The accents in north america are split east-west, not north-south. I'm from Vancouver but whenever I am in the eastern US they think I'm from california because I don't sound have the ontario/maritime accent they recognize as "canadian". "aboot" doesn’t exist in the west. Never has.
> <i>The English version of “baguette” stops rhyming with “vague-ette,”</i><p>Coming from central Canada, "bag" always rhymes with "vague". I get funny looks sometimes when "lag" comes up in conversation here in the Pacific NW.
There are many more linguistically-oriented articles than usual today. I like it.<p>Additionally, praat is really interesting software from the University of Amsterdam that allows you to analyze speech recordings and see what the vowels and consonants actually are.
<a href="http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/</a>
Hmm, I left Western Canada 15 years ago to move to Denver. I thought I had grown out of the accent, but now it seems the accent is catching up with me?<p>I studied linguistics in school and was fascinated by the linguistic shifts in Germanic languages long ago. But it seems a shame for it to be happening now as pronunciation becomes homogenized.
For anyone who's curious about the stereotypical 'oot' and 'aboot' vowels, Wikipedia has a nice overview[1] of the phenomenon (Canadian Raising).<p>[1]: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_raising</a>
As a Western Canadian (who works with a lot of folks in California, Oregon and Colorado) one thing that gets pointed out all the time is my pronunciation of:<p>- JavaScript
- Americano
- Pasta
I spoke all of the examples at the beginning of the article, and I don't sound like any of the "new" examples; furthermore my mother was from the U.S., so I should sound more like them if anything.<p>I've also lived on both coasts(as well as nearer the center), and honestly I don't remember anyone speaking like this.<p>I've never actually heard "aboot" either.<p>I don't actually see any references, so I'm not sure what "linguists" they're talking to.