Canadians do not say aboot, they say aboat
this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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"yer terrorizing a human child with yer pals the other day..."
So where in Canada do people have this accent, anyway? I grew up in the GTA, and I've been to Sudbury, Calgary, Montreal and Quebec City but I've never heard the stereotypical Canadian accent. Do I just not notice it? Do I sound like this??
So where in Canada do people have this accent, anyway?
Fictional regions in American media.
Winnipeg is not fictional!
Prove it.
Now that I think about it, Ive never met anyone from Winnipeg...
Pfft. I've lived here, on and off, for 20 years and never once heard anyone say 'aboot'.
sure
From my understanding, its an Atlantic accent, although one that has mostly disappeared over the last few decades.
In other words original Scottish dialect of isolated settlements
It isn’t quite like the stereotype, but I and others have it out here in BC. However, it’s more like “a-bow-oot” (with “bow” pronounced like the front of a ship). Likewise with “out”, it’s like “ow-oot”. There’s a small but distinctive “oot” on the last part if you listen for it. Not sure how many regions have it, though, or how much more distinctive it is than the USian version.
technically, the Canadian dipthong is A as in father into U as in put, while the American one is A as in Dad into the E in the. To an American, it sounds closer to oo because of that, but oo is too rounded and tongue too raised. (I'd use the phonetic alphabet for more precision, but I don't have it installed on this phone)
The BC accent is different, though. It sounds closer to the eastern a-boot, to me.
The closest I've heard was in one of the US states as a kid but I don't remember which. I haven't spent a lot of time in each province but I have stopped in some random places back when I actually liked driving and most people just talk more or less like in vancouver. no boots or ehs near my ears anyway.
Michigan, I think. And it’s also present in eastern Ontario and southern Manitoba.
Specifically the upper peninsula region, and probably more rural, they sound quite similar to that stereotypical Canadian accent. The first time I met someone from there (born and raised country boy), I legit thought he was from Canada due to that stereotype (I’m older and wiser now).
sounds likely. I did go to see the great lakes, but I don't remember much from back then.
Born in BC, grew up in Alberta, my "ou"s sound like "oa"s. About -> Aboat, Out -> Oat, couch/coach basically sound the same lol
Closer to the east coast, the more likely it is. Met a lot of people with the accent in pei
The first time i heard the accent not as a joke was in trailer park boys and even then it might be a joke since it's a comedy.
Rochester NY here, I definitely hear it in Toronto / Ontario residents in the words "about" and "sorry", but I wouldn't go so far as to say it sounds like a-boot and soo-ry. I think that's an extreme exaggeration. The one word that's always a dead giveaway for me though is the word "process".
There's something about the O sound that's just more....O pronounced I hear when visiting the Ontario area. Although, I think it's rather us in the Rochester area that mispronounce it as AH more than O...we say PRAHcess and RAHchester rather than PROcess and ROchester. 🤷♂️
I agree with your asessment of the "sarry" vs "sorry" pronunciation.
Also, for the churchgoers, it was jarring to hear "aymen" instead of "ahmen" in an American basilica.
This is the phrase I use to place people:
“The barbed wire crosses the creek to keep the wolf out.”
I’ve heard that it’s really subtle? Idk though, I don’t hear it either. I’ve had American coworkers make the aboot joke even when we both say about the same way to my ears.
I’m American but I have Canadian coworkers (we’re all remote). I hear this accent all the time from the Vancouver crowd.
As a vancouverite I essentially never hear this accent in the city. The closest thing resembling it is in interior BC.
“A-boot” is an Eastern Canada thing; west-coast is “ah-bah-Wt” and is common from BC right down into Oregon.
West coast here. I say it ironically without the rest of the accent.
Well yeah; any time I hear an American drawl, I’ll pull out the Canadian dipthong.
It's also just fun to say