Markham, Ontario
The Markham Accent
Markham sits inside the Canadian dialect area, which covers Toronto, Ontario and most of English Canada. The nearest other area is Chicago, about 56km away.
Take the quiz and see how close your accent is →
What people in Markham sound like
- Canadian Raising: “out” and “about” raise; “loud” does not.
- “Cot” and “caught” sound the same.
- Rhotic R and T-flapping, as in general American speech.
- Canadian vocabulary: “washroom”, “toque”, “runners”, “eh”.
These are the markers of the Canadian accent as a whole. No survey claims every speaker in Markham has all of them — the full Canadian profile sets out where the region varies.
Markham against Chicago
Markham is close enough to the Chicago area that the two get confused. These are the questions where the survey expects a different answer on each side.
| Question | Markham | Chicago |
|---|---|---|
| Do “cot” and “caught” rhyme in your natural accent? | “cot” and “caught” rhyme | “cot” and “caught” stay distinct |
Dialect areas near Markham
Is your accent from Markham?
There is no way to answer that from a description. The test asks 29 questions about the words you use and how you say them, scores your answers against the Toronto Canadian English profile and every other profile in the survey, and shows you where people who answer the way you do actually live.