What accent do you have?

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by evman150

Also, "a" is not automatically "ah" in French. I don't think it's even common for it to be "ah". Mostly "cat" I think. Vocabulaire, information, prononciation, connotation, principalement, idiomatiques, habitude, années etc.

Edit: Somebody who got the "western" accent, give me your answers. I want to diagnose where the disconnect is happening here. I feel like I'm going crazy.

The letter A in french is always pronounced "ah". The same in Italian. The major exception is if its accented, like the second a in francais, but if you notice, its pronounced "frahn-says" not "fraen-says."

Also, foreign words are supposed to be pronounced with the rules of the language of origin... like rendezvous, bombardier or verbatim. When people pronounce words like pasta, latte, cappuccino or cities like Berlin the "Canadian" way, they are not saying the right word/place. Berlin is not pronounced "burrlinn" its "bairleen". Latte is "lawtee" not "laetee". Its Caw-puccino not Caepuccino. We don't go saying "bom-barr-deer", or "ren-des-voos" cause even though that might be the "Canadian" way to pronounce words, we know its wrong.

My answers were totally correct for the way I talk. Albertans tend to have a neutral accent, and don't always have the Canadian raises. I don't say aboat, I say about. Maybe I just watched a lot of American TV growing up.

[evman150]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

its pronounced "frahn-says" not "fraen-says."

It's actually neither.

Copp-i-chee-no? LOL. You say all those french words with an "ah" sound? voh-cob-you-lerr? Uhhh...no.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by evman150

It's actually neither.

Copp-i-chee-no? LOL. You say all those french words with an "ah" sound? voh-cob-you-lerr? Uhhh...no.

You're right, its frahn-say (which is still a rough phoenetic spelling)... the s was a typo. Aside from that, you're totally offbase.

Cappuccino is definitely pronounced with an ah sound. "Caw-poo-chee-no".. its really not that hard to comprehend. I sincerely hope you're not one of those people that pronounce espresso as "expresso" and call Italians "Eye-talians".

I don't even know why you're arguing this... the romance languages pronounce the letter A like "ah", and in Italian, I's sound like e's and e's sound more like hard i's.

Think french words like chat, pamplemousse, l'orange, francophone. There are exceptions, like "maison" but that's because the rules change because of the letters around it. Much like in english... but the letter A is pronounced "eyy" in english, and that is the sound it typically has unless there's conventions that change its pronounciation to a latin "ah" sound or something else.

Foreign words are supposed to be pronounced with foreign language rules, unless they are specifically anglicized words/names/terms, like Venice or Naples or Germany or Spain. That's part of why english is just a hard language to learn, its a muddled combination of latin and germanic roots.

[evman150]

Chat is pronounced "sha(t)".

And saying it "expresso" would just be flat out wrong. There is no x, so I don't see how that example in substantive in the slightest.

[JohnnyB]

this thread is useless without IPA fonts.
half of you look like you're jabbering nonsensically.

Also, I'm apparently from New England, although born and raised in Calgary and most recently having lived in BC. I've never even been to New England.

[Thunderball]

Originally Posted by evman150

Chat is pronounced "sha(t)".

And saying it "expresso" would just be flat out wrong. There is no x, so I don't see how that example in substantive in the slightest.

I don't know why so many people say expresso too, but it is incredibly common amongst Canadians despite there being no x in the spelling... exception being french speakers, who tend to get that right. That's why I used that as an example. Saying words clearly wrong. Just like saying Italian like Ireland is clearly wrong, and saying pasta with the same A sound as Airdrie is also inproper. Its päs′tə (for you JohnnyB, IPA font)

Thank you for proving my point, chat is pronounced like that, except the A is pronounced with the "ah" sound, not the "ey" sound.

You're right JohnnyB, we probably do sound dumb spelling phoenetically without the IPA fonts, but I'm too lazy to do it properly... its pretty obvious what we mean... and this is a hockey forum, not a university paper.

Either way, this isn't going anywhere. Evman thinks we all talk "Canadian" and we're all ignorant and don't know what we think we say, and I think that "Canadian" is way too broad, and while most of us use Canadian-isms like chesterfield and toque, our pronounciations are not all the same, and its not unusual for most of us to either be accentless neutrals or have a different "American" accent, due to media and movies. It seems to have degenerated into debating how things are supposed to be spoken.

[blankall]

Neutral.... I was raised by the television

[Sparks]

Originally Posted by Thunderball

Saying words clearly wrong. Just like saying Italian like Ireland is clearly wrong, and saying pasta with the same A sound as Airdrie is also inproper. Its päs′tə

Hey, pronounce things however you want. But I still kind of disagree with what you're saying.

From the dictionary on a random page:

album - from Latin
alcohol - from Arabic
alcove - from French (to French from Spanish)
alderman - from Old English
alert - from French
alfalfa - Spanish (from Arabic)

I doubt you pronounce all of these words according to the proper pronunciation of the language of their origin. I think that words like "pasta", have become English words, and so their pronunciation is actually correct for each English dialect they're being spoken in. In our dialect, it's not "pahhsta." I'm even sure an argument could even be made for "expresso".

[troutman]

There is no "proper" way to speak. Language is elastic and constantly evolving.

[Peanut]

I totally say expresso.

Also, I got Canadian accent. My "about" and "loud" are very different. I struggled with the "Pasta/cat/father" one though.

[icarus]

Has anyone on here scored a Maritime accent (or whatever they call the accent that corresponds with the Maritime provinces on the map)?

[prarieboy]

What American accent do you have? (Best version so far)

Neutral

That sort implies that I could be an american. Not that there's anything wrong with that but I'm not.

I'm Albertan, from the praries.

[Smyth's Skate]

Canadian

[FurnaceFace]

Canadian

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Gf loves how I say Pasta and schedule.

I used to work for a giant US based company and had multiple calls with a team in the US. As a project mangler I said schedule a lot and after a few months some of the women on the calls told me how they were confused at first when I said the word and thought it was "sweet" or "cute" or something how I said it. After that I had a complex saying the word.

[Cube Inmate]

Originally Posted by FurnaceFace

Canadian

I used to work for a giant US based company and had multiple calls with a team in the US. As a project mangler I said schedule a lot and after a few months some of the women on the calls told me how they were confused at first when I said the word and thought it was "sweet" or "cute" or something how I said it. After that I had a complex saying the word.

To clarify, how do you say it? Do you subscribe to the CBC-type "we're sophisticated so we say SHEDJ-ool" pronunciation, or is there some other more subtle difference between standard Canadian (SKEDJ-yool) and American pronunciations?

[Sparks]

Total guess, but I wouldn't be surprised if SKEDJul is how they usually say it in the States (not -'jewel'). A bit like how they often say mob-ul and frag-ul for mobile and fragile.

[OilersBaby]

I got neutral...

The interesting thing is that a lot of these words...I used to say them a certain way when I lived in Alberta and then changed as my accent changed. So I guess I say some things a certain way and other things another way...and people comment on my "accent" in Alberta AND in California, saying I have one

[evman150]

The Canadian "CBC" way is to say it "shed".

This, in my opinion, is antiquated Canadian English, in the same way as serviette, chips etc. They are things my parents and their generation say, but not me and my generation. This is just the Americanization of the language. It is hard not to be Americanized with so much of television being American. You see it more and more in younger people, the phasing out of the Canadian accent. "About" is still alive and well, but "sorry" gets mispronounced by my generation all the time. Same with "tomorrow". Things like "pasta" are still being said "correctly" though (correctly when it comes to Canadian English). Even "drama" is pronounced the Canadian way a good portion of the time.

[Flame Of Liberty]

n/m

[Flame Of Liberty]

You have a Northern accent. That could either be the Chicago/Detroit/Cleveland/Buffalo accent (easily recognizable) or the Western New England accent that news networks go for.

I have never been in that area, but I had several English teachers from all over the NA (Toronto, California, Milwaukee and Ohio) so I wonder why I ended up with a Northern accent?

Also, I checked evman's answers, and I cannot imagine to pronounce Collar and Caller, Hock and Hawk or Tent and Tint the same... So I guess I am no Canadian