An Okanagan drawl?

Photo: UBC

UBC professor Bob Pritchard

Is there an Okanagan Twang? 

Two UBC professors have embarked on a project to discover if there is a regional accent. The study is dubbed DRAWL for Determining Regional Accents With Literature.

Former Vernon resident and UBC music professor Bob Pritchard says he noticed that some of his students pronounced Vancouver with a 'G' sound after the 'N'.

"I had 80 students in my class and I noticed they were all pronouncing it that way, I asked them their hometowns and they were all from the Okanagan," Pritchard said.  

Pritchard started chatting with UBC Linguistics professor Molly Babel and the idea of learning about possible regional dialects was hatched.

"There have been some studies of southern Alberta and southern Saskatchewan accents but nothing of a substantial nature in B.C.," said Pritchard.

"We are looking for people from Salmon Arm through Osoyoos who have been living in the Okanagan for a long period of time, to go to our website and read a short story." 

He notes people need to read the story as naturally as possible, as they have had respondents using Texas and Newfoundland accents. If you wish to take part in the study click here.