Korean Job Discussion Forums

[TECO]

Saturday Night Live in Winnipeg

Are they accurate, or are those Canadian accents brutal? Sound more like U.K. accents than Canuck English.

[NohopeSeriously]

The only brutal Canadian accents are from the Atlantic Martimes and Quebec. The rest pretty much speaks like Americans except for the Canadian Raising.

[v88]

[mellow-d]

And really, by out east, you probably mean Cape Breton or Nfld. I'm from New Brunswick and people I've met in Korea tell me they're surprised at my lack of "Canadian" accent. I don't say "aboot" or anything. The SNL skit was a little ridiculous. They sounded more Swedish to me! (Yaaaaa....)
With that said, some Canadians do have a stereotypical accent. I've really only heard it on TV, though.

[TECO]

I've heard it.

Like when they say, "Right on..." with rising intonation.

It's unique.h

[Marzipoo]

They sound very strange in the SNL clip. Makes you want to rip your hair out a little.

I've only been to Canadia eh once and the accents I heard were really cute but they were coming out of the mouths of attractive men so perhaps I was distracted.

[Mort]

I'm from Cape Breton and have only a very slight Maritime accent.
Yes, I am sure that there are some "brutal" - it's all subjective -Cape Breton accents, but not
everyone from Cape Breton (or the Maritimes - never heard it called the Atlantic Maritimes) has an accent and if they do, they're not all the same. There's a pretty big difference in how someone from Industrial Cape Breton talks and how someone from the Margaree valley speaks.

There's quite a few different accents in Canada, it isn't simply just Cape Breton, Newfoundland and Quebec. People in Northern Ontario around the Great Lakes have some pretty distinctive ways of speaking, same goes for parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba or the Ottawa Valley. There isn't one Canadian accent, just like there isn't one American or French accent.

[metalhead]

What's wrong with having a distinct Canadian accent, do you guys want to sound exactly like Americans or something?

[NohopeSeriously]

[Mort]

[RMNC]

I know a lot of expats watch Simon and Martina on Eat Your Kimchi, they definitely say "aboat" and "go oat".

[Hokie21]

[TECO]

There seems to also be a rural Canadian accent, or accents. But I think what you are referring to above - aboat for about - mainly applies to people in Ontario. In the western provinces, like B.C., do people really talk like that?