Originally Posted by
pinniped
We have lots of family in Minnesota. They sound
way more Canadian to me than any of my friends who grew up in the greater Toronto area. (Not to mention they do more stereotypically-northern things, like curling, icefishing, and keeping 15 different kinds of lefse in their houses at all times.
) The "eh" thing isn't too common, but their "about" is at least 75% of the way to a full Canadian "aboot".
Maybe I'm suggesting that Minnesotans are wannabe Canadians and Torontonians are wannabe New Yorkers.
I have some friends from Kingston, Ontario, whose "about" sounds more like "a boat". Overall, their accents don't sound, to my ear, radically different from a generic American accent - unmistakably Canadian, but not so far off as scream out "Hey! I'm from another country, eh!"
Having never been to Kingston, I don't know if their accent is typical for that part of the country, or their accents have taken on a slight American overtone do to the time they spend in the US every year (they're RVers and travel a lot).
And I've never heard either of them say "eh", eh.