[SignalHillHiker]

N.L. accent the outlier among English speakers across Canada
If you're an urban, middle-class Canadian, you probably sound like everyone else, Toronto linguist says

Canada is known for its vast land mass and a variety of landscapes. But whether you can see mountains or grasslands in your backyard, almost all Canadian English speakers sound the same, a Toronto linguist says.

Jack Chambers says urban, middle-class English-speaking Canadians sound alike across the country, and no other large nation — the United States, for example — is comparably "homogeneous." There are slight variations by region, but the big exception is the Newfoundland accent.

"There was a strong impulse to settle the west from Ontario. And then a strong impulse to broadcast the central Canadian English accent to all parts of the country," he said, explaining why most Canadians have a similar accent.

...

Part of why the Newfoundland accent endures is because the province joined Confederation last, in 1949, and its isolation from the rest of the country, according to Chambers.

"It was the first English-speaking colony of Britain. So it had a [more than] 300-year history before it became part of Canada," he said. While fishing people came even earlier, the first settlements of Europeans in Newfoundland were in the early 17th century.

"It was settled by west country Englishmen and Irish people, especially in the St. John's region. Those are two groups of people who didn't have much input into the settlement of the rest of Canada. And so you start from a different point and you end up at a different point."

The Irish are a significant population throughout most of Canada, but have since mixed with waves of more diverse settlers.

While the "distinctiveness" of Newfoundland English is still detectable, people who live in the city and particularly, young people, are sounding more like "speakers of mainland Canadian English," Chambers said.

Sounding 'too bay' frowned upon

Janelle, who declined to use her last name, moved to Ontario in the summer and says she uses an "Ontario accent" at work.

"I just kind of use it because I feel it's easier for people to understand me," she said. "But sometimes, a word or a phrase will slip out that doesn't sound normal or natural to people who are used to Ontario English," like the term b'y.

She recalls as a student in Newfoundland being advised "when you're talking to the public or you're trying to represent yourself to talk 'proper.'"

"Even within Newfoundland, people try not to sound 'too bay.' St. John's is town and kind of everywhere else is considered the bay," she said. "If you're from a particularly small community, your accent is going to be thicker than if you're from Corner Brook or if you're from St. John's. People have that assumption that if you're from the bay, you're not familiar with technology, you don't know current trends."

Typically, her accent gets a positive response, the 25-year-old said. People will ask about Newfoundland or reminisce about a visit there.

"But sometimes, you'll get, 'Oh, a stupid Newfie' or somebody will tell me a Newfie joke."

"They think that I don't know things that I do because of the way I talk. I'll get accused of, 'Oh, you said that wrong,'" she said. "Well, that's how I talk. It's just as valid as the way you talk. As long we understand each other, I don't really see the problem in it."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toront...ct-5-1.4505392

Sucks that it's fading, but it's got a long time to live yet.