Tanith Belbin - sounds American...

[FreeKatie]

:think: Just wondering.... I know Tanith was born in Canada, but she has no trace of Canadian in her speech, she sounds very American so I was wondering, was she was raised in the US?

 

[Mathman]

As far as I can tell she lived in Canada (Montreal) until she was 17, then moved to the U.S. in 1998.

Did you guys know that when Emily Hughes arrived at the Olympic village, Tanith gave up her room to Emily so that Emily could be near her coach?

Here's the article, by Christine Brennan:

http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/SPORTS01/602210323/1011/SPORTS10

"Then when Emily Hughes arrived at the Olympics, Belbin volunteered to give up her room with the other figure skaters in the athlete village so Hughes' coach, Bonni Retzkin, could be near Emily.

"Belbin moved to a new building and joined the American speedskaters."

Awww.

 

[EvanLysacekFan]

Well, there are a vast number of different accents, so I'm not sure what "American" sounds like. But also note that Canada is American, as are many other countries.

But if you have much experience with Canada you would note that the anglo-speakers don't sound much different. After all, we share a huge border that doesn't keep out speech patterns.

 

[Kwanford Wife]

Having grown up & lived in the metro Detroit area, its hard to tell the difference between those who live in Detroit vs. those who live in Windsor until you start throwing "about" into a conversation... Tanith is extremely articulate and impressed me beyond belief with her post-skate interview. She and Ben are a marketer's dream, regardless of the accent...

 

[FreeKatie]

I love Tanith, just wondering about her accent because I tend to be able to pick out a Canadian by their accent - its a subtle difference but there is definitely a difference which you can hear in other skaters like Kurt and Jamie Sale (non-french Canadians, the french canadian accent I cannot hear the difference from French accent although I have heard French people do not like the French-Canadian accent), Anyway! the difference is not just in the "about" sound but also in a subtle difference in speech pattern. I looked on Belbin & Agosto's website and it seems like she started training in detroit around 13 or 14 so perhaps that's where she picked up the more Americanized accent unless that part of Canada does not have the same "Canadian" accent as other areas. The speech pattern I'm thinking off is also similar in the very northwestern states -like Minnesota.

 

[Piel]

As far as I can tell she lived in Canada (Montreal) until she was 17, then moved to the U.S. in 1998.

Did you guys know that when Emily Hughes arrived at the Olympic village, Tanith gave up her room to Emily so that Emily could be near her coach?

Here's the article, by Christine Brennan:

http://www.c-n.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060221/SPORTS01/602210323/1011/SPORTS10

"Then when Emily Hughes arrived at the Olympics, Belbin volunteered to give up her room with the other figure skaters in the athlete village so Hughes' coach, Bonni Retzkin, could be near Emily.

"Belbin moved to a new building and joined the American speedskaters."

Awww.

AND did you hear her gracious get well message to Marie France? This gal had just won the first medal in ice dance for the U.S. in years and yet took time for her own moment of glory to be kind to someone else....such a sweetheart! Not only the most beautiful skater but also the nicest.

A couple of years ago during a fluff piece on them it showed that Tanith had done commercials and IIRC a TV show.

 

[FreeKatie]

AND did you hear her gracious get well message to Marie France? This gal had just won the first medal in ice dance for the U.S. in years and yet took time for her own moment of glory to be kind to someone else....such a sweetheart! Not only the most beautiful skater but also the nicest.

A couple of years ago during a fluff piece on them it showed that Tanith had done commercials and IIRC a TV show.

That was lovely of Tanith - I think she and Ben are class acts.

 

[millie]

There isn't any difference in the mainland Canadian accent and the American accent. As you go further East towards Newfoundland you get a more of an Irish accent due to the fact that a lot of our ancestors came from abroad.

 

[guinevere]

There isn't any difference in the mainland Canadian accent and the American accent. As you go further East towards Newfoundland you get a more of an Irish accent due to the fact that a lot of our ancestors came from abroad.

I can hear a subtle difference in accent anytime I go to Vancouver (I live in Seattle). It's not a huge difference, but there is one.

 

[STL_Blues_fan]

Nova Scotia accent is very Scottish like. Northern Maine sounds the same.

we have the same regional accents in US as well.

 

[millie]

You can also hear different accents in Americans. You got Alabama, Texas, New York and others that all have a different accents.

 

[IndieBoi]

AND did you hear her gracious get well message to Marie France? This gal had just won the first medal in ice dance for the U.S. in years and yet took time for her own moment of glory to be kind to someone else....such a sweetheart! Not only the most beautiful skater but also the nicest.

Wow, that's so sweet of her. Do you have the link to this? Everytime I see Tanith I think of Reese Witherspoon... they're such sweeties...

 

[merrywidow]

I live close to the Albertan border & I can tell. Especially when a Canadian ends a sentence with "eh?". But it's true we in the USA have many different regional accents. Years ago when I lived in Nevada & answered the phone at work, the person on the other end of the line & I conversed for a minute or two & then she asked me if I was from New Jersey? How could she tell? The way I pronounced "coffee".

 

[Piel]

Wow, that's so sweet of her. Do you have the link to this? Everytime I see Tanith I think of Reese Witherspoon... they're such sweeties...

It was during last night's broadcast after the FD. Not sure if it's available online.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Tanith, Sasha, the Mexican Dance team are all northAmericans.

Although Yagudin trained in US, bought home in BC, he remains Russian.

Living in New York, I hear accents everywhere.

Joe

 

[Lanie]

Tanith sounds "generic American" to me. No prob with that. It's sweet hearing these nice stories about her and Ben. I actually kind of like hearing how the skaters sound when they talk...some have accents, some don't, blah blah blah. Gives me an idea of how people from other areas/countries/etc sound!

 

[Gwendolyn]

I can hear a subtle difference in accent anytime I go to Vancouver (I live in Seattle). It's not a huge difference, but there is one.

And I do hear a slight, slight difference in the pronounciation of certain vowels when I got back east to Toronto. It's very faint but it's more a nasally sound. I noticed it with my cousins in Toronto. It could be just them, though.

 

[Grgranny]

The accent I notice most is when Canadians pronounce ou vowels, such as house. I hadn't seen my nephew that lives in North Minnesota until last summer and to me, he had a Canadian accent. When we lived in Caribou Maine, most of the people we were around had French accents.

 

[76olympics]

In Georgia,there are accents galore and they are not the stereotypical "Dukes of Hazzard" stuff you hear on TV. When I went to school in North Georgia, the accent was very different from the South. Savannah actually has its own accent-my dad who is native here has it. It is not as typically Southern sounding--but I know it when I hear it. I do say y'all quite naturally --but I have never heard a soul in my area say "you all."

I was very off topic there as I don't live near the Canadian border or have Canadian acquaintances--but I am very interested in the topic of accents. When I went on a trip to England, a British man quizzed me for a long time on the plane about American accents. He was a university professor and it was his field of study. I felt like an Southern United States specimen!

 

[ceg15]

That was SO nice of Tanith!! Wow... those 2 good deeds were so kind of her. I think it's great that they got silver!