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From: deb5@ellis.uchicago.edu (Daniel von Brighoff)
Subject: Canadian, eh? {was: Re: Dutch and English accents
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References: <3rgfmn$958@cville-srv.wam.umd.edu> <DA7opG.L6z@statsci.com> <3s2a7j$88d@gordon.enea.se> <3s4i95$gro@huey.cadvision.com>
Date: Thu, 22 Jun 1995 00:22:16 GMT
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In article <3s4i95$gro@huey.cadvision.com>,
Kyle A. Maschmeyer <maschmek@cadvision.com> wrote:
>In article <3s2a7j$88d@gordon.enea.se>, sommar@enea.se (Erland Sommarskog) says:

>Just for the record, as a Canadian who has spent time in the US
>and in Europe, I wish to state for the record that I can, by
>suppressing my natural tendency to say "Eh?" as a tag question at
>the ends of sentences, pass for an American as long as I like.
>
>If I ask Americans abroad, "So where do you think I'm from?" they
>respond with a series of western states like California.
>
>The only other usual giveaway is Canadian raising, a raising of vowel
>diphthongs before unvoiced consonants, as in the word "house."
>If I don't watch it, it sounds rather Irish to American listeners,
>but it can be suppressed.

It's also not specific to Canada.  As is the case with many Mid-
western speakers, the distinctin between "writer" and "rider" is
not the middle consonant (which, in both cases, is an aveolar flap),
rather the vowel.  The first vowel is slightly shorter than the
second and--more importantly--more central.  While I wouldn't call
it a schwa, it's definitely closer to one than it is to [a].

>Speakers of fairly standard American (without strong
>local dialects) are almost never identified in Canada as nonCanadians.
>We take them for one of our own.

A Canadian woman once said to me, "Why are you speaking with an Ottawa
accent?" (She already knew I was American.)  Since then, I've noticed
certain similarities between some Canadian accents and the Maryland
one I inherited from my Dad, like the /o/ in "boat," for instance.




-- 
	 Daniel "Da" von Brighoff    /\          Dilettanten
	(deb5@midway.uchicago.edu)  /__\         erhebt Euch
				   /____\      gegen die Kunst!
