the price is right for me.

pinky wrote:

hi there,
The worst accent on the planet (IMO) is the Canadian Newfoundlander's, like a crazy Irish one gone wrong......
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

Oh aie....tell THAT to a Newfie and see where it gets you!!! LOL

As a Canadian kid living amongst you Brits, I can assure you, you ALL had weird accents!!! Some more intelligible than others but still took me a while to be able to strain my ears, squint a bit, and be able to finally decipher just what the hell was being said!

For such a small island you bunch sure do have a plethora of accents!!

Stephen Lock wrote:

pinky wrote:

hi there,
The worst accent on the planet (IMO) is the Canadian Newfoundlander's, like a crazy Irish one gone wrong......
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

Oh aie....tell THAT to a Newfie and see where it gets you!!! LOL

Having lived in Alberta for about 10 yrs I've worked and socialized with many Newfies and had lots of fun with most of them, plus I've told them of my dislike of there most un-Canadian accent. Most have agreed with me but they too comment that it's better than the 'American' accent that most Canadians have.........so as an identity of the Canadian-ness, I have to agree.
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

Stephen Lock wrote:

For such a small island you bunch sure do have a plethora of accents!!

A plethora of Olympic "Golds" too, methinks.

brum wrote:

Stephen Lock wrote:

For such a small island you bunch sure do have a plethora of accents!!

A plethora of Olympic "Golds" too, methinks.

INDEEDY...

pinky wrote:

[Having lived in Alberta for about 10 yrs I've worked and socialized with many Newfies and had lots of fun with most of them, plus I've told them of my dislike of there most un-Canadian accent. Most have agreed with me but they too comment that it's better than the 'American' accent that most Canadians have.........so as an identity of the Canadian-ness, I have to agree.
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

Forgive my lack of knowledge.
Like many others from BAOR, on our way to BATUS, I/we landed at Gander but did not have the opportunity to hear the local accent.
Influenced by what I was taught of the history of Newfoundland I would expect to hear something that sounded like a mixture of Irish and Scottish.
How am I doing ?
(When hearing someone from the Canadian side of "The Pond" speaking, to establish the person is not a Yank, I allways wait for him to say something like "out". Donald Sutherland is a classic example).

Hi again,
Very close, probably more Irish IMO.
Out pronounced oot (as in oot and aboot) is more common in Ontario. OOT west they say eh !! lots.
Otherwise kinda very American........ie. Montana / California / Utah / Oregan etc.
atb
Pinky
As a note Billy Connelly on his world walkaboot documentary said " Why in Nova Scotia do these Canadians act more Scottish than the Scots themselves" ?
Identity crisis me thinks....lol.

Just noticed the time of your last posting, Pinky. Do get a grip Old Man, there is no such time as 00.00, it's either 2359hrs or 0001hrs!! Are you trying to drag us all in to the 21st Century? Harumphh.

lol

brum wrote:

Stephen Lock wrote:

For such a small island you bunch sure do have a plethora of accents!!

A plethora of Olympic "Golds" too, methinks.

yes, yes, yes....and congratulations on that etc.

Now, back to the accent question.....

What was the question, Stephen. Talking of accents, I have just come back from a trip to Reading (how the other half live), wandering along the main shopping area was like attending a Mess Meeting at the UN.

brum wrote:

pinky wrote:

[Having lived in Alberta for about 10 yrs I've worked and socialized with many Newfies and had lots of fun with most of them, plus I've told them of my dislike of there most un-Canadian accent. Most have agreed with me but they too comment that it's better than the 'American' accent that most Canadians have.........so as an identity of the Canadian-ness, I have to agree.
atb
pinky
HUSSAR

Forgive my lack of knowledge.
Like many others from BAOR, on our way to BATUS, I/we landed at Gander but did not have the opportunity to hear the local accent.
Influenced by what I was taught of the history of Newfoundland I would expect to hear something that sounded like a mixture of Irish and Scottish.
How am I doing ?
(When hearing someone from the Canadian side of "The Pond" speaking, to establish the person is not a Yank, I allways wait for him to say something like "out". Donald Sutherland is a classic example).

I wouldn't go so far as to say I 'dislike' the NL (Newfoundlander/Labradorian) accent. In fact, I rather like it (although if they are really rural I do sometimes have difficulty understanding what they are on about! Not so much with those in the city...still bit of a Newf accent but softer).

As for ROC (Rest of Canada) having a more "American" accent, I would disagree.

Yes, it is similar, I suppose, and certainly as Canadians continue to drop/ignore/not appreciate our unique history on this continent and continue to be exposed to American programming (nobody watches CBC unless they have to, it seems. I know I rarely do!! Although I quite like CBC Radio Canada) we take on American ways of speaking, sentence structures, spellings (aaaaaghhh....I refuse to spell 'colour' as 'color' or 'roofs' as 'rooves' and 'route' is a 'rowt' not a 'root' (depending on context) and even sort of a Mid-Atlantic "American" accent, although it isn't really.

When I first returned to Canada after several years in Germany and a year around you lot I absolutely was attuned to "hearing" a so-called 'Canadian accent'. Subtle, not easily defined, but it was there. I remember thinking it was somewhat akin to the mewing of cats...not in a bad way and I don't mean yowling like a cat; more that slightly plaintive, actually rather sweet mewing a friendly kitty makes.

It seems to me smaller countries tend to have a stronger diversity of regional accents whereas larger countries tend to have a more homogenous blending of accents. Not sure what that is about since, intuitively, one would think it'd be the other way around.

I know when living in Ottawa as a teenager, and the Ottawa Valley, there was a definite Ottawa Valley accent. I can still pick up on it now and then. Things like "Ottawer" instead of "Ottawa" or "Ironprior" instead of "Arn-prior".

The use of 'eh' after a sentence is stereotypically Canadian but I hardly ever come across it, eh? And, when I do, the speaker is almost invariably from "down east" (Maritimes, mostly). I really do not hear it used out in Alberta...at least not by born and bred Albertans! They tend to drop their 'g' off words....'nuthin' instead of 'nothing' etc. Cowboy talk, essentially.

Now, regarding how 'out' and 'about' and other 'ou' words are spoken....I've heard about this 'oot' and 'aboot' thing but, again, rarely encounter it unless the speaker is a Maritimer or perhaps a rural Ontarian. And at least 3rd generation!!

What I do find is a strong use of 'you know' at the end of sentence. Not -- thankfully -- the American Black ghettospeak of 'Ya know what I'm sayin'?" Urrgh but that jars me and I detest it!! I also come across -- and have been guilty of -- using 'and whatnot' at the end of a sentence. This is not so much an accent issue but more a nervousness thing, a filler....I worked at eliminating it from my own speech upon hearing a taped interview I did where every other sentence was 'and whatnot'....annoying!!!!!

Then, of course, we have the Quebecois accent. "Hey, dere you! How'd you be, eh?". It is quite different than a "French" accent....for that matter Quebeois French is quite distinct from "French French".....as an aside, all through school we had to take French only what we were being taught was "Parisian French". I always maintained, and still do!, we should have been taught Quebecois, the language and usage of French-Canadians. Not the slang...I understand not teaching slang...and not the Frenglish many Quebecois speak (as interesting as it is!), but actual Quebecois, complete with Quebecois accent and emphasis (again different than continental French)....

I still tend to say "There ya be" upon handing someone something and think nothing of it. One customer grinned and asked me what part of the Maritimes I was from. I did live in New Brunswick for a while when I was 4 and 5 years old but other than that, I never have so am not sure where I picked that little regionalism up.

On to the West Coast.....

Here, too, I can 'hear' a definite accent. Softer than what I hear in Alberta...more South England (Sussex, Kentish, Suffolk etc) but then coastal BC, especially in Victoria, still has strong remnants of being a Crown Colony, although with the increasing Asian influence and immigration, that is fading quickly. the BC Interior sounds totally different from the coast and certainly different from 'the island' ... that would be Vancouver Island upon which the provincial capital of Victoria so proudly and regally sits.

While we are on the theme of accents.

Did anyone else lose their local accent when they did their time in the Army ?

Apparently I did.

Though it returned, when I left after service, and returned home to my 'home town'.

I know of quite a few who's accents changed and never returned as they moved elsewhere.

Yep i did...

I don`t have an accent but all of you do.

I never lost my Glasgow accent but strangely my kids all have neutral accents.

pete26 wrote:

While we are on the theme of accents.

Did anyone else lose their local accent when they did their time in the Army ?

Apparently I did.

Though it returned, when I left after service, and returned home to my 'home town'.

I know of quite a few who's accents changed and never returned as they moved elsewhere.

Seeing as you ain't told us where you're from old chap, then we can't judge !

brum wrote:

pete26 wrote:

While we are on the theme of accents.

Did anyone else lose their local accent when they did their time in the Army ?

Apparently I did.

Though it returned, when I left after service, and returned home to my 'home town'.

I know of quite a few who's accents changed and never returned as they moved elsewhere.

Seeing as you ain't told us where you're from old chap, then we can't judge !

I wrote that using SSE sign language Brum !

South South East ?
Right you'd better fall in over there, with the "Estuary English" squad !

pete26 wrote:

While we are on the theme of accents.

Did anyone else lose their local accent when they did their time in the Army ?

Apparently I did.

Though it returned, when I left after service, and returned home to my 'home town'.

I know of quite a few who's accents changed and never returned as they moved elsewhere.

I'm not sure many got through army service without modifying their accent to some extent. On the other hand, we had a AI Sigs who was Glaswegian and obviously had to make the effort. His lovely wife however still sounds like Rab C Nesbitt.
Knocking about with Scousers most of the time I'm told I that started to sound like one of them, a bit.

brum wrote:

Knocking about with Scousers most of the time I'm told I that started to sound like one of them, a bit.

Awright there lar !