What's the difference between Canadian and American speech today?

The more we watch and listen to American and Canadian movies, TV shows, news programs, podcasts, and other media the more we sound the same.

There is still the Southern drawl (stretching vowels) and the cowboy drawl and a bit of Harvard style and California style of speech but more and more people are ‘sounding the same.’ We are being trained by the media we watch!

Thomas Bradshaw (He/Him), Partner at Voice & Speech Coach at Virtual Communication Mastery, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, agrees that we have lost much of the former distinct differences in accents over time. Even the theatre arts textbooks that teach drama students to speak with correct accents for their characters in plays are based on accent definitions from the 1950s. “No one speaks that way anymore. We mostly talk the same all over Canada and the US.”

Is Canadian English different from American English? A little.

When seeking agreement, a casual Canadian says, “Wanna go to a movie? Eh”?

An American says, “Wanna go to a movie? Right”?

Why does ‘about’ sound different in Canada and the US?

I think a blend of tight-mouthed Scottish immigrants and shivering in the cold Canadian winters caused Canadians to say a quick [a bo oot] (jaw closed to keep in the heat).

Warmer Americans to the south who say [a baaah oot] laughed at Canadians for saying [a boot] !

Who is right?

What do you wear on your hear in winter to keep warm – a ‘touque’ or a ‘beanie’?

In winter in Canada, we wear a touque to keep our heads warm. [touque – a French word – is a, knitted woolley tube hat with a pompom on top.]

Americans use the same type of hat but they call it a “beanie”.