Transcript IN SEARCH FOR THE STANDARD – CANADIAN ENGLISH

IN SEARCH FOR THE
STANDARD – CANADIAN
ENGLISH
THE HISTORICAL CONTEXT
• 1608 -Samuel de Champlain established the first
French foothold (Quebec City)
• 1754 - George Washington leads militia forces to
push the French out in order to make way for the
inflow of British settlers (French and Indian War)
• 1763 – Treaty of Paris - made New France another
British Colony. French settlers settle in the
Maritimes
• 1774 - Quebec Act decreed the Ohio-Mississippi
Valley an are of fur trading that would be
governed by Quebec.
• 1791 - Constitutional Act - Ontario (Upper
Canada) and Quebec (Lower Canada).
• 1840 - Union Act - uniting Upper and
Lower Canada into the Province of Canada.
• July 1st 1867, three British North American
colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia
and Upper/Lower Canada - Confederation
of Canada
DOES CANADIAN ENGLISH
EXIST?
• Lilles (2000) questions the very nature of the
existence of Canadian English, pointing to an existing
myth based on a weakly constructed Canadian
Identity, having no standardization in orthography and
phonology.
• Sutherland (2000) sees the dialect as a ‘network of
regionalisms’ mostly associated with certain areas of
the United States
• Howard B. Woods (1993) defines Canadian English as
‘an off-shoot of American English”, assuming that the
essence of CE is the linguistic duality of Standard
Southern British English
THE HISTORICAL
BACKGROUND
• 5 periods of research: New France and
colonization; the American Revolution;
Napoleonic Wars, World War I and Stalinist Era.
• English-speaking colonists initially came into
Canada after the French were forced to cede their
colonies, called Acadie (Nova Scotia, Prince
Edward Island, New Brunswick) to Britain, as a
result of the Treaty of Utrecht in the year 1713.
• Table 1 presents the decline of the French
population.
Names of
Places.
1749
1758,
After the taking
of Louisbourg.
1771
After the fall of New
France.
Peninsula
13,00
0
1,200
1,860
Isle Royale
1,000
700
920
Prince
Edward
Island
St. John Island
1,000
6,500
1,270
New
Brunswick
District of
Gedaïc
600
300
1,101
Shores of the
Gulf
100
500
1,093
Bay des
Chaleurs
100
400
795
St. John River
200
1,100
1,403
Nova Scotia
• Canadian colonists show the same blend of
dialects as those who came to the Thirteen
Colonies and similarly to the way as it happened
there, various dialects and accents were
homogenized - the roots of Canadian English
are found in British English of the middle
eighteenth century.
• The inflow of the first Loyalists, mainly
concentrated on the Maritimes, as many were
eager to flee to Britain via the Nova Scotia ports.
• Settlers from Pennsylvania, New York, New
Jersey and Western Vermont became the first
permanent inhabitants of today’s Ontario, and the
initiators of future westward migration
• Cowan (1961), Joy (1967) and Chambers (2003)
report on a substantial growth of British based
population in the period between 1825 and 1860
• Following Cowan (1961), the population of Upper
Canada, at that time mostly inhabited by the
Loyalists and their descendants, grew form
150,000 in 1824 to approximately 450,000 in the
year 1841 and in the same period, Toronto’s
population increased form 1,600 to almost 20,000
• Homogenity among urban middle-class Canadian
English dialects resulted from westward expansion
– CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway)
Immigration
1871
1901
1931
1961
Total population
3.486.000
5.371.000
10.377.000
18.238.000
Forign-born
585.000.
700.000
2.281.000
2.844.000
Foreign-born %
17%
13%
22%
16%
• “In Canada we find all the dialects of England in
full force (Orkin, 1970: 13).
• The first recorded mention of Canadian English is
that made by the Reverend A. Constable Geikie
(1857) in a speech delivered to the Canadian
Institute in 1857, marking it as a ‘corrupt dialect’.
• Geikie’s objections clearly result from the fluid
state of English brought by early eighteenth
century immigrants, as many changes in
pronunciation and grammar had been in progress
• The dominance of American pronunciation was
not simply a result of American legacy of Upper
Canada, yet by the presence of the American
curriculum in schools, eg.: Webster’s spelling
book - frequently used in Canadian schools,
clearly setting up pronunciation tendencies.
• British immigrant anti-american wave during the
first half of the 20th century. This Dainity, a term
created by the dialectologist Rex Wilson, is known
as the phenomenon of the Anglo-Canadian.
• Post 1950 – decline of Briticisms and growth of
Americanisms (media etc).
THE 7 LINGUISTIC REGINS
OF CANADA
Interior Quebec – over 95% French as the mother tongue
Southern Quebec and the Ottawa Valley – 40% English,
with French predominant in governmental institutions and
understood by a third of the population.
Northern New Brunswick – 59% mother tongue French, yet
forced to a spoken minority by English.
Eastern and Northern Ontario – 70% English
Southern Ontario – A rough estimate of one out of forty
gave French as the mother tongue.
The Atlantic Region – The four Atlantic Provinces – French
spoken by 5% of the overall population.
The Western Provinces – almost entirely settled by
Ontarions and immigrants from Europe; practically
entirely assimilated to the English language.
THE HISTORICAL LEGACY –
THE DOUBLE STANDARD
• Chambers (2004) - “These double standards
are the linguistic legacy of the first two
immigrations. Just as those two
immigrations shaped Canadian society
uniquely, so they left a unique mark on
Canadian English” (Chambers, 2004: 7).
THE 4 MAIN AREAS
• Vocabulary
• Pronunciation
• Syntax
• Spelling
The development of Canadian
Vocabulary
The Search for Fish:
• The first English-based lexical item in the
Canadian wordstock would thus be a fishing
admiral, coined in 1718, due to the fact that the
English fisherman based their administration on
navy traditions
• Indian names became incorporated to the fish that
appeared new to the fisherman, such as: qualla,
tyee or Chinook Salmon, obviously associated
with the Chinook Indian tribes
Bangbelly – (nfld) a pudding, cake or pancake consisting of a dumpling like mixture, fried baked
or stewed.
Banking – (nfld) fishing for cod off the southeast coast of Newfoundland.
Fish flake – (nfld) a rack on which to dry fish
Fishing room – (nfld) a lot on the beach used as a base by a fisherman.
Fishing stage – (nfld) a shed near the shoreline for gutting.
Fishing station – a small sheltered cove from which fishing is undertaken.
Fish shed – (Maritimes) fish house.
Fish store – (nfld & Maritimes) – a building where offshore fishermen store dried cod.
Graple – (nfld) a small anchor used to moor fishing equipment
Keg – (nfld) a small barrel used as a buoy for a fishnet
Mud trout – (nfld) the eastern brook trout.
Rodney – (nfld) a small fishing boat or punt.
Salter – (nfld) a member of a pickling crew who washes fish.
Spring salmon – chinook
Squid jigger – (nfld) a weighted line used to catch squid for bait.
Trap skiff – (nfld & maritimes) a fishing boat used in the cod fishery
The journey inland and the fur trade:
• Jacque Cartier’s voyage of 1534 - kanata,
(mistaken for the name of the country,
though in fact it means village or
community). Not until 1849 do we find
Canuck, which may be the English version
of kanuchsa, the Iroquoian name for a
resident of a kanata”.
• The rough and snowy Canadian terrain:
bateau, Red River boat, birchbark canoe or
snowshoe.
Bay – the Hudson’s Bay Company, or one of its posts or retail stores.
Bay man – (hist) an employee of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
Bay nody – (nfld) – bayman
Bastard canoe – (hist) a birchbark canoe used in the fur trade.
Beaver Club – (hist)a Montreal social club founded in the 18th C. by
members of the Northwest Company
Camboose – (hist) a large wooden cabin with a central fireplace,
serving as a winter shelter in a logging camp.
Canot du nord – (hist) a birchbark canoe of the fur trade
Express canoe – (hist) a reletively small canoe of the fur trade
Spruce Tea – a drink made by boiling spruce shoots.
Tripman – (hist) a man hired for temporary duty on a fur brigade
Wintering partner - (hist) a stock holding member and representative
of a fur trading company.
Westward migration and sports:
• the Free Land Homestead Act was passed, thus the
late nineteenth century sees the increase of
homesteading;
• Sir John Macdonald created the North West
Mounted Police, known today as the Royal
Canadian Mountain Police (Scargill, 1977: 2838). The Mounties, as they are called today, wear
characteristic red uniforms, hence the informal
expression redcoat is used in reference to them.
• Agriculture: indigenous plant and animal life
names were kept, among them “tabcoo, tamarack
and caribou”
• By 1891 the Ontario Hockey Association was
formed, and in 1893 the Stanley Cup was offered
by the Governor General of Canada at that lime,
Lord Stanley of Preston, as a trophy for
competition by all Canadian teams. Since its
beginning…ice hockey has given a variety of
terms to the vocabulary: to ice a team (1955), blue
line (1931), and red line (1963), and those various
infractions: spearing (1963), butt-ending (1955)
and boarding (1962)
• http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-41-154610384/sports/spirit_of_hockey/clip11
Acadianian forest – the type of forest, characterized by red spruce, balsam fir, yellow birch
and sugar maple, found in Nova Scotia and part of New Brunswick
Arpent – (hist) 1. an old French unit of land area equivalent to 3420 square meters (about 1
acre), the standard measure of land in those areas settled during the French regime
Bush farm – (hist) a farm in the bush that has not be completely or properly clearded of
trees.
Crown reserve – (hist) a portion of land reserved for the Crown as a sourse of revenue free
from the control of colonial legislature
Indian agent – (hist) a person appointed by the Appartment of Indian Affaires to supervise
government programmes
Location ticket – (hist) a certificate allowing a settler take a pice of land
River lot – (hist) a farm lot extending back from a river
Seigneury – (hist) a tract of land held by a seigneur
Dipsy-doodle – (slang) (from hockey) evade the defending team; an evasive movememnt; a
tactic devised to cofuse or outwit. (The gov is doing a dipsy-doodle to us).
Dump-and-Chase – (hockey) designating the strategy of play in which a palyer shoots the
puck far down the ice and then chases after it
Hang up one’s skates – to retire, give up (the PM is going to hang up his skates next
month).
Hockey cushion – a skating rink with hockey boards esp. and outdoor rink of natural ice.
Stickhandle – maneuver skillfully around.
As presented in Orkin (1971) and suggested by Lovell (1955), Canadian vocabulary
can be divided into the following categories:
(1) Direct adoptions from native American Languages
(2) Loan-words from Canadian French, with Indian antecedents
(3) Spanish-American terms
(4) Borrowings from other languages
(5) Words from the above classes used in combination with English
(6) Words originated in Canada
(7) Geographical names
(8) Figurative expressions
(9) Descriptions of places and regions
(10) Abbreviations
(11) Everyday words
(12) Words replacing synonyms more often used in England:
(13) Terms representing different things than in British English
(14) Words which have developed additional meanings
(15) Words shifted from one part of speech to another.
CANADIAN
PRONUNCIATION
• As reported by Bloomfield (1948), Canadian
pronunciation forms bare historical relation to the
speech patterns of both Northern and Midland
speech in the United States
• Woods (1993) - the General American
pronunciation system and the Canadian one are
coming closer each day, with the British standard
diminishing
Canadian Raising
• it was brought to the interest of the general public
by the linguist Martin Joos (1941)
• Gregg (1973) attribute it directly to the continuing
trend of the Great Vowel Shift, yet Chambers
(1989, 2004b) does not fully see relations between
the two and treats it as evidence of the Loyalist
base of Canadian English, seeing it as coming into
use in the early 1920’s.
Chambers defines the process as being
characterized by a tendency of raising the vowel,
so that : “Phonetically, the onset vowel is mid,
back and unrounded” (Chambers, 2004b: 17). The
most popular example to illustrate the feature is
the about the house example, which phonetically
is realized by Canadian speakers as aboot the
hoos, yet it need be argued that this is only an
illusion. Acoustically, the hearer has the
impression of the tongue raised further from its
position then it really is
These variants are called raised or centralized
diphthongs, because their nucleus is no longer a
low vowel.
Therefore, these variants are obligatory under
certain phonological circumstances, in this case
the obstruent consonants must have voiceless
properties.
The appearance of a voiced sound will thus not
result in the raising of the vowel. In conclusion,
before voiceless sounds the process is obligatory.
The phenomenon initiates as a result
of a different position of the tongue
in the production of the diphthong.
The articulation starts from the mid
central position instead of the low
central, with the tongue further
proceeding upward
Graph. 1 : The standard [aw]
Graph 3: The standard [aj]
Graph. 2: The raised [aw]
Graph 4: The raised [aj]
unraised
Ride, lied, tried,
vibe, bide, live,
arrive, knives,
rise, spies, rye,
lie, try, buy,
vine, pine,
mime, lime.
raised
unraised
raised
Right, light,
fight, reich,
pike, tyke,
trike, type,
pipe, viper,
spite, bite,
pike, might.
Mouthe,
houses,
espouse, rouse,
cows, bows,
thou, bow, how,
now, town,
down, frown.
Rout, lout,
bout, about,
pout, tout,
doubt, gout,
mouth, house,
louse, spouse,
• These tendencies also appear in the United
States, especially in the area of the Northern
Great Lakes Region. This can signify crossborder influence of the two varieties of
North American English, or may provide
proof of the Loyalist influence following the
ideas presented in Chambers(1973, 2004),
thus showing that the origins of the
phenomenon are debatable.
Other characteristics:
• Walter S. Avis (1956) - a British form was used whenever
the word was of limited use, while the General American
one appeared to apply to words treated as more general and
in common use
•
“English-speaking Canada was largely colonized from
great Britain and the United States, and Canadian
pronunciation could be expected to show the influence of
this mixed parentage” (Orkin, 1971: 119)
• Eric Patridge (1951) attributes these tendencies to the
educational and social backgrounds of the colonists,
reminding that it was less educated men that inhabited
North America, therefore the predominant pronunciation
would differ form that of the upper class in England.
CBC Handbook for Announcers
Abdomen
Address
Ally
Asia
Bouquet
Decadent
Envelope
Leisure
Often
Program
Status
Valet
Version
Recommended
abdo’men
‘address
‘ally’
ash-a
‘boo-kay
dec’adent
enlike ‘pleasure’
off-n
-gram
stay-tus
va’lett
-sh-
Alternative
ab’domen
a’ddress
a’lly
azh-a
bo’kay
deca’dent
onlike ‘seizure’
off-en
-grum
status
va-lay’
-zh-
Canadian Merging
• This is the merger of low back vowels so that CE
has only one low back vowel phoneme, where
most other varieties of English have two”
(Chambers, 2004b: 17)
cot
bobble
dotter
don
stocking
caught
bauble
daughter
dawn
stalking
Canadian English pronunciation system will require
the same vowel for the words in both columns
The Canadian Shift
• Results directly from Canadian Merging
• The Canadian Shift results allows speakers
to retract the low-front vowel ash to a much
more central position.
• ... half a pack a day ...
‘Rhoticity’ and alveolar flapping
• Generally, Canadian English shares ‘rhoticity’ and
alveolar flapping with American English, however
research has come across the phenomenon of ‘rdropping’ in certain areas of Nova Scotia. Woods
(1993) has also observed that flapping seems to be
age-based. In his studies he arrived at the
conclusion that younger Canadians appear to be
more likely to use a flap in the place of an alveolar
stop, than the older generation. Take as an
example the word Toronto.
Canadian vowel space
• The vowel space of Canadian English is further distinct in
that the entire system is situated slightly farther back in the
oral tract. That is, Canadian back vowels are pronounced
with the tongue bunched slightly behind where it would be
in British and American dialects
• This results in the monophthongal nature of Canadian
vowels. As a result, in circumstances where Standard
English requires the production of a diphthong, the
Canadian tendency is towards monophthongization of the
vowel
• "...some nineteen sixties commando show that my dad
used to watch, or they've got Tour of Duty..."
• "People that you see rushing home..."
• "There’s not a day I don’t try..."
Canadian ‘/a/ natavization’
• The process in which foreign words with
low vowels, such as pasta or taco, are
pronounced with the low-front vowel ash,
yet as mentioned earlier, the sound is
brought to a much more central position
• This pattern is quite variable
PLACES
Acapulco, Basque, Colorado, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan,
Nevada, Slavic, Slovakia, Tejano, Vietnam, Yokohama,
Yugoslavia
NAMES
Assad, Barak, Chirac, Dalai Lama, Delgado, Franco,
Giuliani, Keanu, Modano, Natasha, Rebagliati, Tania
FOODS
avocado, bratwurst, cilantro, goulash, nacho, pasta,
pecan, pistachio, souvlaki, taco
PRODU
CTS
atsun, Fiat, Lada, Mazda, Movado, Nissan, Yahoo!
OTHER
afficionado, bravo, drama, gulag, llama, nirvana, pinata,
plaza, pyjamas, regatta, saga, soprano, strata,
dachshund, gelato, lava, Vietnam, Yugoslavia
SYNTAX
• In terms of morpho-syntactic relations
Canadian English generally conforms to
world English standards, although Orkin
(1971) argues that variation might be
observed not on the regional but rather on
the social level.
Choice of prepositions
• Although in many cases Canadians choose the
American version, there are examples of deviation
from the standard:
• sick to my stomach : : at, in and of.
• A Canadian live on Blank Street like an American,
he says due to instead of owing to and assures his
listeners that there is nothing to it (Br. nothing in
it). He often looks forward like an American
taking his first vacation in two years (Br. First
holiday for two years).
The ‘eh’ tag
• Allen (1959) sees eh as thus having a uniquely Canadian character.
The tag can be used in the interrogative, in the narrative or quite
simply as a typical greeting
• You like it, eh? - interrogative
• We had pizza, eh and beer - narrative
• How’s it going, eh - greeting
• Avis (1972) eh did not originate in Canada, and there is nothing
characteristically Canadian about it, since it is also shared with
British speakers, nevertheless Canadians employ it in contexts
where no other speakers would use it, which deeply gives it a
Canadian sense. The term was widely popularized through the
television shows of Bob and Doug Mackenzie in the 1970’s and
Rick Moranis in the 1980’s. The overuse of the tag thus became a
marker of Canadian speech.
The ever exclamation
• The meaning remains emphatic referring simply to
something happening habitually. As a result,
inversion is required or occasional do-support, yet
there are no instances of interrogation (Chambers,
2004b: 19).
• is he ever cleaver;
• do you ever know much about this software
• are they ever so good to us
The cep’for construction
• It is often used to introduce a subordinate clause,
therefore it functions as a complementizer.
• The construction results from the phonological
reduction of except for.
• I would help you, cep’fer I have no time
• He can give you the money cept’fer you need to
come and get it yourself
• It is a good idea cep’fer she has noone to help her
The after + present participle
structure
• It is rather a regional than a national standard.
• In this case, the standard world English present
perfect tense and an adverbial to indicate an
action, which has been completed fairly recently,
is supplanted by the presented structure
• He’s after coming from the mainland
• He’s after telling me all about it
The –as well structure
• This refers to seeing the adverbial phrase as
a content linking device between two
sentences
• He told Mary to be careful. As well, he
asked all of us to help her
The positive anymore
• Chambers and Trudgill, (1991) - a construction
that appears regionally in areas of Southern
Ontario and in the West of Canada
• This construction involves using the adverbial in a
positive context, where normally it appears in
negative contexts
• John listens to rock a lot any more. In this case,
the adverbial simply means frequently and bears
the implication that previously he did not.
• He complains a lot anymore
• Anymore, they usually call it ‘cottage cheese’
• War, anymore, is genocide
CANADIAN SPELLING
• Orkin (1971) - it may be said that the British spelling
system remains mandatory on the so-called ‘official’ level,
that is on the governmental level. This dates to Canada’s
first PM who obliged government officials to incorporate
British spelling into their correspondence.
• This pattern was then endorsed in 1931 by The Royal
Society of Canada, The Canadian Historical Association
and the Canadian Geographical Society (Mencken, 1936:
349-350)
• Chambers (1987) notes that: “Our public presses do not
offer much guidance. On the contrary, their inconsistency
reflects the general condition”
Some generalizations
• The –our spelling (instead of or) - parlour,
honour, colour or favour
• The –re spelling: sombre, theatre or fibre
• The –ce spelling in items as: practice or defence
when they appear as nouns, whereas when their
syntactic function is that of a verb, these will have
the –se ending as in: license or practise
• Canadian spelling incorporates different spelling
for homonyms in order to sustain the different
meanings
CONCLUSIONS
• CE & AE vs. General North American
• language standards, standard dialect and standard accent
(accepted norms for the use of language; the grammar and
lexis of educated usage; pronunciation)
•
• (Chambers, 1987) - “…we will find that it is not much
different from the Standard dialect of the United States or
England…” as in terms of grammar and vocabulary
Canadians use identical sentence structures and basic
vocabulary. Nevertheless, there are elements which
differentiate the dialect from other standards, which in turn
makes it uniquely Canadian
THIS CONCLUDES THE
PRESENTATION
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION