Canadian English (CaE) is the national variety of English used in Canada. It is spoken as a first or second language by over 25 million – or 85 percent of – Canadians (2001 census [1]). Canadian English spelling is a mixture of American, British, and unique Canadianisms. Canadian vocabulary is similar to American English, yet with key differences and local variations.
Pronunciation of English in most of Canada is overall very similar to American pronunciation; this is especially true in Central and Western Canada. The island of Newfoundland has its own distinctive dialect of English known as Newfoundland English while many in the Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island speak Canadian English with an accent sounding more similar to Scottish and, in some places, Irish pronunciation than American. There is also some French influence in pronunciation for some English-speaking Canadians who live near, and especially work with, French-Canadians.
Spelling
Canadian spelling of the English language combines British and American rules. Most notably, French-derived words that in American English end with -or and -er, such as color or center, retain a spelling closer to their original in Canadian and British writing ("colour" and "centre"). In other cases, Canadians and Americans stand at odds with British spelling, such as in the case of words like tire and curb, which in British English are spelled tyre and kerb (but to curb).
Interestingly, where American English has moved almost entirely to "ize" endings, and British English to "ise" endings, Canadian English retains the Greek etymology in that it uses "ise" only where a sigma existed in an original Greek root, and uses "ize" for everything else. In Canadian English, the ending "yze" is preferred over "yse" (e.g. analyze vs analyse).
A business-history explanation for some Canadian spelling rules is possible. For instance, the British spelling of the word cheque probably relates to Canada's once-important ties to British financial institutions. Canada's car industry, on the other hand, has been dominated by American firms from its inception, explaining why Canadians use the American spelling of tire and American terminology for the parts of a car. In fact, a major Canadian retail hardware and home goods chain is known as Canadian Tire. Many of the Commonwealth spellings are kept in order to form constructions such as CITY CENTRE-VILLE in which the former two words can be interpreted as English, and the latter two as French. This makes use of the relative position of adjectives to the noun in both languages.
British spellings which include digraphs (or their two-letter equivalents) are beginning to disappear from Canadian spellings. Words such as encyclopaedia, foetus, and paediatrician are spelled encyclopedia, fetus, and pediatrician, although many Canadian dictionaries offer both spellings as an option and medical journals still include ligatures. Manoeuvre (instead of the U.S. maneuver) is still the more common spelling in Canada, though.
A plausible contemporary reference for formal Canadian spelling is the spelling used for Hansard transcripts of the Parliament of Canada. Many Canadian editors, though, use the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2004), often along with the chapter on spelling in Editing Canadian English and, where necessary (depending on context) one or more other references (see the section "Further reading").
Pronunciation
- Main article: Phonemic differentiation
The primary aspect of the Canadian English accent is a feature called "Canadian raising", where diphthongs are raised before voiceless consonants. For example, about will be raised from [əˈbaʊt], as it is in the American Atlantic dialect, to [əˈbʌʊt], a higher vowel, or nearly even [əˈboʊt] in some dialects. The stereotypical aboot pronunciation, lampooned in the American television series South Park is unusual and completely incorrect in most cases (except for some in Southern Ontario); the stereotype may derive from an interpretation of the aboot pronunciation as heard by someone who is used to the much lower abawt pronunciation, or from a misinterpretation of the spelling of the "word" aboot. Ironically, a monophthongized pronunciation of aboat is quite common in parts of the U.S. Upper Midwest, such as Minnesota. Anecdotally, the abuhwt vowels are heard in Ontario and farther west, and the aboot vowels are heard in the Eastern provinces.
Diphthong raising is shared with many American dialects in the words writer and rider, pronounced (approximately) as [ɹʌjɾəɹ] and [ɹajɾəɹ] (phonetic transcription in IPA). Note that Canadian English shares with American English the phenomenon where /t/ and /d/ become [ɾ] after a vowel and before an unstressed vowel. Canadian raising preserves the voicelessness of /t/ and the voicedness of /d/ where it is etymologically appropriate, even where the contrast is lost in the consonant itself.
Also heard is the variation in the pronunciation of the word can't, in Ontario, it is said almost as canned, whereas in the west, it becomes more like kahnt. The Northern cities vowel shift that is happening in Michigan also is heard to an extent in Southwestern Ontario, for example, Andy is pronounced [eəndi] or [ɪəndi].
A recently identified feature (1995) found among many Canadians is a chain shift known as the Canadian Shift. This is not found in the Atlantic Provinces, east of Quebec; it is only found in Ontario and farther west. For people with this shift, cot and caught merge in rounded [ɒ] position. The /æ/ of bat then moves down to [a], while the /ɛ/ of bet becomes [æ], which is short-a in other accents. This shift is still a relatively new phenomenon, so not all Canadians have it. Of the ones that do, not all have the last stage. Canadians without the Shift typically pronounce cot and caught as an un-rounded [ɑ], as in the western United States.
There is a tendency to monophthongize the long a and o sounds, resulting in [beːt] for bait and [boːt] for boat (though this occurs usually in rapid speech). Finally, the broad /ɑ/ of foreign loan words in words like drama or Iraq are usually pronounced like the short a of bat: /dɹæmə/, /ɪɹæk/.
Like American English, Canadian English is largely rhotic. This means it maintains the pronunciation of r before consonants. Rhoticity has been largely influenced by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English.
Americans sometimes claim to be able to recognize some Canadians instantly by their use of the word eh. However, only a certain usage of eh (detailed in the article) is peculiar to Canada. It is common in southern Ontario, the Maritimes and the Prairie provinces. In some parts of the United States, American English exhibits features of Canadian English, including Canadian Raising and the use of eh. Canadian accents are sometimes detected among Michiganders, Minnesotans, Western New Yorkers and their northern fellows.
Other variations
Canada shares similarities with British English in pronouncing words like fragile, fertile, and mobile. While American English pronounce them as [fɹædʒl̩], [fɝɾl̩], and [moʊbl̩], Canadians pronounce them as the British do, sounding like /fɹædʒajl̩/, /moʊbajl̩/ An exception is missile, where the American and British versions are almost equal; the American pronunciation of fertile is also becoming very popular in Canada, even though the British pronunciation remains dominant.
In American English, words like semi, anti, and multi are often pronounced as /sɛmaj/, /æntaj/, and /mʌltaj/, whereas the British pronounce them like /sɛmi/, /ænti/, and so on. Canadians tend to prefer the British pronunciation of these words, though American pronunciation has made headway.
In Canada, the word premier, as meant to be the leader of a provincial or territorial government, is pronounced [ˈpɹɛ.mjɛɹ], [ˈpɹi.mjiɹ], or [ˈpɹi.mjɛɹ] in most places. Premiere, denoting a first performance, is pronounced the same in Canada as the rest of the world.
Vocabulary
Where Canadian English shares vocabulary with other English dialects, it tends to share most with American English. For instance, automotive terminology in Canada is entirely American. Canadians may prefer the British term railway to the American railroad, but most railway terminology in Canada follows American usage (e.g., ties, as well as cars rather than sleepers and waggons), although railway employees themselves say sleeper.
Spoken Canadian English and American English are mutually intelligible with each other and much more readily understood and less fraught with differences than British English is to either of them. However, some terms in standard Canadian English are shared with Commonwealth English, but not with American English. These include:
Britishisms
- Tory for a supporter of the federal Conservative Party of Canada, the historic Progressive Conservative Party of Canada or a provincial Progressive Conservative party; the U.S. use of Tory to mean the Loyalists in the time of the American Revolution is unknown in Canada, where they are called United Empire Loyalists.
- solicitor and barrister for lawyers — although in Canada, a lawyer is usually referred to as a barrister and solicitor only in formal and professional usage; lawyer, or counsel predominates in everyday contexts, and sometimes the American usage attorney is encountered. In England, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Wales, etc. the legal profession remains divided and the terms have a practical meaning and solicitor and barrister are two different people; in Canada, the same lawyer occupies both roles but will often use terms like Barrister and Solicitor, or QC (Queen's Counsel, an honour given in some provinces for a certain level of experience or, be it said, service to the political party in office) as formal or official titles. Prior to the fusion of law and equity solicitors and attorneys practised, respectively, in the courts of law and equity. When the courts were fused, one of the two terms became superfluous; Americans chose "attorney"; the British, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders chose "solicitor," although one still hears "attorney" from time to time in Australia. In the Indian subcontinent, perplexingly, the term "advocate" is used — in Canada this would indicate a Quebec practitioner.
- Back bacon: called in the U.S. Canadian bacon
- bum for the American butt, as well as being a derogatory word for a homeless person (after the Amerian usuage). The two words co-exist in Canadian English (the name for a person and the name for a part of the anatomy). However, "bum" (the body part) does not have the indecent character it retains in British and Australasian use, as it is commonly used as a polite or childish euphemism for ruder words such as "butt" or ass (North American variation of arse). Robert Munsch found it necessary to change "You are a bum" to "You are a toad" in the British edition of his children's story The Paper Bag Princess. And the 1940s United Church Young People's Union song "There's not a bum in the Yonge Street Mission/...Put a nickel in the drum, save another dirty bum" provokes considerable shock among fellow Methodists in other Commonwealth countries. In both of these examples, these are usuages to mean a homeless or shiftless person.
- tin (as in tin of tuna) rather than can., however, as elsewhere, the latter is used more often.
- arse is commonly used in Atlantic Canada and among older people in Ontario and to the west. West of the Ottawa river, ass is more idiomatic among younger people.
- serviette: a table napkin. Considered a give-away of low-class antecedents in the UK and the U.S. and also generally in English Canada but sometimes in Canada assumed to be indicative of a knowledge of French and therefore sometimes to be heard among upper middle class people on that basis.
Several lexical items come from British English, such as lieutenant (/lɛf-/); light standard (an obsolete British word for lamp-post, rarely used today). Several political terms are uniquely Canadian, including riding (a parliamentary constituency or electoral district).
French Loanwords
Like other dialects of English that exist in proximity to francophones, French loanwords have entered Canadian English, such as:
- alcool: grain alcohol; everclear (pronounced as if English, al-cool)
- CÉGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel): a two- or three-year pre-university or professional college (Quebec only)
- dépanneur: a corner store (convenience store), shortened to dep (Québec only)
- poutine: a dish of french fries (or chips) topped with cheese curds and covered with hot gravy (Quebec) or a dumpling filled with ground meat (Maritimes).
- Society of Alcohols: the Société des alcools du Québec, a liquor store. Often called the SAQ (Pronounced sack or S-A-Q) by anglophones. Formerly called the Regie (for Regie des alcools). (Québec only)
- tuque: a close-fitting woolen winter hat (sometimes spelled toque, which is assimilated from a different kind of hat, or touque). American English would use the terms stocking-cap, knit cap or watch cap.
- historical and political terms such as voyageur, Automatiste, Quiet Revolution, péquiste, bloquiste
Often native French Canadian speakers will use calques of French idioms, so in Quebec it is relatively common of for both Anglophones and Francophones to "close the light" or to "open the light", meaning to turn on or off the light in a room. This was especially common in the Gaspé Peninsula, where until recently Anglophones and Francophones lived in mixed communities for generations. Similar calques from other languages are found in English throughout Canada, particularly in BC and the Prairies where translated usages from European languages are common, whether inherited from parents or spoken by new immigrants.
Some distinctive Canadian English terms
Canadian English also has its own terms not found, or not widely used, in other variants of English. In 1998, Oxford University Press produced a Canadian English dictionary, after five years of lexicographical research, called The Canadian Oxford Dictionary; a second edition was published in 2004. It listed uniquely Canadian words and words borrowed from other languages, and surveyed spellings, such as whether colour or color was the most popular choice in common use. The list below includes some words that are not strictly unique to Canada, but are distinctive for their relatively widespread use there.
- allophone: a resident of Quebec who speaks a first language other than English or French. Used only by linguists in other English-speaking countries, this word has come to be used by journalists and broadcasters, and then by the general public, in some parts of Canada.
- biffy: outdoor toilet usually located over pit or a septic tank. The Americanism "john" and the Britishism "loo" are relatively common in British Columbia.
- Big Smoke: lately co-opted by Toronto but originally and for a long time in BC and Alberta used only in reference to Vancouver, either with or without a definite article. The origin of the term is not mill-smoke, as might be guessed at first, but from the use of "smoke" in the Chinook Jargon to mean rain and/or fog (of which Vancouver has plenty)
- Blochead: (derogatory term) a member of the Bloc Québécois
- butter tart: a single-serving sweet pie, often with raisins; very like pecan pie, minus the pecans - but in Canada a single-serving pecan pie is called a "butter tart with pecans".
- concession road; in southern Ontario and southern Quebec, one of a set of roads laid out by the colonial government as part of the distribution of land in standard lot sizes. The roads were laid out in squares as nearly as possible equal to 1,000 acres (that is, one and a quarter miles square). Many of the concession roads were known as sidelines, and in Ontario many roads are still called lines.
- chesterfield (also Northern California & Britain): a sofa, couch, or loveseat[2]
- dayliner: a Budd Rail Diesel Car, a self-propelled diesel passenger railcar, typically called a "Budd Car"
- double-double: a cup of coffee with two creams and two sugars
- eavestroughs (also Northern & Western U.S.): grooves or channels that attach to the underside of the roof of a house to collect rainwater. Known to most Americans and to Britons as gutters.
- Family Compact: a group of influential families who exercised substantial political control of Ontario during part of the 1800s. The Quebec equivalent was the Chateau Clique
- garburator: a garbage disposal unit located beneath the drain of a kitchen sink.
- gettone (in Toronto and environs): foosball; pronounced roughly as in Italian
- Grit: a member or supporter of one of the federal or provincial Liberal parties (but not the Parti libéral du Québec)
- joe job: a low-class, low-paying job. Not to be confused with the American term joe job.
- keener: an enthusiastic student, not necessarily a positive term
- Kokanee: British Columbian name for a species of land-locked salmon (accent on first syllable). Also the name of a popular beer made in the Kootenay district, aka "Blue Cocaine".
- Kraft Dinner: often shortened to KD, known in the U.S. as Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
- line: see Concession road, above.
- loonie and toonie: Canadian one- and two-dollar coins. Derived from the use of the loon on the Canadian dollar coin.
- loser cruiser: public transit, i.e. the bus. Usually only used by owners of vehicles when speaking disparagingly of transit riders.
- Nanaimo bar: a confection named for the town of Nanaimo, British Columbia and made of egg custard with a Graham-cracker-based bottom and a thin layer of chocolate on top; however, this term is now common in the United States and elsewhere, thanks to the efforts of Starbucks in popularizing them.
- Navvy Jack - the name for the top grade of washed pea gravel in the hardware/landscaping business in British Columbia. Named for the first white settler in West Vancouver, a British "navvy" who supplied this type of gravel to the growing communities of Burrard Inlet.
- parkade: parking garage
- quiggly hole and quiggly town: remains of First Nations underground houses in the Interior of British Columbia
- Robertson: a Canadian square-headed screw or screwdriver. While this is used outside the country for that screw head type, the screws are much less common.
- runners: running shoes; sneakers. Also used somewhat in Australian English.
- shit disturber: a person who tends to create controversy or chaos
- sugar pie: A pie made with maple-sugar filling, similar to a butter tart and a staple in Québécois home cooking.
- Ski-Doo: a brand name now used generically to refer to any snowmobile. Can also be used as a verb. Also skidoo.
- Snowbird: a Canadian who spends the winter in the States (often Florida). Often retired. Also the name of the Canadian Forces aerobatics team.
- Timbits: a brand name of doughnut holes made by Tim Hortons that has become a generic term
- trousseau tea: a reception held by the mother of a bride, for neighbours not invited to the wedding
- tuque: a knit winter hat that covers the head and ears (called a "ski hat", "watch cap", "stocking cap", or "beanie" in American English). Sometimes misspelled toque
- Newfie, Newf: A colloquial, often derisive term used to describe one who is from Newfoundland and Labrador.
- pickerel: This is a misused slang word for walleye. Pickerel are actually a number of species that are members of the Esox family, commonly called the pike family, while walleye is a member of the Percidae family.
- Canuck: A a slang term for "Canadian" in American English and Canadian English. It sometimes means "French Canadian" in particular, especially when used in the Northeast of the United States and in Canada.
The Bob & Doug McKenzie "Take off to the Great White North" comedy routines, popular in both the U.S. and Canada in the early 1980s, drew heavily on linguistic differences such as pronunciation (such as Trawna for Toronto or brudle for brutal) as well as once-obscure historical terms such as hoser or hosehead (originally used to refer to gas siphoning on the prairies in the depression era).
Variations between Canadian and American lexicons
There are a few meaning differences between Canadian and American English; for example, to table a document in Canada is to present it, whereas in the U.S. it means to withdraw it from consideration. Also, a 'rubber' in the U.S. and Canada is slang for a condom; however, in Canada it is sometimes also another term for 'eraser' (as it is in England) and, in the plural, for overshoes. In the same vein is "pissed", which in the U.S. means "angry" but in Canada means "drunk"; the Canadian equivalent to the American usage most often requires the context "pissed off", although the "off" is not mandatory. Similarly, "pissed up" means (got) drunk and the phrase "it was a real piss-up" means that everybody involved became really inebriated.
Canadians mostly use the term 'gasoline', rather than the British term 'petrol'. Gasoline prices require some awkward translation between Canadian and American figures. Even before the metrication efforts of the 1970s, the translation of "dollars per gallon" required not only replacing Canadian vs. American currencies but also a conversion between Imperial (4.5 L) vs. U.S. (3.8 L) gallons.
When pronouncing letters of the alphabet, Canadians almost invariably use the Anglo-European (and French) "zed" rather than the American "zee" for the letter Z. Canadian students add "grade" before their grade level, instead of after it as is the usual, but not sole, American practice. For example, a student in the "10th grade" in the U.S. would be in "Grade 10" in Canada. (Quebec anglophones may instead say "sec 5" (secondary 5) for Grade 11.) It should also be noted that in Canada, the specific high school grade (eg. Grade 9 or Grade 12) or university year is stated and not the American terms "freshman" or "sophomore". Also, while in the United States the term "college" refers to post-secondary education in general, the term "college" has a different meaning in Canada. It refers to either a post-secondary technical or vocational institution, or to one of the colleges that exist as individual institutions within some Canadian universities. Most often, a "college" is a community college, not a university. It may also refer to a CÉGEP in Quebec. In Canada a "college student" might denote someone obtaining a diploma in plumbing while "university student" is the term for someone earning a bachelor's degree. Still, "going to college" has the same meaning as "going to university", unless someone is being specific about which level of post-secondary education they are referring to.
There is also greater resistance to turning nouns into verbs in Canada. Until recently, many Canadian teachers rejected the verb to contact.
Adoption of metric units is more advanced in Canada than in the U.S. due to governmental efforts during the Trudeau era; Canadians still often use pounds, feet and inches to measure themselves; cups, teaspoons and tablespoons in the kitchen; and miles per gallon instead of litres per 100km for fuel efficiency; but outdoor temperatures, groceries, fuel and highway speeds/distances are almost always given in metric figures.
Chinook Jargon words in British Columbia
British Columbia English has several words still in current use which are loanwords from the Chinook Jargon, which was widely spoken throughout the province by all ethnicities well into the middle of the 20th Century. Granted these originally came from the lower Columbia River (for the most part) but the Jargon came to B.C. before the mainland colony was declared and the development of the Jargon in the form it spread to here as is the direct result of British influence (the HBC's activity) in the region. These words tend to be shared with, but are not as common in, the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and, to a lesser degree, Idaho and western Montana. The most famous of these words, and probably the most popular still, is skookum, which was used in the Jargon either as a verb auxiliary for to be able or an adjective for able, strong, big, genuine, reliable - which sums up its use in BC English, although there are a wide range of possible usages: a skookum house is a jail or prison (house in the Jargon could mean anything from a building to a room. "He's a skookum guy" means that the person is solid and reliable while "we need somebody who's skookum" means that a strong and large person is needed. A carpenter, after banging a stud into place, might check it or refer to it as "yeah, that's skookum". Asking for affirmation, someone might say "is that skookum" or "is that skookum with you?" Skookum can also be translated simply as "O.K." but it means something a bit more emphatic.
Other Jargon words in BC English include chuck, originally meaning water or any fluid but adapted into English to refer to bodies of water, particularly "the saltchuck" in reference to salt water. In combination with skookum the compound word skookumchuck, meaning a rapids (lit. "strong water"), is found in three placenames although not used with its true meaning in ordinary speech. Chuck and saltchuck, however, remain common, even in local broadcast English.
There's also "high muckamuck" and even its proper form "hyas muckamuck" (high-ass), and the variant "high mucketymuck"; "high mucketymuck/muckamuck" has spread far beyond the Pacific Northwest, and meaning a big boss, a high poohbah, and while literally meaning "big feed" or "important banquet", potentially meaning even a fullblown potlatch - another very BC word, by the way - in English it has a sense of "the guys at the head table" since "muckamuck" or "a feed" is in the same vein in non-city BC English as "grub" or "a meal/dinner". "Quiggly hole" or "quiggly" referst to the remains of an old Indian pit-house, or underground house, from "kickwillie" or "kekuli", which in the Jargon means "down" or "underneath" or "beneath".
In northern BC and the Yukon, and used in broadcast English in those areas, the Chinook Jargon adaption of the French merci remains common, i.e. mahsi or masi, with the accent on the first syllable (unlike in French).
Toronto
The English spoken in Toronto is closely related to the midwestern American accent, but without the Northern cities vowel shift. Slang terms used in Toronto are synonymous with those used in other major North American cities. There is also a heavy influx of slang terminology originating from Toronto's many immigrant communities, of which the vast majority speak English only as a second or minor language. These terms originate mainly from various European, Asian and African words. Many Torontonians use buddy (without a capital) as it is often used in Newfoundland English – as equivalent to that man (I like buddy's car.).
In Toronto's ethnic communities there are many words that are distinct, or come straight from Jamaica.
- Still (Toronto): Connector word, used after certain sentences, and at random.
- Fossy (Jamaica): Gay.
- Foss (Jamaica): Nosey.
- Gee (Toronto): Girl
- Bee (United States): Guy
- Dry (Toronto): An expression used when in situation that was insulting to someone.
- Arms (Toronto): Something that's not right, insulting
- Lease (Toronto), Jamaica): To get rid of
- Mans (Toronto): Slang for 'men', popular with the youth of Toronto.
- Salt (Toronto), Jamaica): Something offensive, horrible.
- Zseen, Seen, Zeen (Jamaica): Alright? (When a question mark follows), Ok, I see.
- Car Wash (Toronto): oral sex.
- Mossin (Toronto): Chillin.
- Fete (Barbados): A really big Party.
- Jam (Toronto): A big party.
- Barely (Toronto): …”Naw man, barely even.” An expression Meaning “no.”
- Reachin' (Toronto): Going somewhere.
- Drape, Draped (Jamaica): To grab ones collar, to rough one up.
- Chop: (Toronto): To approach someone with intentions of a relationship with the opposite sex.
- (One is...) Hard (Toronto): A tough person.
- (One is...) Soft (Toronto): Sissy, Disgrace, puny, cannot fight...
- Waste (Toronto) : Something is “waste,”… Something sucks, is stupid, is pointless.
- Star (Jamaica): They use this word when talking (ex. Yo star... Dats wrong star...)
- Brainer, (one gets…) Brainz (Toronto): One who gives oral sex to men, synonym to “head.”
- Live (Toronto): Cool, Good, Lively.
- Head Buss (Toronto) : When someone is subject to a lie.
- Snuff (Toronto) : Punch.
Regional variation in pronunciation
Newfoundland
The province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which was an autonomous dominion until March 31, 1949, has its own dialect distinct from the rest of Canadian English. See Newfoundland English.
Maritimes
Maritimer English quirks include the removal of pre-consonantal [ɹ] sounds, and a faster speech tempo. It is heavily influenced by both British and Irish English.
An example of typical Maritime English might be the pronunciation of the word "battery." In American English (and also Western Canadian English) the word would be pronounced "bad-der-y", but (sometimes) "bat-try" in the Maritimes which follows the British pronunciation. The letter "T" is strongly pronounced in general, but always lightly. It is rare for the "T" at the end of a word to receive a "D" pronunciation.
While the stereotypical Canadian interrogative "Eh?" is used more often in the Maritimes than it would be in the U.S., it is actually quite rare compared to Western Canada. Alternatively, one might hear the interrogative "Right?" which is in turn used as an adverb (e.g.: "It was right foggy today!") as well. "Some" can be used as an adverb as well, in certain circles (e.g.: "This cake is some good!").
The second syllable of "about" is pronounced [ʌʊ] rather than RP [aʊ]. The main distinction between Canadian (Prairie) pronunciation of this diphthong is in its resolution. Namely, an American pronunciation resolves the a-sound [ɶ] (or, alternatively, the schwa sound ([ə])) , whereas the Canadian pronunciation resolves with an oh-sound [ɔ] (a bah oh t). One might hear the term "Out and about" being pronounced as "Oat in a boat" in the Maritimes.
British terms are very much still a part of Maritime English, although slowly fading away in favour of American or Western terms. "Chesterfield" and "front room" are examples of this.
Cape Breton Island has a distinct dialect due to settlement by speakers of Acadian French and Scottish Gaelic.
Quebec
English is a minority language in Quebec, but has many speakers in Montréal, the Eastern Townships and in the Gatineau-Ottawa region.
Among Montréal-native anglophones, there is a distinction between /æ/ and /a/, unique in Canada, so that Mary and merry are not homophones.
Among Eastern Townships-native anglophones, syrup is often pronounced as sir-rup.
A short a is used in words like drama; in common with most Canadians, Québécois and Ontarians pronounce words of foreign origin (Datsun, Mazda, etc.) as if the vowels are French.
Ontario
The Canadian raising is often quite strong in Ontario. Many speakers in Ontario and the provinces farther west have a new chain shift called the Canadian Shift.
In southwestern Ontario (especially rural areas), some speakers also have aspects of the Midwestern U.S. accent, e.g. not sounds like naht (/nɔt/ → /nat/), combined with Canadian raising (see U.S. below). The accent is slightly modified to signify sarcasm or emphasis: not becomes a heavily stressed nat, for example, and hockey may sound like hackey (with an æ).
Use of the interrogative "Eh?" is widespread.
Intervocalic s – is more frequently voiced in words such as resource. A short a is used in words like drama; in common with most Canadians, Québécois and Ontarians pronounce words of foreign origin (Datsun, Mazda, etc.) as if the vowels are French. Many Ontarians do not pronounce, or give very little emphasis to the second t in Toronto (hence, Toronno).
In Central Ontario (that is, the region around Toronto) in particular, the voiced th and d are often not distinguished, the two pronunciations frequently appearing together ("Do you want this one or dis one?", for example). Sometimes (particularly in North York, an area of Toronto; see below), the th is dropped altogether, resulting in "Do you want this one er'iss one?" The word southern is often pronounced as 'sow-thern' as opposed to 'suth-ern'. Most accents, of course, are quite subtle, and most immaterial to detailed speech. In the regional area north of York and south of Parry Sound, notably among those who were born in these bedroom communities (Barrie, Vaughn, Orillia, Bradford, Newmarket) as opposed to those who moved there to commute, the cutting down of syllables is often heard, e.g. "prolly" instead of "probably" (as in a response).
The Ottawa Valley has its own distinct accent, known as the Ottawa Valley Twang.
Prairies
A strong Canadian raising exists in the prairie regions together with certain older usages such as chesterfield and front room also associated with the Maritimes. Aboriginal Canadians are a larger and more conspicuous population in prairie cities than elsewhere in the country and certain elements of aboriginal speech in English are widely to be heard. Similarly, the linguistic legacy, mostly intonation, of the Scandinavian, Slavic and German settlers who are far more numerous in the Prairies than in Ontario or the Maritimes can be heard in the general milieu. Again, the large Metis population in Saskatchewan also carries with it certain linguistic traits inherited from French, aboriginal and Celtic forebears.
British Columbia
There have been no formal studies of English pronunciation in British Columbia, although locals note variations between certain towns. Parts of the Interior have a strong cowboy twang or drawl - elongated vowels and diphthongs - rooted in the family legacies of American settlement during the province's frontier era. In parts of the Fraser Valley the intonation and cadence of Dutch and Mennonite German have impacted local English. British accents and a wide range of European and Asian second-language flavoured English have always been common, to the point of the British flavour being identifiably a hallmark of early 20th century BC, as has been English as spoken by First Nations peoples, which is distinct as an accent but also remains undocumented.
The "British" character of the language is most evident on parts of Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. In the famous Canadian example of "about," for instance, the dipthong "ou" is often pronounced "ow" (as in the interjection), resulting in "abowt." "O" (as in pronouncing the letter "o") is also common in such words as "holy," "goal," "load," "know," etc. This British flavour carries over into a certain precision to the vocalisation; and native-born residents are sometimes mistaken for being of English origin.
See also
References
- Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.
External links
Further reading
- Canadian Raising: O'Grady and Dobrovolsky, Contemporary Linguistic Analysis: An Introduction, 3rd ed., pp. 67-68.
- Canadian federal government style guide: Public Works and Government Services Canada, The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).
- Canadian newspaper and magazine style guides:
