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I only know there is a different accent because my son had a canadian girlfriend who told me about it, otherwise I would never notice anything.

When I hear the term "Canadian Accent" I think of Cobie Smulders.

And then I get a warm, pleasant feeling.

feeder wrote:

biccat wrote:
Isn't Canada virtually the definition of effete?

Not by any definition of effete that I can find.

1. Sarcasm.
2. Dogma apparently doesn't know what effete means. Admittedly, a lot of people use it inappropriately to appear smarter than they are.

Cheesecat wrote:

feeder wrote:
On a more related note, during my visit to California, people I met would use the word 'huh' in the same manner as us Canucks say 'eh'.

So they speak like Tommy Wiseau?

I had to youtube the name to find out what he sounded like. Wow. What an actor. No, they use "huh" like we use "eh".

"So, you're a Libra, eh?"

"So, you're a Libra, huh?"

I thought it was amusing that nearly everyone I met there would bring up the "eh" when they found out I was Canadian, but most didn't notice their own use of the "huh".

Those Yankees, eh?

biccat wrote:

feeder wrote:

biccat wrote:
Isn't Canada virtually the definition of effete?

Not by any definition of effete that I can find.

1. Sarcasm.

Ah-ha. Good ol' sarcasm on the internet. Fair enough.

biccat wrote:
2. Dogma apparently doesn't know what effete means. Admittedly, a lot of people use it inappropriately to appear smarter than they are.

Canada is fairly fertile, strong, and not pampered.

What was that about not knowing what effete means?

mattyrm wrote:

Khornholio wrote:@MattyRM

This is off topic, but when you fire that machine gun off in battle, do you ever get the urge to say "Get some! Get some!"?

That's one of the rules. Its as important as checking it's loaded!

Awesome.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
2. Dogma apparently doesn't know what effete means. Admittedly, a lot of people use it inappropriately to appear smarter than they are.

Canada is fairly fertile, strong, and not pampered.

What was that about not knowing what effete means?

The context you used it in indicated either that you didn't know what it meant, or that you were intentionally using it incorrectly.

It's a word that is commonly misused.

biccat wrote:
The context you used it in indicated either that you didn't know what it meant, or that you were intentionally using it incorrectly.

No it didn't.

biccat wrote:
It's a word that is commonly misused.

By conservatives that think Canada and effete belong in the same sentence.

dogma wrote:By conservatives that think Canada and effete belong in the same sentence.

Indeed.

Although I might note that it was the non-conservative in this thread who threw them together not once, but twice.

biccat wrote:
Indeed.

Although I might note that it was the non-conservative in this thread who threw them together not once, but twice.

I'm not conservative?

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
Indeed.

Although I might note that it was the non-conservative in this thread who threw them together not once, but twice.

I'm not conservative?

If you're a conservative, then you've admitted that you used the word incorrectly. However, an earlier post indicates the belief that you did not use it incorrectly.

Either you're not conservative or you still don't know what it means.

I figured I'd give you the benefit of the doubt

edit: I'll also note that there's a difference between the noun "conservative" and the adjective "conservative."

They sound very different.

Yes, Canadians absolutely have an accent. It varies from location to location, and the one you see on TV is typically extra-exaggerated to be funny. But, every single Canadian does have at least, a slight "Canadian" accent.

To be fair, everyone has an accent. You typically don't notice your own, and with the world so inter-connected these days, we're so accustomed to hearing different accents that we've become somewhat numb to them. But, if you listen closely enough, and know what you're listening for, you can pinpoint where someone comes from pretty accurately and to a shockingly specific location.

biccat wrote:
If you're a conservative, then you've admitted that you used the word incorrectly.

If that's the case, then we both did.

biccat wrote:
edit: I'll also note that there's a difference between the noun "conservative" and the adjective "conservative."

A minor one in nominal parlance. We didn't just start calling conservatives conservatives for lack of reason.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
If you're a conservative, then you've admitted that you used the word incorrectly.

If that's the case, then we both did.

I actually didn't use the word incorrectly. I simply intended the use to be sarcastic.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
edit: I'll also note that there's a difference between the noun "conservative" and the adjective "conservative."

A minor one in nominal parlance. We didn't just start calling conservatives conservatives for lack of reason.

While conservatives tend to be conservative, not all people who are conservative are conservatives.

You could be conservative while not being a conservative.

It's like when people refer to Left-wing type as "Liberals." There's very little connection between the root word and the label (at least in the United States).

biccat wrote:
I actually didn't use the word incorrectly. I simply intended the use to be sarcastic.

If we're operating on the premise that you can either be conservative, or use the word effete correctly you couldn't have.

biccat wrote:
While conservatives tend to be conservative, not all people who are conservative are conservatives.

You could be conservative while not being a conservative.

It's like when people refer to Left-wing type as "Liberals." There's very little connection between the root word and the label (at least in the United States).

The word "liberal" existed before political Liberalism, just as the word "conservative" existed before political Conservatism. The root word can be applied to other things in both cases, but the connection is definite, and certainly not happenstance.

There is a minor distinction, but that's all.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:
I actually didn't use the word incorrectly. I simply intended the use to be sarcastic.

If we're operating on the premise that you can either be conservative, or use the word effete correctly you couldn't have.

Ah, that's where you're wrong.

The only people who use it incorrectly (at least for purposes of this exchange) are "conservatives that think Canada and effete belong in the same sentence."

biccat wrote:
Ah, that's where you're wrong.

The only people who use it incorrectly (at least for purposes of this exchange) are "conservatives that think Canada and effete belong in the same sentence."

You seem to have placed both words in the same sentence, whether for the purpose of sarcasm or not this seems to indicate belonging.

dogma wrote:

biccat wrote:Ah, that's where you're wrong.

The only people who use it incorrectly (at least for purposes of this exchange) are "conservatives that think Canada and effete belong in the same sentence."

You seem to have placed both words in the same sentence, whether for the purpose of sarcasm or not this seems to indicate belonging.

Having a rough day? You seem to be off your game.

Regardless, this is getting a little silly

biccat wrote:
Having a rough day? You seem to be off your game.

Regardless, this is getting a little silly

When you have to grade 153 papers you would be off your game too.

dogma wrote:When you have to grade 153 papers you would be off your game too.

Ah, but they're from undergraduate college students. Among the best and brightest that high schools have to offer. They've already got excellent writing, college is just a stepping stone to something else.

...and I'd take it over reading 300 pages of scientific literature on an obscure physics topic that no one really understands.

biccat wrote:
Ah, but they're from undergraduate college students. Among the best and brightest that high schools have to offer. They've already got excellent writing, college is just a stepping stone to something else.

...and I'd take it over reading 300 pages of scientific literature on an obscure physics topic that no one really understands.

That's where you and I differ.

dogma wrote:The Québécois accent is hilarious.

Sounds like a British person who's been in the US too logn and is trying to sound French.

Melissia wrote:

dogma wrote:The Québécois accent is hilarious.

Sounds like a British person who's been in the US too logn and is trying to sound French.

Québécois here.
If you meant Anglophone, that's more or less what happened to them.
If you meant Francophone, when speaking in English, move each nationality one position to the right.

There's a notable difference to my ear. They get most similiar with Central and Western Canada and the States near them. They all basically have that accent you hear on TV the most.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyways, if you have any interest in this at all I must highly recommend a CBC Documentry called "Talking Canadian, eh". It thoroughly goes into the history of various accents and bascially every single difference between Canadian and American accents.

I'm originally from about as far west in canada as you can get (I'm from Nanaimo BC. Don't worry, you've likely never heard of it ) and have lived in australia for the last...9-10ish years. I've found that the further east you get, the more the accent becomes pronounced. You hit ontario and you get the stereotypical Canadian accent, then go further and you start getting the friggin' weird accents. My Dad is from rural Nova scotia, and while his accent has become more BC, his family... and then you get into the _really_ rural parts of Nova scotia and newfoundland, and when they interview those people on the news they need subtitles. It's like a combination of a canadian, scottish, english and irish accents, with about 100 years of lingual drift... and then there's the local slang...
But I still have troubles picking out a west coast canadian accent from the west coast american ones. The difference is there... sometimes. Mine has apparently only changed a little. Which my wife loves She hates the aussie accent...

CoI wrote:I'm originally from about as far west in canada as you can get (I'm from Nanaimo BC....

Why is a Nanaimo Bar called a Nanaimo Bar?

Because if it was called a Duncan Bar no one would eat them!

LOL I see you've been there...

I don't think Ontarians have an accent. I didn't think anyone had that stereotypical Canadian accent you see on TV but then I visited some family in Nova Scotia and realized some people actually do...It's like someone from Hollywood went to NS one time and that's it and based everything he knows about about Canada just on them.

Coming from the west coast I can pick up the ontario accent easily. That's where I believe they got the 'canadian' accent from. But the maritimes, in the cities, are pretty close as well. I've noticed that the 'u' sounds are dragged out a bit more for one. Russel Peters made the analogy of the donkey braying for an example, and I can't really argue...LOL