Will I get an accent - ?
 

So, I'm moving to Ontario on Friday to live with my girlfriend.

In your opinion and experience, is likely that my accent will change over time? Dramatically or just a little? How long might it take?

Or, at 35 years old, is my English accent likely to be worn too deep to change?

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Well depends if you have a strong accent in the first place, and how much you can bother to keep explaining yourself because they ( the locals) don't understand the sounds you are making

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Actually you have little choice in the matter unless you specifically went for elocution lessons.

I emmigrated to Canada with my parents when I was 7. I lost my Scottish accent and had a Canadian one within a few years. Other immigrants I grew up with who were 10-12 when they arrived still have their original accent 30-40-50 years later.

There seems to be an age at which your accent will change and it is quite young. There is also an age at which your accent 'locks in' and it is also quite young. At 35 you won't ever lose your accent. It may soften after many years but it will never be a Canadian accent. Sorry. :)

What I think Grah is referring to is the use of regional coloquialisms that you may now use in everyday speech not being known to Canadians. So you will find the vocabulary you use in everyday speech changing. You will use more of the proper English words for things in order to be understood.

As for the comment about strong accents, what is a weak accent? To a Canadian all UK accents are strong. Perhaps what Grah is referring to is how say an Oxford grad speaks versus a Brommie dole blodger. But that is about vocabulary not accent.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Too true. I don't think that I have have strong British accent, but here in Calgary I might as well have come from another planet.

Vocabulary can also be an issue. Spent 10 minutes this afternoon trying to explain what a hob was to a sales person in a show home. Ah "cooktop" came the reply as realisation hit.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Following on from my comment above about strong vs. weak accents, have you ever heard a Canadian with a weak Canadian accent Posidrive?

It is a different story when you learn to speak a foreign language. Depending on how good you and your teacher are, you learn to speak without an English accent or perhaps a weak accent. But in regards to moving to Canada, you don't go and get lessons in how to speak Canadian, so you will always have a STRONG British accent.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Whaty'all talking about boy, ain't no way you gonna get a goddam accent over here....YEEEEEHHAAAAA :rolleyes:

PS At 35 I think you're pretty safe, although saying Aluminum and TomAto will come with time.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Bored jack? ;)

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Hello Sue :) I've crossed the border again :rolleyes:

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Meet me in the pub, so we don't hijack the Ops thread :D

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

I thought those security guards were going to take care of that! ;)

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

In Calgary I have met quite a few where I have been unsure as to whether or not they were Canadian. I would have sworn the owner of the ski equipment shop that I went into yesterday had an accent that had a definite Scottish sound to it (she was born and bred Candian). And yes I do know what a Scottish accent sounds like because I am half Scottish and spent quite some time working in Aberdeen.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

After 8 years I dont have a lot of an accent, still sound British anyway. Most brits Ive met who have been here for a loooong time still sound very British to me. UK friends have noticed a slight change, but mostly its to do with vocabulary.

Vocab will change, there's no point talking about the boot and bonnet if you want people to understand you mean the trunk and hood. Only recently reminded of the existence of "spanners" and haven't asked anyone for a "Biro" or "Rubber" in years.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

you may not get an accent but very soon you will be saying

"you know eh" about 100 times a day ;)

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

According to my work colleagues I still sound like I'm "fresh off the plane" but my family think I have a Canadian accent :D My kid though - I swear he lost his accent in 3 weeks!

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

I am Australian and when I lived in the UK for 2 years, I think my accent changed a little bit. I have now been in Canada for 2 and half years (work permit and now PR) and my accent has not changed at all.

However in Canada, I have learnt to remember:

- the phone is busy, not engaged.
- the date is October 23, not the 23rd of October
- in Canada you rent car, not hire a car

There are plenty more examples for sure.

Ozinca

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

At your age its possible...but depends on whether you consiously want it to change. In my short experience here (I am 57 and have been here for just over a year) terminology has changed...e.g. eh, "I don't think so'...and 'hi ???...but accent has not to any considerable degree. Have consiously attempted to 'slow' down my diction, as I am told we Scot's talk 'real fast'. But other than that...no real change.


I say, maimtain your identity...but be 'Canadain'. Both are possible...in concert with one another.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

I've heard of people laundering their background but perhaps thats going a bit far!

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

One of my mother's friends came over from England to Alabama as a war bride back in the 1940's. If you listen to her now, you would never guess she was English although she doesn't quite sound southern either. After her husband died about 20 years ago, her sister came over to live with her. She has a very distinct accent which I would guess is the same her sister used to have before she moved to the US so long ago.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

From what I have seen and experienced in the past is that you will develop an accent to some degree. Canadians will only hear your native accent while your friends and relatives at home will hear your new accent. So it is likely that you will develop a mongrel accent.. :D

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

I just tell them I'm from Medicine Hat when they question the accent. 50% get it.

Good luck in your quest for a slow cooker (can't remember the name). :D

Regarding accent, just talk how you've always talked. If it changes, so be it.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

My parents, brothers and I emigrated from Canada to the UK in 1990. My parents were 40 and 45, my brothers were 11 and 8, and I was 10. After 12 years in the UK, we all still have strong Canadian accents. My younger brother's accent is the strongest, mine has softened and changed so much that people think that I'm either Irish or Australian (I think they just pick up on the fact that certain words sound different, as opposed to traits found in either accent, since Irish and Australian sound nothing alike).

I'm not sure how much age has to do with it, I think that it's more how much you have to adapt your speech to make yourself understood. My accent didn't change too much until I started working on phone support, then it changed and softened quite quickly. My husband's accent (he's British born and bred) changed when he started spending more time with me when we were dating, a lot of people thought that he was Australian on first meeting him. It will be interesting to hear what we sound like when we emigrate to Canada next year!

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

No, you have a strong established accent, if you grew up with EVERYONE speaking with the same accent, compared to some one who grew up in an area with no distinct accent. Strong - Weak.

Accents are based on the sounding of words as well as regional coloquialisms and the vocabulary used. So those in who grew up making the different sounds for the same words depending on their company, will probably start using the sounds from their new neighbourhood and change from how they speak now.


For instance my mother has lived in the south of England for over 50 years sounds English until she speaks to welsh people. Within hours she'll be sounding the same as them. When we have been on holiday it has taken several weeks to get back to normal. She was born in England moved to Dyfed in her youth and back to England in her 20s. Whereas Dad was born in Dyfed lived there all his life until his early 20's had trouble convincing people he was welsh until he spoke welsh. As his mum had a rooming house which had workers from England staying all his life.

Those would be described as weak accents, as they are unable to hold their own original local "sound" identity.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

We have used that since getting here, and have got funny looks at places, needless to say we looked like we were speaking a different lingo :eek: Fag and Rubber will be out of the question as they can be misconscrued into other things.

Also I used the expression "do you fancy a drink"?, and got a weird look :scared: Do Canadians actually think we all sound the same? We get the are you from down under treatment all the time

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

You'll be OK as long as you don't like come on like Mrs Bucket/Bouquet.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

There are times (even after a year) when I am talking to people here, well to be more precise, talking to women here and I realise that they are not listening to what I am saying but rather HOW I am saying it! :D Personally I think a British Accent is a plus point for me as a second career as a voiceover artiste is always and option. RP is a jolly good thing to have!

More seriously, I dont find my accent changing, but I do find that I use colloquialisms more and more. Newfoundland has accents and phrasing that are unique in Canada. So its important to know where's your at so you can comes where you're to. 'by!

You do have to watch some words though....apparently refering to the washroom as the 'toilet' is considered offensive. I also had a conversation with someone who works for me early on about buying tax free cigarettes for the crew on the boats we operate. She looked at me in horror when I talked about 'buying fags for the guys on the boats!'

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

For some reason I tend to "strengthen" my accent when I'm in Canada. I've got a pretty average Stockport/Manchester accent which seems to get broader when I'm talking to Canadians.
They still seem to think I'm Australian though...

Another weird thing - my partner's Canadian but has lived in the UK for 13 years. Me and everybody else here immediately recognises that she has a Canadian accent (apart from the odd few who ill-advisedly ask if she's American!!) Everybody in Canada though thinks she's English because of her accent!!

One thing I've never had in Canada, but did get in the US was the "Gee, I just love your accent!"

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Yes we do think you all sound the same until we learn the regional accents you have, but as you are in Canada fat chance of that happening. when I came to UK I didn't know one accent from another, I am getting better...and BRITS do sound Australian to North Americans.....you cannot tell the difference between Canada and US, how are we too know the difference between Brit and Aussie...I know a yank when I hear one as you know a Aussie, everyone knows their own accent....but many do sound the same to people unfamiliar with it....I spoke to a canadian woman this morning, she has been in UK for 50 yrs...not even a twang of british accent....nor has my canadian accent changed either....

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

in my experience .... no . I have 2 friends ( sisters) who are canadian but raised in the UK . They returned back to canada in 2000 and speak as British as they come . Their parents having moved to the UK in the 60`s speak with a canadian accent even after having lived many yrs in the UK. . My brother has lived in london for the last 15 years and still speaks with a canadian accent but considers himself British.

so , i think you would keep your british accent . but nothing is written in stone ....

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

ha! asking for a `rubber' takes on a whole other meaning here :D . talk about different meanings of words from across the pond.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

On a similar vein, somewhere in N.Oregan

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Know that feeling i'm from london and my wifes friends think i am the fith beetle :-) My wife is canadian and has lived in the UK for 8years now she has actually had an argument with someone that said she was from australia, so i suppose it goes both ways lol

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Me too but then there are alot of brits in medine hat, thats south west of alberta for everyone else,

Crock Pot and thats the slow cooker by the way nothing else :D

Sounds good to me keeping the accent but th elingo changes thats for sure, but its awsome :D

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Not that unusual. I was asked by a shop assistant in New Orleans airport which part of Australia I was from :( Nothing against Australians, just perlexed because I was also dressed like a typical Brit (Blazer, tie, etc) at the time.

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

If you don't speak like Hugh Grant or Mike Reid, you are therefore Australian, seems to be the case :)

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

your picture was funny. can you imagine a bar with that name in the UK? :eek:

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Oops it seems someone might be directionally challenged.

Medicine Hat is actually in south EASTERN Alberta. :D

Cheers
Steve

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

While I was in Houston recently I was asked a number of times where in England I was from!! I was dressed like a typical Aussie (ie shorts and a T-shirt) most of the time.. :p Once during a trip to the US someone exclaimed 'you Canadians!' when I asked for 3 metres of some cable. They just can't work it out can they!?

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

I'm Canadian and living in Australia. I have had people tell me I sound English, Irish, American and Kiwi, no joke!

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

My daughter has picked up the accent, but it has taken a while. She is only 6 now, 5 when we moved to Canada, as for my wife and i, we havnt, and are very unlikely too. You may pick up the odd word but that is about it.
I work with a lot of Brits here, as there is a big military base near here. I can say with hand on heart you wont loose your brit accent as you are no longer young enough to be impresionable!
Cheers, Bruce
:)

Re: Will I get an accent - ?
 

Not really on topic, but a cute story anyway. Some years ago I worked with a lawyer whose name was Randall, but everyone in the office called him Rudy. So one day I asked him why. Well, it turned out that he went to work in Australia for a while and when he introduced himself by saying "Hi, I'm Randy" everyone fell around on the floor laughing. After a while, someone told him what "I'm randy" meant and from then on he called himself Rudy and the name stuck even when he came back to Canada, where "Randy" is a perfectly normal name, and where, if you said "I'm Randy" it would not raise so much as an eyebrow!

And as well - again not really on topic - I have lived and worked in Canada for 30 plus years. Now I am doing some typing for an English company and I have had to put lots of words into "autocorrect" because it is so hard to remember to spell things like: recognise, minimise and programme etc. etc. instead of recognize and minimize and program. When I first came here some smarta** told me that Canadians left the "mme" off programme, about the same time they left the "ppe" off the word "shoppe"!!!

My sister, who lives in Vancouver, commented that really all the words that in English end in "ise" are much better spelled with a "z" because even in England they are pronounced as if they are spelled with "z" - I mean even in England its "recog-nyze" and not "recog-nice".