The difference between

Canadian and British

English

Edited by

Elaine Gold and Janice McAlpine

Presented by Bernadett Szalai

Background, including demographic and geographical

information

Canada is the second largest nation in the world, occupying almost ten million square kilometers;

Culturally, Canada are diveded by several nations

Demographical backgrounds

Demographically, the population of 29,639,035

the population is geographically concentrated along the southern border. Most Canadians live within two hundred kilometres of the U.S.-Canadian border.

Canadians are highly urbanized but also overwhelmingly middle-class

Demographic information

Canada has an astounding number of „non-

official‟ languages as well

Mother Tongue

Canada

Québec Ontario

English

17,352,315 557040 7,965,225

English and non-official

language

219,860 15,045 114,275

Totals (English) 17,572,175 572,085 8,079,500

Phonology Canadian English (CE) forms one branch of North American English, but it has

distinctive phonological features:

CE has only one low back vowel phoneme where most other standard varieties of English have two. In most of the United States, for example, the words listed

below are distinguished from one another in this way

the phonological distinction does not exist in Canada, and the words in both lists have the same vowel. The vowel is usually (but not always) the unrounded [ ɑ ] so that cot and caught are both pronounced /kɑt/, don and Dawn both / dɑn /.

Canadian Raising (Chambers 1973)Pronouciation of wife, mice, right, house, couch, and about. Canadians pronounce the diphthongs in these words in a singular way, so that outsiders sometimes claim that they are saying, for example, aboot the hoose for „about the house.‟

[ ɑ ] [ɔ]

bobble bauble

Dotter daughter

Don

cot

dawn

caught

Syntax

CE conforms to wirld-wide standards;

Standard English grammar varies little from

country to country;

Nonstandard grammatical constructions in

CE they are usually not Canadian innovations

but carryovers from regional dialects in the

British Isles.

after + present participle is heard in Newfoundland

(Clarke 1997)

„Mary’s after telling us about it=Mary has recently finished

telling us”

ever exclamation

„Does John ever drive fast! and Is John ever stupid!”

‟cep‟fer complementizer (Chambers 1987)

phological reproduction of except for

„We could sit on the floor cep’fer the teacher would probably tell

us not to”

positive any more (Eitner 1949, Labov 1991b,

Murray 1993)

„John listens to rock a lot any more”

Canadian Spelling

Category

Usual

Usual British

Preference

American

Preference

Other Such

Examples

Some Shared

Spellings In Both

-our/-or colour color favour honour humour

labour

glamour

stupor

derivations of

our/or

colourful colorful favourite honourable

labouring

coloration

glamorous

Humorous laborious

-re/-er centre

center meage metre spectre

theatre

macabre timbre

-ce/-se defence

practise(v)

defense practice(v) licence(n) license(v)

practice(n)

stems in -l fulfil fulfill Enrol, expel Annul, compel

Install,

double/single

consonant before

inflections

equalled equaled imperilled signalled benefited focused

kidnapped outfitted

Canadian Spelling

Category

Usual

Usual

Bristish

American

Preference

Other Such Examples Some Shared

Spellings In Both

ise/ize criticise

(permitted))

criticize

(exclusive

advertise civilize

realize surprise

--yse/-yze analyse analyze paralyse

silent -e- judgement

moveable

(permitted)

judgment

acknowledgement ageing

liveable

lovable

-ae-/-e- anaesthesia anesthesia encyclopaedia aesthetics medieval

-oe-/-e- foetus fetus manoeuvre

Xion/-ction connexion connection

and inflection

-ogue -og analogue,

dialogue,

catalogue

dialog, catalog Analog(UK) Dialogue

(US)

Hyphens re-elect, re-

enter, re-

entry, re-

examine

reelect,

reenter,

reentry,

reexamine

counter-attack(UK)

counterattack (US)

Canadian vocabulary Canadianism

the native words and expressions of Canada

Inculdes the words and expressions borrowed form other languages, which do not appear in other varieties of English.

Landscape:the chutes, or saults, of the rivers, the muskeg of the hinterland, the buttes and parklands of the prairies, and the bluffs, or islands of trees, on the flat prairie are but a few

Trees and plants: cat spruce, Douglas fir, Manitoba maple, Sitka spruce, and tamarack; kinnikinnick, Labrador tea, Pembina berry, saskatoon and soapalallie.

Birds were discovered: Canada goose, fool hen, siwash duck, turkey vulture and whiskey jack.

Fish of all sorts: cisco, inconnu, maskinonge, kokanee, ouananiche, oolichan, tuladi and wendigo

Finally, political term such as M.P.P.:acclamation, and endorsation tell us something of the newly founded institutions

Vocabulary II. Canadian English is a mixture of American and

British English with an insignificant number of Canadianisms added.

Canadians borrow freely from both American and British English andappropriate it to suit their needs. The lexeme chesterfield is a par exemplar.

the interjection eh: „So eh? is Canadian, eh?” he interjection did not originate in Canada and is not peculiar to the English spoken in Canada. However, the frequency and the context in which it occurs in Canadian speech is remarkably different from both American and British native speakers

Words that differentiate Canadian

and American everyday speech

“Middle border” Canadian Midwest American

asphalt road blacktop

blinds shades

elastic band rubber ban

feather (corn) silk

sheaf bundle

tap faucet

tea party coffee party

veranda porch

Conclusions

Canadian English is still a subject of constant change;

Canadian English is the result of a number of contextual

factors that influenced its early formation;

It is a product of the cooperation and coexistence of

various groups of people from different nations;

The differences between native Canadian and British

and American speakers have never been so great that

communication was impossible;

However it is sufficient to distinguish these differences.

Thank you for your attantion!