MovieChat Forums > My Life Without Me (2003) Discussion > Canadian Accents

Canadian Accents

posted 19 years ago by radiokoofachalus
19 replies | jump to latest

Here's a bizarre question, for Canadians and everyone else!
When you watch a Canadian film do you notice an accent? Do Canadians sound different than Americans, just slightly?
Here's why I ask, I'm Canadian, born and bred, I live in Markham Ontario. When I saw this movie the first time it was on t.v. and my boyfriend was flicking through the channels. Before I even looked up to see what it was I thought "Oh, this sounds Canadian", which is bizarre because I don't think of myself as having an accent, or sounding any different than most Americans, except those with southern accents. But instantly I knew it was Canadian. Any thoughts?

Even the most useless person can serve as a bad example.

[–] amacedobr 19 years ago

Hey,

I'm Brazilian and just watched this movie. I first noticed the girl was Canadian on her dialogue with the doctor. She used the "hey" after one sentence. I lived in Michigan for five years and though I'm back in Brazil for a couple of years now I travel a lot to both countries, the US and Canada. The accent from Michigan and say, Ontario or Manitoba are very similar, but if one pays attention one can start to notice a couple of expressions that sound different. So yes, I guess after a while one can tell the difference.

Take care,

Andre

[–] aim4 19 years ago

For sure they do. People from the Maritimes, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies and BC even all sound very different from each other, let alone Americans, and I'd say more than just slightly. Everyone has an accent, not just people that sound differently than you do.

[–] radiokoofachalus 19 years ago

I realize that " Everyone has accents...", I suppose I should have clarified that I was speaking about American vs. Canadian actors. I only bring up myself beacuse I've always thought that I sound like the average American t.v. character. Even my Grandparents have stated that they can hear a slight American Accent in todays youth.
So I'm wondering then, are actors like Jim Carrey, Mike Meyers, etc... easily identified as Canadians by the way they sound?
I really hope this post doesn't offend anyone, thats not what I'm trying to do at all.

Even the most useless person can serve as a bad example.

[–] nice_guy24_ca 19 years ago

We Canadians speed through words and sentences much faster than we realize, until we hear ourselves recorded. In other words our English speech is simply spoken faster. We elide a lot of words into words, expressions into expressions.. in Tim Horton's, the clerks ask, "kelpooznex" or, "Can I help who's next?" And so on.
Watch,too, for particularly Canadian expressions, such as where one is in school... "I'm in Grade 5" Americans say "Fifth Grade"... Everyone speaks of the Grade 5s (Grade elevens, Grade tens..) the "fifth graders, eleventhgraders, etc." And there's the ubiquitous "eh"... of course. And tap for faucet, and....you name it.

[–] theamazingbrian 19 years ago

i like this topic... especially cause everyone has an accent. i notice it in sarah polley cause i used to watch road to avonlea with my mom when i was a kid. but alas... i get the accent question.... but mike myers and jim carey were both raised in america... but even so i find some american accents similar to southern canadians. even northern ontario folk have different accents than those in southern ontario. but this is the same with the states. i find.

[–] music_prchick 18 years ago

mike myers was raised in canada.

[–] scootercandy 18 years ago

I can pick up on Canadian accents-especially when a person says "house" "about" or "out". Just watch Will in "Will and Grace". I am pretty sure Ann says "Mum". I happen to like Canadian accents :)

[–] professorhess 18 years ago

i went to school in canada and can distuingish an accent almost immediately. in southern ontario it is a subtle accent but when you get further north it becomes much more noticable

[–] corrupt200 18 years ago

For a long time I never knew Michael J. Fox was Canadian. Same with Peter JEnnings, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, John Roberts (news reporter), Pamela Anderson, etc.

I have been to Canada several times and I alway thought that English-speaking Canadians speak with the similar accent as those reared in the US.

In fact, when Cobie Smulders did that music video on How I MEt Your Mother, she felt weird singing ang talking in a "fake" Canadian accent. Her Accent sounds just like a US accent.

"We share the same biology regardless of ideology"-Sting, 1985

[–] riot_girl_xxx 18 years ago

canadian 'accents' change throughout canada...throughout bc, ontario and saskatchewan, its pure canadian, and some people can pick it out, some cant...u get into manitoba they start sounding like ontario and the ontario accent is a mixture of the maritimes from the east, the canadian from the west and the harsh us accents from new york, chicago and detroit below them...in ontario it sounds more like backwoods, harsh canadian, they add t's to words like across, being acrosst...etc, they also speak thier words with a touch of the harsh new york slang...then quebec of course is just harsh french accents and then anywhere east of quebec is the maritimers with thier ecclectic mix of english/scottish/irish accents all rolled into thier mix that is well recognized by any canadian especially...we can pick a 'newfie' out of anywhere...they speak fast, with these indistinguishable half scottish accents to thier words and have words the rest of canada doesnt even use...such as cockney rhyming in london england is used...

so the answer to the question is yes and no...yes canadians have accents but they are all different...just like an englishman can distinguish an accent from different parts of the uk very easily, i as a canadian cannot, they all sound 'british to me', except the scottish is pretty discernible, but u can have northern english, wales, southern, london, even diff parts of london have diff accents...well the same in canada...it may all sound 'canadian' to the outsider but we as canadians, can pick out where anyone is from in this country by how they speak...this being said, americans and canadians are very easily discernable, we are very different in our language and accents, especially the further from the border americans get...plus canadians are quieter speakers, americans tend to be louder in tone, much louder lol

[–] pamjp 18 years ago

Yeah, agree. Although the subtleties of different Canadian accents are way beyond me, that 'out=oat' sound gives it away. Cliches don't appear out of thin air! (or maybe they do....)

[–] atroyz 18 years ago

I think Sarah Polley has a more pronounced Canadian accent than some actors, but then again, she usually plays Canadians (unlike Myers, Carrey, Candy, MJ Fox, etc etc). But, the very fact that so many Hollywood actors are actually Canadian (and most people don't even realize it) makes it pretty clear that we North Americans don't have SUCH different patterns of speech. I'm speaking, of course, of the areas north of the U.S. bible belt.

[–] thedmbgirl 18 years ago

As I am a Canadian from southern Ontario, the most 'Americanised' accent, i can still hear the differences between my speech and American ones as well the differences with the people around me (family, friends). (Particularly with the word 'sorry'). Many Hollywood stars who are in fact Canadian have attested to having to re-learn parts of the english language just so they wouldn't stand out. One such case I remember occurred when Dave Foley was doing that Celebrity Poker show as a 'commentator' and they (people in loser's lounge, that professional poker guy who's name escapes me) began to make fun of the way he said the word 'research' and it started a small discussion on Canadian speech patterns and the differences.

One other anecdotal story I have occurred a few months ago. I'm currently in England at school and one of my friends here, Vanessa, is from China. She said she once went to this two week forum for her course and one of the lead professors was Canadian but she couldn't remember what city but she knew she'd know if she heard it again. I asked her what did he sound like and she said, Michael J. Fox so I said, was it Edmonton? She said yes, that's the city, how did I know that and I explained to her that's where Fox was from. (She had previously believed him to be American but she doesn't [like most Chinese/Asians] consciously distinguish even an English accent to let's say a North American one).

To me, there is a difference between Canadian and American accents and that Canadian accents can vary just like you can pick out someone from Wisconsin as opposed to someone from South Carolina. All in what you hear I guess :D

Who knew a whale could be so heavy? - Moe Syzlak

[–] kentucho 18 years ago

I was born and raised in the US but I do have a number of Canadian relatives on my mother's side, although since I've never met or spoken with any of them I doubt that has been an influence on me. I've been to Canada a few times, mostly day trips across the river from Michigan. I ordered the movie from Netflix so I didn't know much about it when I got it but I can say that as soon as I started watching it, Sarah Polley's Canadian accent was obvious to me, as was the doctor's. I had no doubt it was set in Canada after that (I can't remember if they mentioned anything about Canada before that point in the movie.)

I have the DVDs of the series "Wonderfalls", which is set in the US city of Niagara Falls but stars Caroline Dhavernas, who is Canadian (and French-Canadian, at that). Her English is excellent, though, and she mostly sounds American in the show but the occasional "Canadianism" slips through, mostly pronounciations of certain words. If you listen to the show commentary, the director or writer (I can't remember which) gives her a little bit of a friendly ribbing about it.

[–] howdyrockerbaby1-1 18 years ago

It was the way that Nirvana was pronounced that got me. Most Americans pronounce it Nir-vaw-na whereas in the movie it was Nir-vah-na (if that clarifies it in anyway.)

[–] rubydreamer 17 years ago

I've never questioned the differences probably because I live in Northern Ontario and in a very french community. My neighnour has the strongest canadian accent you'll ever hear. I laugh when I hear him talk because he sounds so steroetypical. Because of the french influences everyone kinda has a french accent when speaking english even if they don't know a word of french. So yeah, you have to travel farther north to really start hearing the difference.

And also I always thought Mike Meyers sounded pretty canadian. Sarah Polley's accent I can hear. Not so much Jim Carrey though.

[–] ejs8882000 13 years ago

"or sounding any different than most Americans, except those with southern accents."

Of course, there are many other accents in the States too. Like the New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts (Boston), accents, etc. And every Southern state has a different accent too.
It's interesting to think that every American state and every Canadian province has a different accent, but nobody really thinks about it, since the media is used to hearing the "standard American and Canadian" accents that basically sound like, as you said, not an accent.

[–] intofilm 13 years ago

I could tell it was Canadian in the first 20 minutes. The clipped pace. "OO" for "ow" or "ou"; the sort of British delivery. I used to live in Minnesota and the closer to the border, the more people sounded like this.