Hockey players are well-known for their unique language, but when a linguist and hockey player studied this, they noticed an interesting trend in the way American hockey players speak: they seem to adopt some elements of Canadian English accents. This pseudo-Canadian accent may be a way for the American players to show their identity as hockey players in a sport that is largely dominated by Canadians.
Andrew Bray, being a hockey player himself, was familiar with the slang used in the “barn” (hockey arena). As a linguist, he was curious about how the specialized language of sports evolved and spread among teams.Regions, and countries. In pursuit of the sociolinguistic “biscuit” (puck), he faced an unexpected question.
“It was while conducting this initial study that I was asked a question that has since shaped the direction of my subsequent research,” said Bray. “‘Are you trying to figure out why the Americans sound like fake Canadians?'”
Canadian English dialects are stereotypically represented by the vowel pronunciation, or articulation, in words like “out” and “about,” borrowed British terms like “zed,” and the affinity for the tag question “eh?” Bray, from the University of Rochester, will present an investigaAt a joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association on May 16, researchers delved into the topic of American hockey players using Canadian English accents. The conference, which took place from May 13-17 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa, Canada, focused on analyzing the unique vowel articulation and sport-specific slang terminology used by players. To gather data, the researchers visited professional teams to interview American-born players and collected their speech patterns and vocabulary related to hockey.Bray said that the interview focused on the career paths of hockey players, including when and why they started playing hockey, the teams they played for as kids, why they chose to pursue college or major junior hockey, and their current lives as professional athletes. The goal was to keep the players talking about hockey for as long as possible.
Bray discovered that American athletes tend to adopt elements of Canadian English accents when using hockey-specific terms and jargon, but they don’t necessarily adhere to the correct pronunciation rules. This could be why the accent might come across as “fake” to a Canadian listener.
“It’s worth noting that American athletes, Hockey players are not trying to change their speech to sound more Canadian,” said Bray. “Instead, they are trying to sound more like a typical hockey player.”
Players from Canada and northern American states with similar accents have historically dominated the sport. Embracing aspects of this accent is a way for hockey players to express their identity through speech, known as a linguistic persona. Several factors, such as age, gender expression, social category, and as Bray pointed out, a sport, influence this persona.
In the future, Bray intends to integrate his recent research with his original investigation into whether Canadian English pronunciation.The unique language and cultural identity of hockey are passed on to American players through the sport’s distinctive slang.
