MillieF

I have now been here four years, but I don't think much of my language has changed. I do say 'trunck' instead of boot and 'garbage' instead of rubbish....when speaking with Canadians, as it's just more simple.

I now have a friend from New Zealand and one from South Africa (I have strong links from both of those countries in the past) and when I am with them, I find myself effortlessly slipping into their accents and mirroring them perfectly, I have a musical ear and am very good on local English dialects...I moved around a lot as a kid and it made fitting in easier. Very a la John Barrowman, who can switch to Glaswegian, it would seem, at will.

I have never done it with Canadian, despite having been married to one for ever. My son tells me an accent is like 'a club membership' and all I have to do is speak like them and I'll fit in better! True, but possibly easier said than done (pun intended).

Do you think your accent has changed? Have you tried to change it? Some of you have been here a very long time, do people still 'pick you out' as being Brit?

BristolUK

I'm sure if people who knew me back in England heard me they'd think I sound different. But the only one I've actually spoken to since I moved is my mum.

She probably doesn't notice though as I don't get a word in edgeways.

There are a couple of words or phrases I've changed...parking lot rather than car park. Sidewalk.

I refuse, however, to say soccer so I'll say "proper football"...but then the family say football and they mean proper football when they say it

Not many people out and about comment on the way I sound but enough do so I don't think I get taken for Canadian.

dbd33

Yes, it's kinder and gentler now, innit.

The reverse, but I've tried to avoid becoming a caricature like Terry from the pub, always going on abaht the Morris Marina wot he once 'ad.


Yes.

Pizzawheel

I get some stick for saying Washroom and some other Americanisms, but I think my core accent is unchanged.

Paul_Shepherd

I have been living in Canada for 7 years, and my accent hasnt changed at all, still Black Country, i dont think it ever will, it just doesnt feel right. They do say that whatever accent you have in your late teens you will keep forever unless you make a conscious effort to change it.

However that said, ive found my terminology has evolved soemwhat, trunk, hood, gas, sidewalk, wrench, cell phone, hardware, store, laundry even some Canadian sayings i have picked up, but i still have my local diallect aswell, so quite a mis match!

Its funny when i was over in blighty in April i dropped out a few of these terminologies while chatting to friends like gas and sidewalk etc....and all i got from my one of my mates was a disgusted disapproving look followed by "sidewalk?!?!?* you f**ing yank!

I do say tomayto now though instead of tomarto! lol but i draw the line at Aluminum. wrong wrong wrong just wrong!! That is too yank sounding for my liking!

dbd33

I had a phase of using some American usages, "every two weeks" for "fortnightly" being an example but I hardly deal with cradles anymore so I've gone back to English usage. I did however pronounce depot, as in Home Depot, in the American fashion recently and was deservedly mocked for that.

Novocastrian

Online Etymology Dictionary

Just sayin'

bats

So it should be " tomatum"?

Ive heard both Novo and dbd speak and can confirm that their original accents remain, but with a twinge of Canadian corruption.

Souvy

I use some slightly different words but, as far as I know, my accent remains intact. I still sound like an Australian, or perhaps a South African.

not2old

After 49 years in Canada my rhotic English accent comes & goes depending on who I'm conversing with. Maybe this happens after watching certain TV shows

At times I get asked if I'm Irish or Australian, yet never Canadian

When on the phone with my sister in the UK (on purpose) I speak with a 100% corrie accent. To my Brother its a scouser one, to my 97 year old FIL I scream at the top of my lungs to whatever he can understand.

In my part of Ontario depending on the shop keeper or store clerk (what is your origin) it's mostly South East Asian English,having learned to swap the 'v' and 'w', as in 'valmart' (for walmart), vork (for work) 'wideo' (for video) etc . Resorting to basic English usage of ... you got, you have, you come, give me, how much for that, give me change ... as unpolite as it can possibly be...


.

Shard

Your son is correct. Accent is very much a projection of identity, and to a certain extent can be modified even later in life - if one wants. Intonation is a far more indicative feature than word choice, and does slowly influence most speakers.

Paul_Shepherd

I never knew that! That is very interesting.....hmm....i may not mention that to my Canadian friends.

I like the idea of why it was edited though, to harmonise it with other metallic elements.....makes sense really...so on that note..

Im still going to say Aluminium.

beckiwoo

I get Canadian friends to say 'tomato' for a laugh as they all sound posh when they say it.

dbd33

That's true of your English but have you picked up a Quebec accent in French?

Oakvillian

That's a very abbreviated version of the journey from alumium to aluminium via aluminum. Davy himself (who identified, but did not actually isolate, the metal in 1807)) recognised that alumium sounded odd, and after a relatively brief fling with aluminum, he settled on aluminium pretty quickly, certainly before 1812. So the "aluminum" phase lasted probably only two or three years.

Once again, American spelling idiosyncrasy can be placed squarely at the desk of Noah Webster, who might be described as an "evangelical fundamentalist lexicographer" - his 1828 dictionary had aluminum as the only entry despite the fact that that spelling was not at all widely used by 1828. IUPAC, the international arbiter of chemical names, settled on aluminium as late as 1990, but the USA has remained steadfast in clinging to the incorrect spelling.

On the subject of IUPAC, though, I still can't quite bring myself to write sulfur (the IUPAC-approved spelling) rather than sulphur. But I suppose it would be hypocritical of me to be a hold-out against accepted usage.

There's a longer and fuller piece on the aluminum spelling at World Wide Words here