But if you listen very closely and carefully you are in fact able to distinguish a canadian accent (I like it better eh)

Say what you want about the American accent, at least it’s consistent.

Although I do not think we say ” a boot”, I do agree with Sam’s description of the Canadian pronunciation as more from the front of the mouth with a smaller space between palates.

Vive l’accent canadien!

"I know you were just being funny, but I felt moved to explain: the ‘aboot’ stereotype actually comes from an American mishearing of the Canadian pronunciation of words like ‘about.’

See, in Canadian English (and some dialects of U.S. English that border on Canada), what you get is a pronunciation of the first vowel in the diphthong (diphthong = two vowels smushed together) that is higher up in the mouth when it comes before a voiceless consonant (voiceless = vocal cords not vibrating) as in words like ‘about’, and lower down in the mouth before a voiced consonant as in words like ‘loud’. To American English speakers, the unfamiliar higher (or “raised�) diphthong sounds like a single vowel, and so they perceive it as ‘aboot’.

The phenomenon in question in Canadian English is called Canadian raising by linguists, in case you care (and haven’t fallen asleep yet!). For further reading on the subject, the bibliography at the end of that wikipedia article is quite useful—and I would particularly refer people to the second article listed there, which was written by, cough, a familiar face."

That’s good enough for now. I’ll try again in another year. ;-)

A linguist studied the whole “aboot” phenomenon and explains that while Canadians don’t say “aboot” or “aboat” Americans (and Australians) hear it that way. And he revealed why. And it made sense.

Cruising the net I find many non-American foreigners who have lived in Canada for years are just as mystified as Canadians, as they’ve never heard a Canadian say “aboot.” But those foreigners come from non-english speaking nations.

I was able to find this online:

“And yet somehow I am not terribly surprised to find, on the front page of today’s Toronto Star, an article by Oakland Ross, who, having interviewed a few local voice coaches, reveals that Canadians don’t really say ‘oot’ and ‘aboot’. (Ross is, as far as I know, a Canadian himself; he begins the article with the words “Yes, fellow northerners, there is a Canadian accent.â€?)

Well, no, of course we don’t say ‘oot’ and ‘aboot’; Canadians, and other people who have Canadian raising, say [ʌwt] and [əbʌwt]. And while I don’t expect that everyone should know the relevant IPA symbols (although it would be nice if they did), it seems to me that it ought to be perfectly obvious to the Star’s readers how they pronounce these words. I mean, you don’t even have to stand open-mouthed in front of a mirror and count; you just have to listen to yourself (or your neighbour) talk. And I suspect that most Canadians have heard enough Americans talking to realize that the Canadian pronunciation of the word about doesn’t sound very much like the American pronunciation of a boot.

Ross helpfully explains to his predominantly Canadian readers what they really do say:

What Canadians say is “out� and “about� — pretty much the way the words are spelt — but we have a way of forming the vowels toward the front of our mouths and without much vertical space between our upper and lower palates. Americans tend to pronounce the same two words with the sounds formed farther back in their mouths and with more vertical space — something like “ah-out� and “abah-out.�

Ah, yes. It’s all about the ‘lower palate’, which I guess is some kinda fancy scienterrific term for what I’ve always called the ‘tongue’. And apparently the American pronunciation of the word out is disyllabic.”

Yes, there is a Canadian accent. But it’s also misheard by many Americans and Australians. I only wish I could find the explanation for why the Canadian pronounciation of “about” sounds like “aboot” to so many english-speaking non-Canadians.

And I’ll bet James Patrick Joyce (above) is a telemarketer