Why canadians don't have british accent like australians(if you can please answer all parts of the questions)?

Question

Australians speak similar to british people but canadians speak more like americans.

My father still resists on saying that most of the original canadians speak english with british accent, and I say that most of the original canadians speak english with american accent. However, I know that canadians speak english in canadian accent, but how can I prove it to my father that original canadians speak english with more of american accent?

Is that something new? I mean did previous "original canadians" (and not british people who came there) talk english in british or even similar to british accent?

I also know that it differs from state to state there in Canada, I am talking about the majority of original canadians, and I am not talking about the french canadians, I also know that canadians spell british, but I am talking about the "accent" and the way they talk.

If you can provide a good source(preferably a good website) from the internet it would also be much better.

Answer 1

No.

Assuming you are talking about the Canadian accent held historically by the founders, it did not sound like the current british accent . Indeed the British accent has changed over the years - so that the British accent in the 17th century was different from today.

The Canadian accent of today is different from the Canadian accent of back during the founding, and it has changed a lot since those days, and continues to change, as does the british accent.

Answer 2

With that reasoning, why don't Americans sound like the British or Dutch, since they are also descendants of these two nations who first settled around New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Delaware and Pennsylvania?

Much of Canada was settled by the French first around the Montreal and Quebec City area. The British colonies to the south pretty much spread out to take control of the rest of the continent. Only in 1776 did these "British" colonies officially become the United States of America.

So I have to ask: Do you think that as of July 1776, all the British colonists here suddenly started speaking with an "American" accent?

The truth is that regional dialects of English are affected by a variety of factors, including the influx of immigrants, the language of the local natives, and the span of time. Someone from Ontario sounds nothing like a person from Newfoundland, much like a person from New York sounds nothing like a person from Texas.

So here are a few things I'd like to help you clear up:

1) Australians are easily distinguishable from a Brit, Scot, or Irishman. Australia was populated almost exclusively by the British (from its origins as a penal colony), so they may have an accent that is much more in common with the UK.

2) The proximity of USA to Canada all those years and the fact that many people have arrived from USA over the years (1770-1870) may have influenced our accents closer to an American version.

3) I don't know what you mean by "original Canadians". My parents do not have a british accent, and my grandparents never did. Our family has been traced back four generations to roots in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and France. But the last three generations to late 1800's pretty much sounded like we sound today. I have no doubt my great-great grandfather arriving from Britain on a boat probably sounded like they do in England. However, his kids learned how to talk both from the parents and the local school system, and probably learned to speak "Canadian" from other kids and their teachers. (To give an example, I have a friend who lived seven years in London, England, and when I went to see her recently, I was amazed that she had developed a British accent...)

4) Canada does not have states, we have provinces. It's a little thing we kept from the British and French colonial rule.

5) You are correct. We do spell certain words similar to the UK. Words like honour, colour, metre and litre are spelled like in Britain. However, we also use airplane, aluminum, and mustache in my family, unlike how they spell it in UK.

Answer 3

You've got some good replies, but one thing I would like to point out is the Newfoundland accent. It's actually been pin-pointed to a Scottish accent from the early 1800's. Newfoundland is an island and has been relatively isolated from the influx of immigrants that much of the rest of the country has had.

Throughout the country, there are different accents for each region. It may not be obvious to outsiders, but certainly the accents are there. It is the same as the US; different regions have different accents. I believe a lot of the different accents come from where the primary immigrants came from.

Answer 4

The US and Canada have had a long history of cross-border trade, migration, and other relations. Most original Anglo-Canadians came from the states. Central and southern Nova Scotia was settled by Massachusetts (Northern NS was mostly Highland Scots). With the 1763 conquest of New France, a lot of New England businessmen came in to take over certain aspects of the economy. After the American Revolution, American loyalists resettled in Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and parts of Quebec. Along with "late loyalists," Americans who left in the early 1800s, they were the bulk of Canada's non-French, non-native population. While British people immigrated, too, they were entering a largely establish society with longstanding cultural ties to the US.

Answer 5

Canadians speak english with a canadian accent, and aussies sound nothing like brits.

Answer 6

youve asked this question a million times. And so NO we talk like canadians, simmilar to americans but a slight bit different and we dont sound austrailian or british.

Answer 7

G'day aussie's dont sound like poms at all and as for canadians they aren't to different to yanks but the US has heaps of diff acsents Canadians sound a bit like Californians.