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'Ottawa Valley Twang' refers to the English spoken in the Ottawa Valley (the region west and north of Canada's capital, Ottawa) which is said to be the most closed-mouthed speech in the country. Almost 1.3 million people live in the valley, whose origins are mostly Irish and Scottish descent, followed by French and German. Irish immigrants have impacted the city in phonetics. A slight r-trilling accent is detected by some of the valley. The French have contributed to the accent by putting in French loanwords.
The "twang" can be noted amongst rural communities in Lanark and S, D, and G, but is not as common. It often refers to the accent from Renfrew County and may often be heard spoken by residents of the towns of Arnprior, Renfrew, Pembroke and the surrounding countryside. People from Pontiac County, Quebec may also be heard speaking with the twang.
A greeting is often made with the phrase: "G'day lad." or G'day myn." (Good day man). Often, the "th" phoneme can be replaced with a "d" as in "those" becoming "doze". Phrases such as "from up the line" or "up the line" may refer to the Opeongo Line. The word "Quebecside" is an obvious reference to the Quebec side of the valley, north of the Ottawa River.
The manner of speaking was popularized in Ottawa city proper for a while by the radio comedy duo "Cecil Wiggins and Delmer McGregor".
Many shibboleths in the Ottawa Valley make the accent unique. Many are surprised that when they visit the Ottawa Valley area expecting to see metropolitan Ottawa reigning over the expansive area, they find suburban farmers, and citizens of smaller cities speaking with an accent much different to that spoken in the city of Ottawa.
It should be noted that many of the terms that are employed in the rural regions of the Ottawa valley can be found throughout rural Canadian, and indeed North American areas. Chief among them is Prince Edward Island where terms such as "slippy", "warsh", "get'er", "giv'er" and "melk" are all found throughout the rural areas of PEI.

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See also

References

See also

★ Irish language

★ Irish people

References

''Differences Among Regions'' by M.H. Scargill at thecanadianencyclopedia.com