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The Toronto Accent(s)

MTown said:
What is this thread really about? I don't know what Toronto you people live in but, where I live, the only similar accent I hear is a complete mashup of various attempts at a common language.
I was born in Belleville and grew up in Scarborough and have lived in Toronto, Ottawa, and Pickering since. Every time I travel to other parts of Canada I'm asked where I'm from. When I answer "Toronto" I get comments about how I have an accent....an overseas accent.
Makes me laugh.
I just speak in a way I think English is spoken....kind of like the other 2,699,000 other Torontonians do.
If there is a Toronto accent, it is most probably a mash up of various English accents that varies from person to person. That is to say, there is none.
I can't even begin to tell anymore if a person I meet is foreign-born or not.
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This thread is about determining if Toronto has an identifiable accent. It is abundantly clear that there is indeed a "Canadian English" and similarly a general Canadian accent. Based on the maps in this thread, "General Canadian" extends from English-Speaking Quebec all the way to BC. Eastern Canada has its own accent.

What the article I posted doesn't do is distinguish between the "Toronto accent" and "General Canadian"--assuming there are any differences.

My gut feeling is yes, there is a distinct Toronto accent, or at least, I feel that while people from Vancouver, Montreal, and Calgary sound quite similar to us, there's also something "off". When I say "off" I mean when I hear anglophones from Montreal speak English, I always feel like they're speaking English with a French accent, even though they're not. Further, are there differences between all the major cities? I think this could be studied more.

I dunno I could be totally off on my observations. I've been to Montreal many times, but only been out West once and not for long.

When I saw the title of that article I posted, I really expect so much more. Unfortunately, it focused more on how young people talk, and the words they use, more so than on their accent.
 
There definately is something to the idea of a Southern Ontario accent. That said it is certainly very subtle. English speaking Canada is probably one of the most linguistically hegemonous regions on earth for it's geographic size. And then again living in Toronto you are probably exposed to some of the greatest variations in English accent on a daily basis than any other place on earth.

I've been asked several times at parties in the US if I was Canadian based on my accent.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
... when I hear anglophones from Montreal speak English, I always feel like they're speaking English with a French accent, even though they're not.
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I've noticed that too. I find Italian Canadians in Toronto and surrounding areas do it too (not with a French accent obviously but ever so slightly as if they're speaking like a non-native speaker). Odd.
 
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Tewder said:
I agree. Nobody says that in the local dialect. Sounds a little brit-wannabe put on.
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It very well may be (I did say my friends and I talk to each other as if we were in Brixton), but that's my point.
When it IS the way one speaks ALL the time then it is, simply, the way one speaks. I don't consciously decide I'm going to pronounce it "batchry"; I just do. And I'm a local.
This is why I don't know how a common pan-Torontonian accent could exist at this time in history. Sure, there may be linguistic commonality within certain socioeconomic, ethnic, and subcultural (my peers and I, for example) groups; but a common Toronto accent of significance?
I'd be glad to be proven wrong.
 
MTown said:
It very well may be (I did say my friends and I talk to each other as if we were in Brixton), but that's my point.
When it IS the way one speaks ALL the time then it is, simply, the way one speaks. I don't consciously decide I'm going to pronounce it "batchry"; I just do. And I'm a local.
This is why I don't know how a common pan-Torontonian accent could exist at this time in history. Sure, there may be linguistic commonality within certain socioeconomic, ethnic, and subcultural (my peers and I, for example) groups; but a common Toronto accent of significance?
I'd be glad to be proven wrong.
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I think it's relatively easy to determine if there is a Toronto accent. As mentioned in the article, you listen to how people born and raised in Toronto speak. Unfortunately the article didn't really examine accent.

We already know the Canadian accent is pretty consistent across Canada based on the map of North American English. For a recent example of this, you need only watch Big Brother Canada--they're from Vancouver, Toronto, the East Coast, and they all sound pretty much the same. The question is whether there are any nuances or unique features to Toronto.

I feel like there are, but I could be wrong, I'm not a linguist. And judging by what I've read, if there are any unique features, they'd pop up in children first. So I guess you'd have to compare kids in Vancouver to kids in Calgary to kids in Toronto to kids in Halifax.

If there are no differences between such children, Canada may indeed have the most geographically widespread common accent in the English-speaking world no?
 
Perhaps there is. As I said, everywhere I travel in Canada, I am asked where I'm from and told I have a peculiar accent. The only places this hasn't happened are in south-central and southwestestern Ontario. I should also add that I am fluent in Czech and French as well and grew up speaking both to a large extent. Perhaps that and my propensity for using British colloquialisms and pronunciations has shaped the way I sound when I speak.
I'll also reiterate: I grew up and still live in Toronto and environs (Mississauga, Scarborough, Pickering) after being born in Belleville.
 
Coruscanti Cognoscente said:
We already know the Canadian accent is pretty consistent across Canada based on the map of North American English. For a recent example of this, you need only watch Big Brother Canada--they're from Vancouver, Toronto, the East Coast, and they all sound pretty much the same.
Click to expand...

People tend to standardize their accent in certain settings or situations, like t.v. You will often hear that people from the american south will drop the drawl when on tv or cockney brits will posh it up in a similar way. Put them in a room full of 'their own kind' though, so to speak, and the accents will fly.
 
MTown said:
As I said, everywhere I travel in Canada, I am asked where I'm from and told I have a peculiar accent. The only places this hasn't happened are in south-central and southwestestern Ontario.
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In a region where 50% of the population was born elsewhere it's little wonder that nobody here bats an eye when hearing a 'peculiar' accent.
 
Tewder said:
In a region where 50% of the population was born elsewhere it's little wonder that nobody here bats an eye when hearing a 'peculiar' accent.
Click to expand...
Though I'm frequently asked where I'm from in south-central and southwestern Ontario - and although English is my native language, as an immigrant, I don't have a local accent.

And though I'm no expert on accents, I do notice some local variations, even within the greater Golden Horseshoe ... I spent a long time in Kitchener, and I think I've slowly come to recognize that those that were raised there, do seem to have a slightly different accent than the locals in Toronto seem to have.
 
If you want to hear a distinctly "real" English Canadian accent, head to places like Wingham, Hanover, Clinton, Elmira etc. Also folks in K-W and Hamilton tend to have a slight variation on this rural Ontario accent. I have also heard it amongst the working class b&b Torontonians, esp those with a historically Scots-Irish/rural English background.
 
Glad I came across this thread!

Maybe it was brought up earlier, but there was a "regional accent meme" going around on YouTube and people from across the English speaking part of the globe posted all sorts of interesting videos saying the exact same words. Quite a lot of variation.
 
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