Speech pattern and typographical variations across Canada

[MonctonRad]

Canadian version of BBC English.....

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

On speech, I was thinking this morning how there really is a speech pattern and tone that is characteristic of CBC national programming. It's like a hushed, soft, serious way of speaking. Never get excited and never sound too happy. Not all of the programs feature it but most of them do.

As epitomized by Pastor Mansbridge, or are you thinking of something else?

[SignalHillHiker]

The coastal Labrador accent.

They CANNOT pronounce "th". It just doesn't exist in their accent.

• Video Link

[kwoldtimer]

Which Canadian celebrity (media, politics, other) speaks with an accent that you would say most resembles your own? In my case, it might be Lisa LaFlamme (born and raised here in Kitchener, so not surprising). I'd like to hear her speak in person sometime, without the "newscaster intonation" to see how close it actually comes.

[SignalHillHiker]

I'm not sure. Most locals tend to think my accent is pretty clearly lower class St. John's (Architype knew right off). So I suppose Mary Walsh would be the closest match. But she has the upper class way of saying certain phrases and, even speaking to a crowd of Newfoundlanders, she would enunciate more than me.

Clearest example to me (because it always makes me instantly self conscious) is "I was".

Her: I waahs
Me: Eyes

But I don't think she's upper class originally. She went to school with Mom.

*****

Dying laughing at the headlines today about most mainland Canadian and international students here staying after they graduate.

"Students from away stay in NL"
"Most CFAs remain in province after graduation"
Etc.

Just once I'd love to ask a visitor from the mainland where they're from and have them just say "away" lol

[kwoldtimer]

I think if I ever get back to Newfoundland and somebody asks me where I'm from, I'm going to say Marystown or Deer Lake or something, just to see if I can confuse them!

[SignalHillHiker]

Go with Marystown. The Burin Peninsula was pretty isolated from the rest of the island until the middle of the last century. It's a different place without a great many personal and family connections to the rest of the island. Your conversation with people in Town would be closer to if you said you were from the Maritimes than if you chose any other region of the island for your fake claim. Also has some areas with a completely generic mainland accent. Marty-McFly for example. I don't know if you'd guess Ontario or Alberta or the accent-less north of Scotland listening to him, but you'd never guess here. It'll be easier to pull off than Deer Lake.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Go with Marystown. The Burin Peninsula was pretty isolated from the rest of the island until the middle of the last century. It's a different place without a great many personal and family connections to the rest of the island. Your conversation with people in Town would be closer to if you said you were from the Maritimes than if you chose any other region of the island for your fake claim. Also has some areas with a completely generic mainland accent. Marty-McFly for example. I don't know if you'd guess Ontario or Alberta or the accent-less north of Scotland listening to him, but you'd never guess here. It'll be easier to pull off than Deer Lake.

I think in my story, my parents will have whipped me whenever I slipped into Newfoundlandese. It will have left me with a very neutral accent and a stutter!

[esquire]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Just once I'd love to ask a visitor from the mainland where they're from and have them just say "away" lol

I sort of get the impression that the world maps used in NL schools have three place names on them... Newfoundland, Labrador, and Away.

[Xelebes]

The French stretch of land north of Kalyna Country has a fairly unique English accent that I think many Edmontonians would recognise (excuse the narrator, pay attention to the comedian who gets up on stage.)

• Video Link

[SignalHillHiker]

Originally Posted by esquire

I sort of get the impression that the world maps used in NL schools have three place names on them... Newfoundland, Labrador, and Away.

It's not that weird for an island. And such a term is useful anywhere. A single word that means "anywhere outside my province" could be useful for you, couldn't it?

She's from X. I'm going X to work. I went to university X. People from X don't do that. I haven't had one since I was X. Etc.

Comes up more than you probably realize.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

The French stretch of land north of Kalyna Country has a fairly unique English accent that I think many Edmontonians would recognise (excuse the narrator, pay attention to the comedian who gets up on stage.)

I once met singer Crystal Plamondon (of the band Rockabayou I think) who I believe is from Plamondon.

If I recall she spoke French with a twang that was vaguely reminiscent of a southern American drawl.

She also mentioned to me that her family and most in her area were originally Franco-Americans from the States.

[Xelebes]

Yes, Crystal is from Plamondon. The huff shown by the trapper comedian, instead of the drawl, is quite familiar here.

[SignalHillHiker]

Just finished opening our presents. Dad got a book by him and said, "Ken Follet is large", meaning famous. And he also says cheerio for goodbye.

Marty-McFly's mother says "dear" to mean expensive, and various other expressions common among NLers of French heritage.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Which Canadian celebrity (media, politics, other) speaks with an accent that you would say most resembles your own? In my case, it might be Lisa LaFlamme (born and raised here in Kitchener, so not surprising). I'd like to hear her speak in person sometime, without the "newscaster intonation" to see how close it actually comes.

I can't think of a celebrity who speaks like me. But that may be due to my speech impediments.

[rousseau]

A week ago on CBC radio an expert on the Arctic pronounced said word ar-dik, i.e. without the initial hard C. I couldn't believe it.

I wonder if that was a case of using the word so much that said initial hard C became a cumbersome annoyance?

[lio45]

Originally Posted by SignalHillHiker

Marty-McFly's mother says "dear" to mean expensive, and various other expressions common among NLers of French heritage.

That's supposed to be special? I always thought it was standard.

That basic word literally means expensive in West Germanic languages (modern Dutch, modern German, modern Low Saxon, and IIRC English as well.)


(Googled it up just for fun: Old English deore "precious, valuable, costly, loved, beloved")

If it's true that the more literal use has fallen out of favor now (though I seem to recall seeing turns of phrase like "this cost him dearly", etc. in modern English) then his mom's just a bit old fashioned and simply still speaks like her Anglo ancestors used to.

[lio45]

Originally Posted by rousseau

A week ago on CBC radio an expert on the Arctic pronounced said word ar-dik, i.e. without the initial hard C. I couldn't believe it.

I wonder if that was a case of using the word so much that said initial hard C became a cumbersome annoyance?

Maybe that person wasn't a native speaker? That 'c' is fully silent in French so you have to be a pretty advanced ESL speaker to be aware that you need to pronounce it (which really doesn't feel natural; normally, when a word is already that familiar to you, you don't treat it with that much attention, i.e. I wouldn't put it past a fluent-in-English Quebecois to still pronounce it without the hard 'c'.)

Could explain it, maybe.

[Xelebes]

Originally Posted by rousseau

A week ago on CBC radio an expert on the Arctic pronounced said word ar-dik, i.e. without the initial hard C. I couldn't believe it.

I wonder if that was a case of using the word so much that said initial hard C became a cumbersome annoyance?

Ar-dik is a common way of pronouncing it. Ark-tik is pretty much a broadcaster's way of saying the word, although people landing their words will hit that velar stop.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Xelebes

Ar-dik is a common way of pronouncing it. Ark-tik is pretty much a broadcaster's way of saying the word, although people landing their words will hit that velar stop.

I've only ever heard it with the hard C.