Speaking Canadian English

What do English-speaking Canadians sound like and why? Can you tell the difference between a Canadian and an American? A Canadian and an Englishman? If so, how? Linguistically speaking is Canada a colony of Britain or a satellite of the United States? Is there a Canadian language? Speaking Canadian English, first published in 1971, in a non-technical way, describes English as it is spoken in Canada – its vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, grammar, spelling, slang. This title comments on the history of Canadian English – how it came to sound the way it does – and attempts to predict what will happen to it in the future. This book will be of interest to students of linguistics.

The English Language in Canada examines the current status, history and principal features of Canadian English, focusing on the 'standard' variety heard across the country today. The discussion of the status of Canadian English considers the number and distribution of its speakers, its relation to French and other Canadian languages and to American English, its status as the expressive medium of English Canadian culture and its treatment in previous research. The review of its history concentrates on the historical roots and patterns of English-speaking settlement that established Canadian English and influenced its character in each region of Canada. The analysis of its principal features compares the vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar of Canadian English to standard British and American English. Subsequent chapters examine variation and change in the vocabulary and pronunciation of Canadian English, while a final chapter briefly considers the future of Canadian English.

Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: C, University of Cologne (Philosophy Faculty), course: English Worldwide, 12 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: „The flag is the symbol of the nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion.”said Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 15, 1965, thereby lowering the Canadian Red Ensign and raising the new maple leaf flag 1 . Defining the flag as a symbol of the nation’s unity, Bourget touches upon a question of unity not easy to answer in context of a country like Canada. As a multinational and multicultural country, Canada’s search for unity with regard to the language of it’s citizens is not easy to make out as a question of unity in most cases is a question of identity as well. Whenever we focus on a nation’s unity, we will have to focus on aspects defining the nation, chiefly it’s language enabling communication between it’s citizens and the identity resulting from the use of a language. This work will put a focus on the the language used in Canada and search for a Canadian identity. It will provide some historical facts and will then focus on the official language(s) spoken in Canada, their differences and similarities to US and UK English. Furthermore the problems resulting from Canada’s bilingualism will be portrayed and it will be asked if and how Canadians experience their English as a separate entity: The English Language in Canada.

Traces the making of Canadian English, both as concept and global variety, throughout the twentieth century to the present.

This publication focuses on vocabulary, which reflects unique Canadian traits; elements that share not only a Canadian origin but also reference to everyday contexts present on both the micro and macro stage. The conducted study aimed to show variation on the lexical level, which may result from a fluid sense of national identity. The Toronto region, due to its extensive multi-cultural and multi-ethnic background bears a sense of diversity both on the social and linguistic ground. The conducted study involved the distribution of questionnaires, which tested speakers’ knowledge of Canadian register, their ability of using them in the context of everyday discourse and the identification of items. Furthermore, the author had obtained two years worth of texts from the Toronto Sun, which enabled the observation of Canadianisms within the written medium of a media context. The resulting data formed a database labeled by the author as the LCTES (Lodz Corpus for Toronto English Study).