Can you hear the difference between Canadians and Americans?

[[R-MOD]KP]

I sound more British when I play with Brits, that's all I know.

[Prydain]

Originally Posted by [R-DEV]Rhino

desertfox is Canadian, but lives in America

Well technicaly... Because the continent is the Americas.

People call British people European yet we just ain't.

[BetterDeadThanRed]

Originally Posted by [R-PUB]MrD

Upwards and downwards convergence. Where you subconsciously (or consciously) alter your speech to come closer to who you are talking to.

The Queen actually has Cockney in her accent!

You should have seen the looks on the faces of my friends when I started using phrases like "bloody hell" in my speech. Didn't even think twice about saying it.

[[R-MOD]dunehunter]

As a non-native speaker, I notice this with myself too. When talking to British people, I'll start to sound more British-like, though I know that I have a horrible foreign accent. Same thing when we visit the US. Atleast I don't try to speak RP like my brother...

[Prydain]

You all need to stop that, robbing our accents and idioms is sad.

[[R-CON]MrD]

I used to speak with n RP accent. I had a military education, there were always Captains in the royal army education corp and selected civvie teachers there and we didn't know we had an accent. We were sons of soldiers, I was the son of a staff sergeant myself, who came from working class backgrounds. When I moved to where I am now in yorkshire my accent had to change, to avoid getting beaten up in pubs

I've been in education for years and I can't lose my current accent now. Even swearing in class as it's what I am used to (probably swore the same amount when I used the RP accent. It's funny to watch sometimes when those with RP accents - Received Pronunciation (ie. "has received a good education") are less capable than me. At university level people are pulled in from different areas of the country and people are starting to learn diversity in accent and dialects.

We think it is hilarious when people think there is one "british accent" (i've seen language tapes to help those outside the UK learn that accent, particular for stage work) and only really see a few accents in other countries. We see the americans from films. Southern, New York, Jersey. But just how many individual american accents are there? And with canadians, are there more than merely the bilingual french area and the one where they don't speak french? Or does each country have several, dozens or even hundreds of accents that no one outside of their country gets?

Accent/dialect is not a representation of intelligence or capability, although most people tend to folow the rule, "the correct language for the situation" and their own accent sees divergence (upwards or downwards) in company (and especially where alcohol is involved) A dialect from an area of a country cannot be labelled "incorrect" no matter how much people hate the Brummie one

[CDN-SMOKEJUMPER]

I'm Canadian and all along the West our accents are quite similar on the East coast however, the accents are much more distinct.

My accent now is a bloody mess, two years in the UK a year in Amsterdam and so far a year here in Australia. I've had an English person ask where in Scotland I'm from and had an Irish couple ask where in Ireland I'm from. Kinda weird, mostly though I get called an American which is not fun here in Australia as they HATE Americans. I've never had so much random abuse thrown my way since I was a fat little bastard in high school.

I also have to stick up for you guys all the time as you're not as bad as people like to say. Americans generally do not treat a tourist the way Europeans and Australins treat Americans. The way I see it is that if any of you Yanks are heading down to Melbourne Australia PM me and we'll meet at the pub, you owe me a beer.

[Sgt_Canadian_Floss]

I'm canadian, and from what i've heard, americans have a different vocabulary, more distinctive sound to their voice, usually, i can tell by the southern accent that some of them have. (its maybe not the best description, but ya...)
Canadians have a wide range of accents. There so much, but you just know when youre talking to a canadian.

[[R-MOD]KP]

Originally Posted by [R-PUB]MrD

I used to speak with n RP accent. I had a military education, there were always Captains in the royal army education corp and selected civvie teachers there and we didn't know we had an accent. We were sons of soldiers, I was the son of a staff sergeant myself, who came from working class backgrounds. When I moved to where I am now in yorkshire my accent had to change, to avoid getting beaten up in pubs

I've been in education for years and I can't lose my current accent now. Even swearing in class as it's what I am used to (probably swore the same amount when I used the RP accent. It's funny to watch sometimes when those with RP accents - Received Pronunciation (ie. "has received a good education") are less capable than me. At university level people are pulled in from different areas of the country and people are starting to learn diversity in accent and dialects.

We think it is hilarious when people think there is one "british accent" (i've seen language tapes to help those outside the UK learn that accent, particular for stage work) and only really see a few accents in other countries. We see the americans from films. Southern, New York, Jersey. But just how many individual american accents are there? And with canadians, are there more than merely the bilingual french area and the one where they don't speak french? Or does each country have several, dozens or even hundreds of accents that no one outside of their country gets?

Accent/dialect is not a representation of intelligence or capability, although most people tend to folow the rule, "the correct language for the situation" and their own accent sees divergence (upwards or downwards) in company (and especially where alcohol is involved) A dialect from an area of a country cannot be labelled "incorrect" no matter how much people hate the Brummie one

True, true. Myself, I sound like a mix of several different ones, with a bit of "foreign", unidentifiable accent thrown in the mix...

[G.Drew]

Originally Posted by Prydain

Well technicaly... Because the continent is the Americas.

People call British people European yet we just ain't.

and they call Scottish people British, even though the majority of people prefer to be called Scottish!