So where in Canada do people have this accent, anyway? I grew up in the GTA, and I've been to Sudbury, Calgary, Montreal and Quebec City but I've never heard the stereotypical Canadian accent. Do I just not notice it? Do I sound like this??
From my understanding, its an Atlantic accent, although one that has mostly disappeared over the last few decades.
Canadian Raising -- which is what creates the sense in 'Muricans that we're saying aboot -- is actually weakest in the Atlantic region, and particularly with respect to Os. We strongly raise our Is and As, but not our Os. "Out and about" is more likely to be pronounced "oat in a boat" out here.
The phenomenon, more generally, occurs coast-to-coast, though, and originated in the 1800s.
Nowhere in Canada has anyone ever actually said "oot and aboot", though. Americans just have this tendency to hyper-fixate on the subtle difference between raised and unraised vowels, and see the raised vowels as very cutting. They'll go "ow-t and ab-ow-t", or put shingles on their "ruff", particularly in the south, and find the more closed-mouthed form of these vowels alien.
In other words original Scottish dialect of isolated settlements
It's not though. 50 year old Maritimer. I've never heard it and there are some thick accents out here.
It isn’t quite like the stereotype, but I and others have it out here in BC. However, it’s more like “a-bow-oot” (with “bow” pronounced like the front of a ship). Likewise with “out”, it’s like “ow-oot”. There’s a small but distinctive “oot” on the last part if you listen for it. Not sure how many regions have it, though, or how much more distinctive it is than the USian version.
technically, the Canadian dipthong is A as in father into U as in put, while the American one is A as in Dad into the E in the. To an American, it sounds closer to oo because of that, but oo is too rounded and tongue too raised. (I'd use the phonetic alphabet for more precision, but I don't have it installed on this phone)
The closest I've heard was in one of the US states as a kid but I don't remember which. I haven't spent a lot of time in each province but I have stopped in some random places back when I actually liked driving and most people just talk more or less like in vancouver. no boots or ehs near my ears anyway.
Rochester NY here, I definitely hear it in Toronto / Ontario residents in the words "about" and "sorry", but I wouldn't go so far as to say it sounds like a-boot and soo-ry. I think that's an extreme exaggeration. The one word that's always a dead giveaway for me though is the word "process".
There's something about the O sound that's just more....O pronounced I hear when visiting the Ontario area. Although, I think it's rather us in the Rochester area that mispronounce it as AH more than O...we say PRAHcess and RAHchester rather than PROcess and ROchester. 🤷♂️
I agree with your asessment of the "sarry" vs "sorry" pronunciation.
Also, for the churchgoers, it was jarring to hear "aymen" instead of "ahmen" in an American basilica.
This is the phrase I use to place people:
“The barbed wire crosses the creek to keep the wolf out.”
I’ve heard that it’s really subtle? Idk though, I don’t hear it either. I’ve had American coworkers make the aboot joke even when we both say about the same way to my ears.
Born in BC, grew up in Alberta, my "ou"s sound like "oa"s. About -> Aboat, Out -> Oat, couch/coach basically sound the same lol
"yer terrorizing a human child with yer pals the other day..."
I’m American but I have Canadian coworkers (we’re all remote). I hear this accent all the time from the Vancouver crowd.
As a vancouverite I essentially never hear this accent in the city. The closest thing resembling it is in interior BC.
Well then I’m confused because the only office we work with is in Vancouver. I’m just writing about what I constantly hear.
“A-boot” is an Eastern Canada thing; west-coast is “ah-bah-Wt” and is common from BC right down into Oregon.
🐫 a 🥾.
Camel a boot?
🍆 a 👢, 🔎⚖️.
