Do hockey players sound like "fake Canadians"?

[Yukon Joe]

How do you pronounce “hockey”? US players say it with “fake Canadian” accent.

They don't want to sound Canadian, but like a hockey player—a "linguistic persona."

arstechnica.com

So this is a summary of a legit academic research paper. The theory is that as kids grow up and tend more to identify as "hockey players", they wind up adopting an accent (at least for specific words) that is similar to, but not identical, to a Canadian or upper-Midwest accent. This apparently is most noticeable with the word "hockey" itself. They call it forming a "linguistic persona".

I found this fascinating, but as a "real" Canadian I've never noticed myself to have an accent at all. I'd go to the US and people would say "you sound Canadian. Say "out and about"".

So I'm curious if any Americans have ever noticed this phenomenon.

Click to read more...

 

[WarriorofTime]

Kids from Minnesota and even Michigan have pretty similar accents to Canadians already. This mentions "US hockey players" but really doesn't break down their region.

 

[Yukon Joe]

Kids from Minnesota and even Michigan have pretty similar accents to Canadians already. This mentions "US hockey players" but really doesn't break down their region.

From the article:

Professional National League Hockey (NHL) players might not have the time to participate, so he focused on the American Hockey League (AHL) and East Coast Hockey League (ECHL), narrowing his pool to four teams: the Charlotte Checkers, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, the Rochester Americans, and the South Carolina Stingrays.

Of course that's just the teams they played for, not where they're from originally.

The conclusion:

In the case of "bait"-like vowel sounds, Bray found some evidence among his US hockey players of a monophthongal pronunciation (minimal tongue movement), as one would expect in Canadian English and perhaps parts of the upper Midwest, but which would not otherwise be present in American English dialects. "Boat"-like vowel sounds seemed more "pseudo-monophthongal" in nature. But when these were compared with benchmark expectations for Canadian English F1 and F2 formants, US hockey players came close but fell just a bit short of the mark. Nor are their pronunciations in line with standard American English dialects.

 

[Minnesota Knudsens]

Kids from Minnesota and even Michigan have pretty similar accents to Canadians already. This mentions "US hockey players" but really doesn't break down their region.

Canada is like 30 minutes or less from either of those States. And it’s awesome they like our money and we dig them (Northern Americans).

 

[Primary Assist]

Yes, just listen to Matthews talk. He has an accent/affectation that is totally idiosyncratic from his Arizona roots. And he's had it since before he played in Toronto

 

[Andrei79]

I've definitely noticed it many times. It's actually funny that some research would support it.

 

[JMCx4]

If this 'linguist' (who was really nothing more than a college student) wanted to have his study taken seriously, he should have entitled his thesis paper: "Hawkey Tawk Is Contagious, Eh?"

 

[JMCx4]

Dr. Bray's dissertation, for a little light reading ... UGA Research Portal: A Hockey-Based Persona: The Sociolinguistic Impact of Canadian English on American-Born Players

 

[DaaaaB's]

This is applies to alot of non hockey situations too. Have you ever known someone who lived abroad for a year and came back with an accent? In some cases they're faking it but other times they're subconsciously mimicking the accent.