The difference between Canadian and British English Edited by Elaine Gold and Janice McAlpine
Presented by Bernadett Szalai
Background, including demographic and geographical information
Canada is the second largest nation in the world, occupying almost ten million square kilometers; Culturally, Canada are diveded by several nations
Demographical backgrounds Demographically, the population of 29,639,035 the population is geographically concentrated along the southern border. Most Canadians live within two hundred kilometres of the U.S.-Canadian border. Canadians are highly urbanized but also overwhelmingly middle-class
Demographic information
Canada has an astounding number of „nonofficial‟ languages as well Mother Tongue
Canada
Québec
Ontario
English
17,352,315
557040
7,965,225
English and non-official language
219,860
15,045
114,275
Totals (English)
17,572,175
572,085
8,079,500
Phonology
Canadian English (CE) forms one branch of North American English, but it has distinctive phonological features: CE has only one low back vowel phoneme where most other standard varieties of English have two. In most of the United States, for example, the words listed below are distinguished from one another in this way [ɑ]
[ɔ]
bobble
bauble
Dotter Don cot
daughter dawn caught
the phonological distinction does not exist in Canada, and the words in both lists have the same vowel. The vowel is usually (but not always) the unrounded [ ɑ ] so that cot and caught are both pronounced /kɑt/, don and Dawn both / dɑn /. Canadian Raising (Chambers 1973)Pronouciation of wife, mice, right, house, couch, and about. Canadians pronounce the diphthongs in these words in a singular way, so that outsiders sometimes claim that they are saying, for example, aboot the hoose for „about the house.‟
Syntax CE conforms to wirld-wide standards; Standard English grammar varies little from country to country; Nonstandard grammatical constructions in CE they are usually not Canadian innovations but carryovers from regional dialects in the British Isles.
after
+ present participle is heard in Newfoundland (Clarke 1997)
„Mary’s after telling us about it=Mary has recently finished telling us”
ever exclamation
„Does John ever drive fast! and Is John ever stupid!” ‟cep‟fer
complementizer (Chambers 1987) phological reproduction of except for „We could sit on the floor cep’fer the teacher would probably tell us not to” positive any more (Eitner 1949, Labov 1991b, Murray 1993) „John listens to rock a lot any more”
Canadian Spelling Category Usual
Usual British Preference
American Preference
Other Such Examples
Some Shared Spellings In Both
-our/-or
colour
color
favour honour humour labour
glamour stupor
derivations of our/or
colourful
colorful
favourite honourable labouring
coloration glamorous Humorous laborious
-re/-er
centre
center
meage metre spectre theatre
macabre timbre
-ce/-se
defence practise(v)
defense practice(v)
licence(n)
license(v) practice(n)
stems in -l
fulfil
fulfill
Enrol, expel
Annul, compel Install,
double/single consonant before inflections
equalled
equaled
imperilled signalled
benefited focused kidnapped outfitted
Canadian Spelling Category Usual
Usual Bristish
American Preference
ise/ize
criticise (permitted))
criticize (exclusive
--yse/-yze
analyse
analyze
paralyse
silent -e-
judgement moveable (permitted)
judgment
acknowledgement ageing liveable
lovable
-ae-/-e-
anaesthesia
anesthesia
encyclopaedia
aesthetics medieval
-oe-/-e-
foetus
fetus
manoeuvre
Xion/-ction
connexion
connection and inflection
-ogue -og
analogue, dialogue, catalogue
dialog, catalog
re-elect, reenter, reentry, reexamine
reelect, reenter, reentry, reexamine
Hyphens
Other Such Examples
Some Shared Spellings In Both advertise civilize realize surprise
Analog(UK) Dialogue (US)
counter-attack(UK) counterattack (US)
Canadian vocabulary
Canadianism
the native words and expressions of Canada Inculdes the words and expressions borrowed form other languages, which do not appear in other varieties of English. Landscape:the chutes, or saults, of the rivers, the muskeg of the hinterland, the buttes and parklands of the prairies, and the bluffs, or islands of trees, on the flat prairie are but a few Trees and plants: cat spruce, Douglas fir, Manitoba maple, Sitka spruce, and tamarack; kinnikinnick, Labrador tea, Pembina berry, saskatoon and soapalallie. Birds were discovered: Canada goose, fool hen, siwash duck, turkey vulture and whiskey jack. Fish of all sorts: cisco, inconnu, maskinonge, kokanee, ouananiche, oolichan, tuladi and wendigo Finally, political term such as M.P.P.:acclamation, and endorsation tell us something of the newly founded institutions
Vocabulary II.
Canadian English is a mixture of American and British English with an insignificant number of Canadianisms added. Canadians borrow freely from both American and British English andappropriate it to suit their needs. The
lexeme chesterfield is a par exemplar. the interjection eh: „So eh? is Canadian, eh?” he interjection did not originate in Canada and is not peculiar to the English spoken in Canada. However, the frequency and the context in which it occurs in Canadian speech is remarkably different from both American and British native speakers
Words that differentiate Canadian and American everyday speech “Middle border” Canadian asphalt road blinds elastic band feather sheaf tap tea party veranda
Midwest American blacktop shades rubber ban (corn) silk bundle faucet coffee party porch
Conclusions
Canadian English is still a subject of constant change; Canadian English is the result of a number of contextual factors that influenced its early formation; It is a product of the cooperation and coexistence of various groups of people from different nations; The differences between native Canadian and British and American speakers have never been so great that communication was impossible; However it is sufficient to distinguish these differences.
Thank you for your attantion!
