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111-616: Canadian English ( CanE , CE , en-CA ) encompasses the varieties of English used in Canada . According to the 2016 census , English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French (20.8%) or other languages (21.1%). In the Canadian province of Quebec , only 7.5% of the population are mother tongue anglophone , as most of Quebec's residents are native speakers of Quebec French . The most widespread variety of Canadian English

222-443: A similar vowel shift since the 1980s. Canadian English as an academic field of inquiry solidified around the time of World War II. While early linguistic approaches date back to the second half of the 19th century, the first textbook to consider Canadian English in one form or another was not published until 1940. Walter S. Avis was its most forceful spokesperson after WWII until the 1970s. His team of lexicographers managed to date

333-402: A standard variety , some lect that is selected and promoted prescriptively by either quasi-legal authorities or other social institutions, such as schools or media. Standard varieties are accorded more sociolinguistic prestige than other, nonstandard lects and are generally thought of as "correct" by speakers of the language. Since the selection is an arbitrary standard , standard forms are

444-456: A European settlement history that dates back centuries, which explains Newfoundland's most notable linguistic regions: an Irish-settled area in the southeast (the southern Avalon Peninsula) and an English-settled area in the southwest. A well-known phonetic feature many Newfoundland speakers possess is the kit-dress merger . The mid lax /ɛ/ here is raised to the high lax stressed /ɪ/, particularly before oral stops and nasals, so consequently "pen"

555-574: A Loyalist stronghold, was named in honour of King George III . And on the outskirts of that city is a township simply named " Loyalist ". Canada's 2021 Census estimates a population of 10,015 who identify as having United Empire Loyalist origins, based on a 25% sample. On 1 July 1934, Royal Mail Canada issued "United Empire Loyalists, 1776–1784" designed by Robert Bruce McCracken based on Sydney March 's sculpture United Empire Loyalists . In 1996, Canadian politicians Peter Milliken (a descendant of American Loyalists) and John Godfrey sponsored

666-562: A class-based sociolect known as Canadian dainty . Treated as a marker of upper-class prestige in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Canadian dainty was marked by the use of some features of British English pronunciation, resulting in an accent similar, but not identical, to the Mid-Atlantic accent known in the United States. This accent faded in prominence following World War II , when it became stigmatized as pretentious, and

777-467: A common North American English sound system. The mainstream Canadian accent ("Standard Canadian") is often compared to the General American accent, a middle ground lacking in noticeable regional features. Western Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba) shows the largest dialect diversity. Northern Canada is, according to William Labov , a dialect region in formation where

888-827: A continuum between the two extremes of the Halifax variant and the Newfoundland variant. In addition, there is heavy influence of standard varieties of Canadian English on Cape Breton English, especially in the diphthongization of the goat and goose vowels and the frequent use of Canadian raising. Compared to the commonly spoken English dominating neighbouring provinces, Newfoundland English is famously distinct in its dialects and accents. Newfoundland English differs in vowel pronunciation , morphology , syntax , and preservation of archaic adverbial-intensifiers. The dialect varies markedly from community to community, as well as from region to region. Its distinctiveness partly results from

999-518: A dialect that is distinct from southern Canadian English. Overall, First Nations Canada English dialects rest between language loss and language revitalization. British Columbia has the greatest linguistic diversity, as it is home to about half of the Indigenous languages spoken in Canada. Most of the languages spoken in the province are endangered due to the small number of speakers. To some extent,

1110-434: A great extent, which has allowed the proposal of dialect zones. Dollinger and Clarke distinguish between: The words Aboriginal and Indigenous are capitalized when used in a Canadian context. First Nations and Inuit from Northern Canada speak a version of Canadian English influenced by the phonology of their first languages. Non-indigenous Canadians in these regions are relatively recent arrivals, and have not produced

1221-467: A higher first vowel in the diphthong) and no Trap-bath split . Canadian raising is when the onsets of diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ get raised to [ ə ] or [ ʌ ] before voiceless segments. There are areas in the eastern U.S. where some words are pronounced with Canadian raising. Some young Canadians may show Goose- fronting . U.S. southern dialects have long had goose-fronting, but this goose-fronting among young Canadians and Californians

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1332-674: A homogeneous English dialect has not yet formed. Labov's research focused on urban areas, and did not survey the country, but they found similarities among the English spoken in Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver. Labov identifies an "Inland Canada" region that concentrates all of the defining features of the dialect centred on the Prairies (a region in Western Canada that mainly includes Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba and

1443-410: A marker of Halifax English as a distinctive variant of Canadian English. Typically, Canadian dialects have a merger of the low back vowels in palm, lot, thought and cloth. The merged vowel in question is usually /ɑ/ or sometimes the rounded variant /ɒ/. Meanwhile, in Halifax, the vowel is raised and rounded. For example, body; popped; and gone. In the homophones, caught-cot and stalk-stock, the rounding in

1554-648: A national dictionary Consortium. The Consortium comprises the Editors' Association of Canada, the UBC Canadian English Lab, and Queen's University 's Strategy Language Unit. It is quite common for Canadian English speakers to have the cot-caught merger , the father-bother merger , the Low-Back-Merger Shift (with the vowel in words such as "trap" moving backwards), Canadian raising (words such as "like" and "about" pronounced with

1665-401: A particular region is called a regional dialect (regiolect, geolect ); some regional varieties are called regionalects or topolects, especially to discuss varieties of Chinese . In addition, there are varieties associated with particular ethnic groups (sometimes called ethnolects ), socioeconomic classes (sometimes called sociolects ), or other social or cultural groups. Dialectology is

1776-431: A past in which there were few roads and many communities, with some isolated villages. Into the 1980s, residents of villages in northern Nova Scotia could identify themselves by dialects and accents distinctive to their village. The dialects of Prince Edward Island are often considered the most distinct grouping. The phonology of Maritimer English has some unique features: As with many other distinct dialects, vowels are

1887-560: A period of more than two centuries. The first large wave of permanent English-speaking settlement in Canada, and linguistically the most important, was the influx of Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution , chiefly from the Mid-Atlantic States —as such, Canadian English is believed by some scholars to have derived from northern American English . Canadian English has been developing features of its own since

1998-463: A person, because of the rural provenance, would not be included in the accepted definition (see the previous section). The Atlas of North American English , while being the best source for US regional variation, is not a good source for Canadian regional variation, as its analysis is based on only 33 Canadian speakers. Boberg's (2005, 2008) studies offer the best data for the delimitation of dialect zones. The results for vocabulary and phonetics overlap to

2109-684: A shorthand for identifying the ancestry of particular families. The influence of the Loyalists on the evolution of Canada remains evident. Their ties with Britain and antipathy to the United States provided the strength needed to keep Canada independent and distinct in North America. The Loyalists' basic distrust of republicanism and " mob rule " influenced Canada's gradual, "paper-strewn" path to independence. The new British North American provinces of Upper Canada (the forerunner of Ontario) and New Brunswick were created as places of refuge for

2220-638: A significant impact on Canadian English's origins as well as again in the 20th century and since then as a result of increased cultural and economic ties between the two countries. American English terms like gasoline, truck, and apartment are commonly used in Canadian English. The growth of Canadian media, including television, film, and literature, has also played a role in shaping Canadian English. Chambers (1998) notes that Canadian media has helped to create new words and expressions that reflect Canadian culture and values. Canadian institutions, such as

2331-425: A specific community". More recently, sociolinguists have adopted the concept of the community of practice , a group of people who develop shared knowledge and shared norms of interaction, as the social group within which dialects develop and change. Sociolinguists Penelope Eckert and Sally McConnell-Ginet explain: "Some communities of practice may develop more distinctive ways of speaking than others. Thus, it

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2442-701: A total of about 2,000 slaves to British North America: 500 in Upper Canada (Ontario), 300 in Lower Canada (Quebec), and 1,200 in the Maritime colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The presence and condition of slaves in the Maritimes would become a particular issue. They constituted a larger portion of the population, but it was not an area of plantation agriculture. The settlers eventually freed many of these slaves. Together with

2553-901: Is Standard Canadian English , spoken in all the western and central provinces of Canada (varying little from Central Canada to British Columbia ), plus in many other provinces among urban middle- or upper-class speakers from natively English-speaking families. Standard Canadian English is distinct from Atlantic Canadian English , its most notable subset being Newfoundland English , and from Quebec English . Accent differences can also be heard between those who live in urban centres versus those living in rural settings. While Canadian English tends to be close to American English in most regards, classifiable together as North American English , Canadian English also possesses elements from British English as well as some uniquely Canadian characteristics. The precise influence of American English, British English, and other sources on Canadian English varieties has been

2664-511: Is Dollinger (2012, updated to 2017). Until the 2000s, basically all commentators on the history of CanE have argued from the "language-external" history, i.e. social and political history. An exception has been in the area of lexis, where Avis et al. 's 1967 Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles offered real-time historical data through its quotations. Starting in the 2000s, historical linguists have started to study earlier Canadian English with historical linguistic data. DCHP-1

2775-697: Is also celebrated on the same day in Saskatchewan , on 18 May in New Brunswick and on 22 July in British Columbia . The Loyalists paid attention to their history developing an idealized image of themselves in which they took great pride. In 1898, Henry Coyne provided a glowing depiction: The Loyalists, to a considerable extent, were the very cream of the population of the Thirteen Colonies. They represented in very large measure

2886-428: Is defined as "the language use typical of an individual person". An individual's idiolect may be affected by contact with various regional or social dialects, professional registers and, in the case of multilinguals , various languages. For scholars who view language from the perspective of linguistic competence , essentially the knowledge of language and grammar that exists in the mind of an individual language user,

2997-619: Is general social acceptance that gives us a workable arbitrary standard, not any inherent superiority of the characteristics it specifies." Sociolinguists generally recognize the standard variety of a language as one of the dialects of that language. In some cases, an authoritative regulatory body , such as the Académie Française , maintains and codifies the usage norms for a standard variety. More often, though, standards are understood in an implicit, practice-based way. Writing about Standard English, John Algeo suggests that

3108-544: Is known for its grasslands and plains), with more variable patterns including the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Toronto. This dialect forms a dialect continuum with Western US English , sharply differentiated from Inland Northern US English of the central and eastern Great Lakes region where the Northern Cities Shift is sending front vowels in the opposite direction to the Low-Back-Merger Shift heard in Canada and California. Standard Canadian English

3219-407: Is more recent. Some young Californians also show signs of the Low-Back-Merger Shift . The cot-caught merger is perhaps not general in the U.S., but younger speakers seem more likely to have it. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists words such as "no" and "way" as having a long monophthong vowel sound, whereas American dictionaries usually have these words ending in an upglide. There may be areas of

3330-481: Is not as strong as it is in the rest of the province. In Prescott and Russell , parts of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry and Eastern Ottawa, French accents are often mixed with English ones due to the high Franco-Ontarian population there. In Lanark County , Western Ottawa and Leeds-Grenville and the rest of Stormont-Dundas-Glengarry , the accent spoken is nearly identical to that spoken in Central Ontario and

3441-513: Is not unique to Toronto; Atlanta is often pronounced "Atlanna" by residents. Sometimes /ð/ is elided altogether, resulting in "Do you want this one er'iss one?" The word southern is often pronounced with [aʊ] . In the area north of the Regional Municipality of York and south of Parry Sound , notably among those who were born in the surrounding communities, the cutting down of syllables and consonants often heard, e.g. "probably"

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3552-488: Is now available in open access. Most notably, Dollinger (2008) pioneered the historical corpus linguistic approach for English in Canada with CONTE (Corpus of Early Ontario English, 1776–1849) and offers a developmental scenario for 18th- and 19th-century Ontario. In 2015, Reuter confirmed the scenario laid out in Dollinger (2008), using a 19th-century newspaper corpus from Ontario. Historically, Canadian English included

3663-505: Is now rare. The governor general Vincent Massey and the actor Christopher Plummer are examples of men raised in Canada, but who spoke with a British-influenced accent. Canadian spelling of the English language combines British and American conventions, the two dominant varieties, and adds some domestic idiosyncrasies. For many words, American and British spelling are both acceptable. Spelling in Canadian English co-varies with regional and social variables, somewhat more so, perhaps, than in

3774-738: Is particularly strong in the County of Bruce, so much that it is commonly referred to as being the Bruce Cownian (Bruce Countian) accent. Also, /ɜr/ merge with /ɛr/ to [ɛɹ] , with "were" sounding more like "wear". Residents of the Golden Horseshoe (including the Greater Toronto Area ) are known to merge the second /t/ with the /n/ in Toronto , pronouncing the name variously as [təˈɹɒɾ̃o] or [ˈtɹɒɾ̃o] . This

3885-412: Is pronounced more like "pin". Another phonetic feature more unique to Newfoundland English is TH-stopping. Here, the voiceless dental fricative /θ/ in words like myth and width are pronounced more like t or the voiced dental fricative /ð/ in words like the and these . TH-stopping is more common for /ð/, especially in unstressed function words (e.g. that, those, their, etc.). Canadian raising

3996-483: Is quite rare in the region today. Variety (linguistics) Variation at the level of the lexicon , such as slang and argot , is often considered in relation to particular styles or levels of formality (also called registers ), but such uses are sometimes discussed as varieties as well. O'Grady et al. define dialect : "A regional or social variety of a language characterized by its own phonological , syntactic , and lexical properties." A variety spoken in

4107-526: Is quite strong throughout the province of Ontario , except within the Ottawa Valley . The introduction of Canadian raising to Canada can be attributed to the Scottish and Irish immigrants who arrived in the 18th and 19th centuries. The origins of Canadian raising to Scotland and revealed that the Scottish dialects spoken by these immigrants had a probable impact on its development. This feature impacts

4218-424: Is reduced to "prolly" or "probly" when used as a response. In Greater Toronto, the diphthong tends to be fronted (as a result the word about is pronounced as [əˈbɛʊt] ). The Greater Toronto Area is linguistically diverse, with 43 percent of its people having a mother tongue other than English. As a result Toronto English has distinctly more variability than Inland Canada. In Eastern Ontario , Canadian raising

4329-667: Is socially defined. Standard Canadian English is spoken by those who live in urban Canada, in a middle-class job (or one of their parents holds such employment), who are second generation or later (born and raised in Canada) and speak English as (one of their) dominant language(s) (Dollinger 2019a, adapted from Chambers 1998). It is the variety spoken, in Chambers' (1998: 252) definition, by Anglophone or multilingual residents, who are second generation or later (i.e. born in Canada) and who live in urban settings. Applying this definition, c. 36% of

4440-477: Is within communities of practice that linguistic influence may spread within and among speech communities." The words dialect and accent are often used synonymously in everyday speech, but linguists define the two terms differently. Accent generally refers to differences in pronunciation , especially those that are associated with geographic or social differences, whereas dialect refers to differences in grammar and vocabulary as well. Many languages have

4551-617: The British Army and the sedentary units of the Canadian Militia . American leaders assumed that Canada could be easily overrun, with former president Thomas Jefferson optimistically describing the potential conquest of Canada as "a matter of marching". Many Loyalist Americans had migrated to Upper Canada after the Revolutionary War. However, there was also a significant number of non-Loyalist American settlers in

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4662-731: The Godfrey–Milliken Bill , which would have entitled Loyalist descendants to reclaim ancestral property in the United States which had been confiscated during the American Revolution . The bill, which did not pass the House of Commons , was intended primarily as a satirical response to the contemporaneous American Helms–Burton Act . In 1997, the Legislative Assembly of Ontario passed a bill declaring 19 June, "United Empire Loyalist Day" in Ontario . United Empire Loyalist Day

4773-722: The Governor General of Canada to issue an order-in-council directing that government papers be written in the British style. A contemporary reference for formal Canadian spelling is the spelling used for Hansard transcripts of the Parliament of Canada (see The Canadian Style in Further reading below) . Many Canadian editors, though, use the Canadian Oxford Dictionary , often along with

4884-735: The Iroquois , led by Joseph Brant Thayendenegea , settled at Six Nations of the Grand River , the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. A smaller group of Iroquois led by Captain John Deserontyon Odeserundiye , settled on the shores of the Bay of Quinte in modern-day southeastern Ontario. The government settled some 3,500 Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, but they faced discrimination and

4995-707: The Prairies or Atlantic Canada and men. In the southern part of Southwestern Ontario (roughly in the line south from Sarnia to St. Catharines), despite the existence of many characteristics of West/Central Canadian English, many speakers, especially those under 30, speak a dialect influenced by the Inland Northern American English dialect (in part due to proximity to cities like Detroit and Buffalo, New York) though there are minor differences such as Canadian raising (e.g. "ice" vs "my"). The north and northwestern parts of Southwestern Ontario,

5106-575: The Provincial Marine , or with the sedentary militia. With the successful defence of the Canadian colonies from American invasion, the War of 1812 is seen by Loyalists as a victory. After the war, the British government transported to New Brunswick and settled about 400 of 3,000 former slaves from the United States whom they freed during and after the war. It had fulfilled its promise to them of freedom if they left Patriot slaveholders and fought with

5217-646: The Quinte area. A linguistic enclave has also formed in the Ottawa Valley , heavily influenced by original Scottish, Irish, and German settlers, and existing along the Ontario-Quebec boundary, which has its own distinct accent known as the Ottawa Valley twang (or brogue). Phonetically, the Ottawa Valley twang is characterized by the lack of Canadian raising as well as the cot–caught merger , two common elements of mainstream Canadian English. This accent

5328-478: The Senior Dictionary, edited by Robert John Gregg , was renamed Gage Canadian Dictionary . Its fifth edition was printed beginning in 1997. Gage was acquired by Thomson Nelson around 2003. The latest editions were published in 2009 by HarperCollins . On 17 March 2017 a second edition of DCHP, the online Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles 2 (DCHP-2), was published. DCHP-2 incorporates

5439-403: The "correct" varieties only in the sense that they are tacitly valued by higher socio-economic strata and promoted by public influencers on matters of language use , such as writers, publishers, critics, language teachers, and self-appointed language guardians. As Ralph Harold Fasold puts it, "The standard language may not even be the best possible constellation of linguistic features available. It

5550-666: The American South; they suffered from this discrimination and the harsh winters. When Great Britain set up the colony of Sierra Leone in Africa, nearly 1300 Black Loyalists emigrated there in 1792 for the promise of self-government. And so 2,200 remained. The Black Loyalists that left established Freetown in Sierra Leone. Well into the 20th century, together with other early settlers from Jamaica and slaves liberated from illegal slave ships, and despite vicious attacks from

5661-487: The British. Enslaved African Americans risked considerable danger by crossing to British lines to achieve freedom. While the honorific "United Empire Loyalist" is not part of the official Canadian honours system , modern-day descendants of Loyalist refugees may employ it, sometimes using "U.E." as postnominal letters . The practice, however, is uncommon today, even in original Loyalist strongholds like southeastern Ontario. Historians and genealogists use it extensively as

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5772-534: The CBC and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, have also played a role in promoting and defining Canadian English. In addition to these influences, Canadian English has also been minorly shaped by Indigenous languages. Indigenous words such as moose, toboggan, and moccasin have become part of the Canadian English lexicon. Canadian English is the product of five waves of immigration and settlement over

5883-739: The Canadas , to American Loyalists who resettled in British North America during or after the American Revolution . At that time, the demonym Canadian or Canadien was used by the descendants of New France settlers inhabiting the Province of Quebec . They settled primarily in Nova Scotia and the Province of Quebec. The influx of loyalist settlers resulted in the creation of several new colonies. In 1784, New Brunswick

5994-426: The Canadian English lexicon. An important influence on Canadian English was British English, which was brought to Canada by British settlers in the 18th and 19th centuries. Canadian English borrowed many words and expressions from British English, including words like lorry, flat, and lift. However, Canadian English also developed its own unique vocabulary, including words like tuque, chesterfield, and double-double. In

6105-500: The Canadian population speak Standard Canadian English in the 2006 population, with 38% in the 2011 census. The literature has for a long time conflated the notions of Standard Canadian English (StCE) and regional variation. While some regional dialects are close to Standard Canadian English, they are not identical to it. To the untrained ear, for instance, a BC middle-class speaker from a rural setting may seemingly be speaking Standard Canadian English, but, given Chambers' definition, such

6216-861: The Government wanted to develop the frontier of Upper Canada. This resettlement added many English speakers to the Canadian population. It was the beginning of new waves of immigration that established a predominantly Anglo-Canadian population in the future Canada both west and east of the modern Quebec border . Following the end of the American Revolutionary War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783, both Loyalist soldiers and civilians were evacuated from New York City, most heading for Canada. Many Loyalists had already migrated to Canada, especially from New York and northern New England, where violence against them had increased during

6327-641: The New England states alone, more than 10% of the population can trace their roots to the Maritime Provinces. Two million more of 14 million inhabitants, or roughly 15%, are part or wholly of French Canadian descent. The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada (UELAC) is an organization of Loyalist descendants and others interested in Canadian history, in particular the role of the United Empire Loyalists. The organization

6438-443: The U.S. near the border where you hear the monophthong, eg. Fargo or Minnesota. The monophthong does sound stereotypically "Canadian" (listen to for example Bob and Doug McKenzie ), but not all Canadians use this pronunciation. In terms of the major sound systems ( phonologies ) of English around the world, Canadian English aligns most closely to American English. Some dialectologists group Canadian and American English together under

6549-443: The United Empire Loyalists. The mottoes of the two provinces reflect this history: Ontario's, also found on its coat of arms, is Ut incepit fidelis sic permanet ("Loyal she began, loyal she remains"); New Brunswick's, Spem Reduxit ("Hope restored"). The word "Loyalist" appears frequently in school, street, and business names in such Loyalist-settled communities as Belleville, Ontario . The nearby city of Kingston , established as

6660-462: The United States. As some families split in their loyalties during the war years, many Loyalists in Canada continued to maintain close ties with relatives in the United States. They conducted commerce across the border with little regard to British trade laws. In the 1790s, the offer of land and low taxes, which were one-quarter those in America, for allegiance by Lieutenant-Governor Simcoe resulted in

6771-400: The United States. Most were loyal to all things British, but other Loyalists supported the United States in the War of 1812. Conrad and Finkel conclude: [I]n using their history to justify claims to superiority, descendants of the Loyalists abuse the truth and actually diminish their status in the eyes of their non-Loyalists neighbours ... The scholars who argue that the Loyalists planted

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6882-613: The area consisting of the Counties of Huron , Bruce , Grey , and Perth , referred to as the "Queen's Bush" in the 19th century, did not experience communication with the dialects of the southern part of Southwestern Ontario and Central Ontario until the early 20th century. Thus, a strong accent similar to Central Ontarian is heard, yet many different phrasings exist. It is typical in the area to drop phonetic sounds to make shorter contractions, such as: prolly (probably), goin' (going), and "Wuts goin' on tonight? D'ya wanna do sumthin'?" It

6993-544: The area due to the offer of land grants to immigrants. The Americans assumed the latter population would favour the American cause, but they did not. Although the population of Upper Canada included recent settlers from the United States who had no obvious loyalties to the Crown, the American forces found strong opposition from settlers during the War of 1812. A number of loyalists served as fencibles , provincial regulars, in

7104-528: The arrival of 30,000 Americans often referred to as Late Loyalists. By the outbreak of the War of 1812, of the 110,000 inhabitants of Upper Canada, 20,000 were the initial Loyalists, 60,000 were later American immigrants and their descendants, and 30,000 were immigrants from the UK, their descendants or from the Old Province of Quebec . The later arrival of many of the inhabitants of Upper Canada suggests that land

7215-631: The c. 10 000 lexemes from DCHP-1 and adds c. 1 300 novel meanings or 1 002 lexemes to the documented lexicon of Canadian English. In 1997, the ITP Nelson Dictionary of the Canadian English Language was another product, but has not been updated since. In 1998, Oxford University Press produced a Canadian English dictionary, after five years of lexicographical research, entitled The Oxford Canadian Dictionary . A second edition, retitled The Canadian Oxford Dictionary ,

7326-590: The chapter on spelling in Editing Canadian English , and, where necessary (depending on context), one or more other references. (See Further reading below.) Throughout part of the 20th century, some Canadian newspapers adopted American spellings, for example, color as opposed to the British-based colour . Some of the most substantial historical spelling data can be found in Dollinger (2010) and Grue (2013). The use of such spellings

7437-472: The concept of the United States negotiators "advising" the U.S. Congress to provide restitution. For the British, this concept carried significant legal weight, far more than it did to the Americans; the U.S. Congress declined to accept the advice. Slave-owning Loyalists from across the former Thirteen Colonies brought their slaves with them to Canada, as the practice was still legal there . They took

7548-470: The country's diverse linguistic and cultural heritage. While Canadian English has borrowed many words and expressions from other languages, it has also developed its own unique vocabulary and pronunciation that reflects the country's distinct identity. Studies on earlier forms of English in Canada are rare. Yet connections with other work to historical linguistics can be forged. An overview of diachronic work on Canadian English, or diachronically relevant work,

7659-701: The course of a communicative event as the relationship between speakers changes, or different social facts become relevant. Speakers may shift styles, as their perception of an event in progress changes. Consider the following telephone call to the Embassy of Cuba in Washington, DC . Caller: ¿Es la embajada de Cuba? ( Is this the Cuban embassy? ) Receptionist: Sí. Dígame. ( Yes, may I help you? ) Caller: Es Rosa. ( It's Rosa. ) Receptionist: ¡Ah Rosa! ¿Cóma anda eso? ( Oh, Rosa! How's it going? ) At first,

7770-484: The defeat of France in the Seven Years' War . With the creation of Upper and Lower Canada, most Loyalists in the west could live under British laws and institutions. The predominantly ethnic French population of Lower Canada, who were still French-speaking, could maintain their familiar French civil law and Catholic religion. Realizing the importance of some type of recognition, on 9 November 1789, Lord Dorchester ,

7881-534: The depiction of them in the Sandham painting which suggests the arrivals were well-dressed upper-class immigrants. Loyalists soon petitioned the government to be allowed to use the British legal system, which they were accustomed to in the American colonies, rather than the French system. Great Britain had maintained the French legal system and allowed freedom of religion after taking over the former French colony with

7992-408: The dialects reflect the historical contexts where English has been a major colonizing language. The dialects are also a result of the late stages of depidginization and decreolization , which resulted in linguistic markers of Indigenous identity and solidarity. These dialects are observed to have developed a lingua franca due to the contact between English and Indigenous populations, and eventually,

8103-497: The early 19th century. The second wave from Britain and Ireland was encouraged to settle in Canada after the War of 1812 by the governors of Canada , who were worried about American dominance and influence among its citizens. Further waves of immigration from around the globe peaking in 1910, 1960, and at the present time had a lesser influence, but they did make Canada a multicultural country, ready to accept linguistic change from around

8214-476: The early 20th century, western Canada was largely populated by farmers from Central and Eastern Europe who were not anglophones. At the time, most anglophones there were re-settlers from Ontario or Quebec who had British , Irish , or Loyalist ancestry, or some mixture of these. Throughout the 20th century, the prairies underwent anglicization and linguistic homogenization through education and exposure to Canadian and American media. American English also had

8325-466: The following sentence as an example of a nonstandard dialect that is used with the technical register of physical geography: There was two eskers what we saw in them U-shaped valleys. Most speakers command a range of registers, which they use in different situations. The choice of register is affected by the setting and topic of speech, as well as the relationship that exists between the speakers. The appropriate form of language may also change during

8436-472: The free Black Loyalists, many chose to go to Sierra Leone in 1792 and following years, seeking a chance for self-government. Meanwhile, the British Parliament passed an imperial law in 1790 that assured prospective immigrants to Canada that they could retain their slaves as property. In 1793, an anti-slavery law was passed, in the 1st Parliament of Upper Canada . The Act Against Slavery banned

8547-685: The governor of Quebec and Governor General of British North America, declared "that it was his Wish to put the mark of Honour upon the Families who had adhered to the Unity of the Empire". As a result of Dorchester's statement, the printed militia rolls carried the notation: Those Loyalists who have adhered to the Unity of the Empire, and joined the Royal Standard before the Treaty of Separation in

8658-478: The idiolect, is a way of referring to the specific knowledge. For scholars who regard language as a shared social practice, the idiolect is more like a dialect with a speech community of one individual. United Empire Loyalist United Empire Loyalist ( UEL ; or simply Loyalist ) is an honorific title which was first given by the 1st Lord Dorchester , the Governor of Quebec and Governor General of

8769-546: The importation of slaves into the colony, and mandated the emancipation of all children born henceforth to female slaves upon reaching the age of 25. The Act was partially introduced due to the influx of the number of slaves brought by Loyalist refugees to Upper Canada. The slave trade was abolished across the British Empire in 1807. The institution of slavery was abolished Empire-wide by 1834 (except in India , where it

8880-553: The indigenous peoples that nearly ended the Maroon colony, they and their descendants dominated the culture, economy and government of Sierra Leone. Numerous Loyalists had been forced to abandon substantial amounts of property in the United States. Britain sought restoration or compensation for this lost property from the United States, which was a major issue during the negotiation of the Jay Treaty in 1795. Negotiations settled on

8991-611: The issue earlier in 1997. The Star had always avoided using recognized Canadian spelling, citing the Gage Canadian Dictionary in their defence. Controversy around this issue was frequent. When the Gage Dictionary finally adopted standard Canadian spelling, the Star followed suit. Some publishers, e.g. Maclean's , continue to prefer American spellings. The first series of dictionaries of Canadian English

9102-635: The learning, the piety, the gentle birth, the wealth and good citizenship of the British race in America, as well its devotion to law and order, British institutions, and the unity of the Empire. This was the leaven they brought to Canada, which has leavened the entire Dominion of this day. According to Canadian historians Margaret Conrad and Alvin Finkel, Coyne's memorial incorporates essential themes that have often been incorporated into patriotic celebrations. The Loyalist tradition, as explicated by Murray Barkley and Norman Knowles, includes: The elite origins of

9213-656: The liquids or fricatives found in the standard form. Dene Suline , on the other hand, has more phonological contrasts, resulting in the use of features not seen in the standard form. The language has 39 phonemic consonants and a higher proportion of glottalized consonants. Many in the Maritime provinces – Nova Scotia , New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island  – have an accent that sounds more like Scottish English and, in some places, Irish English than General American. Outside of major communities, dialects can vary markedly from community to community, as well as from province to province, reflecting ethnic origin as well as

9324-400: The merged vowel is also much more pronounced here than in other Canadian varieties. The Canadian Shift is also not as evident in the traditional dialect. Instead, the front vowels are raised. For example, the vowel in had is raised to [hæed]; and camera is raised to [kæmra]. Although it has not been studied extensively, the speech of Cape Breton specifically seems to bear many similarities with

9435-544: The nearby island of Newfoundland, which is often why Westerners can have a hard time differentiating the two accents. For instance, they both use the fronting of the low back vowel. These similarities can be attributed to geographic proximity, the fact that about one-quarter of the Cape Breton population descends from Irish immigrants - many of whom arrived via Newfoundland - and the Scottish and Irish influences on both provinces. The speech of Cape Breton can almost be seen as

9546-415: The ongoing focus of systematic studies since the 1950s. Standard Canadian and General American English share identical or near-identical phonemic inventories, though their exact phonetic realizations may sometimes differ. Canadians and Americans themselves often have trouble differentiating their own two accents, particularly since Standard Canadian and Western United States English have been undergoing

9657-473: The pronunciation of the /aɪ/ sound in "right" and the /aʊ/ sound in "lout". Canadian Raising indicates a scenario where the start of the diphthong is nearer to the destination of the glide before voiceless consonants than before voiced consonants. The Canadian Shift is also a common vowel shift found in Ontario. The retraction of /æ/ was found to be more advanced for women in Ontario than for people from

9768-438: The proper English spoken by immigrants from Britain. One of the earliest influences on Canadian English was the French language, which was brought to Canada by the French colonists in the 17th century. French words and expressions were adopted into Canadian English, especially in the areas of cuisine, politics, and social life. For example, words like beavertail, and toque are uniquely Canadian French terms that have become part of

9879-418: The receptionist uses a relatively formal register, as befits her professional role. After the caller identifies herself, the receptionist recognizes that she is speaking to a friend, and she shifts to an informal register of colloquial Cuban Spanish . The shift is similar to metaphorical code-switching , but since it involves styles or registers, it is considered an example of style-shifting. An idiolect

9990-518: The refugees, their loyalty to the British Crown, their suffering and sacrifice in the face of hostile conditions, their consistent anti-Americanism, and their divinely inspired sense of mission. Conrad and Finkel point out some exaggerations: only a small percentage of the Loyalists were colonial elite. In fact Loyalists were drawn from every stratum of colonial society, and few suffered violence and hardship. About 20 percent would later return to

10101-588: The same inadequate support that all Loyalists experienced. Delays in making land grants, but mostly the willingness of the blacks to under-cut their fellow Loyalists and hire themselves out to the few available jobs at a lower wage aggravated racist tensions in Shelburne. Mobs of white Loyalists attacked Black Loyalists in the Shelburne Riots in July 1784, Canada's first so-called "race" riot. The government

10212-576: The seeds of Canadian liberalism or conservatism in British North America usually fail to take into account not only the larger context of political discussion that prevailed throughout the North Atlantic world, but also the political values brought to British North America by other immigrants in the second half of the 18th century. From the 1870s, many of their descendants returned to the United States in pursuit of cheaper land. In

10323-566: The standard variety "is simply what English speakers agree to regard as good". A register (sometimes called a style ) is a variety of language used in a particular social setting. Settings may be defined in terms of greater or lesser formality, or in terms of socially recognized events, such as baby talk , which is used in many western cultures to talk to small children or as a joking register used in teasing or playing The Dozens . There are also registers associated with particular professions or interest groups; jargon refers specifically to

10434-456: The study of dialects and their geographic or social distribution. Traditionally, dialectologists study the variety of language used within a particular speech community , a group of people who share a set of norms or conventions for language use. In order to sidestep the vexing problem of distinguishing dialect from language , some linguists have been using the term communalect – defined as "a neutral term for any speech tradition tied to

10545-683: The term "Canadian English" to a speech by a Scottish Presbyterian minister, the Reverend Archibald Constable Geikie, in an address to the Canadian Institute in 1857 (see DCHP-1 Online , s.v. "Canadian English", Avis et al., 1967). Geikie, a Scottish-born Canadian, reflected the Anglocentric attitude that would be prevalent in Canada for the next hundred years when he referred to the language as "a corrupt dialect", in comparison with what he considered

10656-661: The two dominant varieties of English, yet general trends have emerged since the 1970s. Canadian spelling conventions can be partly explained by Canada's trade history. For instance, Canada's automobile industry has been dominated by American firms from its inception, explaining why Canadians use the American spelling of tire (hence, " Canadian Tire ") and American terminology for automobiles and their parts (for example, truck instead of lorry , gasoline instead of petrol , trunk instead of boot ). Canada's political history has also had an influence on Canadian spelling. Canada's first prime minister , John A. Macdonald , once advised

10767-618: The various dialects began to converge with standard English. Certain First Nations English have also shown to have phonological standard Canadian English, thus resulting in a more distinct dialect formation. Plains Cree, for instance, is a language that has less phonological contrasts compared to standard Canadian English. Plains Cree has no voicing contrast. The stops /p/ , /t/ , and /k/ are mostly voiceless and unaspirated, though they may vary in other phonetic environments from voiceless to voiced. Plains Cree also does not have

10878-489: The vocabulary associated with such registers. Unlike dialects, which are used by particular speech communities and associated with geographical settings or social groupings, registers are associated with particular communicative situations, purposes, or levels of formality, and can constitute divisions within a single regional lect or standardized variety. Dialect and register may thus be thought of as different dimensions of linguistic variation . For example, Trudgill suggests

10989-596: The war. The Crown-allotted land in Canada was sometimes allotted according to which Loyalist regiment a man had fought in. This Loyalist resettlement was critical to the development of present-day Ontario, and some 10,000 refugees went to Quebec (including the Eastern Townships and modern-day Ontario). But Nova Scotia (including modern-day New Brunswick) received three times that number: about 35,000–40,000 Loyalist refugees. An unknown but substantial number of individuals did not stay; they eventually returned to

11100-452: The world during the current period of globalization . The languages of Aboriginal peoples in Canada started to influence European languages used in Canada even before widespread settlement took place, and the French of Lower Canada provided vocabulary, with words such as tuque and portage , to the English of Upper Canada . Overall, the history of Canadian English is a reflection of

11211-554: The year 1783, and all their Children and their Descendants by either sex, are to be distinguished by the following Capitals, affixed to their names: UE or U.E. Alluding to their great principle The Unity of the Empire. Because most of the nations of the Iroquois had allied with the British, which had ceded their lands to the United States, thousands of Iroquois and other pro-British Native Americans were expelled from New York and other states. They were also resettled in Canada. Many of

11322-723: Was considered an indigenous institution ). From 1812 to 1815, the United States and the United Kingdom were engaged in a conflict known as the War of 1812 . On 18 June 1812, US President James Madison signed the declaration of war into law, after receiving heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress. By 1812, Upper Canada had been settled mostly by Revolution-era Loyalists from the United States (United Empire Loyalists) and postwar American and British immigrants. The Canadas were thinly populated and only lightly defended by

11433-518: Was incorporated on 27 May 1914 by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario . In 1972, the organization was granted a coat of arms from the College of Arms through a letter patent, dated 28 March 1972. On 17 April 1707, Queen Anne issued a proclamation referencing the use of the Union Flag "at Sea and Land". The Union Flag began to appear on forts and as regimental colours from this point, and at

11544-704: Was much easier for editorial staff to leave the spellings from the wire services as provided. In the 1990s, Canadian newspapers began to adopt the British spelling variants such as -our endings, notably with The Globe and Mail changing its spelling policy in October 1990. Other Canadian newspapers adopted similar changes later that decade, such as the Southam newspaper chain's conversion in September 1998. The Toronto Star adopted this new spelling policy in September 1997 after that publication's ombudsman discounted

11655-530: Was partitioned from the Colony of Nova Scotia after significant loyalist resettlement around the Bay of Fundy . The influx of loyalist refugees also resulted in the Province of Quebec's division into Lower Canada (present-day Quebec ), and Upper Canada (present-day Ontario ) in 1791. The Crown gave them land grants of one lot. One lot consisted of 200 acres (81 ha) per person to encourage their resettlement, as

11766-449: Was published and completed the first edition of Gage's Dictionary of Canadian English Series. The DCHP documents the historical development of Canadian English words that can be classified as "Canadianisms". It therefore includes words such as mukluk, Canuck, and bluff, but does not list common core words such as desk, table or car. Many secondary schools in Canada use the graded dictionaries. The dictionaries have regularly been updated since:

11877-503: Was published by Gage Ltd. under the chief-editorships of Charles J. Lovell (1907–1960) and Walter S. Avis (1919–1979) as of 1960 and the " Big Six " editors plus Faith Avis . The Beginner's Dictionary (1962), the Intermediate Dictionary (1964) and, finally, the Senior Dictionary (1967) were milestones in Canadian English lexicography. In November 1967 A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP)

11988-437: Was published in 2004. Just as the older dictionaries it includes uniquely Canadian words and words borrowed from other languages, and surveyed spellings, such as whether colour or color was the more popular choice in common use. Paperback and concise versions (2005, 2006), with minor updates, are available. Since 2022, the Editors' Association of Canada has been leading the writing of a new Canadian English Dictionary within

12099-454: Was slow to survey the land of Black Loyalists (which meant they could not settle); it was also discriminatory in granting them smaller, poorer, and more remote lands than those of white settlers; not counting those Loyalists who were resettled in what would become Upper Canada, in general, or around the Bay of Quinte, in specific. This increased their difficulties in becoming established. The majority of Black Loyalists in Canada were refugees from

12210-490: Was the long-standing practice of the Canadian Press perhaps since that news agency's inception, but visibly the norm prior to World War II . The practice of dropping the letter u in such words was also considered a labour-saving technique during the early days of printing in which movable type was set manually. Canadian newspapers also received much of their international content from American press agencies, so it

12321-470: Was the main reason for immigration. The arrival of the Loyalists after the Revolutionary War led to the division of Canada into the provinces of Upper Canada (what is now southern Ontario ) and Lower Canada (today's southern Quebec ). They arrived and were largely settled in groups by ethnicity and religion. Many soldiers settled with others of the regiments they had served with. The settlers came from every social class and all thirteen colonies, unlike

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