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news

T’rAHnna

By David Topping

dowehaveaccents.jpgWe don’t normally care much for internet quizzes (nobody really cares what Sailor Moon character we are, right?). But today we caved when we saw one on Digg that piqued our interest: it claimed to be able to identify what kind of American accent we have. We thought it’d be fun, in an attempt to further explore that whole “we have no cultural identity of our own and are just like Americans in every single way” thing.
We’re not sure how they did it, but that pesky interweb figured out that we have a “Canadian Accent.”
Take it yourself and see. Let us know, Torontonians, ’cause we’re curious as to whether or not there actually is an accent that defines us, whether it’s home-bred (like, you’ve lived in Toronto your whole life) or imported (you come here and are assimilated…but only kinda).
If there is one, we may have to consider accent reduction.
Photo by Reza Vaziri in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

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Comments

  • Thierry

    Apparently, I have a Midland accent…

  • james a

    “Canadian”
    w00t!

  • Tlönista

    The quiz says I’ve got a Canadian accent. Whatever that is!
    P. S. Also, turns out I’m Sailor Mars.

  • beth maher

    I’m assuming my theatre training has given me the coveted neutral/midland/no-accent.
    I could be a newscaster.
    Rock on.

  • Jenna

    I got Canadian too! Interesting – was born and raised here but my parents were immigrants. Plus, my American colleagues always say my accent isn’t as ‘Canadian’ as some of my other colleagues.
    Hmmmm…

  • Chester Pape

    It ranked me as “mid-Northern” or Minnesota (i.e. think the characters in Fargo) “almost but not quite Canadian”
    There is a Canadian accent (not counting obvious regional ones like the Ottawa Valley or down east) mostly characterized by something called “Canadian raising”

  • Damon Kemp

    Yeah Southern for me. And to think that I was raised in the Pacific Northwest. Than again I did live in the South for a long time. LOL

  • http://www.newmindspace.com Kevin Bracken

    Wow, they got it. Northeastern US.
    Although most people say I have no accent, especially not a New York one.
    That’s because the New York accent is confined to just a few professions, and… I was never in one of them.

  • Jenelle

    I’m Sailor Jupiter with a Midland accent…

  • Mike D

    Hey, I’m Canadian too. Neato.

  • chinaski

    it says that I have a Midlands accent as well and I am Canadian…bullocks!…

  • TCB

    Midland

  • rek

    I scored Northern. I lost a lot of my Canadianisms in the early 90s when my family up and moved from southern Ontario to Korea and I went to an international school with a ~80% American population.
    Can we bring back the word chesterfield (meaning couch)?

  • Sherry

    Midland. It’s curious that I didn’t get Canadian as I was born and raised here, though I did spend a year in England and five years in California, so perhaps it’s muddled a bit.

  • Beth

    Canadian! Weird. Eerie.

  • Dee

    Midland. But, no wonder. I lived in southeastern Michigan for the first 33 years of my life, and only moved here 4 years ago.

  • Marc Lostracco

    Well, the Midlands accent is considered “neutral” English, which is what dialect trainers attempt to make people sound like for broadcasting (and other stuff), and Toronto’s accent is also considered neutral, so it’s not that bad!

  • beth maher

    I was just thinking that I remember hearing somewhere that the unspoken difference in Toronto between having a “neutral” accent and a “Canadian” accent is solely one of class – similar to the difference between having a British accent that is “London” (the Spice girls) or a neutral/posh “Oxford” intonation (Hugh Grant).
    Making me even more thankful for my theatre training that enables me to masquerade as a high class broad, not get kicked out of Holts, and talk to people who went to Harvard about the Simpsons.

  • Paige

    Canadian! And then my friend got “Almost Canadian”.. whatever that means, haha…

  • Midlander

    Midland, lived here all my life.

  • bobbie-sue

    The biggest give-aways of the Canadian accent are the different vowel sounds in “ride” vs “right” and in “around” vs “about”. Read the guide to regional pronounciation at the front of a big fat dictionary. It’s some interesting stuff!
    Also, my US colleagues tell me I say “Sorry” and “Tomorrow” funny :/

  • brokenengine

    Midland here. And apparently I’m someone named “Tuxedo Kamen”. Is that the same as “Tuxedo mask”? Is it completely insane that I know who the hell “Tuxedo mask” is?

  • rocco

    Canadains say “sore-y” and they say it a lot compared to americans who say pardon or excuse me. They also say TO-morrow vs tuh-Mar-oh. They pinch their mouths closed more than Yanks and say “What’s it all aboot?” It’s different, eh?

  • Stephanie Hart

    That’s interesting. In both New York and Chicago, I’ve been immediately identified as Canadian from my use of “pardon”.

  • Stephanie Hart

    Oh, and I’m Midland. I like that quiz!

  • rocco

    When someone steps on your toe in Canada, YOU say “sorey.” In Noo Yok City, THEY say “‘scuse me.” I don’t know from Chicago (shi-KAY-go) . . .

  • andrew

    Midland. Although my parents were New Yorkers in another life, and I was born and raised in North York. I love Souther Ontarian flat english…especially Italian and Indian accents from the 905 belt.

  • diana

    it seems like the difference between midland and canadian is you you say pasta.

  • Johannes

    Midland….

  • lauralyn

    sailor mars with midland accent. I am confused.
    I’m 6th generation canadian. Ottawa valley on one side and toronto on the other.

  • MattAlexander

    yep, I got Canadian.

  • Andres

    Midland! and I’m Sailor Mercury.

  • Josh

    Rocco, anyone who was born and raised in Chicago will tell you it’s pronounced “Shi-CAW-go”. But this is more prevalent among people who were raised on the South side of the city, as well as firemen and police.

  • Chz

    Midlands.
    28 years in Toronto, 5 in England. Midlands certainly seems to be the way I was brought up to speak, but I can (and do) adopt a “Canadian” accent at will. I think Canadian would be more like what you’d hear out Kingston way than Toronto – the high proportion of immigrants skews the language towards neutral due to 2nd generation kids learning “school” English.

  • David Topping

    Accent Results: we’re all pretty consistently Midland/”Canadian.”
    Sailor Moon Results: inconclusive.