Date: Sun, 8 Sep 1996 01:13:55 -0400

From: Jason Wilke wilke[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NJ2.N-JCENTER.COM

Subject: Amerikan accent



Growing up in Montreal as an Anglo, I notice that the Anglo-Quebec

accent isn't. It's the closest I've heard to non-accented English from

native English speakers. It's the kind of non-accented, perfect English I

hear from people in the tourism industry in Holland or the Scandiavian

countries, like they learned it from an instruction tape. In Montreal,

though, I'll hear Anglos borrowing little bits of other peoples accents

unconsciously(like my mother!), or at the other extreme, sounding stodgy

and square("Uh, Hi, John-Gee. How's it going, eh?"). In my case, wherever

I go, people think I'm from somewhere else. I have never been mistaken

for a native of wherever I happen to be.



I've made several Canadian friends over the past year, most of whom were

from Ontario. Among Canadians that DO have an accent, I've almost

learned to determine what province they're from, but there do seem to be

a few with muted or flat accents.



What would cause that? Most Canadians sound just like Americans except

for certain words, like "out". The ones with flat accents are the

exception, not the rule...



Jason Wilke

wilke[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]n-jcenter.com