I've actually heard one person say "aboot" before and couldn't believe my ears, but yes, it's generally more like "aboat". I think American shows like south park exaggerated the pronunciation for comedic effect.
I'm from Toronto, but I've noticed that Canadian raising is used a lot in the Northern United States as well, especially with 'i' before a voiceless consonant, and before silent 'gh's (e.g. 'high'). You can hear it a lot of parts of New England, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. It looks like its spread a little haha
Best video I've ever seen explaining it. I am a Canadian living in USA for 10 years, and I used to argue with my American husband that Canadians don't have accents. I have always spoken very generic English and people can never place I'm Canadian assuming I'm From PacNW (until I say words like process or cement). But now when I go back to my hometown in Alberta I can't unhear the very obvious accent in words like "Out and about" . I tell my Canadian friends that though we don't say "aboot" it is very obvious and they still deny they have any accent. It is all cute to me now.
Thank you! It's similar to the way Scots pronounce these sounds. It's called 'Scottish Vowel Length Rule'. According to it, these diphthongs are pronounced normally before voiced fricative sounds (v, ð, z, ʒ) and r. Otherwise they are pronounced with raising.
Having had a Canadian girlfriend (Calgary, AB) and spent time in Vancouver, BC I can attest to the truth of what the narrator is saying. Yet I have US English speaking people tell me as if it were scientific fact that Canadians say 'oot' and 'aboot'. I didn't know it had the term Canadian Raising so I thank you for introducing that term to me.
I lived in Windsor for 5 years after living north of Toronto and my new friends there said I had an accent. I grew up 5 hours away and sounded different to them since they grew up closer to the States! Sometimes they teased me for it, especially with the word "know" but it was all good natured. :)
Hello, nice video. I am an American, and while I don't think that Canadians sound _exactly_ like Americans, they sound similar enough that I often cannot tell the difference, and they seem very similar when you compare them to certain British or Irish or Australian Accents. I also wanted to say that I come from suburban Massachusetts in New England, where I have Canadian Raising of the "long I" sound, for example, I pronounce "eyes" and "ice" with different vowels, just like you do, but "out" and "loud" have the same vowel. I know for sure that Canadian Raising of the "long I" sound is not exclusive to Canada, but it is common in New England and the Northern Midwest.
I've heard that in some parts of New England the ou sound is raised but not as high as in Canada - the raised vowel is recognizably ou but it sounds slightly different from the unraised version.
I'm from Maine, and my region also has Canadian raising. The sound starts at /ɜ/ instead of /a/ in words like ice, tight, and night, and at /ɛ/ instead of /a/ in words like out, house, and trout in my accent.
Interesting video. I live in Canada and didn't even know I had an accent until I was in my early 20s. I used to work at a job were I had to talk to a lot of Americans and they could always pick it out. Or "oot"
+LikeANativeSpeaker I'm not sure - I find it to be a surprising country in that you produce a variety of TV programmes that give vast amounts of atmosphere, for example the cartoon called Jacob Two-Two really doesn't feel Canadian, it screams British to me but in fact was produced in Canada. Goosebumps is one of my all time fave shows and I love that, but it feels very American, so in other words Canada is the best of British and American but is one of its own also. I think Canada is a really underated country, I'm desperate to visit there one day!!!
We have become more american in the last 30 years(and likely 30 before that) but still have roots (sounds like boots) in french and english. Another great example of our accent is demonstrated in Talking Canadian documentary.
Thank you for the good explanation. Let me share some experience. When I was in the beginning level(I'm ESL) I couldn't distinguish between American and Canadian accent. Later on, I anchored my English learning with some few online Canadian and American teachers. Since then I started to hear the differences and was able to distinguish one from the other.
It's also (possibly) based on expressions like "en route" which come from France. We Canadians generally pronounce it "on root", which is close to the proper French pronunciation. Americans, on the other hand, tend to pronounce it "en rowt", which is just weird.
That could be California shift. Born and raised in Cali myself but when I moved to Arizona in my twenties my California shift cause folk to think I was from Canada at times. I'm betting that you are from SoCal, right?
Thanks for the explanation. I found this link while on a search for the famous Canadian "ABOOT." I've just started, so I only have one so far, but my goal today is to find ten examples of it.
Thanks for explaining this. I remember learning about this in beginning linguistics and finding it fascinating. What I'd really love is to see American shows portray more diverse Canadian dialects. I love some of the Maritime accents, and would love to see that portrayed on a TV show.
Yes! West coast sounds VERY different from east coast. Once one knows a bit about Canadian accents one would be hard pressed to confuse a Canadian fron Saltspring with a Canadian from PEI. There are different dialects in Ontario alone. I would love to see more Canadian accents portrayed on tv...but I've noticed a tendency toward the "north American" accent when it comes to TV which is the accent everyone thinks of when thinking of America (kind of the north american version of RP). If you want some interesting accents and can find it...the old Canadian show "North of 60" is good. Or watch old episodes of Rick Mercer. He's from Newfoundland and they have a very specific accent. Republic of Doyle might also offer it but I haven't seen too many episodes. I just know that Alan Hawko is from there too. Cheers :)
I just clicked in here to say that from 1967 through 1972 I lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where the Scots-Irish settled and brought the same accent there. I graduated from high school in 1972 and have only been back there once in over fifty years for my fortieth class reunion, but I'll never forget that distinct speech pattern.
This phenomenon involving these two diphthongs also occurs in German (as compared to the American counterparts), but it does so regardless of the following consonant. You can notice it very clearly when German speakers say _hi._ The dipthong sounds a "smaller" and "narrower" compared to the English version. The mouth in the former case doesn't open as widely.
There are occasions when about can sound like "a boat" as well. I'm from the west coast and when I see people from Ontario being interviewed on shows like W5 or Fifth Estate I do notice that the raising is much more prominant and sometimes sounds like "a boat" APTN also started re-airing "North of 60" which I watched I full and i noticed it there too. The raising is much more prominant and Gain sounded a bit like "a boat". But as a west coast gal and an islander at that I'm fully aware that i sometimes sound like Calli-from-the-valley so I certainly cant judge. Anyone out there care to comment on west coast Canadian accents. Im rather curious what we sound like to the rest of the world. :)
My dad's Canadian, but I was born and raised in Ireland to an Irish mam, Canadians, at least where my dad's from (Ontario, a 90 minute drive away from the US-Canada border), sound a lot like Americans. And pretty much the rest of the country does as well. I have yet to hear a Candian say 'oot' or 'aboot' as well.
I've been told by so many people that I sound American. I live in Alberta, and I am originally from Saskatchewan. I've always just explained that we're lazy with are vowels so I find we don't round them out and enunciate them as much as Americans do so for example "our" and "are" sound the same, at least in my accent
There is a little more to the story. Research has shown that babies actually loose the ability to differentiate sounds that are not in their language. Americans simply don't heard the second part of the dipthong.
This may work for Upper Canada, but while we in the Maritimes say "out" and "about" not unlike other Canadians, I know I still say "arooun" more than "arownd" for "around" and "sooun" more than "sownd" for "sound", to use your examples. The Maritimes are special to say the least, but a lot of that is probably from the older Nova Scotian accents, especially West and North Nova Scotia.
@@nozecone Trying to approximate a sound in letters is clearly not my forte. I was implying that I've noticed we drop the terminal consonant in some words and draw out the o in ou combinations. It's diminished over the course of my lifetime, at least, but I certainly have heard it more in the older population and in more rural areas. I didn't mean to be purposely confusing when I wrote that three years past, but I hope that this helps to understand what I meant. I'm presuming you're a fellow Bluenoser?
@@clairekortbawi5659 Sorry for being 'short' - I'd become impatient with the comments by the time I reached yours - I should have just stopped, I guess! Yeah, Bluenoser here. And the difficulty of approximating sounds with letters is what led to the whole 'aboot'/'oot' thing in the first place. I'm sure you're talking about something legitimate, although I'm still not sure exactly what it is - there are actually so many different Maritime accents (although, as you say, they are becoming less, um - 'pronounced' with time) ....
@@nozecone Well, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. I did not realise this was your video or that you at had a part in it, either; or at the very least, that you'd put an effort into going through the comments, especially in an old video. In that light, I can more than understand frustration with comments. I was trying to describe the heavier accent that you hear in areas where something akin to a burr or brogue peeks through, even if that only remains in vestigial traits like silenced alveolar stops at the ends of words.
@@clairekortbawi5659 No, I have no connection with the video; it's just a subject I'm interested in, and I'm curious about other people's impressions and experiences - and for a subject like this, posts from three years ago are still going to be relevant - not like the comments under a video about an election, for example. Tbh, though, I probably didn't notice that your post was that old. Just to clarify: when I wrote "what led to the whole 'aboot'/'oot' thing in the first place", I wasn't talking about the creation of this video, but the broader issue; i.e., the misconception that we pronounce those words that way.
Its honestly so subtle that I don't think I would catch it without specifically listening for it and even then it would be tough. I have lived in South Texas most of my life and we say "ice" and "out" in a similar way so to me unless it is really exaggerated I wouldn't catch it.
Canadian english is mostly on a spectrum with American Midwest english imo. I think you can hear little bits of Canadian raising in some Great Lakes states.
Love it. I'm English and when I meet Canadians I always make the mistake and ask if they are American, when instinctively knowing that their accent is different. As a generalisation, the Canadian accent sounds clearer and lighter to me. I love your enunciation and dipthong usage/explanation. I love the origins, aetiology and derivations of different accents. The Canadian over exaggerated 'oot' and 'aboot' sounds somewhat Scottish and maybe relates to 18th Century Pioneers/Colonists who arrived in Canada from Scootland?
Some maritimers sound like this, they also say things like tree instead of three. It comes from their Irish roots or something I dunno. I'm from the west and some of those guys I can't even understand, yet when americans make fun of a "canadian" accent it sounds like they are imitating them to me.
The oo sound comes from the francophones in Quebec. That's how "ou" is pronounced in French. People in France are all oot and aboot if you can get them to speak English.
I've lived in Kansas my whole life and spontaneously started doing this a few years back because I was working as a captionist and it is a slightly shorter diphthong which helped with flow (I could effectively re-voice audio at rates sometimes exceeding 300wpm, though eventually they automated the system so that job no longer exists). I still get accused of affecting a Canadian accent sometimes but it just became natural. Actually it's a slightly more pronounced raising than yours
CANADIAN RAISING As its name implies, Canadian raising is found throughout most of Canada, though the exact phonetic quality of Canadian raising may differ throughout the country. In raised /aʊ/, the first element tends to be farther back in Quebec and the Canadian Prairies and Maritimes (particularly in Alberta): thus, [ʌʊ]. The first element tends to be the farthest forward in eastern and southern Ontario: thus, [ɛʊ~ɜʊ]. Newfoundland English is the Canadian dialect that participates least in any conditioned Canadian raising, while Vancouver English may lack the raising of /aɪ/ in particular. Canadian raising is not restricted to Canada. Raising of both /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ is common in eastern New England, for example in some Boston accents (the former more likely than the latter),as well as in the Upper Midwest. South Atlantic English, New Orleans English, and the accents of England's Fens feature it as well. Raising of just /aɪ/ is found in a much greater number of dialects in the United States; some researchers have begun to refer to raising of /aɪ/ without raising of /aʊ/ as American Raising. This phenomenon is most consistently found in the Inland North, the Upper Midwest, New England, New York City, and the mid-Atlantic areas of Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia), Maryland, and Delaware, as well as in Virginia. It is somewhat less common in the lower Midwest, the West, and the South. However, there is considerable variation in the raising of /aɪ/, and it can be found inconsistently throughout the United States.
I'm a New Yorker. I definitely have the raised sound for "i." It even differentiates between words like "writer" (raised) and "rider" (unraised). The "t" and the "d" in these words are pronounced identically as a flapped "r," as is usual intervocalically before an unaccented syllable. The "i" still "thinks" that the "t" in "writer" is unvoiced. Curiously, though, I use the raised sound in "spider," which "should" have the unraised sound. As far as "ou" is concerned, I have the raised sound even before a voiced consonant, though I think this is an acquired pronunciation.
I don't hear much oo from canadians, but i hear a slight accent where 'about' is pronounced closer to 'a boat' it's so tiny but since most canadians speak with an accent incredibly close to general American, it's those small pronunciation that indicate to me that the speaker is Canadian. There's a couple other tiny things like that. Otherwise, my northern neighbors speak just like I do.
As somebody who learned American english, Canadian accent seems so similar in comparison (more than UK, Australian, etc). But because of this similarity, whenever there IS an obvious difference like this "aboot" situation, it feels a lot more jarring. Like its mostly fine until it suddenly isn't. A linguistic uncanny valley.
Some raising also affect other vowels. Bag becomes beg and beg has a vowel like bake. I don't know if it's prevalent in Canada though. Also the writer rider difference is a pain. Fortunately many Americans don't say writer and rider differently
Derrick Wang why is it a pain? You have two distinct pronunciations for two different words with two different meanings. Regarding other vowels, I’ve read studies that some younger Canadians are raising other sounds as well. Milk becomes melk, vanilla “vunella”, pillow “pellow”, etc. Beg and bag though are pretty much identical to US English based on what I’ve heard.
Canadian raising is also used in General American English. So, this is very much confusing when both the educated Americans and educated Canadians speak, they do sound the same, although both of 'em have their own words...
I'm an American living in Hawaii who got into an argument with my entire office about me sounding like a Canadian. Their side? I said 'They kicked us ow-oot,' with a higher tone for 'kicked' and 'out.' Therefore Canadian. I personally doubt that (in spite of a grandfather from Nova Scotia), but uh, this video is suspiciously close to how I pronounce the 'ou' sound...
I have lived in Russia for 22 years now, since I was 16, but I recently noticed I still have the Canadian raised accent. I hardly ever speak English (once in a few years when I accidentally bump into some Americans, Brits or Australians) and I have never spoken to a Canadian since those days. I recently met an American who asked if I was Canadian 😂😂😂😂😂 I was shocked.
Until you gave that "down" vs. "out" example, I have never understood what the Americans were talking about for my entire adult life. I even had face-to-face conversations with them where they tried to tell me I was saying "out" differently and I couldn't figure out what they meant.
For the word "out", the Canadian "eh-oot" is a Scottish sound, the American "ah-oot" is more from England. Listen to how people from those countries say that word and you'll hear what I mean.
Thank you for this, I've been wondering where this phantom "accent" came from, lol. Leave it to Americans to popularize something that doesn't exist, I guess. I've never heard a Canadian say "aboot" in my life, and I've been all over Ontario, to BC, and to Montreal, as well as watched Canadian news almost daily for 20 years and heard Canadians from all over the country... not a single "aboot". Personally, I could never tell much difference between a US an Canadian accent, but I think we just talk differently in other ways... like, metropolitan Canadians tend to talk a bit slower and more "chirpy" or loose than metropolitan Americans. I feel like in the US more people talk faster and/or louder in general. Other than French, Maritime, Inuit, and other Indigenous accents, there aren't really many strong native accents in Canada.
I also have one question to ask speakers with Canadian Raising: Do you have a raised vowel in words like "spider" and "cider"? I think I use a raised vowel in these words so they have the same vowel as in "ice", but in this case the vowel comes before a voiced consonant. This is one really confusing exception to Canadian Raising that I have found
i said them aloud to compare them and and i personally do say spider with canadian raising. i thought about it and came to the conclusion that it's because i pronounce spider as if there were a T there instead of a D (like spiter) whereas i say cider with a clear D.
I’m an Aussie, and I can tell the difference between American and Canadian accents, but not only because of the ‘ai’ and ‘our’ sounds - I find that Canadians seem to use the back parts of their speech organs - throat, larynx - more, so that their speech sounds more forced. That might be just me.
The only time I can identify a Canadian from an American is when words like out or about are used tbh.Otherwise to a Scot like me I have to ask if I meet a north American person "are you American or Canadian"?.Canadians are usually happy I just didn't automatically assume they were American.
Dude we are totally not making fun of you in a negative way at all ( I speak for myself and probably a good majority of Americans) we just think it sounds funny we are not making fun of you or mocking you it is not a negative thing it just happens to be funny in a positive way. 🤗
+Long Le In your example, 'mean' is 'not nice' or 'bad'. The general meaning of 'mean' is the definition of something, but it also has the other use I just mentioned. Hope that helps!
+Ghostface89100 | I don't know about " every Canadian has a little Canadian raising.." Things are changing rapidly. See www.macleans.ca/society/life/in-the-midst-of-the-canadian-vowel-shift/ This comment will only make sense after you read the article, but I caught myself saying " MELK " for " MILK " the other day. And I laughed. Cheers
I don't believe you're completely correct about the origins of the 'oot' and 'aboot' misrepresentation - I've read, and it makes sense to me, that it emerged from (lazy) American writers trying to give a 'signal' of Canadian pronunciation, rather than trying to give the actual pronunciations -- such that if you were familiar with Canadian accent(s), you would know that pronunciations closer to "aowt" and "abaowt" - or perhaps "ote" and "abote" were indicated - but because so many American readers would be unfamiliar with Canadian accent, they would take those as literal representations of the pronunciations. So the misconception was spread by print.
I’m from northern England. Living in London I had several US friends who tried to convince me that Canadians spoke like Geordies. None of the Canadians at work said ‘oot’ or ‘aboot’ - not even close. There’s no difference between US and Canadian pronounciation to my ear. Canadians are just US Americans with better social care and sensible gun laws.
There is definitely a decided difference in the American and Canadians pronunciations of 'out' and 'about' - Canadians and Americans - particularly Americans - hear them. However, 'oot' and 'aboot' are NOT the Canadian pronunciation. There are a few other differences in pronunciation; Americans, for example, tend to say, 'avenoo' for 'avenue', while Canadians say, 'avenyou'.
Lol there is no such thing as a “pure sound” in linguistics. Canadian raising is correct in Canada, but out of place in the American south. Abaaaaaut also sounds as exaggerated and incorrect to Canadians as “about” pronounced the Canadian way does to some Americans.
Finally, someone explains it properly! Well done! About and out sound much closer to aboat and oat, but your explanation is bang on. Thank you!
Yes, where did this 'oot'' come from? Anyone who hears me say 'out' (ex-Canadian) says I say 'oat', never 'oot'.
I've actually heard one person say "aboot" before and couldn't believe my ears, but yes, it's generally more like "aboat". I think American shows like south park exaggerated the pronunciation for comedic effect.
I have a friend from Halifax, he says "Oat" and "Aboat", I luuuuuurv it
I'm from Toronto, but I've noticed that Canadian raising is used a lot in the Northern United States as well, especially with 'i' before a voiceless consonant, and before silent 'gh's (e.g. 'high'). You can hear it a lot of parts of New England, Pennsylvania, Michigan, etc. It looks like its spread a little haha
Best video I've ever seen explaining it. I am a Canadian living in USA for 10 years, and I used to argue with my American husband that Canadians don't have accents. I have always spoken very generic English and people can never place I'm Canadian assuming I'm From PacNW (until I say words like process or cement). But now when I go back to my hometown in Alberta I can't unhear the very obvious accent in words like "Out and about" . I tell my Canadian friends that though we don't say "aboot" it is very obvious and they still deny they have any accent. It is all cute to me now.
Thank you! It's similar to the way Scots pronounce these sounds. It's called 'Scottish Vowel Length Rule'. According to it, these diphthongs are pronounced normally before voiced fricative sounds (v, ð, z, ʒ) and r. Otherwise they are pronounced with raising.
Having had a Canadian girlfriend (Calgary, AB) and spent time in Vancouver, BC I can attest to the truth of what the narrator is saying. Yet I have US English speaking people tell me as if it were scientific fact that Canadians say 'oot' and 'aboot'. I didn't know it had the term Canadian Raising so I thank you for introducing that term to me.
That's because they have watching too much South Park. I have never head anyone say 'eh' or 'aboot' ever aside from tv
Bella Raine My PEI relatives and parents say eh all the time...I occasionally say it, and I’ve lived mostly in the US.
@@asmrtpop2676 Lots of Canadians say, "eh". I do, for one.
@@asmrtpop2676 PEI and Newfies don't count as representation. They're literally doing that accent on purpose LMAO
@@bellaraine5263, who do you think many of the writers and animators are on South Park, Canadians of course.
As a Canadian, you are dead on mate. Living in the UK right now and I cant stop hearing people going on oot and aboot.
I’m so proud of our Canadian accent even though people usually think Canadian and American sound the same lol
I stayed a couple of months in Toronto (Canada) and did notice that pronunciation.
I lived in Windsor for 5 years after living north of Toronto and my new friends there said I had an accent. I grew up 5 hours away and sounded different to them since they grew up closer to the States! Sometimes they teased me for it, especially with the word "know" but it was all good natured. :)
Windsor has a bit of its own accent - like most places.
Hello, nice video. I am an American, and while I don't think that Canadians sound _exactly_ like Americans, they sound similar enough that I often cannot tell the difference, and they seem very similar when you compare them to certain British or Irish or Australian Accents. I also wanted to say that I come from suburban Massachusetts in New England, where I have Canadian Raising of the "long I" sound, for example, I pronounce "eyes" and "ice" with different vowels, just like you do, but "out" and "loud" have the same vowel. I know for sure that Canadian Raising of the "long I" sound is not exclusive to Canada, but it is common in New England and the Northern Midwest.
You might like saying "roigt on!"?
I've heard that in some parts of New England the ou sound is raised but not as high as in Canada - the raised vowel is recognizably ou but it sounds slightly different from the unraised version.
I'm from Maine, and my region also has Canadian raising. The sound starts at /ɜ/ instead of /a/ in words like ice, tight, and night, and at /ɛ/ instead of /a/ in words like out, house, and trout in my accent.
@@VictorMatthieu I'm in New Brunswick a few hours away from the Maine border and it's the exact same here.
Interesting video. I live in Canada and didn't even know I had an accent until I was in my early 20s. I used to work at a job were I had to talk to a lot of Americans and they could always pick it out. Or "oot"
Canada is an awesome country - I'm British but love Canada, I find it to be an unusual alternative to America
+Kane Clarke Thanks! I think? Why is it unusual?
+LikeANativeSpeaker I'm not sure - I find it to be a surprising country in that you produce a variety of TV programmes that give vast amounts of atmosphere, for example the cartoon called Jacob Two-Two really doesn't feel Canadian, it screams British to me but in fact was produced in Canada. Goosebumps is one of my all time fave shows and I love that, but it feels very American, so in other words Canada is the best of British and American but is one of its own also. I think Canada is a really underated country, I'm desperate to visit there one day!!!
Haha! That's interesting. There's certainly a lot of things to see and do here. I hope you can come to Canada one day!
+LikeANativeSpeaker Thanks man :D me too!
We have become more american in the last 30 years(and likely 30 before that) but still have roots (sounds like boots) in french and english. Another great example of our accent is demonstrated in Talking Canadian documentary.
Thank you for the good explanation.
Let me share some experience. When I was in the beginning level(I'm ESL) I couldn't distinguish between American and Canadian accent. Later on, I anchored my English learning with some few online Canadian and American teachers. Since then I started to hear the differences and was able to distinguish one from the other.
Thank you for an excellent demonstration.
It's also (possibly) based on expressions like "en route" which come from France. We Canadians generally pronounce it "on root", which is close to the proper French pronunciation. Americans, on the other hand, tend to pronounce it "en rowt", which is just weird.
im american , i and everyone i know says en root. im from cali tho, it might be a regional thing
That could be California shift. Born and raised in Cali myself but when I moved to Arizona in my twenties my California shift cause folk to think I was from Canada at times. I'm betting that you are from SoCal, right?
I say that word two ways: en "root" and en "route" (with Canadian raising). "Root" is not an example of Canadian raising.
Only Midwestern hicks say rowt instead of root
I live in Vancouver, BC and I say "en rowt"
Thanks for sharing this. I've been wondering about Canadian Raising for years.
Greetings from Montreal!
Thanks for the explanation. I found this link while on a search for the famous Canadian "ABOOT." I've just started, so I only have one so far, but my goal today is to find ten examples of it.
And that one is fake - you won't find any others - I see it's been 4 months so far .....
@@hilariousname6826
They're there, but it's too much work to find them..So I can prove you wrong? Sorry, that's not enough incentive
@@quabledistocficklepo3597 I wonder why it's so much work to find them - or even just one (other than that JJ person)?
Thanks for explaining this. I remember learning about this in beginning linguistics and finding it fascinating.
What I'd really love is to see American shows portray more diverse Canadian dialects. I love some of the Maritime accents, and would love to see that portrayed on a TV show.
Yes! West coast sounds VERY different from east coast. Once one knows a bit about Canadian accents one would be hard pressed to confuse a Canadian fron Saltspring with a Canadian from PEI. There are different dialects in Ontario alone. I would love to see more Canadian accents portrayed on tv...but I've noticed a tendency toward the "north American" accent when it comes to TV which is the accent everyone thinks of when thinking of America (kind of the north american version of RP). If you want some interesting accents and can find it...the old Canadian show "North of 60" is good. Or watch old episodes of Rick Mercer. He's from Newfoundland and they have a very specific accent. Republic of Doyle might also offer it but I haven't seen too many episodes. I just know that Alan Hawko is from there too.
Cheers :)
Por fin una persona que lo explica bien, no había podido entender este tema hasta que vi este video. Thank You
I just clicked in here to say that from 1967 through 1972 I lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where the Scots-Irish settled and brought the same accent there. I graduated from high school in 1972 and have only been back there once in over fifty years for my fortieth class reunion, but I'll never forget that distinct speech pattern.
I'm a Canadian immigrant...and I thought that was the standard way to pronounce those words. @_@
This phenomenon involving these two diphthongs also occurs in German (as compared to the American counterparts), but it does so regardless of the following consonant.
You can notice it very clearly when German speakers say _hi._ The dipthong sounds a "smaller" and "narrower" compared to the English version. The mouth in the former case doesn't open as widely.
In Chicago, we have Canadian Raising when it comes to the "ai" sound (as in ice and eyes) but not the "au" sound.
There are occasions when about can sound like "a boat" as well. I'm from the west coast and when I see people from Ontario being interviewed on shows like W5 or Fifth Estate I do notice that the raising is much more prominant and sometimes sounds like "a boat" APTN also started re-airing "North of 60" which I watched I full and i noticed it there too. The raising is much more prominant and Gain sounded a bit like "a boat". But as a west coast gal and an islander at that I'm fully aware that i sometimes sound like Calli-from-the-valley so I certainly cant judge.
Anyone out there care to comment on west coast Canadian accents. Im rather curious what we sound like to the rest of the world. :)
My dad's Canadian, but I was born and raised in Ireland to an Irish mam, Canadians, at least where my dad's from (Ontario, a 90 minute drive away from the US-Canada border), sound a lot like Americans. And pretty much the rest of the country does as well. I have yet to hear a Candian say 'oot' or 'aboot' as well.
I've been told by so many people that I sound American. I live in Alberta, and I am originally from Saskatchewan. I've always just explained that we're lazy with are vowels so I find we don't round them out and enunciate them as much as Americans do so for example "our" and "are" sound the same, at least in my accent
There is a little more to the story. Research has shown that babies actually loose the ability to differentiate sounds that are not in their language. Americans simply don't heard the second part of the dipthong.
This may work for Upper Canada, but while we in the Maritimes say "out" and "about" not unlike other Canadians, I know I still say "arooun" more than "arownd" for "around" and "sooun" more than "sownd" for "sound", to use your examples. The Maritimes are special to say the least, but a lot of that is probably from the older Nova Scotian accents, especially West and North Nova Scotia.
"Arooun" and "sooun"? No idea what you're talking about.
@@nozecone Trying to approximate a sound in letters is clearly not my forte. I was implying that I've noticed we drop the terminal consonant in some words and draw out the o in ou combinations. It's diminished over the course of my lifetime, at least, but I certainly have heard it more in the older population and in more rural areas. I didn't mean to be purposely confusing when I wrote that three years past, but I hope that this helps to understand what I meant. I'm presuming you're a fellow Bluenoser?
@@clairekortbawi5659 Sorry for being 'short' - I'd become impatient with the comments by the time I reached yours - I should have just stopped, I guess! Yeah, Bluenoser here. And the difficulty of approximating sounds with letters is what led to the whole 'aboot'/'oot' thing in the first place. I'm sure you're talking about something legitimate, although I'm still not sure exactly what it is - there are actually so many different Maritime accents (although, as you say, they are becoming less, um - 'pronounced' with time) ....
@@nozecone Well, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place. I did not realise this was your video or that you at had a part in it, either; or at the very least, that you'd put an effort into going through the comments, especially in an old video. In that light, I can more than understand frustration with comments. I was trying to describe the heavier accent that you hear in areas where something akin to a burr or brogue peeks through, even if that only remains in vestigial traits like silenced alveolar stops at the ends of words.
@@clairekortbawi5659 No, I have no connection with the video; it's just a subject I'm interested in, and I'm curious about other people's impressions and experiences - and for a subject like this, posts from three years ago are still going to be relevant - not like the comments under a video about an election, for example. Tbh, though, I probably didn't notice that your post was that old. Just to clarify: when I wrote "what led to the whole 'aboot'/'oot' thing in the first place", I wasn't talking about the creation of this video, but the broader issue; i.e., the misconception that we pronounce those words that way.
Its honestly so subtle that I don't think I would catch it without specifically listening for it and even then it would be tough. I have lived in South Texas most of my life and we say "ice" and "out" in a similar way so to me unless it is really exaggerated I wouldn't catch it.
I lived in west Vancouver. People do say oot.
Yeah, like this famous youtuber... Most people say "a-boat" though...
Scottish people say "oot and aboot" for real. Maybe, Americans get confused with Scotland and Canada.
Canadian english is mostly on a spectrum with American Midwest english imo. I think you can hear little bits of Canadian raising in some Great Lakes states.
Love it. I'm English and when I meet Canadians I always make the mistake and ask if they are American, when instinctively knowing that their accent is different.
As a generalisation, the Canadian accent sounds clearer and lighter to me.
I love your enunciation and dipthong usage/explanation.
I love the origins, aetiology and derivations of different accents.
The Canadian over exaggerated 'oot' and 'aboot' sounds somewhat Scottish and maybe relates to 18th Century Pioneers/Colonists who arrived in Canada from Scootland?
Sorry - those 'oot' and 'aboot' sounds don't exist.
Some maritimers sound like this, they also say things like tree instead of three. It comes from their Irish roots or something I dunno. I'm from the west and some of those guys I can't even understand, yet when americans make fun of a "canadian" accent it sounds like they are imitating them to me.
The oo sound comes from the francophones in Quebec. That's how "ou" is pronounced in French. People in France are all oot and aboot if you can get them to speak English.
I've lived in Kansas my whole life and spontaneously started doing this a few years back because I was working as a captionist and it is a slightly shorter diphthong which helped with flow (I could effectively re-voice audio at rates sometimes exceeding 300wpm, though eventually they automated the system so that job no longer exists). I still get accused of affecting a Canadian accent sometimes but it just became natural. Actually it's a slightly more pronounced raising than yours
i’m from canada and im honestly sick of americans acting like we always say “oot”
CANADIAN RAISING
As its name implies, Canadian raising is found throughout most of Canada, though the exact phonetic quality of Canadian raising may differ throughout the country. In raised /aʊ/, the first element tends to be farther back in Quebec and the Canadian Prairies and Maritimes (particularly in Alberta): thus, [ʌʊ]. The first element tends to be the farthest forward in eastern and southern Ontario: thus, [ɛʊ~ɜʊ]. Newfoundland English is the Canadian dialect that participates least in any conditioned Canadian raising, while Vancouver English may lack the raising of /aɪ/ in particular.
Canadian raising is not restricted to Canada. Raising of both /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ is common in eastern New England, for example in some Boston accents (the former more likely than the latter),as well as in the Upper Midwest. South Atlantic English, New Orleans English, and the accents of England's Fens feature it as well.
Raising of just /aɪ/ is found in a much greater number of dialects in the United States; some researchers have begun to refer to raising of /aɪ/ without raising of /aʊ/ as American Raising. This phenomenon is most consistently found in the Inland North, the Upper Midwest, New England, New York City, and the mid-Atlantic areas of Pennsylvania (including Philadelphia), Maryland, and Delaware, as well as in Virginia. It is somewhat less common in the lower Midwest, the West, and the South. However, there is considerable variation in the raising of /aɪ/, and it can be found inconsistently throughout the United States.
I'm a New Yorker. I definitely have the raised sound for "i." It even differentiates between words like "writer" (raised) and "rider" (unraised). The "t" and the "d" in these words are pronounced identically as a flapped "r," as is usual intervocalically before an unaccented syllable. The "i" still "thinks" that the "t" in "writer" is unvoiced. Curiously, though, I use the raised sound in "spider," which "should" have the unraised sound. As far as "ou" is concerned, I have the raised sound even before a voiced consonant, though I think this is an acquired pronunciation.
Very well explained❤. Thanks a lot!!
I don't hear much oo from canadians, but i hear a slight accent where 'about' is pronounced closer to 'a boat' it's so tiny but since most canadians speak with an accent incredibly close to general American, it's those small pronunciation that indicate to me that the speaker is Canadian. There's a couple other tiny things like that. Otherwise, my northern neighbors speak just like I do.
As somebody who learned American english, Canadian accent seems so similar in comparison (more than UK, Australian, etc). But because of this similarity, whenever there IS an obvious difference like this "aboot" situation, it feels a lot more jarring. Like its mostly fine until it suddenly isn't. A linguistic uncanny valley.
Some raising also affect other vowels. Bag becomes beg and beg has a vowel like bake. I don't know if it's prevalent in Canada though. Also the writer rider difference is a pain. Fortunately many Americans don't say writer and rider differently
Derrick Wang why is it a pain? You have two distinct pronunciations for two different words with two different meanings. Regarding other vowels, I’ve read studies that some younger Canadians are raising other sounds as well. Milk becomes melk, vanilla “vunella”, pillow “pellow”, etc. Beg and bag though are pretty much identical to US English based on what I’ve heard.
@@theoriginalmcsquare I've been saying "melk" for over 60 years now .....
Yeah, I don't see how not having a pronunciation distinction between two different words is "fortunate".
I always thought that the accent is slightly comparable to a midwest American accent. Like John Candy in Home Alone. But it's barely noticeable.
J Capone John Candy was, of course, Canadian.
I've never heard Canadian accent before=) Actually, I can say that it's to my liking=)
Canadian raising occurs in a large demographic in the Northern states as well
Canadian raising is also used in General American English. So, this is very much confusing when both the educated Americans and educated Canadians speak, they do sound the same, although both of 'em have their own words...
I'm an American living in Hawaii who got into an argument with my entire office about me sounding like a Canadian. Their side? I said 'They kicked us ow-oot,' with a higher tone for 'kicked' and 'out.' Therefore Canadian. I personally doubt that (in spite of a grandfather from Nova Scotia), but uh, this video is suspiciously close to how I pronounce the 'ou' sound...
Good video,thank you.:)
Great explanation!!
It's very clear thanks
Thanks for the video 😊
I have lived in Russia for 22 years now, since I was 16, but I recently noticed I still have the Canadian raised accent. I hardly ever speak English (once in a few years when I accidentally bump into some Americans, Brits or Australians) and I have never spoken to a Canadian since those days. I recently met an American who asked if I was Canadian 😂😂😂😂😂 I was shocked.
I'm from Virginia and use a form of Canadian raising. It's actually pretty well documented (see tidewater accen or midaltantic accent).
Great explanation.
very well done
Thank you !!!
is it bad that i came here bcuz my fav singer is canadian ??
voiceless and voice consonants, could you please give me an example of those consonants?? thank you
J.J. McCullough is Canadian and says "oot" and "aboot".
It's a fake affectation on his part.
Alex Plante I haven’t met enough Canadians to know whether JJ’s pronunciation is widespread.
@@joshadams8761 It's not - he's the one, single, lone Canadian with that pronunciation - it's completely fake.
Until you gave that "down" vs. "out" example, I have never understood what the Americans were talking about for my entire adult life. I even had face-to-face conversations with them where they tried to tell me I was saying "out" differently and I couldn't figure out what they meant.
For the word "out", the Canadian "eh-oot" is a Scottish sound, the American "ah-oot" is more from England. Listen to how people from those countries say that word and you'll hear what I mean.
Thank you for this, I've been wondering where this phantom "accent" came from, lol. Leave it to Americans to popularize something that doesn't exist, I guess. I've never heard a Canadian say "aboot" in my life, and I've been all over Ontario, to BC, and to Montreal, as well as watched Canadian news almost daily for 20 years and heard Canadians from all over the country... not a single "aboot".
Personally, I could never tell much difference between a US an Canadian accent, but I think we just talk differently in other ways... like, metropolitan Canadians tend to talk a bit slower and more "chirpy" or loose than metropolitan Americans. I feel like in the US more people talk faster and/or louder in general. Other than French, Maritime, Inuit, and other Indigenous accents, there aren't really many strong native accents in Canada.
I also have one question to ask speakers with Canadian Raising:
Do you have a raised vowel in words like "spider" and "cider"?
I think I use a raised vowel in these words so they have the same vowel as in "ice", but in this case the vowel comes before a voiced consonant. This is one really confusing exception to Canadian Raising that I have found
I say those words without Canadian raising because d is a voiced consonant.
I would say spider like 'spyder' or cider as 'sighder.' I doubt it's correct but I also suffer from Cdn rising. lol
i said them aloud to compare them and and i personally do say spider with canadian raising. i thought about it and came to the conclusion that it's because i pronounce spider as if there were a T there instead of a D (like spiter) whereas i say cider with a clear D.
@@TheCanadiangirl4 that pronunciation isn't a feature of canadian raising.
Haha great explanation
So how, as a Canadian, can I naturally pronounce 'out' and 'about' with an American accent?
peace and love from Egypt
I’m an Aussie, and I can tell the difference between American and Canadian accents, but not only because of the ‘ai’ and ‘our’ sounds - I find that Canadians seem to use the back parts of their speech organs - throat, larynx - more, so that their speech sounds more forced. That might be just me.
The only time I can identify a Canadian from an American is when words like out or about are used tbh.Otherwise to a Scot like me I have to ask if I meet a north American person "are you American or Canadian"?.Canadians are usually happy I just didn't automatically assume they were American.
You say “sorry” different as well
I can tell someone is Canadian easily from the accent or how certain words are pronounced.
I only recently realized I did this.... o.O
Dude we are totally not making fun of you in a negative way at all ( I speak for myself and probably a good majority of Americans) we just think it sounds funny we are not making fun of you or mocking you it is not a negative thing it just happens to be funny in a positive way. 🤗
love oout
Paige from Degrassi every time she said "sorry" and "out" and "about."
We do the same in New England.
Im assuming it comes from the Scottish influence
There's a moose loose aboot this hoose !
Are you Canadian?
Interesting
I love Canda
hello! please help me. how many meaning of the word " mean " ? If I said: " you're mean ". thank you!
+Long Le In your example, 'mean' is 'not nice' or 'bad'. The general meaning of 'mean' is the definition of something, but it also has the other use I just mentioned.
Hope that helps!
+LikeANativeSpeaker thank you
house is what you live in
a couch is what you sit on when you're watching tv (8
oat and aboat is more like it. but then again its only really people in the boonies that sounds like that
I hear EUT from canadians ..rather then OUT. Also many canadians have this "robotic" voice like Dan Aykroyd and Howie Mandel to mention a few
I hear Canadians from the Ontario suburbs, countryside and blue collar types say " OOOT and ABOOT " all the time.
+Ghostface89100 | I don't know about " every Canadian has a little Canadian raising.." Things are changing rapidly. See
www.macleans.ca/society/life/in-the-midst-of-the-canadian-vowel-shift/
This comment will only make sense after you read the article, but I caught myself saying " MELK " for " MILK " the other day. And I laughed.
Cheers
+Sassy Cat I agree with you Sassy!
Get your ears checked.
@@nozecone take a listen to JJ • th-cam.com/video/8YTGeIq4pSI/w-d-xo.html
@@warmflash I have listened to him - he's a complete fake. Find me one other Canadian with that pronunciation and I'll take it back.
Sounds like Newcastle in uk
Americans also raise /ai/ but not /au/ which is probably why "oot on the eece" hasn't become a stereotype, because we say ice the same way.
Canada’s cold so when you’re out and about make sure you wear a boot
I don't believe you're completely correct about the origins of the 'oot' and 'aboot' misrepresentation - I've read, and it makes sense to me, that it emerged from (lazy) American writers trying to give a 'signal' of Canadian pronunciation, rather than trying to give the actual pronunciations -- such that if you were familiar with Canadian accent(s), you would know that pronunciations closer to "aowt" and "abaowt" - or perhaps "ote" and "abote" were indicated - but because so many American readers would be unfamiliar with Canadian accent, they would take those as literal representations of the pronunciations. So the misconception was spread by print.
I’m from northern England. Living in London I had several US friends who tried to convince me that Canadians spoke like Geordies. None of the Canadians at work said ‘oot’ or ‘aboot’ - not even close. There’s no difference between US and Canadian pronounciation to my ear. Canadians are just US Americans with better social care and sensible gun laws.
There is definitely a decided difference in the American and Canadians pronunciations of 'out' and 'about' - Canadians and Americans - particularly Americans - hear them. However, 'oot' and 'aboot' are NOT the Canadian pronunciation. There are a few other differences in pronunciation; Americans, for example, tend to say, 'avenoo' for 'avenue', while Canadians say, 'avenyou'.
Hello! I want to learn Canadian accent? Do you have skype to talk?
🥰
Any geographical area this is particularly prominent?
PLENTY of Canadian TH-camrs say “Ouut” cmon don’t pretend
You americans have stronger accent and you americans and you say that we say "oot and aboot".
Get owt o here
I cannot really differentiate US and Canadian accents. 😳😳
...Yes you can. Listen to different Province accents and compare to a New England accent, a Midwest accent, a deep South accent, etc...
peace OOOOOT
>J.J. McCollough, from British Columbia, says "aboot"
It's a fake affectation on his part.
@@Alex_Plante So fake and annoying, now he's stuck with it.
He's doing snow-face for the Americans.
Lol there is no such thing as a “pure sound” in linguistics. Canadian raising is correct in Canada, but out of place in the American south. Abaaaaaut also sounds as exaggerated and incorrect to Canadians as “about” pronounced the Canadian way does to some Americans.
I can say owwt with American friends, it just seems embarrassing
I know a Canadian that says “about” like “aboot”
No you don't.
@@hilariousname6826 yes I do.