Department of English and American Studies English Language And
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Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Hana Kratochvílová The English Language in Canada: A Questionable Dialect or a Distinct Variety of English? B.A. Major Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph. D. 2006 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the sources listed in the bibliography. Brno, 28 April 2006 ....……………………………..... 2 I would like to express many thanks to my supervisor, Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph.D., for his kind and valuable advice and help. 3 Table of Contents 1. Introduction...............................................................................................................6 2. The Evolution of the Views of Canadian English and of the Attitudes towards It.......8 3. Vocabulary..............................................................................................................11 3.1 Canadian English - A Unique Mosaic ................................................................11 3.2 Regional Varieties of Canadian English.............................................................11 3.3 Canadian Vocabulary in Relation to British and American Varieties of English.12 3.3.1 British English: Political and Legal Terminology....................................... 14 3.3.2 American English: Motoring and Transport ............................................... 15 3.4 Different Lexical Preferences within Canada: Toronto (Ontario) and Montreal..15 3.5 Contemporary Comparison of Canadian and American Lexicons.......................17 3.6 Canadianisms ....................................................................................................18 4. Grammar.................................................................................................................20 4.1 Prepositional Variations.....................................................................................20 4.2 Verbs.................................................................................................................21 4.3 Adverbials .........................................................................................................22 4.4 ‘Canadian’ Eh ....................................................................................................23 5. Spelling...................................................................................................................25 5.1 Historical Development of Canadian Spelling....................................................26 5.2 -our/ -or.............................................................................................................27 5.3 -ce/ -se...............................................................................................................29 5.4 -er/ -re ...............................................................................................................29 5.5 -ise/ -ize.............................................................................................................30 5.6 ae and oe Digraphs versus e...............................................................................31 5.7 Doubling of l and p Consonants before Suffixes ................................................32 5.8 em- /en- and im- /in- Prefixes ............................................................................32 5.9 Other Spelling Features .....................................................................................33 6. French Influence on Canadian English ....................................................................36 6.1 Vocabulary........................................................................................................36 6.1.1 Vocabulary of Quebec English................................................................... 37 6.2 Grammar ...........................................................................................................39 6.2.1 Post Adjectival Position of Canada ............................................................ 39 6.2.2 Prepositions and Idiomatic Expressions ..................................................... 39 4 7. Conclusion ..............................................................................................................41 Bibliography ...............................................................................................................43 Appendix ....................................................................................................................47 5 1. Introduction There exist many varieties of English, some of which are generally unquestioned and recognized worldwide whereas others are doubted and treated as parts of those better established ones, i.e. those considered as more clearly defined. Canadian variety of English represents the latter case: While it has been identified with either British or American English (BrE, AmE), its distinct features have been mostly ignored and its existence has still not been acknowledged by everyone. The aim of the present thesis is to demonstrate that Canadian English (CanE) is a distinct variety which should be treated accordingly, even though some linguists argue that no such variety exists. The distinct nature of the English language in Canada is clearly indicated by differences between CanE and the varieties which most influence it (i.e. British and American), by features found uniquely in CanE as well as by its actual usage. The thesis starts by discussing how the very notion of CanE evolved, how Canadians approached the existence of the variety they spoke and what factors influenced Canadians’ views of AmE and BrE which were perceptible in their speech. There will also be presented several linguists’ theories suggesting the non-existence of the distinct Canadian variety of English. The following four chapters will attempt to refute those ideas by pointing out the distinctive nature of Canadian vocabulary, grammar and spelling, and by focusing on the features from Canadian French which have become fully naturalized in CanE and are not characteristic of any other variety of English. The chapter on vocabulary includes the information on the components of Canadian vocabulary and on the regional division of the country. It deals with the development of originally British and American expressions in the Canadian background and also mentions the domains in which either British or American lexicon prevails. Subsequently, the preferred expressions in selected regions are discussed and the chapter is finished by a section on Canadianisms. The following chapter – ‘Grammar’ – presents in three sub-chapters Canadian tendencies concerning prepositional phrases, verbs and adverbials, and it ends with the section entitled ‘Canadian Eh ’ referring to the interjection which is widely used by Canadians. 6 The subsequent chapter on Canadian spelling starts with the historical development of the spelling system in Canada, and it continues by going through the individual spelling phenomena, commenting on each of them. It equally reflects on the consistency of usage in the three discussed varieties of English: CanE, BrE and AmE. Finally, the ‘French Influence on Canadian English’ offers an insight into the features of CanE resulting from the co-existence of the two languages. The chapter focuses primarily on the lexical and grammatical characteristics of CanE with relation to Canadian French. Given its minority status in the French speaking province, Quebec English is dealt with in more detail. 7 2. The Evolution of the Views of Canadian English and of the Attitudes towards It To understand why relatively few studies on the English language in Canada have been done and why Canadians did not feel for so long the need to struggle for the recognition of CanE as a distinct variety (Orkin 1970: 3-5), one has to consider the development of the country in the context of Great Britain and the United States . Canadians, revering their mother country, traditionally identified themselves with Britons, the consequence of which was the identification of CanE with BrE. Gradually, the view of CanE developed into the opposite extreme: it started to be regarded as nothing else but American English. Additionally, in an effort of the French Canadians to assert their cultural and linguistic rights, they depicted the Anglophone majority as confident and linguistically powerful, which naturally did not encourage the Anglo-Canadians to seriously explore the variety they spoke. They still tried to maintain the same language as was spoken in Great Britain and believed that BrE is what they should speak. However, this conviction did not prevent them from gradually incorporating into their speech Americanisms which subsequently became part of their ‘language’. Thus, the early British travellers to Canada recognized such Americanisms as ‘unwanted’ non-British elements; their comments on “the mis-adoption of would and should by the Canadians in the American manner” and on the use of such expressions as wagon or lot reach back into 1830s (Orkin 1970: 8). Other observers, resentful at the naturalizing of American expressions, vilified Canadian English by declaring it, for instance, “a corrupt dialect growing up amongst our population, and gradually finding access to our periodical literature, until it threatens to produce a language as unlike our noble mother tongue as the negro patua [sic], or the Chinese pidgeon [sic] English” (Reverend A. Constable Geike 1857, qtd. in Orkin 1970: 9). Geike criticized the intrusion