Actually to me it sounds like it is just more pronounced there. In Wisconsin it is pronounced very similar to how it is spoken in Canada and I learned to speak that way as well. I've been in the south so long that now I notice it when I speak with my relatives on the phone - they do it as well. We do say abowt, but Canadians say 'aboooowwwwuuuuut' - it is like 3 syllables instead of 2. Something that drives me nuts now is that Wisonsites have a tendency to say 'Don't you know' or 'Well, you know' a LOT and it comes out like 'ooooouuuuu'


>>>>No, don't listen to Alan on this one. We laugh at Canadian accents here... :o) But turn arounds fair play, more of the world laughs at us... :o)
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>>>Hah! One of your most respected news anchors was a Canadian - Peter Jennings, and all the rest tried to sound like him. I know you guys think we pronounce our 'ou's funny, but that's only because Americans don't seem to be capable of pronouncing the sound at all. We pronounce it like 'ow', and you all pronounce it like 'ah'. We say 'howse' and 'abowt' and you say 'hasse' and 'abat'. ;)
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>>You've given us something to think aboot.
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>I know that's the joke, but to be honest, I've never heard anybody pronounce it that way. When I hear somebody say "ouch!" or "owww", it uses the same phonetic as house and about. Americans have a habit of flattening the sound, so maybe that's why you hear it rounder than it really is when we speak. I don't really know, of course, but I truly have never understood where that came from. When I listen to the major American newscasts, I honestly can't tell the difference in how the anchors speak from the way the Canadian announcers speak.