Canadian pronunciation of “out and about”

Canconned, I'm not sure just what your point is. The word pairs you gave are pronounced differently by everyone who speaks English, not just Canadian raised. One has a voiced consonant, the other, unvoiced. That is pretty much universal.

porsche, I think canconned's point is the same as mine: Canadian raising happens in words where the vowel is followed by a voiced consonant. So the vowels in knife/knives and lout/loud are different, not just the consonants.

goofy has it bang on... the voiceless consonant is responsible for the 'raising' of the vowel.

The difference can also be heard in the following example:

"I scream" vs "ice cream"... where the "ai" diphthong in "ice cream" is raised while it is not in "I scream".

I meant "voiceless", not "voiced". The raising occurs before a voiceless consonant.

There is one Americanisation that cracks me up whenever I hear it said - vehicle being pronounced as "vee-hickle". I was taught to say veer-kul....and yes I know it comes from the Latin "vehiculum". It still sounds funny! Right up there with the Canadian "fil-im" for film..

My Dad used to say fil-im... and "De-troy-it" for Detroit... this was once common in Toronto... but you don't think you hear it so much now... although I now live in Atlanta where if you don't say 'vee-hickle' or 'thee-ayter" (unvoiced 'th') people look at you funny.

Since I moved down here I had to stop saying 'eh', 'prohcess' and 'prohgress'... but funnily enough I had to start saying 'prohduce' for fruit and veggies.

It seems that I have wasted, once again, so much time on the Canadian pronunciation!
It takes away from my life sometimes haha.. I get distracted, and I found myself listening to the pronunciation than the actual content of individuals, who seem to have a particularly interesting accent..

jb0284, you are right.. I found that there are so many similarities between Canadian and US pronuniciations as well as between Canadian and British!

The people who usually pronounce words like literature like the British 'lit-truh-chur' (the 'truh' sound having like 'ch' sound as in tree) would also pronounce other similar words in the British way, like military as 'mil-uh-tree'.. At least, that's how it sounds to me.. I've been playing with my own pronunciation myself.. And now, I do say it like the British way, but I did used to say it like 'mil-uh-tare-ee'

But, for some reason, I used to always say literacy like 'lit-truh-see', even though I interchanged my pronunciations of literature from the one mentioned above and 'lit-er-uh-chur' (lit having the voiced t, or, as some say, 'd' sound)

Haha, and it's funny how you spelled eh as 'ey', because that is how we pronounce it but I would never have imagined any other way to pronounce it

For Toronto, I started to get irritated a bit as I started to notice that every Canadian that is not from Toronto pronounced it more or less the way you spelt it. I dunno, it must be an actual stereotype that slowly expanding.. did you hear this thing about the Toronto pronunciation from UK or when you were here?

The reason that I got irritated was that people falsely recognised Torontonians pronouncing the name of their city a different, 'special' way (I don't even know if that sentence even made sense). It's not some different way that you pronounce it, and only the locals and Canadians should know how to pronounce it (truly, I think people watch too much sports news and copy the people on there! - because of The Leafs, or Toronto Maple Leafs). Canadians - I don't know about UKers and US Americans but - have at least two pronunciations of most words: their 'normal' pronunciation, if you will, or their enunciated pronunciation (and their normal can be the same as enunciated or it can be a mix.. or it can be anything else!).

For the city of Ottawa, I would say Ot-uh-wah (the voiced t or 'd', and perhaps the tongue to the back for the 'wah'). If I slow it down (and, especially, picturing the spelling the word in my head), I'd say 'Ot-tuh-wa'. In the same way, I would enunciate Toronto as 'Tuh-ron-toe', or 'Tur-on-toe' (I don't actually know which way I say it). This is how most teachers from JK to grade 12 would pronounce this word. But, I suppose, almost every kid pronounced it the 'fast' way - the young generation's pronunciation, almost. The type of kids who would enunciate carefully each word and not give into colloquialisms would obviously pronounce the city's name like I just described.

However, it's not only the young generation. The phenomenon of pronouncing the last syllable of the word Toronto like it is known to be pronounced is the same as the phenomenon of pronouncing the word international as 'in-ner-na-shuh-nul' as opposed to 'in-ter-na-shu-nul'.

I've looked up the term as being classified as the 'merging' of the n and t sounds. And, I've definitely noticed that the guy who plays the Scottish or Irish guy (sorry I don't even remember anymore) in Stargate Atlantis says about the closest to the way Canadians say it (I'm referring to the doctor).

I dunno, jb0284, but another thing that I've noticed in two BC friends, and got confirmed from research, is that a lot of people from there have almost forgotten how to 'raise the vowels' the Canadian raising way. Their outs and abouts sounded exactly like US Americans'. The article said that the Canadians raising accent in the population in BC is slowly disappearing, and most of it has already disappeared (I'm guessing due to American influence!).

Haha, I dunno about the filim stuff, but I def know what you mean by vee-hickle. Like, I've seen in movies actors pronouncing vehicle by elongating the word syllable, and then, of course, sounding out the h sound. But, whether I sound out the h sound, it usually is not something prominent for us. It usually comes out as vee-ickle, but once in a while with the h sound.

I have no idea what you mean by the r in veer. Ukemon, my dad used to say fil-im, as well.. but I just thought that was because he was an immigrant, lol! I can't picture the two distinctions you're trying to make for Detroit, yet, so I'll leave that be for now..

Hmm.. you STARTED saying 'pro' instead of 'pruh' or 'praw' in the US? Because I've never heard anyone not say 'pro' for produce, like fruits and vegetables, although they would not say 'pro' for everything else, like for the verb for produce, or any of the projects, process, progress, etc. words.

elongating the word in the first* syllable!

the first syllable in the word*!

Haha, that’s funny dbfreak – I find myself fascinated with that sort of thing too. I only took one class in linguistics at uni (or college!) and that was French linguistics, but ever since, I’ve noticed that I pay a lot more attention to people’s accents, and my own accent and pronunciation.

To be honest, I was amazed how many similarities there were between British and Canadian English; I always assumed that Canadians and US Americans always spoke pretty much the same (being an ignorant Brit!)

I think something that’s really interesting is that American spelling is originally how us Brits would have spelt things too, i.e. color vs. colour, check vs. cheque, but then I think the British English got bastardised with French influence and we ended up spelling things to fit in with that for some reason. I’m not sure if the spelling is the same in Canada as it is in the US, I would assume it probably is considering the time it was colonised.

As for the Toronto thing, it’s something I noticed purely when I was out there. It was something that my friends and I picked up fairly soon after arriving. I guess, from what you’re saying, people like to try and be ‘cool’ and say it the way the locals say it. I’m from a county called Essex in England and people here tend to talk like the way the actors talk in British ‘gangster’ style films. The true Essex accent is more farmer-like, as it used to be purely agricultural land, but there was a huge swathe of people coming from the east end of London and it completely changed the accent.
The word ‘vehicle’ ALWAYS makes me laugh (I know it shouldn’t), but to me it’s so funny the way it’s pronounced in North America. It just sounds so awkward like you have to try and over-separate the two syllables. I guess the closest way I can think of how we pronounce it over here is like ‘veer-kel’, it’s almost like we ignore the aspirated h completely! Makes things a lot easier!

I’ve just noticed as well, the way Toronto is spelt and enunciated share the same particularity that London has – despite the first vowel being an ‘o’, it’s pronounced as a ‘u’, i.e. Toronto becomes ‘Turonto’ and London becomes ‘Lundun’. I always find that frustrating, having studied foreign languages such as Spanish, which is so much more phonetic than English, i.e. the way you see a word is the way you pronounce a word. Learning English as a foreigner must be an absolute nightmare!

Although I live in Canada, I was originally from Somerset in the west country of England. A lot of the names in southern Ontario come from England - Exeter, London, Stratford, Cambridge, Wellington, Palmerston, Leamington, Essex, Windsor, etc. What I find interesting is that when I visit family in Somerset and Devon I hear many similar pronunciations to what I hear in souther Ontario. The West Country dialect is typically rhotic similar to southern Ontario.

It took me years to learn to say idea instead of "idear".

There are a couple of differences in place name pronunciation:

- Leamington (Ont = "leemington, English = "lemmington")
- Palmerston (Ont = "pammerston, English = "palmerston")
- Woolwich (Ont = Wool-wich, English = "wool-ich")

To my native Wisconsin ears, a Canadian about always sounded like “aboot”, but when I would try to imitate it just didn’t quite sound right. If I say “a-boat” it seems to come out nearly perfectly, but not quite. In the Canadian “about”, that vowel sound seems to be a tiny bit longer than when I say boat. For some reason, it’s very hard for me to mimic that consistently.

Digressing to the VEE-hickle tangent. In the North Central dialect (Wisconsin, Michigan Upper Peninsula, Minnesota, and points West, the H is silent. Shawn C confused Dbfreak with his “veer-kul”. But I know why. I have friends from the non-rhotic parts of England (Exeter) and this has cropped up occasionally in our discussions of the language. I almost consider the non-rhotic English “r” to be a speech defect (snicker). When a Brit uses an “r” not followed by a vowel to attempt a phonetic spelling it almost certainly means something very close to the vowel sound we, on this side of the Atlantic, make when we say “idea”.

Okay... seriously, I'm from British Columbia - Vancouver (west coast if no one knows) and I say oot and aboot. Or at least I'm told I do. We do it when we're not thinking about it. Just how we speak. Like most American's say y'all and shit like that.

Try this: "I've been out and about again, eh?" That will distinguish dialects. If it sounds more like "I've bean a-oot and aba-oot agayne" you're probably Canadian. I spoke Canadian my first 20 years in this country without realizing it, Eh?

I'm born and raised in Nova Scotia. Never lived anywheres else. I think western/central Canadians get into the habit of assuming Canada stops at Ontario. IMO, we are more rooted in tradition here. You get made fun of if you say "zee" (and my iPad autocorrected that to zed btw haha), and anyone that comes from away thinks we talk funny. I've never paid much attention to it until I had a cousin from Winnipeg come visit, and he broke out laughing when my mom told him to "fill his boots" at supper. Sure we got the gun toting rednecks and granny-clothes wearing hippies here, but guaranteed they all talk like I do, unless they're from Cape Breton or Nfld. Then you're on your own to translate haha.

I noticed I tend to say "coach" instead of "cowch" when talking about a chesterfield (which is what it usually gets called in the towns), not so much Halifax where I live now). Oat and aboat is pretty dead on here too. I guess we might have a bit of a stronger accent on the east coast though eh?

Yes, the "OU" diphthong in some parts of Canada differs widely from the way it is pronounced in most parts of the USA, but I don't find it universal, having traveled from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. I find it more pronounced in some areas, less in others, more in the Ontario-and west provinces, than elsewhere. I have noted another feature, which descends down into the Dakota's and Minnesota of the US area, a distinct inflection in sentences, particularly questions, or invitations for affirmation, which end in "eh?" in Canada and "yeah?" in the states. Anybody else see that? I can tell when I, (an American from around Boston), am talking to someone from the Dakota's, or from N. Minnesota or N. Wisconsin or even N. Michigan...they can almost be mistaken for Canadians... not that there's anything WRONG with that!! I'm fascinated by accents of the English language in the US and Canada, and love learning about (a-boait) how these various accents came about. And, maybe I'm not the best ear, at my older age, to distinguish all those variances. Heck, I have a hard time telling some British accents from some Australian accents, just saying.

Anyway, do others find the way some Canadians deal with the up and down inflections in their sentences something worth exploring? It's definitely different from most Americans' way of asking questions, at least for those in the middle of Canada it is, much more British or even French, if you ask me.

I have a Canadian boyfriend, he moved to Australia n 2008, he's from Startford, Ontario, he has a strong Canadian accent, he does say the "oot" and "aboot" thing he also says "T'ronno" I don't hear any "eh?"s from him, but I like his accent and I see nothing wrong with it, the "oot" and "aboot" kinda reminds me of the British say it!

Funny, but if you ever visist the Richmond, Va area, many Richmond natives say 'aboot" as well.

A good illustration is this viedo of McDoanld's Canada...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSd0keSj2W8&feature=player_embedded

Note that "pounder" receives the same treatment. And it's a good illustration of how the shortening of vowels like that can really speed up the speech. Aside from that, an even more prominent feature of her accent is the rising tones at the end of clauses that make me sure she's part Valley Girl. ;)

@Noelito Campeon & John C, Hope Bagozzi has a fairly pronounced accent which is very different from the other people in the commercial. Listen to the way the guys at Watts Studio, for example speak. She has an almost british isles/east coast lilt to her pronounciation which stands out to me as an Ontarian Canuck(Toron-toe-nian) living among the 'Merkins in NY. For the record I don't still understand or hear the aboot thing. I am with with joe of Molson's "I am Canadian" fame http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRI-A3vakVg

When I say "out and about" which is seldom because it was not a phrase that was particularly common among us Southern Albertan's (now transplanted to Saskatchewan) I hear a shortened ow sound as in the "ow" we use to signal pain or the reference to the bovine female. In other words there is a slight diphthong but not anything like my brother-in-law in the states. My ah-oo does not compare with his a-oo. My diphthong begins with an "a" sound that the British use (softer and fuller) whereas the American pronuniciation "a" is closer to the soft e (more clenched) pronunciation. The second half of the diphthong is schwa e rather than an oo as in root or boot. Hence about comes out "ow followed by schwa e. I am sorry that I am not able to use the linguistic analytical symbols since it has been too long since that was part of my repertoire. Linguists would cringe. My personal pet peeve since being relocated to Saskatchewan is that in Saskatchewan "bury" which I was taught to pronounce "berry" as in the fruit is pronounced by many people in Saskatchewan by what I would call the spelling pronunciation which is "burr y where the first syllable is the same as slurry or furry. Oh yes I still use the "our" spellings of words like flavour etc. and have been occasionally heard to use the word "chesterfield" which is what I grew up with. As for Zed my reaction to the American Zee was never seen as a difference. I just thought in their enthusiasm to finish the alphabet there was a celebratory emphasis of the e portion and the d was forgotten for effect as when we gasp or hyperventilate. I have since been more correctly informed. Not as in Naawt. Actually having grown up in Southern Alberta we became acquainted with American television very early and would regularly make mocking imitation of Montana accents. Silly and juvenile but part of the process of self identification. In conclusion the issues and vagaries of accent remain in no small measure subject to the listener however a good class in linguistics goes a long ways to clarify the actual from the supposed (accent on the penultimate).

So I got to thinking about the way I talk--which is the way my parents speak along with the rest of my kin. My whole life has been right here in Virginia. Other than great grandparents coming from North Carolina, my DNA has been virtually between the two states for the last couple hundred years. That said, countless times people have asked me if I was from Canada. I say things like, 'git ēēm!' 'Git oat the hoase, nayah!' 'We don't talk aboat that situation.' 'There 's a moase in the hoase.' 'Nīne-teen' 'were going to the hoss races.' 'Oh lawd have mer-say.'
What's more interesting (in the great state of VA) is the dialect from just an hour away from each other. I don't say it as much as I did (I guess growing up with parents who talked that way) but sometimes it's just 'there' outta nowhere and my kids or somebody will crack on me and ask me to repeat what I just said.
Just found it interesting that others have made comments about the annunciations as well :).

So in parts of Canada, is talking about a boat redundant? ;)

Hello,
I happened to come across this and after quite a laugh I thought, as a resident of Noth, north west of Canada, I thought I should set the record straight. Not all Canadians talk the same. It depends on your background, as someone from Vancouver will sound and use phrases different from someone from Hally, N.C. But there are common themes throughout. A sing-song type of rythim is carried through sentences on a up unstressed and down on stressed vocals, most evident in the Maratime Provences where the old Irish influence are still felt the most. French rythims are incorporated into speech as the spread of Royal Canada moved west. By the time it reached the west coast, Native languages were being incorporated using a range of "uuu" type pauses between words and especially vouls, giving the North West a distinct sound compared to the East Coast. Mat M.

We(Vancouver) used to talk to a person from Newfoundland
a fair amount and my daughter could immediately tell from where he was from.We also know a lady from New York State who has a slight accent but certainly not Texan.She came here for the 2010 olympics.

At 0:12 (to 0:13) in the McDonald's video she also sounds Canadian to my American ears. "We get asked that a lot." It's subtle, but both the "asked" and the "a lot" sound different than what I'm used to hearing. And, of course, the "out" at 0:17 and the "about" at 0:48 are a dead giveaway. Also, she uses the word "exact" several times starting at 1:35 and those sound different, too.

If the word OUT in Canada is pronounced OAT (as in Quaker Oats) and the word ABOUT is pronounced A BOAT (the thing that floats) I assume other OU words and OW words have the same sound: clout, doubt, gout, lout, shout, tout and also bound, downed, found, hound, mound, pound, round, sound, wound, count, mount and I am not sure what else. The way Canadians pronounce the words HOUSE and MOUSE rhyme with DOSE. I have this question: does the word BOW (as in bowing one's head) sound the same in Canada as the BOW that shoots arrows or tying a ribbon in a BOW?

I'm from Virginia (many years ago) and have always said "oot" and "aboot" much like Canadians. Also, we lived in a "hoose." Once in a while we'd get a field "moose" in the "hoose" and "mah muthuh" wouldn't rest until Daddy would "ketch" the "dad gum" "thang." We had relatives in the country near Allentown, PA, and they used the Canadian pronunciations the same way. You don't hear it so much up there anymore, but it is is still prevalent in Virginia, as well as eastern South Carolina. I've been away from Virginia for almost sixty years (Georgia), and can't lose the Virginia accent.

East Virginia, in the United States, and Toronto, Canada say “out” and “about” the same way…

I have friends from both places…

Oot and aboot wearing boots on a boot.
(Out and about wearing boots on a boat).

I never pote when I'm oat and aboat on a boat.
(I never pout when I'm out and about on a boat).