Yeah, none of us talk like that.
BC is a bit drawly, a bit slower, a little stoner-y. Hard to really encapsulate, but if you know you know.
Then east from the Rockies to Ottawa, we all pretty much have the same non-accent as anyone. Same with the non-accent parts of the US. Could be from Regina, could be from LA. Who knows.
Quebec is franglais, their own mangled language.
And then the east coast is Irish gone through the was.
But none of us say aboot. And none of us sound like Fargo.
I’m Albertan and I disagree unless you’re talking full “go fer a rip bud” kinda accent, most I hear aren’t very distinguishable from the American Midwest imo
What im more curious about is why do americans call fried ham canadian bacon. 32 years old and ive never heard a single canadian call fried ham canadian bacon.
Edit: I guess Canadian bacon is actually back bacon but it just looks like ham to me.
Canadian bacon is synonymous with back bacon. Peameal bacon is a type of back bacon. So not all Canadian bacon is peameal bacon, but all peameal bacon is a type of (what Americans would call) Canadian bacon.
People will, and are, telling you that Canadian bacon is back bacon, but it's not (quite).
It looks exactly like a slice of ham, but it's not (quite).
I think what confuses us Canadians so much is that it's neither and also both of those things.
Back bacon comes from the middle-top of a pig, and ham comes from the back hip/leg area.
Canadian bacon is taken from the same area as back bacon, but it is then cured and cooked the same way ham is.
So, it's not really either, and it's both. It definitely looks like a slice of ham and not at all like a slice of back bacon.
I've taken several deep dives into this subject, lol. First I thought it was back bacon, then I thought it was ham, and honestly, it was basically your comment that sent me on another dive where I think I've finally discovered the truth!
So, thank you for that.
I wish I could properly convey how many hours of my life I spent on this, lol. And then, somehow, I researched this topic tonight for like 5 minutes and finally figured it out!
Back bacon and ham are very close to each other. Sometimes the blend together depending on where the cut ends. You can get some ham looking back bacon sometimes. Majority of time though back bacon is more pale than ham and that's how you tell the difference. People saying back bacon looks exactly like ham I wonder where they get their back bacon from.
Can confirm. Have lived in Australia for 16 years, lived in BC, Ontario and Alberta before that, go back to visit family annually. The different pronunciation between Ontario and the west is also pretty evident, Ontarians sound more like the cliche.
You are correct. I can always pick out the person from Ontario - and more specifically Toronto- as they do, as you say, have that accent “aboot”. Even the announcers on tv from Ontario say it.
Also in Ottawa - I say it more like ah-bowt
The “bow” part is like a dog saying bow-ow-ow
I literally never considered that until my way is the way being made fun of, but now I think it is
Never said or heard ah-boot in my life apart from satire
Even Vancouverites say about differently than how people from Seattle say it. Sure, the accent from Vancouver, Seattle and Portland is similar but there are differences if you know where to look.
That’s entirely true but this guy famously rage baits by fully saying “a boot” and enunciates it as hard as possible. I’m from the prairies and have a 10x stronger accent than this guy in every other conceivable way and even I think it’s ridiculous.
TW: Cringey douchebag
>!JJ McCullough 👎🏻!<
He and his misinformation, bigotry and lies are very popular in America which is why people on r/AskAnAmerican have inaccurate perceptions of Canada.
Yeah I wanna know too! I watch him sometimes. He is definitely a bit douchy and cringe on occasion, but I think he's fairly solid with his videos.
Also his "aboot" thing has GOT TO BE fake. No way that's real. Sounds dumb as fuck because none of us sound like that. He's also not from VANCOUVER Vancouver, he's from New Westminster which is a fuckin city in the greater Vancouver regional district. Everyone YouTuber that says they're from Vancouver is probably just from some suburb or city near actual fuckin REAL Vancouver
I don't watch the guy, but I took a shallow dive into him previously when this came up in another thread.
He completely claims he's not doing it on purpose! He claims it's his real accent and just how he talks. Just hearing his "accent" and that claim were enough for me to never want to watch any more of him, lol.
Considering how he's done it as far back as when he was a news broadcaster 10+ years ago and people who've met him in person says he does it I'm really inclined to believe he's being serious.
Some people just develop speaking abnormalities, it happens. I, for instance, sometimes pronounce THs entirely wrong because I picked it up from my German family.
> Literally known for sounding like PNW Americans.
Not entirely, they still have a distinctly Canadian sound. It rarely takes long to figure out if a TV show is filmed in Vancouver based on the most common accent, for example.
Just like near me, most Windsorites sound very similar to my Michigander accent, but still bring in distinctly Canadian sounds.
It doesn’t actually sound like aboat or aboot. It just sounds different from how Americans would say about. They can’t quite peg it so they say aboat or aboot. To Canadians it just sounds like about.
I can hear the difference so much more in the word "sorry".
Americans always try and make it sound crazy when imitating Canadians by adding about 6 Os.
"Oh, soooooorrey!" It sounds a bit like "sore-ee". I think we do it say it in a way that sounds like sore-ee, but they over-emphasize the O sound.
I find that so funny/frustrating because it literally does have an O in it! They pronounce it with an A sound, and then act like we're in the wrong, lol.
"Sarrey" is more like the American pronunciation.
I have a hard time hearing the difference in how we sat "about".
Americans turn a lot of short O sounds into longer A sounds.
So they say abaaut or even abeyaaut and saarry and Baaab and heyawse (house) and reyaawt (route) and "Call the caaps".
Then they accuse us of saying aboot, because they can't say about.
They're just compensating.
Don't get me started about what they do to French words like foyer and Notre Dame.
I have heard young women in Southern Ontario pronounce campus as "kyampus", which sounds bizarrely Midwest American. Tide detergent TV ads shot in the states quoted Midwestern mothers who were thrilled that Tide took grass stains off the knees of their sons' "pyants".
Thanks
Could absolutely have been an influence from there, just over the border. She was leading an orientation at Western in London, Southern Ontario, so I assumed she was Canadian, but it was striking.
I'm from Alberta and had never heard a (presumably) Canadian say "kyampus" before.
My daughter took linguistics at Queen's and did some work on regional accents. I'll ask her, too.
I swear I had a prof who said aboot but I sounded like ab-eww-t. It was during covid when we had online classes so I even went back to see if I heard her right. That was the only time tho
I didn’t think I was guilty of it until I watched a video aboot it going over the subtle nuances of “the Canadian accent.”
People exaggerate how obvious it is of course but lots of us do indeed have it.
His sounds aren't consistent. Generally people pronounce certain words similarly according to whatever accent they have (about, house, mouse, out, for example). He does not do that at all. It makes him sound really weird.
Like he says too-awl for "tool" but he doesn't say foo-awl when he pronounces "fool."
The way we say “about” is called Canadian raising. The diphthong /aʊ/ becomes /əʊ/ . That particular sound is absent from most American dialects, so they can’t reproduce it any more than someone who is a native Mandarin speaker can say “Cadillac.” So when the Americans try to make fun of Canadians, what rolls off their tongue is the closest approximation they are capable of saying, and to the finely tuned Canadian ear, it sounds like “a boot”.
A better way to spot a Canadian’s vowel raising is to see how they say “pasta”. When I moved to the states, I noticed they don’t raise the first a, while back in Ontario pretty much everyone I knew raised it
About just doesn’t really work in my experience.
I grew up in the Niagara region and have only said pasta the American way. Everyone said that.
It was one day my French teacher pronounced "pahsta", and I was like "what the fuck is wrong with her". Granted I didn't like my French teacher, but it took many years before I heard anyone say it like that again. Then I realized it's a regional thing.
Now that I live in Ottawa, pahsta is the norm for pronunciation. But they say Mary-O when pronouncing Mario, which is a crime to me.
I live in Saskatchewan and some people here straight up sound like they’re actors from Fargo. There’s a lot of “aboot” and whatnot. It’s not everyone, but definitely the small-townies do it.
Because it does sound like that to people who aren't from here. If you spend any time in the middle of nowhere, like northern northwestern Ontario, many people sound like they have the stereotypical Canadian accent
You're correct. People associate Ontario talk as being canada talk, not considering its a huge country and us Albertans have our own stupid ass accent.
Have you ever heard a mid-western American say “hockey”? It sounds like “hackey”. They don’t really pronounce the Os so well.
So when an American hears “about” it does come across as “aboot”
My only explanation has been that we do have a particular way of saying “about” that people from outside of Canada just can’t seem to replicate (we hit the ‘U’ pretty hard I guess?) So it’s not what it actually sounds like, but their closest approximation is “aboot.”
Yeah, there is a distinct way some Canadians pronounce certain words and about is one of them. It doesn’t sound exactly like “aboot” but Americans can’t replicate it so they go with the closet thing they can instead.
Yah like us Canadians can argue we don’t really hear it, but then if others say they do I’m sure they’re not all lying. Like we’re too close to the matter.
They embellish it but we do it to some extent. For linguistic purposes, look up "Canadian raising." Canadians take two vowels and accentuate the second vowel to some degree.
Probably for the same reason we put on a goofy southern accent when we make fun of Americans. All Americans are from Texas and all Canadians are from Ontario when it comes to comedy
Americans also do hear it kind of that way. We Canadians pronounce our vowels more at the front, while the Americans pronounce at the back. An "ou" sound in Canada comes as "ow" while in the states it comes more like and "oh"
So..."ab-ow-t" vs "ab-oh-t"
I am originally from NY and this pronunciation causes me to hear Canadian voices as totally distinct from American voices. It’s especially pronounced to me in women. It’s almost nasal. I can’t put my finger on it.
I live less than an hour from Detroit. Went to Frankenmuth with my oldest for a mini vacation to see Greta Van Fleet in Grand Rapids. We had a hotel for the night in Frankenmuth so we could spend the next day exploring. I had a chuckle that, while we were still on the "pop" side of the line (and that's really not that far either), they pronounce it as "pAHp" instead of "pAWp". It's like a literal switch is flipped at the border.
I hear others say it like that especially in the maritimes, I don't say it like that, but when I am gaming online with voice chat and randoms from around the world as soon as I say "out" or "about" or "sorry" they say "you're Canadian aren't you". Every time. I don't get it though because I say those words like everyone on American TV.
Because of Canadian Raising.
We don't say "aboot" /ə'but/ but all of you outside of Atlantic Canada say /ə'bʌʊt/, kinda like starting to say "but" but finishing with "foot" instead. Which is closer to aboot than the /əˈbaʊt/ that they're used to hearing.
People make fun of Chinese people by saying "Ching Chang Chong" but Chinese people don't say that either. People who are making fun of other people usually aren't the type who will care enough to take the time to actually learn how to authentically impersonate them.
Lived in Nova Scotia for 3 years as a young teen
Moved to Alberta summer before grade 10
By November that same year all my friends down home were telling me I sound like a westerner
There’s more than one Canadian accent
I do love the Fargo accent though
The only people who make fun of it is Americans. I’ve only ever heard one Canadian say it and they were on YouTube. It’s just a stereotype that isn’t true. And if you’re getting your information from the internet, I’d hardly take it as fact.
I have no idea how some people can watch him and think they know anything about our Country. The guy wants to be an American so bad that he thinks there's no difference between our countries. There's a lot of differences between Canada and USA. I'm bilingual Canadian and all the stuff he's said about my people is stupid. It doesn't matter if anyone likes the French language or not, it's a big part of our culture especially in the eastern part of Canada. That's why i consider Canada a bilingual country rather than just an English country. That's my opinion on that but JJ should really be happy to be born and raised here. Many people would kill for that honor and he's ashamed of it.
Have fun with it. While working EMS at a significant Ontario theme park, we had a Deep South state family come into the clinic with a young ill child. They all asked if it was true how we say about. I played it up. Their child forgot they felt carsick from the ride and they soon left, however, they asked me to say about one last time. I loved giving them something to chatter when they returned home..
Its funny, I noticed some Canadian youtubers trying so hard with the
" aboot" and I have never heard this in my life. Lived in Sask., Man., B.C., and ON....met a whole lota newfies too...never heard it.
Some, or one in particular that likes to "educate" Americans about Canada? Because that guy's profession has been intentionally trying to fit the American stereotype of Canadians long before he was on YouTube.
I feel like it’s more an east coast type thing. I have lived all over Canada and other parts of the world and I hear different ways of saying about all across Canada. Just like different parts of the USA say the word Roof different. 🤷🏻♀️
Unpopular opinion: we kinda do say aboot. Compare a us person from the south about is 'abaaaht'. We definitely round the o on about (compared to them).
I had no idea about it until I watched South Park. 😆
As a new Canadian, that’s lived here a few years I find it interesting how many different accents Canadians have - Atlantic/Quebec obviously, but I was at a lecture by a guy from Calgary today and there’s a definite Brett Hart cadence that is distinct from SW Ontario.
Only Canadian I've heard say it the stereotypical way is that weird Canadian Youtuber political commenter guy. You'll know who I'm talking about if you saw his videos.
I mean, I’ve been gaming and someone called me out on being Canadian. Can’t remember what word it was they caught, but I pronounced it in a Canadian way I suppose.
It may not be as pronounced as the caricatures of Canadians are, but we do have something of an accent.
And eh is a product of the 80’s where it hit a peak. I don’t hear it much anymore. Though it does turn up in top 10 things about Canadians along with bagged milk and poutine
I was telling someone who was adamant that we say it "aboot" that no, no one says it like that (as far as I'm aware). We may put emphasis on the "ow" sound, but saying that we say it "aboot" is just factually incorrect.
The general Canadian pronunciation is actually, if you stretch out the word: uh-buh-oot. The vowels spoken are uh uh oo.
The general American pronunciation is uh-ba-ote. Uh as in fun, ba as in cat, ote as in rote.
Eastern Canadians do lean into their pronunciation more than western Canadians, but absolutely no one anywhere ever says aboot.
I mean to be fair, there isn't one 'all encompassing' Canadian accent. I've heard some say 'aboot' and quietly chitter about it. I've also been in meetings where people have said that they heard me say it but I think that's because they know I'm Canadian and they're actively trying to listen for something that's not there.
You kinda do though…okay it’s highly overemphasized in the media I agree. But you do say “out” and “about” and all those similar words a little funny 😂 this is from a Brit who’s lived in Canada for 4 years and is married to a Canadian
I’m more annoyed that the US labeled something as “Canadian Bacon” when WE don’t call it that and then acted like we are the idiots. “Hurr hurr…this is what Canadians think bacon is!”
I forget what the term is in linguistics, but there actually is a phenomenon where people with certain dialect and language backgrounds are “ear blind” to certain sounds. On a very basic level, this is why people have accents when then learn a foreign language. They are literally incapable of distinguishing the nuanced sounds of the new language (if you speak another language YOU don’t think you have an accent right? For that matter, nobody who speaks their own language and dialect thinks they have an accent either- they speak it in the way their brain hears/reproduces the sounds).
Most of the time (almost all the time), this phenomenon occurs in relation to the new speaker of a language; but there are rare instances for certain sounds, where it’s the native speaker can’t distinguish two separate sounds that are repeated back to them.
The “aboot” thing is a rare combination of the two. When Canadians say “about”, they/we honestly believe that we are using two syllables. The OU sound in this word, to a Canadian is a distinct dipthjng that is one sound. But that particular sounds simply doesn’t exist in most American dialects- to the American ear, it’s not a single diphthong, but they actually hear two distinct vowels when a Canadian says the word “OW” (from the O, and “Uuu” as in shoot, boot, root from the U. So they hear “a-bow-ooot” but their brains know this word to be two syllables, and Canadians speak it fast enough that the emphasis to the American ear is on the Ooot. But then when americas say “abooot” as an example of Canadian pronunciation, Canadians get all confused because they literally don’t hear that at all (but Americans do).
One other example of this which I find interesting is that many English speakers of Indian descent who grew up in a household that spoke Hindi, even if they were born and grew up in the us or Canada, can’t distinguish between the subtle difference in the vowel sound between say (Saei) and says (Sez). Even if they otherwise don’t have an accent, many will pronounce the second word just like the first with an s added on (saeiz) people around them will recognize this, but they will honestly believe that they are pronouncing the two vowels differently (presumably because there are two “ay” vowel sounds in Hindi that are distinct, but far too close to the English ear to distinguish).
Pretty sure 99 percent of these commenters don't understand how we sound to non Canadians. Especially out east where there are some very heavy accents. People do say aboot. Yall just don't hear it, just like people in Southern states don't hear their accent.
They think it’s funny. It’s mostly Americans, which is why I ask them how does it feel that they cannot afford to call the ambulance or that it costs $100k to give birth, and how do they feel ABOOT that
that made me chuckle. i just finished commenting in a baby group someone posted about those bills for birth. i said if i had to pay thousands of $$ to have a child, i wouldn’t currently have one😭😂
Haha. Funny but also very sad. To be fair, those who have proper insurance don’t have to pay much at all. The problem is, it’s a slavery-like system that makes sure you cannot survive without having to work pretty much your entire life.
yes i also said i feel super bad hearing about people owing so much money. most people i know down there must not have proper insurance then. my dads friend ended up owing over a million dollars in medical bills when he fell sick with cancer after he moved down to the states :( it’s so sad people have to deal with that
This is awful, I hope your dad’s friend found a way to fight it. There are countless stories of how someone’s $500k bill got reduced to $7k and others. It’s a good thing that we, Canadians, often have the option of coming back home and getting free healthcare here. Sadly, many Americans suffer their entire lives.
yes he came out lucky. apparently down there there’s very rich people who go pay off peoples medical bills and some lady paid his off. i don’t know much about it but i found that to be insane for the amount. i hope some day everyone can have either free or at least affordable healthcare.
Canada is a big place. Odds are, there are regions where “aboot” or “aboat” are common pronunciations for the word “about.” Not where I grew up in the Prairies and not me today with mixed Canadian-American speech patterns. But some regions. Like Ontario.
Have you ever seen any actors on SNL try to do a Canadian accent? ( not true Canadians of course). They do a Minnesota accent. They just can't do it.
Similarly, I’ve never heard a believable east coast accent from anyone who isn’t from there.
Oop, just gonna sneak past ya there.
But we say that on Vancouver Island too
FACT.
whenever I hear an American try to do a "Canadian accent" its always just the accent from Fargo
That's not because they can't do a Canadian accent, that's because they think we sound like that.
Minnesota is basically American Canada.
Huge difference in dialect though.
Yeah, none of us talk like that. BC is a bit drawly, a bit slower, a little stoner-y. Hard to really encapsulate, but if you know you know. Then east from the Rockies to Ottawa, we all pretty much have the same non-accent as anyone. Same with the non-accent parts of the US. Could be from Regina, could be from LA. Who knows. Quebec is franglais, their own mangled language. And then the east coast is Irish gone through the was. But none of us say aboot. And none of us sound like Fargo.
Sorry
Don't worry aboot it.
Similar to Saskatchewan.
I’m Albertan and I disagree unless you’re talking full “go fer a rip bud” kinda accent, most I hear aren’t very distinguishable from the American Midwest imo
When I hear them on SNL, they do the typical dialect from Fargo. there's an article where they even admit it.
I'm originally from Buffalo and I disagree with that statement. Buffalo is American Canada!
I don't know, that western NY twang is pretty distinct from the southern Ontatio accent (or lack theteof(
It's true. I'm Canadian but did some of my schooling in Minnesota. A classmate told me she thought I had a really strong Minnesota accent...
I'm Canadian and watch You betcha on YouTube. And I think "this is just Canada"
The Minnesota accent is Finnish, not canuckian.
People have always done Boston and Maine accents wrong as well. Partly, they don't hear it correctly, and partly they want it to sound funny.
actually SNL has had SO MANY Canadians in its cast and the producer himself is Canadian. We just don't actually say aboot.
Truthfully it’s super similar.
Because they find it fun to do so. Things are just exaggerated for entertainment purposes.
What im more curious about is why do americans call fried ham canadian bacon. 32 years old and ive never heard a single canadian call fried ham canadian bacon. Edit: I guess Canadian bacon is actually back bacon but it just looks like ham to me.
Here it is peameal bacon.
This. Every other answer is wrong.
Canadian bacon is synonymous with back bacon. Peameal bacon is a type of back bacon. So not all Canadian bacon is peameal bacon, but all peameal bacon is a type of (what Americans would call) Canadian bacon.
This could be a t-shirt.
And I’d buy it.
...and it's actually covered in corn meal.
Always and only peameal bacon!
Peameal bacon is not Canadian bacon. Peameal bacon is only available in Canada and us completely different Back bacon is Canadian bacon
Well, it should be called back bacon. That's usually what they are referring to in my experience.
Canadian bacon = back bacon = not ham
This is what I believe to be correct. Definitely not ham. That's like calling a chuck a sirloin, all beef, just different cuts.
People will, and are, telling you that Canadian bacon is back bacon, but it's not (quite). It looks exactly like a slice of ham, but it's not (quite). I think what confuses us Canadians so much is that it's neither and also both of those things. Back bacon comes from the middle-top of a pig, and ham comes from the back hip/leg area. Canadian bacon is taken from the same area as back bacon, but it is then cured and cooked the same way ham is. So, it's not really either, and it's both. It definitely looks like a slice of ham and not at all like a slice of back bacon.
This is why I can't tell the difference I honestly just thought it was fried ham because that's what it looks like and tastes like.
I've taken several deep dives into this subject, lol. First I thought it was back bacon, then I thought it was ham, and honestly, it was basically your comment that sent me on another dive where I think I've finally discovered the truth! So, thank you for that. I wish I could properly convey how many hours of my life I spent on this, lol. And then, somehow, I researched this topic tonight for like 5 minutes and finally figured it out!
Haha now it's time for you to move on to more of life's mysteries.
Back bacon and ham are very close to each other. Sometimes the blend together depending on where the cut ends. You can get some ham looking back bacon sometimes. Majority of time though back bacon is more pale than ham and that's how you tell the difference. People saying back bacon looks exactly like ham I wonder where they get their back bacon from.
Saying 'about' is the quickest way I know a person is likely Canadian...
More like a-boat. 100% distinct, we don’t hear ourselves doing it but trust me, we do it. If you go live abroad and come back, you hear it instantly.
Can confirm. Have lived in Australia for 16 years, lived in BC, Ontario and Alberta before that, go back to visit family annually. The different pronunciation between Ontario and the west is also pretty evident, Ontarians sound more like the cliche.
You are correct. I can always pick out the person from Ontario - and more specifically Toronto- as they do, as you say, have that accent “aboot”. Even the announcers on tv from Ontario say it.
I thought itd be the opposite!
Yeah I agree, it’s a-boat. I live in Australia and I correct people here all the time. If you’re going to mock me, at least do it right
I think I might say a-boat. Born and raised in Ottawa. I know for sure no one I know says a-boot, and neither do I. But possibly a-boat.
Also in Ottawa - I say it more like ah-bowt The “bow” part is like a dog saying bow-ow-ow I literally never considered that until my way is the way being made fun of, but now I think it is Never said or heard ah-boot in my life apart from satire
I was thinking it was more like a-bewt...more of an ew than an ow sound.
I find it funny that they will latch on to our pronunciation of that, yet they say “Roof” like a dog barking “Ruff” Whet the hell is a ruff?
I've only heard Minnesotans do that. And yeah it's weird I'm like "what the fuck are you talking about? Oh!! The ROOF?"
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising It's Canadian Raising.
"aboat" is canadian raising, like "oat and aboat" for "out and about" no one except one stupid faker youtuber says "aboot", ever.
We all know who that poser is.
We all know who that *hoser is.
😂
And he’s from Vancouver which makes it even worse. Literally known for sounding like PNW Americans.
Yup
Even Vancouverites say about differently than how people from Seattle say it. Sure, the accent from Vancouver, Seattle and Portland is similar but there are differences if you know where to look.
That’s entirely true but this guy famously rage baits by fully saying “a boot” and enunciates it as hard as possible. I’m from the prairies and have a 10x stronger accent than this guy in every other conceivable way and even I think it’s ridiculous.
Heck, he turns almost any "o" sound into "oo"
Who is this youtuber?
TW: Cringey douchebag >!JJ McCullough 👎🏻!< He and his misinformation, bigotry and lies are very popular in America which is why people on r/AskAnAmerican have inaccurate perceptions of Canada.
What misinformation and bigotry has he spread?
Yeah I wanna know too! I watch him sometimes. He is definitely a bit douchy and cringe on occasion, but I think he's fairly solid with his videos. Also his "aboot" thing has GOT TO BE fake. No way that's real. Sounds dumb as fuck because none of us sound like that. He's also not from VANCOUVER Vancouver, he's from New Westminster which is a fuckin city in the greater Vancouver regional district. Everyone YouTuber that says they're from Vancouver is probably just from some suburb or city near actual fuckin REAL Vancouver
I don't watch the guy, but I took a shallow dive into him previously when this came up in another thread. He completely claims he's not doing it on purpose! He claims it's his real accent and just how he talks. Just hearing his "accent" and that claim were enough for me to never want to watch any more of him, lol.
Considering how he's done it as far back as when he was a news broadcaster 10+ years ago and people who've met him in person says he does it I'm really inclined to believe he's being serious. Some people just develop speaking abnormalities, it happens. I, for instance, sometimes pronounce THs entirely wrong because I picked it up from my German family.
That's because most people can't afford to actually live in Vancouver. I'll give him a pass for that.
Hate for the French, mostly. That's exclusively what he wrote for the Washington Post.
He basically wants to be American. I think he should just move there honestly.
> Literally known for sounding like PNW Americans. Not entirely, they still have a distinctly Canadian sound. It rarely takes long to figure out if a TV show is filmed in Vancouver based on the most common accent, for example. Just like near me, most Windsorites sound very similar to my Michigander accent, but still bring in distinctly Canadian sounds.
>We all know who that poser is. Normally I think snark subreddits are toxic but I would totally join a snark subreddit for this particular YouTuber
I can't stand the bastard.
It doesn’t actually sound like aboat or aboot. It just sounds different from how Americans would say about. They can’t quite peg it so they say aboat or aboot. To Canadians it just sounds like about.
I can hear the difference so much more in the word "sorry". Americans always try and make it sound crazy when imitating Canadians by adding about 6 Os. "Oh, soooooorrey!" It sounds a bit like "sore-ee". I think we do it say it in a way that sounds like sore-ee, but they over-emphasize the O sound. I find that so funny/frustrating because it literally does have an O in it! They pronounce it with an A sound, and then act like we're in the wrong, lol. "Sarrey" is more like the American pronunciation. I have a hard time hearing the difference in how we sat "about".
Try saying "clout" and "cloud" back-to-back. You'll probably hear it then. The "ou" sound is different.
So many Americans pronounce sorry like the Indian garment sari. I agree that Canadians say it more phonetically.
Americans turn a lot of short O sounds into longer A sounds. So they say abaaut or even abeyaaut and saarry and Baaab and heyawse (house) and reyaawt (route) and "Call the caaps". Then they accuse us of saying aboot, because they can't say about. They're just compensating. Don't get me started about what they do to French words like foyer and Notre Dame. I have heard young women in Southern Ontario pronounce campus as "kyampus", which sounds bizarrely Midwest American. Tide detergent TV ads shot in the states quoted Midwestern mothers who were thrilled that Tide took grass stains off the knees of their sons' "pyants".
To me “kyampus” and “pyants” sound like northern NY.
Thanks Could absolutely have been an influence from there, just over the border. She was leading an orientation at Western in London, Southern Ontario, so I assumed she was Canadian, but it was striking. I'm from Alberta and had never heard a (presumably) Canadian say "kyampus" before. My daughter took linguistics at Queen's and did some work on regional accents. I'll ask her, too.
I think it’s more like abOWT isn’t it? From Northern Ontario.
That’s how I say it (Southwestern Ontario)
We don't say it like, that but we also don't say it like the deep south ABOWWT and that's kinda where it comes from
His voice and accent kill his videos for me
It just feels forced
I swear I had a prof who said aboot but I sounded like ab-eww-t. It was during covid when we had online classes so I even went back to see if I heard her right. That was the only time tho
Surprised this isn’t higher because it’s the right answer. People who mimic it as “aboot” are just overcompensating/overexaggerating the vowel sound.
I didn’t think I was guilty of it until I watched a video aboot it going over the subtle nuances of “the Canadian accent.” People exaggerate how obvious it is of course but lots of us do indeed have it.
Thank you, glad this was posted. Its not exactly "aboot", but its a well-studied phenomenon
JJ McCullough is single handedly keeping this stereotype alive....even though he is faking it
He’s the worst, normally I roll my eyes at trolls like him who just want attention but his misinformation has actually been very harmful
His sounds aren't consistent. Generally people pronounce certain words similarly according to whatever accent they have (about, house, mouse, out, for example). He does not do that at all. It makes him sound really weird. Like he says too-awl for "tool" but he doesn't say foo-awl when he pronounces "fool."
it's more like aboat
The way we say “about” is called Canadian raising. The diphthong /aʊ/ becomes /əʊ/ . That particular sound is absent from most American dialects, so they can’t reproduce it any more than someone who is a native Mandarin speaker can say “Cadillac.” So when the Americans try to make fun of Canadians, what rolls off their tongue is the closest approximation they are capable of saying, and to the finely tuned Canadian ear, it sounds like “a boot”.
As a fellow linguist, I thank you for this beautiful explanation.
I'm Canadian. I have friends in every province. No one pronounces it as aboot.
I have only heard it pronounced like abowt.
A better way to spot a Canadian’s vowel raising is to see how they say “pasta”. When I moved to the states, I noticed they don’t raise the first a, while back in Ontario pretty much everyone I knew raised it About just doesn’t really work in my experience.
I grew up in the Niagara region and have only said pasta the American way. Everyone said that. It was one day my French teacher pronounced "pahsta", and I was like "what the fuck is wrong with her". Granted I didn't like my French teacher, but it took many years before I heard anyone say it like that again. Then I realized it's a regional thing. Now that I live in Ottawa, pahsta is the norm for pronunciation. But they say Mary-O when pronouncing Mario, which is a crime to me.
I live in Saskatchewan and some people here straight up sound like they’re actors from Fargo. There’s a lot of “aboot” and whatnot. It’s not everyone, but definitely the small-townies do it.
I went to high school with a girl from Saskatchewan. She definitely said aboot.
Because it does sound like that to people who aren't from here. If you spend any time in the middle of nowhere, like northern northwestern Ontario, many people sound like they have the stereotypical Canadian accent
It’s said “aboat” not aboot. Nobody says aboot.
Honestly I never realized until now people were spelling it wrong. I think it’s common knowledge how we say it, just not how it’s spelled.
As someone from NNWO, not one single person says aboot unless we are mocking Americans.
Everyone east of Manitoba talks funny as heck.
You're correct. People associate Ontario talk as being canada talk, not considering its a huge country and us Albertans have our own stupid ass accent.
And they don’t realize the regional variations within Ontario. Northern Ontario, the Ottawa Valley, and Southern Ontario sound different.
How dare you...
Lol. You know it's true. It's starts with really pronounced u sounds and then the further east we go it literally devolves into pure gibberish hahaha
The pinnacle being in Cape Breton
Can confirm. Born and raised in rural NWO I say aboot.
Have you ever heard a mid-western American say “hockey”? It sounds like “hackey”. They don’t really pronounce the Os so well. So when an American hears “about” it does come across as “aboot”
People who say warshington and warsh the dishes are even funnier to me.
My only explanation has been that we do have a particular way of saying “about” that people from outside of Canada just can’t seem to replicate (we hit the ‘U’ pretty hard I guess?) So it’s not what it actually sounds like, but their closest approximation is “aboot.”
Yeah, there is a distinct way some Canadians pronounce certain words and about is one of them. It doesn’t sound exactly like “aboot” but Americans can’t replicate it so they go with the closet thing they can instead.
Some people say a-boat. Is it really that hard for Americans to say that instead when they're making fun of is?
Yah like us Canadians can argue we don’t really hear it, but then if others say they do I’m sure they’re not all lying. Like we’re too close to the matter.
A boat actually
Rhymes with out
Shout doubt trout
I have never heard a Canadian say "aboot", it's abowt or some on the east coast say aboat.
I’m east coast and it rhymes with out
Yeah but out on the east coast has about 7 more vowels in how it’s pronounced.
They embellish it but we do it to some extent. For linguistic purposes, look up "Canadian raising." Canadians take two vowels and accentuate the second vowel to some degree.
Because some Canadians do.
Yeah I've literally never heard a Canadian say aboot unless they were saying a boot and talking about the footwear.
Probably for the same reason we put on a goofy southern accent when we make fun of Americans. All Americans are from Texas and all Canadians are from Ontario when it comes to comedy
No one said Yanks were the sharpest tool in the shed.
Cause we are so awesome it's hard to find something to mock that isn't devastatingly cruel. We make fun of Americans all the time. Let them have this.
you’re right, we do make fun of them all the time🤣
Or roof/ruff
Its hard to even say Ruff the same as they do.
So annoying
Americans also do hear it kind of that way. We Canadians pronounce our vowels more at the front, while the Americans pronounce at the back. An "ou" sound in Canada comes as "ow" while in the states it comes more like and "oh" So..."ab-ow-t" vs "ab-oh-t"
I am originally from NY and this pronunciation causes me to hear Canadian voices as totally distinct from American voices. It’s especially pronounced to me in women. It’s almost nasal. I can’t put my finger on it.
I live less than an hour from Detroit. Went to Frankenmuth with my oldest for a mini vacation to see Greta Van Fleet in Grand Rapids. We had a hotel for the night in Frankenmuth so we could spend the next day exploring. I had a chuckle that, while we were still on the "pop" side of the line (and that's really not that far either), they pronounce it as "pAHp" instead of "pAWp". It's like a literal switch is flipped at the border.
Haha that’s funny. I thought my Canadian husband was trolling my cooking when we started dating because he was always saying “pasta” weird. lol.
I hear others say it like that especially in the maritimes, I don't say it like that, but when I am gaming online with voice chat and randoms from around the world as soon as I say "out" or "about" or "sorry" they say "you're Canadian aren't you". Every time. I don't get it though because I say those words like everyone on American TV.
Some Americans say "I will sue you" instead of sorry.
Just tell em to feck off eh! Fuck’n hozers they is.
Because of Canadian Raising. We don't say "aboot" /ə'but/ but all of you outside of Atlantic Canada say /ə'bʌʊt/, kinda like starting to say "but" but finishing with "foot" instead. Which is closer to aboot than the /əˈbaʊt/ that they're used to hearing.
Prairie guy here. Whenever I hear "aboot" I think of an east coaster. Not sure if it's accurate or not
People make fun of Chinese people by saying "Ching Chang Chong" but Chinese people don't say that either. People who are making fun of other people usually aren't the type who will care enough to take the time to actually learn how to authentically impersonate them.
Lived in Nova Scotia for 3 years as a young teen Moved to Alberta summer before grade 10 By November that same year all my friends down home were telling me I sound like a westerner There’s more than one Canadian accent I do love the Fargo accent though
The only people who make fun of it is Americans. I’ve only ever heard one Canadian say it and they were on YouTube. It’s just a stereotype that isn’t true. And if you’re getting your information from the internet, I’d hardly take it as fact.
JJ: 🫥
Guy gets so much hate and he deserves all of it. Nobody talks like that ya weirdo
I have no idea how some people can watch him and think they know anything about our Country. The guy wants to be an American so bad that he thinks there's no difference between our countries. There's a lot of differences between Canada and USA. I'm bilingual Canadian and all the stuff he's said about my people is stupid. It doesn't matter if anyone likes the French language or not, it's a big part of our culture especially in the eastern part of Canada. That's why i consider Canada a bilingual country rather than just an English country. That's my opinion on that but JJ should really be happy to be born and raised here. Many people would kill for that honor and he's ashamed of it.
Aboot is how a Scot sounds, no clue why anyone thinks Canadians say it like that, l have never heard it here.
Have fun with it. While working EMS at a significant Ontario theme park, we had a Deep South state family come into the clinic with a young ill child. They all asked if it was true how we say about. I played it up. Their child forgot they felt carsick from the ride and they soon left, however, they asked me to say about one last time. I loved giving them something to chatter when they returned home..
Its funny, I noticed some Canadian youtubers trying so hard with the " aboot" and I have never heard this in my life. Lived in Sask., Man., B.C., and ON....met a whole lota newfies too...never heard it.
Some, or one in particular that likes to "educate" Americans about Canada? Because that guy's profession has been intentionally trying to fit the American stereotype of Canadians long before he was on YouTube.
Aboot is a myth. The only Canadian to say it like that is that one YouTuber that nobody likes.
And he only says it for attention.
I feel like it’s more an east coast type thing. I have lived all over Canada and other parts of the world and I hear different ways of saying about all across Canada. Just like different parts of the USA say the word Roof different. 🤷🏻♀️
Absolutely no one in Canada says Aboot. Let’s talk about how Americans pronounce the word roof, comes off sounding like ruff.
Unpopular opinion: we kinda do say aboot. Compare a us person from the south about is 'abaaaht'. We definitely round the o on about (compared to them).
It's more a-bowt than a-boot.
>a-bowt This is the most accurate I've seen in this thread.
I moved to Saskatchewan from BC and people here DEFINITELY say “aboot”. But the absolute worst is calling hoodies “bunnyhugs”. Unforgivable
I had no idea about it until I watched South Park. 😆 As a new Canadian, that’s lived here a few years I find it interesting how many different accents Canadians have - Atlantic/Quebec obviously, but I was at a lecture by a guy from Calgary today and there’s a definite Brett Hart cadence that is distinct from SW Ontario.
Some for sure do. Nobody in Toronto or Vancouver does.
Only Canadian I've heard say it the stereotypical way is that weird Canadian Youtuber political commenter guy. You'll know who I'm talking about if you saw his videos.
I had a social studies teacher who absolutely said it that way
At least Cdns can say the word “button” without straining themselves. It’s like some Americans need to wind up to say it and it comes out “buh-innn”.
I mean, I’ve been gaming and someone called me out on being Canadian. Can’t remember what word it was they caught, but I pronounced it in a Canadian way I suppose. It may not be as pronounced as the caricatures of Canadians are, but we do have something of an accent.
And eh is a product of the 80’s where it hit a peak. I don’t hear it much anymore. Though it does turn up in top 10 things about Canadians along with bagged milk and poutine
The first time I ever heard that pronunciation was when an American friend asked if we Canadians really pronounced about that way. No we don't.
I've only heard aboot from Americans.
I mean, most of us don't, but many do and when I hear it, I always find it really surprising and it definitely sticks oot.
I was telling someone who was adamant that we say it "aboot" that no, no one says it like that (as far as I'm aware). We may put emphasis on the "ow" sound, but saying that we say it "aboot" is just factually incorrect.
The general Canadian pronunciation is actually, if you stretch out the word: uh-buh-oot. The vowels spoken are uh uh oo. The general American pronunciation is uh-ba-ote. Uh as in fun, ba as in cat, ote as in rote. Eastern Canadians do lean into their pronunciation more than western Canadians, but absolutely no one anywhere ever says aboot.
I don't know what you're talking aboot. No Canadian I know says "aboot."
Nflder here laughin at the butthurt Canadians. How's it feel to be teased b'ys?.
I mean to be fair, there isn't one 'all encompassing' Canadian accent. I've heard some say 'aboot' and quietly chitter about it. I've also been in meetings where people have said that they heard me say it but I think that's because they know I'm Canadian and they're actively trying to listen for something that's not there.
I'm Canadian and when I say "no doubt about it", "Doubt" and "about" rhyme. If Canadians said a-boot or a-boat then it wouldn't rhyme with doubt.
You kinda do though…okay it’s highly overemphasized in the media I agree. But you do say “out” and “about” and all those similar words a little funny 😂 this is from a Brit who’s lived in Canada for 4 years and is married to a Canadian
I’m more annoyed that the US labeled something as “Canadian Bacon” when WE don’t call it that and then acted like we are the idiots. “Hurr hurr…this is what Canadians think bacon is!”
That drives me absolutely crazy, especially when they say it's just ham. It's not the same thing.
Never heard someone say aboot. 26 year alive.
Same as Americans saying they are the greatest country on earth. It’s just a lie
What are you talking aboot?
I've seen South Park. You lying Canadians are all the same, with your foul mouths and flapping heads!! Ask someone else, buddy!
I’m not your buddy, pal!
I'm not your pal, guy!
Because we **do** say it funny. It's not "aboot" but it's not an American about.
I forget what the term is in linguistics, but there actually is a phenomenon where people with certain dialect and language backgrounds are “ear blind” to certain sounds. On a very basic level, this is why people have accents when then learn a foreign language. They are literally incapable of distinguishing the nuanced sounds of the new language (if you speak another language YOU don’t think you have an accent right? For that matter, nobody who speaks their own language and dialect thinks they have an accent either- they speak it in the way their brain hears/reproduces the sounds). Most of the time (almost all the time), this phenomenon occurs in relation to the new speaker of a language; but there are rare instances for certain sounds, where it’s the native speaker can’t distinguish two separate sounds that are repeated back to them. The “aboot” thing is a rare combination of the two. When Canadians say “about”, they/we honestly believe that we are using two syllables. The OU sound in this word, to a Canadian is a distinct dipthjng that is one sound. But that particular sounds simply doesn’t exist in most American dialects- to the American ear, it’s not a single diphthong, but they actually hear two distinct vowels when a Canadian says the word “OW” (from the O, and “Uuu” as in shoot, boot, root from the U. So they hear “a-bow-ooot” but their brains know this word to be two syllables, and Canadians speak it fast enough that the emphasis to the American ear is on the Ooot. But then when americas say “abooot” as an example of Canadian pronunciation, Canadians get all confused because they literally don’t hear that at all (but Americans do). One other example of this which I find interesting is that many English speakers of Indian descent who grew up in a household that spoke Hindi, even if they were born and grew up in the us or Canada, can’t distinguish between the subtle difference in the vowel sound between say (Saei) and says (Sez). Even if they otherwise don’t have an accent, many will pronounce the second word just like the first with an s added on (saeiz) people around them will recognize this, but they will honestly believe that they are pronouncing the two vowels differently (presumably because there are two “ay” vowel sounds in Hindi that are distinct, but far too close to the English ear to distinguish).
Lmao as a foreigner living here, you all say "aboot". Sorry not sorry.
Wait, you guys DONT say aboot?
Pretty sure 99 percent of these commenters don't understand how we sound to non Canadians. Especially out east where there are some very heavy accents. People do say aboot. Yall just don't hear it, just like people in Southern states don't hear their accent.
They think it’s funny. It’s mostly Americans, which is why I ask them how does it feel that they cannot afford to call the ambulance or that it costs $100k to give birth, and how do they feel ABOOT that
that made me chuckle. i just finished commenting in a baby group someone posted about those bills for birth. i said if i had to pay thousands of $$ to have a child, i wouldn’t currently have one😭😂
Haha. Funny but also very sad. To be fair, those who have proper insurance don’t have to pay much at all. The problem is, it’s a slavery-like system that makes sure you cannot survive without having to work pretty much your entire life.
yes i also said i feel super bad hearing about people owing so much money. most people i know down there must not have proper insurance then. my dads friend ended up owing over a million dollars in medical bills when he fell sick with cancer after he moved down to the states :( it’s so sad people have to deal with that
This is awful, I hope your dad’s friend found a way to fight it. There are countless stories of how someone’s $500k bill got reduced to $7k and others. It’s a good thing that we, Canadians, often have the option of coming back home and getting free healthcare here. Sadly, many Americans suffer their entire lives.
yes he came out lucky. apparently down there there’s very rich people who go pay off peoples medical bills and some lady paid his off. i don’t know much about it but i found that to be insane for the amount. i hope some day everyone can have either free or at least affordable healthcare.
Canada is a big place. Odds are, there are regions where “aboot” or “aboat” are common pronunciations for the word “about.” Not where I grew up in the Prairies and not me today with mixed Canadian-American speech patterns. But some regions. Like Ontario.