Canadian English

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Canadian English (Canadian English)

Spoken in

CanadaCanada Canada
speaker 26 million (including 19 million native speakers)
Linguistic
classification
Official status
Official language in CanadaCanada Canada

The Canadian English (Canadian English) is in Canada spoken and written version of the English language .

Canadian English pronunciation is similar to American English , so Canadians are often mistaken for residents of the United States. But there are peculiarities in pronunciation that are more typical of the Canadian English: So there are in the United States about the assumption that Canadians about how a boat pronounce, which on non-particularly in Canada vowel shift called Canadian Raising alluded becomes.

Apart from the pronunciation, Canadian English is characterized by influences from both American and British English , a result of the immigration of various settler groups from Great Britain and the USA to Canada. One finds z. B. in the Canadian-English vocabulary occasionally British expressions, such as zed for the letter z (instead of American zee ), but also American words such as soccer instead of British football. The Canadian English vocabulary also has some typical words that are only heard in Canada, such as chesterfield (instead of AE sofa ). You can also find loan words from French and the languages ​​of the indigenous people of Canada, such as outarde ( Eng . 'Wild goose') from French or wapiti from the Cree . After all, Canada, with its two official languages, English and French, has a special sociolinguistic situation that is not found in other English-speaking countries.

Canadian English as a national variant of English

English has its origins in what is now England and initially spread across the entire British Isles . Since the 16th century, English has become a world language , primarily due to the colonial policy of Great Britain in America , Australia , Africa and India . The English language has now developed further in the former colonies of Great Britain such as the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand , where it has partly a pronunciation that differs from British English as well as its own vocabulary and grammar. Such variants of English with an independent identity in linguistics are also national variants or varieties (engl. Varieties ) referred of English.

Along with other national variants of English, such as American English , British English, or New Zealand English , Canadian English is often treated as a variety of English in literature. There are different assessments of whether Canadian English is really a national variety.

In the early research on Canadian English, the respective similarities to British and American English were first identified. After the Second World War , an increasing awareness of a Canadian identity of its own led to the emphasis on the specific characteristics of Canadian English. In this literature it is argued that Canadian English, through its pronunciation and vocabulary peculiarities, is sufficiently different from American English, as it is spoken in the USA, to be considered a separate variant of English. However, other authors argue that Canadian English is a fiction and that national borders do not yet constitute a separate national variety of English. Here, Canadian English is seen as a sub-variant of North American English. In particular, the publication of the first comprehensive dictionary of Canadian English, the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, also contributed to the appreciation of Canadian English as an independent variant of English.

Surveys among Canadians show that Canadian speakers of English view their variant of English as a separate Canadian English. In a 2006 poll in Vancouver , for example, B. more than 70% of respondents said they could mostly distinguish Canadian from American English, and more than 70% considered Canadian English to be part of Canadian identity.

history

Canada was inhabited by various Native American tribes before the arrival of European explorers. The indigenous people of Canada were mainly members of the Inuit and First Nations , whose languages ​​belong to over ten language families, with the Algonquin languages making up the largest proportion.

The history of Canadian English begins with the arrival of the explorer John Cabot in 1497 in what would later become Newfoundland . Newfoundland, founded in 1583, was the first English colony on American soil. Aside from Newfoundland, Canada was first settled by French immigrants who, after Jacques Cartier 's exploration of Canada in 1520 , reached what is now Canada. This changed in the 18th century when the French claims to territories in Canada were lost through wars, including Queen Anne's War (1702–1713) and the Seven Years War , which was also fought in North America (1754–1763). With the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the French possessions became British territories. As a result, thousands of French settlers were deported from Canada in 1750, and the first English settlers followed. One consequence of the colonization of Canada by French-speaking and English-speaking settlers is today's bilingualism of Canada with its official languages ​​English and French.

The main waves of immigration to Canada are usually divided into three phases, and all three phases have had a lasting impact on the development of Canadian English: In the first phase, migrants from the USA settled in Canada. These were settlers who were loyal to the British crown and who left the USA for Canada after American independence from Great Britain. This emigration lasted until 1812 when Britain and the US had their final territorial conflict. The second wave of immigration to Canada consisted mainly of settlers coming directly from the UK and Ireland , with this wave of immigration peaking in the mid-19th century. The third wave of immigration began in the late 19th century, peaked after World War II, and continues to this day. These immigrants include people from many nations around the world, with the majority of immigrants since the 1990s coming from Asia and Latin America rather than from Europe .

The research blames the first wave of immigration for the fact that Canadian English shares many characteristics with American English in the USA. The British and Irish second wave immigrants, in turn, have contributed to some quirks of Canadian English that make it more similar to British English. Immigration from non-English countries since the end of the 19th century has not yet made itself felt in Canadian standard English.

The third wave of immigration, however, has already changed the status of English in Canada, as it is no longer the mother tongue for almost half of Canadians. Canada is on the one hand a country in which English is the official language and first language of many residents, comparable to Great Britain or the USA. In linguistics, Canada is counted to the Inner Circle of English-speaking countries. On the other hand, Canada has a high proportion of speakers of English as a second language . For example, according to the 2016 census, only about 56 percent of Canada's residents have English as their first language, and that number has decreased since 2011. In addition to Francophone English, which is spoken by around 7 million Canadians who have French as their mother tongue, English is found as a second language by half a million Canadians with Chinese as their mother tongue, and another half a million speakers with Arabic dialects as their first language and still half a million Punjabi speakers. In addition to these large language groups, Canada is also home to 250 other language minorities who speak English as a second language. This sociolinguistic situation in Canada is unique among English-speaking countries.

Geographical distribution

Geographical distribution of English- and French-speaking Canadians in 2006
  • English - 56.9%
  • English and French - 16.1%
  • French - 21.3%
  • Sparsely populated area (<0.4 people per km 2 )
    •

    Official status

    English is one of the official languages ​​of Canada alongside French . According to a 2016 census, of Canada's approximately 34 million residents, approximately 19 million (approximately 56% of the total population) use English as their first language and a total of 26 million Canadians (76%) can speak English. About seven million Canadians have French as their mother tongue, the rest are split between European, Asian and Latin American languages, as well as the languages ​​of indigenous Canadians.

    Although both English and French are official languages ​​of Canada, English is clearly the dominant language in Canada. English and French are also unevenly distributed geographically. The vast majority of Francophone Canadians live in Québec (86 percent, 2006 census), where they make up the majority of the province's population. The rest of Canada is mostly English-speaking. As a result, English is dominant in government, government, education systems, and the media. The province of Québec is an exception, because the provincial government intervenes massively with various measures to stop the decline of French compared to English. Through these measures, such. For example, the 1977 Charter of the French Language , which set French as the only language for government and justice, English is on the decline in Québec.

    The Official Language Act guarantees the equality of English and French at the federal level. This makes Canada a country with two official languages ​​( official bilingualism ), but not a country where most people speak two languages. Most Canadians are not fully bilingual, but proficiency in both languages ​​ranges from rudimentary to fluent. According to the 2006 census, of 31 million Canadians, 21 million speak only English, 4 million only French, and 5.5 million speak both languages ​​(plus 0.5 million immigrants who speak neither language). In everyday life, the majority of Canadians often speak only one of the two official languages, depending on where they live.

    Dialects and sociolects

    Canada Political Map

    In contrast to z. For example, British English, which is characterized by a large variety of dialects , has long been considered to be relatively homogeneous in Canadian English. Many Canadians speak a standard called General Canadian or Standard Canadian English . However, recent research has shown that Standard Canadian English is actually just the English of the Anglophone-educated middle class. About 36% of all Canadians speak this standard.

    There are some regions of Canada that differ significantly from General Canadian , especially in terms of pronunciation: Conspicuous regional variants are mainly found in Newfoundland, which was a British colony until 1949 and which, as a result of early immigration from southern England and southern Ireland, has its own, Pronounced distinctly different from the Canadian mainland (Newfoundland English). There are also some regional variants of Canadian English in Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia , which were mainly settled by Scottish immigrants. The Ottawa Valley in Ontario is also shaped by Irish immigrants as well as Scottish immigrants. English in Québec, on the other hand, is influenced by language contact with a French-speaking majority. In sparsely populated northern Canada, the Yukon regions , the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, and northern British Columbia , the majority of the population is more likely to be descended from Native Americans, whose English is influenced by the indigenous languages ​​of northern Canada.

    On the basis of surveys on pronunciation and also on vocabulary, there is therefore a tendency in recent research to divide Canadian English into different regional variants, with the division into regions varying somewhat depending on the research results. One possible division into regional variants is a division into five regions: Newfoundland as a separate regional variant, followed by the Maritimes ( New Brunswick , Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island), Québec, Ontario and western Canada (British Columbia, Prairies).

    pronunciation

    The pronunciation of Canadian English is very similar in many ways to American English as spoken in the United States. English speakers living outside of North America usually have a hard time hearing a difference between Canadian and American English. Britons often consider a Canadian accent to be American, while some Americans consider the Canadian accent to be British.

    Research on the regional variation of English in North America has shown that Canadian English does indeed share many characteristics with American English in the US, especially with the regions in the west. Canadian English also has a few quirks that tend to be more common in Canada, such as: B. Vowel shifts that have entered the literature under the keywords low-back merger, Canadian raising and Canadian shift .

    Similarities to American English

    If you compare the standard pronunciation of British English, American English ( General American ) and Canadian English, Canadian English is much more similar to American English than British English. For example, Canadian and American English are B. as opposed to British English, rhotic , i. H. the letter "r" is pronounced in any position in the word and does not remain silent, as in British English after a vowel: [fɑrm] instead of BE [fɑ: m] and [for] instead of BE [fɑ:]. Furthermore, in Canadian English, as in American English, words like ask and class are pronounced with the vowel / æ / (British standard English : / ɑ: /).

    In addition, Canadian and American English are characterized by the flapping of: "d", "t" and "tt" is between two vowels, when the second unstressed, or between [⁠ ɹ ⁠] as an alveolar and an unstressed vowel Pronounced tap [ɾ] . In German ears, the tap is more like a / d /: City, better, Ottawa , battle and party sound more like siddy, bedder, Oddawa, baddle and pardy .

    If you look at the regional variations of English in North America in detail, Canadian English has the greatest similarities with American English as it is spoken in the western United States, for example in California , Washington , Oregon , Idaho or Nevada . Typical for this region is z. B. a vowel fusion ( merger ) by which Americans in the western United States and Canadians pronounce marry and merry identically, e.g. T. also marry, merry and Mary. Other vowel shifts can be observed in the region. B. also lead to hurry and furry or mirror and nearer rhyming.

    Despite these similarities, there are a few things that make Canadian and American English different. So one observes z. B. in the inland north of the USA, i.e. the regions near the Great Lakes on the border with Canada, a series of vowel shifts, the Northern Cities Shift. These are not found in Canadian English, so that despite the proximity to the border there is a clear regional difference between the pronunciation of Canadian English and American English in the Inland North south of the border. Furthermore, one can observe three peculiarities in the pronunciation of the vowels, which are particularly widespread in Canada and less common in the USA: Low-Back Merger, Canadian Raising and Canadian Shift .

    Low-back merger

    A peculiarity of Canadian English that is often mentioned is the low-back merger, also called caught / cot merger : This is a vowel shift through which the vowels / ɑ / as in palm, / ɒ / as in lot and / ɔ / as in lot all are pronounced as [ɑ]. As a result of this merger, most Canadian English speakers make no distinction between the vowels in cot and caught . As a consequence, Canadians pronounce words like cot and caught, sod and sawed, collar and caller the same, i. H. they are homophones . This peculiarity can also be found in parts of the United States, namely in eastern New England , western Pennsylvania and the western part of the United States. In Canada (with the exception of Newfoundland), however, this merger has already spread completely and across the board and, as linguistic studies suggest, since the middle of the 20th century.

    • Cot pronunciation by a speaker with cot-caught merger

    • With cot identical pronunciation caught by a speaker with cot-caught merger

    • Pronunciation of cot by a spokesman from the Inland North of the USA, not a cot-caught merger

    • Pronunciation of caught by a spokesman from the US Inland North , not a cot-caught merger

    Canadian raising

    Perhaps the most famous character of Canadian English is the so-called Canadian raising is: The tongue position is in the diphthongs / aɪ / (as in price ) and / aʊ / (as in mouth ) before voiceless consonants (like [⁠ p ⁠] , [⁠ t ⁠] or [⁠ s ⁠] ) "lifted" (eng. raised ), d. H. Canadian speakers have a higher tongue in the mouth than many American speakers. Many Canadians typically use [ɘi] instead of [aɪ] and [əu] instead of [aʊ]. However, there is some regional variation especially with the latter, so speakers in Ontario tend to tend towards [ɛʊ], while in western Canada one hears more [ʌʊ]. In the Prairie Provinces and Nova Scotia, the vowels are shifted so far back that couch and coach sound the same, and about is more like a boat. The claim of many Americans that Canadians speak about like a boot because of Canadian raising is more of a cliché.

    • bowed without Canadian raising , followed by bout with Canadian raising

    • about with Canadian Raising, compared to: a boot, a boat

    Despite its name, Canadian Raising is not a purely Canadian phenomenon, but can also be heard in some regions of the USA, examples from eastern Virginia , Martha's Vineyard , Massachusetts , Philadelphia and from the north in the interior of the USA are documented. Nonetheless, due to its wide spread in Canada, it remains the classic trait with which many speakers of Canadian English are identified.

    Canadian Shift

    Canadian Shift according to Clarke (red), Boberg (blue), and both (purple)

    The Canadian Shift or Canadian Vowel Shift is a shift in the pronunciation of some vowels in Canadian English, and this has been a trend since the 1990s. This is a phenomenon that has so far been limited to Canada. The Canadian Shift was first described by the linguists Clarke, Elms and Youssef in 1995. In vowel shifting, according to Clarke, Elms and Youssef, the tongue goes down in front short vowels such as / æ / (as in trap ), / ɛ / (as in dress ) and / ɪ / (as in kit ). As a result, the pronunciation of / æ / moves towards / a /, / ɛ / towards / æ / and / ɪ / again towards / wiederum /. Other studies, such as that of Charles Boberg, also observe movement in the vowels, but more towards the back of the mouth than downwards.

    The Canadian Shift means that the pronunciation of Canadian English is further removed from the pronunciation of American English in the USA on the northern border with Canada (Inland North American English). So [hat] and [kap] are the pronunciations for hat (dt. 'Hat') and cap (dt. 'Cap') in Ontario, while across the border in southeastern Michigan or in the western part of New York state with [ hat] and [kap] hot (dt. 'hot') and cop (dt. informal for 'policeman') are meant.

    The Canadian Shift is a strong argument for some linguists that the variant spoken in inland Canada is a separate dialect of North American English that is different from American English in the United States.

    Pronunciation of loan words

    A Canada own, albeit dwindling feature is also in the tendency of some speakers, the short vowel, where phonologically possible to favor for loan words from other languages in which both Americans and Britons speak mainly the long form: drama is then z. B. [dɹæmə] instead of [dɹɑːmə], pasta [pæstə] instead of [pɒstə] and lava [lævə] instead of [lɑːvə].

    grammar

    In contrast to pronunciation and vocabulary, peculiarities of the grammar of Canadian English are not very pronounced. The peculiarities of Canadian English that have been best researched to date are mainly minor grammatical variations:

    • So the use of anymore is also possible in positive statements (I spend a lot of time with my family anymore) .
    • The adjectives awful, terrible and real can also be used as adverbs like in I'll miss her terrible instead of (British standard English ) I'll miss her terribly .
    • According to the Survey of Canadian English , the majority of Canadians tend to use drank instead of drunk as the past participle : I have drank a cup of tea.
    • A Canadian peculiarity is also the use of the construction be + Perfect as in I am done dinner, which is hardly found in British and American English (AE and BE:  I am done with dinner ).

    Other grammatical forms are not specific to Canadian English, but to all North American English (i.e. Canadian English and American English in the US). Examples are:

    • Modal verbs : The modal verbs must, ought and shall are still common in British English, but are rarely used in North America.
    • Prepositions : North American English speakers tend to say different than instead of (British English) different from or different to . Furthermore, it is more likely to say on the street (BE: in the street ) and a quarter before or a quarter of instead of BE a quarter to .

    vocabulary

    British and American English influence

    Canadian English shares a large vocabulary with the other variants of English around the world. What is striking about Canadian English, however, is its mix of vocabulary of American and British origin: Canadian speakers of English are in some cases more likely to use American English vocabulary, but in other cases they are more likely to use words from British English. For example, Canadians and Americans speak of soccer instead of football when they mean (European) soccer, they refer to a cell phone as a cell phone instead of (British) mobile phone and say trunk instead of boot . In many other cases, however, Canadians tend to follow British English: As an example, the letter <z> is ​​often cited, which Americans refer to as zee , while speakers of Canadian English say zed more like the British . In addition, Canadians tend to say (British) icing instead of (American) frosting (German: 'frosting'), British bill instead of American check (German: 'bill') and tap instead of faucet (German: 'faucet').

    Canadaisms

    Canadian English vocabulary isn't just a mix of American and British English. There are also words that are typical of Canadian English and cannot be found in any other English variant. These are called Canadaisms or Canadianisms and are used to explain why Canadian English is a separate national variant of English. These canadianisms include:

    Canadian English American English British English German translation
    bank machine ATM cash dispenser Cash dispenser
    chesterfield couch, sofa settee, sofa sofa
    grade one first grade first form first grade (school)
    bachelor apartment studio apartment studio flat, bed-sitting room 1 room apartment
    parkade parking garage car park Parking garage
    toque, tuque, touque beanie beanie Wool hat
    washroom restroom lavatory, loo Toilet

    The use of this and other Canadaisms is only a trend, however, not all terms are used consistently by all Canadians. Some terms, such as chesterfield, are on the decline in use.

    Many other Canadianisms have arisen through word formation, so there are a number of compound words that are typical of Canadian English, e. B. beaver meadow ( Eng . 'Fertile part of a pasture behind a beaver dam'), lumberman ( Eng . ' Timber merchant') or snow tractor ( Eng . 'Snowmobile').

    Finally, there are a number of words related to Canadian culture and everyday life. These are not Canadaisms in the narrower sense, but they are mainly found in Canada: The Canadian one-dollar coin is colloquially known by Canadians as loonie (from English loon, the loon depicted on the reverse of the coin ). Similarly, the two dollar coin is called toonie (from two + loonie ). Canadian cuisine is also a source of some Canadianisms, e.g. B. canola, a canola oil, and Nanaimo bar, a dessert made in the city of Nanaimo , British Columbia. Canadians refer to whole grain bread as brown bread. Wholemeal bread is found in British English , but brown bread is an alternative. Especially in the province of Ontario, but also in Québec, Manitoba and British Columbia, hydro is used as a synonym for electricity , which goes back to the generation of electricity by primarily hydropower in Ontario. You can find expressions like hydro line or hydro bill instead of electricity line or electricity bill .

    Loanwords

    Another peculiarity of Canadian English are loanwords , which it contains due to language contacts with French, other immigrant languages ​​and with languages ​​of the native Canadian people. Because of its proximity to French in Canada, there are a number of Gallicisms in Canadian English ; almost half of the loans in Canadian English are from French. Examples are the word much from the French word marche for 'travel by dog ​​sled, on foot or with snowshoes' or outarde (German for 'wild goose', especially 'Canada goose'). There are also loan translations from French such as snow apple (from French pomme de neige, a Canadian apple variety) in Canadian English .

    In addition, Canadian English has borrowed many words from the native languages ​​of Canada. The majority of these loans are geographical names or relate to the culture or flora and fauna of Canada, e.g. B. caribou from the language Mi'kmaq (German 'Karibu', a North American variant of the reindeer ), powwow from Algonkin (German 'festive gathering') or wapiti from Cree (German ' Wapiti '). From the languages ​​of the Inuit you can find borrowings such as komatik (dt. 'Inuit dog sled') or kossack (dt. ' Seal- ' or 'deerskin jacket '). Some of the borrowings from the native languages ​​of Canada are no longer specific to Canadian English, but have gained worldwide acceptance, such as the aforementioned caribou, anorak, igloo or kayak. Many Canadian place names also have their origins in the languages ​​of the Canadians: The name Canada probably came from Iroquois via French into Canadian English. Other such place names are Manitoba , Nunavut, Ontario, Saskatchewan , Toronto , Winnipeg or Yukon .

    Dictionaries

    Canada initially used American English dictionaries adapted for the Canadian market, such as the 1937 Winston Simplified Dictionary for Canadian Schools , which was based on the 1919 American Winston Simplified Dictionary . The first dictionary of Canadian English was the Western Canadian Dictionary and Phrase Book from 1912, but it was of limited scope and primarily aimed at conveying expressions typical of Canada to immigrants. It was only with the founding of the Canadian Linguistic Association that a serious attempt was made to capture the entire vocabulary of Canadian English in a dictionary: The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles was first published and expanded at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in the 1960s as well as revised from 2006 to 2017. It is also available as open access .

    spelling, orthography

    British and American English have different norms for spelling, for example plow, color and center are written in British English , while American English tends to use simplified forms such as plow, color and center . On the one hand, Canadian English as a British colony respected the British standard; on the other hand, teachers and school books were more influenced by the American standard due to their proximity to the USA. The result is that the spelling of today's Canadian English sometimes follows the British, sometimes the US spelling, often both spellings are allowed. You can also find different specifications in different media, style guides and dictionaries. In the following, one can only describe tendencies and take into account that it may look different in individual cases or as a result of more recent developments.

    If you follow an overview from an introductory book on International English, Canadian spelling looks like this:

    • Words in -ize / -yze like realize, analyze: British English allows spellings like realize and analyze as well as alternatives with -ise / -yse: realize, analyze. American and Canadian English only allow -ize / -yze .
    • Words ending in - our / - or: The British spelling for words ending in - our such as color, labor, vigor has been simplified to -or in American English (e.g. color, labor, vigor ). Canadian English used the US variant for a long time, but has been tending towards the British variant again since the 1990s.
    • Words in -re / -er: British and Canadian English use center, theater, American spelling is -er (center, theater) .
    • Words ending in -ce / -se: The British also use the spelling - ce in words like defense or offce; in American, on the other hand, one finds -se as in defense and offense. The Canadian spelling uses the British spelling here, but there are also some American variants, e.g. B. both defense / offense and defense / offense .

    There are also differences between American and British spelling when adding a suffix like - ed to a verb like travel : The consonant is then doubled in British English: traveled, traveling, traveler. According to American rules, such a doubling only takes place when the preceding vowel is stressed, i.e. compelling, traveling. Canadian English tends to follow the British pattern here.

    The British spelling is also followed by Canadians for the words ax, check, gray ; for curb, tire and wagon , on the other hand, the American spelling has prevailed in Canada.

    Examples

    British English American English Canadian English
    analyze or analyze analyze analyze
    ax ax, ax ax
    color color color (other sources: color )
    center center center
    criticize or critisize criticize criticize
    defense defense defense or defense
    equalled equaled equalled
    notch curb curb
    plow plow plow, plow
    programs program program
    sulfur sulfur, sulfur sulfur
    wagon, wagon wagon wagon

    However, these tendencies do not even apply unambiguously to Canadian media: Canadian newspapers have long used the American spelling - or as in color and honor (instead of color, honor ). In the 1990s, however, there was a shift from American spellings to more British spellings: The Globe and Mail of Toronto, one of Canada's most important newspapers, changed the spelling of words like color from American -or in 1990 to British -our and took over also some other British spellings like storey instead of american story .

    As guides for spelling possibilities have style guides established, however, vary just like the use in the media and by the Canadians in their specifications. The Government of Canada guide is The Canadian Style: A Guide for Writers and Editors. The specifications of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary and other dictionaries are also used as a model. American spellings are on the rise among younger Canadians, which is also likely to be related to the influence of American English on the Internet and spell checks in American word processors .

    Pragmatics

    A noticeable feature in Canadian English is the use of the discourse particle Eh. While in many languages ​​this particle is placed at the end of a statement to solicit the listener's approval, in Canadian English Eh is also attached to explanations, instructions and instructions. With Eh, the speaker asks whether his utterance has been understood: Move the table over here, eh?

    This particle also played a role in the coverage of the Olympic Games in Vancouver .

    Examples

    Spoken Canadian English

    Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is an example of a Canadian English speaker.

    Prime Minister Trudeau's televised address on Nowruz 2018

    In a video with linguist Charles Boberg about Canadian English, you can find many audio samples from speakers from different Canadian regions.

    Written Canadian English

    The following excerpts from the novel Anne of Green Gables by the Canadian Lucy Maud Montgomery contain some typical examples of the spelling and grammar of Canadian English:

    “CHAPTER X - Anne's Apology:
    Marilla said nothing to Matthew about the affair that evening; but when Anne proved still refractory the next morning an explanation had to be made to account for her absence from the breakfast table. Marilla told Matthew the whole story, taking pains to impress him with a due sense of the enormity of Anne's behavior .
    [...] Matthew recollected that he must say what he had come to say without loss of time, read Marilla return prematurely. 'Well now, Anne, don't you think you'd better do it and have it over with?' hey whispered. 'It'll have to be done sooner or later, you know, for Marilla's a dreadful determined woman - dreadful determined, Anne. Do it right off, I say, and have it over. '
    'Do you mean apologize to Mrs. Lynde?'
    'Yes - apologize - that's the very word,' said Matthew eagerly. 'Just smooth it over so to speak. That's what I was trying to get at. '
    […] 'She's a real odd little thing […]' ”

    - Lucy Maud Montgomery : Anne of Green Gables

    Here you can see the spelling of behavior and apologize, which in Canada follows the American model. The terms dreadful determined and real odd little thing are examples of the use of real and dreadful instead of really and dreadfully as adverbs, a grammatical quirk of Canadian English.

    research

    Initial research on Canadian English from around the 1950s until 1970 focused primarily on the following topics:

    • Lexicographical work
    • Comparisons between Canadian, (US) American, and British English
    • Documentation of traditional regional variants such as Newfoundland English
    • Sociolinguistic Studies in Urban Canadian English
    • Phonetic description of regional and social variation in pronunciation
    • Sociolinguistic studies on the use of English and other languages ​​in Canada, especially in (French-speaking) Québec

    Since the 1970s, research on Canadian English has expanded rapidly. Since then, inter alia, the connections between Canada's historical development and its language have been investigated, many surveys among Canadians on the use of their language as well as long-term sociolinguistic studies and corpus linguistic research have been carried out.

    A milestone in research is the National Survey of Canadian English, which collected data on Canadians' linguistic usage across many Canadian regions. Canadians' self-reports are also the basis of the Dialect Topography conducted at the University of Toronto in the 1990s ; the results are available online. The North American Vocabulary Survey by Charles Boberg contains more recent results on vocabulary . The Atlas of North American English by William Labov , Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg contains important results on Canadian English ; it provides the most convincing empirical details on the pronunciation of Canadian English and its variants.

    For Canadian English, as for other varieties of the English language, there are large, systematic collections of written and spoken language ( corpora ). These include the Corpus of Early Ontario English, the Bank of Canadian English with dates from 1555 to 2016 and the Strathy Corpus of today's Canadian English (since 1985) as well as the Canadian part of the International Corpus of English (ICE).

    See also

    literature

    history

    • John Algeo (Ed.): The Cambridge History of the English Language. 6. English in North America. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001.
    • Alexander Bergs , Laurel J. Brinton (Eds.): The History of English: Varieties of English. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-052279-2 .
    • Stefan Dollinger: Creating Canadian English. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, ISBN 978-1-108-70875-3 . (History of the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles )

    General descriptions and grammars

    • Dieter Bähr: The English language in Canada. An analysis of the Survey of Canadian English. Narr, Tübingen 1981.
    • Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 .
    • Sandra Clarke (Ed.): Focus on Canada. Varieties of English Around the World General Series 11. John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 1993, ISBN 90-272-4869-9 .
    • David Crystal: English as a Global Language. 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-53032-6 .
    • Klaus Hansen , Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The differentiation of English into national variants: an introduction. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 .
    • Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 .
    • James A. Walker: Canadian English. A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Routledge, New York / Milton Park 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-53537-3 .

    Regional variation

    • William Labov, Sharon Ash, Charles Boberg: The Atlas of North American English. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-11-016746-8 .

    Dictionaries

    • Stefan Dollinger, Margery Fee (Ed.): The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles. 2nd edition, UBC Press, Vancouver 2017 ( online ).
    • Katherine Barber (Ed.): Canadian Oxford Dictionary. 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, Toronto 2004, ISBN 0-19-541816-6 .

    Style guides

    • Editors' Association of Canada: Editing Canadian English. The Essential Canadian Guide. UBC Press, 2015; also as an online edition (free of charge on a trial basis, editingcanadianenglish.ca ).
    • Public Works and Government Services Canada: The Canadian Style. A Guide to Writing and Editing. University of Toronto Press, Toronto 1998.
    • JA McFarlane, Warren Clements: The Globe and Mail Style Book. A Guide to Language and Usage. 9th edition, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2003.
    • The Canadian Press (Ed.): Stylebook. 18th edition, 2017 ( online ).
    • Margery Fee, Janice McAlpine: Guide to Canadian English Usage. Oxford University Press, Toronto 2008.

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ a b Data tables, 2016 Census (Mother Tongue). In: statcan.gc.ca, Statistics Canada, last accessed March 23, 2019.
    2. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 123.
    3. ^ A b David Crystal: English as a Global Language. 2nd edition, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2003, ISBN 0-521-53032-6 , pp. 37-39.
    4. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 149.
    5. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 123, 159.
    6. ↑ Jaan Lilles: The myth of Canadian English. In: English Today. 16 (2), April 2000, pp. 3-9.
    7. ↑ Canadian English. In: T. McArthur (Ed.): Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, ISBN 0-19-280637-8 , p. 97.
    8. ^ Stefan Dollinger: Creating Canadian English. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, ISBN 978-1-108-70875-3 , p. 237.
    9. ↑ a b c d Stefan Dollinger: English in Canada. In: academia.edu, last accessed on March 23, 2019.
    10. ↑ Peter Trudgill, Jean Hannah: International English: A guide to the varieties of Standard English. 5th edition, Routledge, London / New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-340-97161-1 , p. 36.
    11. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 145.
    12. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , pp. 146-148.
    13. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 105.
    14. ↑ James A. Walker: Canadian English. A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Routledge, New York / Milton Park 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-53537-3 , p. 127.
    15. ^ Stefan Dollinger: Creating Canadian English. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2019, ISBN 978-1-108-70875-3 , pp. 18-19.
    16. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 6-18.
    17. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 19.
    18. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 28.
    19. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 26-27.
    20. ^ Stefan Dollinger, Sandra Clarke: On the autonomy and homogeneity of Canadian English. In: World Englishes. 31 (4) (2012), p. 459.
    21. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 132.
    22. ↑ Birgit Meseck: Canadian English. In: Rüdiger Ahrens, Wolf-Dietrich Bald, Werner Hüllen: Handbook of English as a Foreign Language. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1995, ISBN 3-503-03067-0 , p. 37.
    23. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 135.
    24. ↑ a b c d e f Charles Boberg: Canadian English ( English, French ) In: The Canadian Encyclopedia . Retrieved July 29, 2019.
    25. ↑ Peter Trudgill, Jean Hannah: International English: A guide to the varieties of Standard English. 5th edition, Routledge, London / New York 2008, ISBN 978-0-340-97161-1 , pp. 49, 53.
    26. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 124.
    27. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 150.
    28. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 129.
    29. ↑ Klaus Hansen, Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The differentiation of English into national variants: an introduction. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 , p. 142.
    30. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 154.
    31. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 153.
    32. ^ Sandra Clarke, Ford Elms, Amani Youssef: The third dialect of English: Some Canadian evidence. In: Language Variation and Change. 7, No. 2, vol. 1995, pp. 209-228.
    33. ^ Charles Boberg: The Canadian shift in Montreal. In: Language Variation and Change. 17, 2015, pp. 133–154.
    34. ^ Charles Boberg: English in Canada: phonology. In: Edgar W. Schneider (Ed.): Varieties of English. The Americas and the Caribbean. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-11-019636-8 , p. 155.
    35. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 146-147.
    36. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 137-141.
    37. ^ A b Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 160-161.
    38. ↑ a b Klaus Hansen, Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The differentiation of English into national variants: an introduction. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 , p. 145.
    39. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 163.
    40. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 111-112.
    41. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 116.
    42. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , p. 117.
    43. ↑ a b Klaus Hansen, Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The differentiation of English into national variants: an introduction. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 , p. 144.
    44. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 119-121.
    45. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 113-114.
    46. ↑ Klaus Hansen, Uwe Carls, Peter Lucko: The differentiation of English into national variants: an introduction. Erich Schmidt, Berlin 1996, ISBN 3-503-03746-2 , pp. 143-144.
    47. ↑ Stefan Dollinger, Margery Fee (Ed.): The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles . 2nd edition, UBC Press, Vancouver 2017.
    48. ↑ James A. Walker: Canadian English. A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Routledge, New York / Milton Park 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-53537-3 , p. 67.
    49. ↑ James A. Walker: Canadian English. A Sociolinguistic Perspective. Routledge, New York / Milton Park 2015, ISBN 978-0-415-53537-3 , p. 68.
    50. ↑ a b c d Laurie Bauer: An Introduction to International Varieties of English. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2002, ISBN 0-7486-1338-2 , pp. 62-65.
    51. ↑ TK Pratt: The Hobgoblin of Canadian English Spelling. In: Sandra Clarke (Ed.): Focus on Canada. Varieties of English Around the World General Series 11. John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 1993, ISBN 90-272-4869-9 , pp. 50-52.
    52. ↑ TK Pratt: The Hobgoblin of Canadian English Spelling. In: Sandra Clarke (Ed.): Focus on Canada. Varieties of English Around the World General Series 11. John Benjamin, Amsterdam / Philadelphia 1993, ISBN 90-272-4869-9 , pp. 52-53.
    53. ^ Charles Boberg: The English Language in Canada. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2010, ISBN 978-0-521-87432-8 , pp. 122-123.
    54. ↑ Willy Geist, Stefan Dollinger: Today in Vancouver (Video) MSNBC. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
    55. ↑ Elaine Gold, Michelle Tremblay: Eh? and Hein? Discourse particles or national icons? In: Canadian Journal of Linguistics 51 / 2-3 (2006), pp. 247-264.
    56. ^ The Canadian English Accent Part 1 . Retrieved March 24, 2019.
    57. ↑ Anne of Green Gables Chapter X . [ Wikisource ].
    58. ↑ Stefan Dollinger: Canadian English in real-time perspective. In: Alexander Bergs , Laurel J. Brinton (Eds.): The History of English: Varieties of English. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-052279-2 , pp. 54–55.
    59. ↑ Stefan Dollinger: Canadian English in real-time perspective. In: Alexander Bergs, Laurel J. Brinton (Eds.): The History of English: Varieties of English. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-052279-2 , p. 61.
    60. ^ William Labov, Sharon Ash, Charles Boberg: The Atlas of North American English. Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-11-016746-8 .
    61. ↑ Stefan Dollinger: Canadian English in real-time perspective. In: Alexander Bergs, Laurel J. Brinton (Eds.): The History of English: Varieties of English. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-052279-2 , pp. 62–63.
    This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on March 25, 2020 .