Canadian English – Phonology So, let’s talk about the phonology! First of, I want to start with a ew basic points:
•• Canadian English and Standard erican are actually really siilar" as Clair said, Canada leans towards the Standard erica dialect # so, or instance, Canadian English is considered a rhotic language because the syllable$%nal r is pronounced in words like car and farm in ost o the Canadian states, &ust like in erica' I’(e actually read an interesting theory about this in a &ournal published by the )ueen’s *ni(ersity in +ntario that states that the English spoken in Canada and erica # the rhotic languages, in other words # pronounced the r’ because they were coloni-ed ar earlier than the southern heisphere colonies' .etween coloni-ing /orth erica and coloni-ing, or e0aple, ustralia, /ew 1ealand and South rica, the English spoken in .ritain underwent a huge change # like dropping the pronunciation o the r’ %nal$syllable, or e0aple' 2he table you can see here # let e ake it a little bigger so it’s clearer # is the Canadian (ariation o 3ohn 4ells’ le0ical sets" as you can
diferentsee, they’re accents a set ino the 56 wordsEnglish that language' are used, 4ells in ph choonology,se the to speci%cally analyse or their clarity # it’s ipossible to istake the or any other words' •• /ow, pre$rhotic (owels # such as the o’ in the words sorry’ and borrow’ are a uni7ue eature o Canadian English pronunciation' In erican pronunciation, there is a tendency to replace the o’ in a word with an inter$(ocalic r’ with an a’ # so, sorry, toorrow, borrow, sorrow, are all said with an a’ rather than an o’' In Canada, howe(er, the 8o9 is aintained beore the inter(ocalic 8r9' So whereas an erican would say sari and baro, the Canadian pronounciation is actually sori and boro' •• espite retaining the o beore r, Canadian English has, howe(er, lost the distinction between 8ae9 ;ah< and e ;e< when they occur beore an inter$ (ocalic r’ # =oward 4oods, in a study o +ttawa residents, ound that this was priarily older speakers, who tended to pronounce arry as aeri’' •• 2he only ststateate that doesdoes not actuallyactually pronouncepronounce the r’r’ is /o(a Scotia, one o the tlantic >ro(inces'
Inter(ocaInter(ocaliclic 22
•• 2he t is (o(oicediced inter(ocalicallyinter(ocalically $$ 4hen (oicing(oicing a t’ aaterter a stressedstressed syllable, usually it becoes pronounced as a d’ # or e0aple, city becoes sidi" little is lidel, like the shop, and it is one o the ost distinct structures o Canadian English' ccording to Chabers’ ?@@A report, Bawless and Dulgar Inno(ations, this dated back to Dictorian (iews o the Canadian dialect which were, on the whole, not (ery a(ourable'
erger o ow$.ack (owels
•• 2he erergerger o low back (owels(owels # low backback (owels are the (owels youuyo produce by dropping the &aw down to a low position' In Canadian English,
the low$back (owels ;oh< and ;aw< are pronounced entirely alike" the distinction between the in .ritish English doesn’t get translated into
Canadian English'English' For instance, cot and caught are both pronounced as cot' •• 2his is also known as the CanadianCanadian shit' •• Siilar to this is the disappearance o (owel contrast in words which use the sae letters # so, or e0aple, logger and lager both sound like they ha(e the sae (owel # ;trudgill and =annah, ?@G5<' =owe(er, the Canadian Shit does not occur in all o Canada # the tlantic >ro(inces ;/ew .runswick, >rince Edward Island, /o(a Scotia and /ewoundland< 8 In a nation$wide sur(ey ;o(er ?6HHH< Canadians, Scargill and 4arkentyne reported that an a(erage o GJ o Canadians responded yes’ when asked i cot and caught rhye' In /ewoundland, the rate dropped to KHJ' 9 •• In oreign words, Canadians alost e0clusi(ely use the LaeL pattern, whereas in .ritish English, words such as alael, karate, llaa, and so on, can either ha(e an LaeL sound or La:L, depending on where the stress o the word alls' So, whereas in .ritish English, pasta would be prounced with an LaeL whereas llaa would be pronounced with an La:L, in Canadian English the two are both pronounced in the sae way' 2he only e0ception occurs in words with %nal stressed open syllables, such as oie gras, spa, where the LaeL sound cannot appear'
Canadian Maising
•• Canadian Maising is the chie uni7ue eatureeature in Canadian English, and that is the pronunciation o diphthongs' iphthongs are a two diferent (owel sounds cobined in such a way that they only see like one # such as ou’ in house, the oyoy’’ o boy, and the ie’ie’ o died' Canadians actuallyactually pronouncpronouncee both diphthongs, rather than one, by pushing the %rst part o the dipthong to the centre o the word and aking it a ar ore noticeable eature' 2his ostly happens when the (owels are ollowed by a (oiceless consonant such as p, b, t, k, and so on, though it doesn’t ean that a (oiced consonant will not lead to pushing the (owels up' In M>, when saying house’, the ou’ o house is longer and lower than the Canadian (ariant, which not only lilitsts the (owels to the id$range, but also shortens the glide between one and the other' thth thth oo .ased on the Nreat Dowel shit that happened in the ? and ?K century when English shited ro iddle English to odern English though nobody 7uite knows where Canadian English cae ro' •• +ne uni7ue word pronunciation is khaki' Ohaki, an IndianIndian word eaning dust’, is pronounced copletely diferently ro the .ritish and erican (ersions' 4hereas the .ritish draw out the a’, thus kaahki, and the ericans creacreatete a diphthong in the iddle, khaki ;keeki<,;keeki<, Canadians add
an r’ ater the a’ to ake karki # siilar to car key' 2his is probably due to the Canadians growing accustoed to the british dropping the r’ beore a consonant' •• Se(eral other e0aples o phoneic diferences: oo 2here 2here’s’s also the pronunciationpronunciation o the letter -’ asas -ed’ # siilarsiilar to England' In act, in an article by .ill Casselan, he points out the incredulity o an erican custoer attacking a Canadian waitress
isor actually using the the word authentic -ed’ insteadpronunciation o -ee’, o claiing -ed’ # he that also the points or out-ed’ that ore and ore Canadians are pronouncing -’ as -ed’ instead o -ee’' oo 4ords o French origin are pronounced as though they are in rench # so, cli7ue would be cli7ue, and not cli7ue 8click9"8click9" oo Soeties, the I’ (owel in words such as ilk and lick is pronounced as an e’ # so, to certain speakers, a Canadian saying ilk’ would actually sound as though he is saying elk’' oo In words ending with ile’, all letters are pronounced # or e0aple, instead o saying ertil, Canadians say er$tile' oo In the case o words such as shone, le(er and schedule, Canadians go with the .ritish pronunciation # so, shone 8gone9, lee(er and 0edule'
Conclusion 2 2oo conclude ourour presentation,presentation, CanadaCanada is the second largestlargest nation in thethe world, populated by 5@ illion people' It was disco(ered by the French, who naed it cadia, and it was gi(en to the .ritish ater the 2reaty o *ltrecht resol(ed )ueen nne’s war, part o the French and Indian wars ought between the French and the .ritish' 2he French were deported and .ritish, Irish and Scottish iigrants took their place' It is this di(erse background o iigration that led to Canadian English'
lthough ost o the phonology, phonetic, le0is and other 7ualities iic /orth erica, there are a ew diferences between Canadian English and Standard erican # this is also not taking into account the aritie pro(inces,pro(inces, whose inPuence sees to be ore Scottish based than erican' 2hese diferences ake Canadian English the noticeable (ariety o English that as it is spoken to day: the low$back (owel erger, where the (owels are pronounced by dropping the &aw to a lower position, the (arious rules go(erning the pronounciation o pre$ rhotic sybols, and Canadian Maising, where the diphthongs o a word are raised’ to a id$(owel, resulting in words such as hoose’ and aboot’'
4ith regards to spelling and pronunciation, they lean ore towards the .ritish (ariants than the erican (ersions, and they ha(e retained soe nati(e place naes and the naes o Pora and auna indigenous to the area # suc as >ugwash, +ttawa, tobacco, potato, caribou' =owe(er, )uebecian English is diferent ro standard Canadian English by borrowing a great deal ro French" in Canada, )uebec is a predoinantly French$speaking state, and this ay account or it'
2heiro the syntasynta0 ater’0 isand 7uite the uni7ue'past participle ong # others,o asthers, ichael CanadianCanaadian said, English they like uses to saya greatgrea I’t dealater
doing the dishes’, and to use anyore’ as an ending to a positi(e sentence' 2hey also o(er$e0clao(er$e0claii a act, usingusing e(er’' FurtherorFurtherore,e, the usageusage o the wordrdwo eh’ # parodied on any, any, any shows # is used to end a 7uestioning sentence' nother uni7ue eature is the e0tension o the past perect ;she’s been si0 years dead< and the do Q be negati(e # I get that,that, but I don’t be out o breath'
I hope you en&oyed our presentation on Canadian English' 2hank you'
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