(Redirected from British Columbian English)The '
West/
Central Canadian English dialect' is one of the largest and the most homogenous dialect areas in
North America. It forms a dialect continuum with the accent in the
Western United States, and borders the dialect regions of
North,
Inland North, and North Central. While it is the most homogenous in that the regional differences inside the dialect area are very small, it has few unique features. It is very similar to
General American English.
Pronunciation
A table containing the
consonant phonemes is given below
The phoneme is present only in older speakers who have not undergone the
wine-whine merger.
The
vowel phonemes are shown in the table below:
The
diphthongs are shown in the next table:
| Diphthongs | Closer component
is front | Closer component
is back |
|---|
| 'Opener component is unrounded' | | |
| 'Opener component is rounded' | | |
While the West/Central dialect is mutually intelligible with many dialects of English spoken in England, especially Received Pronunciation, in general it preserves more archaic features, that existed before the dialects split.
★ Unlike RP, the West/Central dialect is
rhotic. This means it maintains the pronunciation of ''r'' before consonants. Rhoticity has been largely influenced by
Hiberno-English,
Scottish English, and
West Country English. The sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a
retroflex or
alveolar approximant rather than a trill or a tap. The 'er' sound of (stressed) ''fur'' or (unstressed) ''butter'', which is represented in
IPA as stressed or unstressed is realized in Canadian English as a
monophthongal
r-colored vowel.
★ It has also not shifted to (the so-called "broad A") before , , , , , alone or preceded by .
Both RP, and the West/Central dialect have gone through the following changes:
★ The
horse-hoarse merger of the vowels and before 'r', making pairs like ''horse/hoarse'', ''corps/core'', ''for/four'', ''morning/mourning'' etc.
homophones.
★ The
wine-whine merger making pairs like ''wine/whine'', ''wet/whet'', ''Wales/whales'', ''wear/where'' etc.
homophones, in most cases eliminating , the
voiceless labiovelar fricative. This is preserved in some older speakers, as well as being an archaicism.
The following changes are innovations, and do not occur in RP. It shares these changes with General American.
★ The
merger of and , making ''father'' and ''bother'' rhyme.
★ The replacement of the lot vowel with the strut vowel in most utterances of the words ''was'', ''of'', ''from'', ''what'', ''everybody'', ''nobody'', ''somebody'', ''anybody'', and ''because''.
★
Vowel merger before intervocalic .
★ The merger of and after
palatals in some words, so that ''cure'', ''pure'', ''mature'' and ''sure'' rhyme with ''fir'' in some speech registers for some speakers.
★ Some speakers have
Dropping of after
alveolar consonants so that ''new'', ''duke'', ''Tuesday'', ''suit'', ''resume'', ''lute'' are pronounced , , , , , .
★ Both intervocalic and may be realized as or , making ''winter'' and ''winner'' homophones for some speakers. This does not occur when the second syllable is stressed, as in ''entail''.
★ Laxing of , and to , and before , causing pronunciations like , and for ''pair'', ''peer'' and ''pure''.
★ The
flapping of intervocalic and to
alveolar tap before reduced vowels. The words ''ladder'' and ''latter'' are mostly or entirely homophonous, possibly distinguished only by the length of preceding vowel. For some speakers, the merger is incomplete and 't' before a reduced vowel is sometimes not tapped following or when it represents
underlying 't'; thus ''greater'' and ''grader'', and ''unbitten'' and ''unbidden'' are distinguished.
★ The vowels in words such as
''Mary'', ''marry'', ''merry'' are
merged to the
open-mid front unrounded vowel , except in Quebec.
The following changes are shared with the Western dialect in the US:
★ Traditionally
diphthongal vowels such as as in ''boat'' and , as in ''bait'', have acquired qualities much closer to
monophthongs in some speakers. However, the continuing presence of slight offglides (if less salient than those of, say, British
Received Pronunciation) and convention in
IPA transcription for English account for continuing use of and .
★ The cot-caught merger exists. A notable exception occurs with some speakers over the age of 60, especially in rural areas in the Prairies, although the merger is the most widespread overall.
★ is realized as [e] before g.
★ The words origin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, are all generally realized as [-É”r-], rather than [-É‘r-].
★ /u/ is slightly fronted after
coronals.
★ The ending in words of more than two syllables is realized as , , or .
★ Milk is realized as by some speakers, by others, although words such as pillow are pronounced with .
The following changes are shared with the Western dialect in the U.S., but to a lesser extent:
★ A recently identified feature (1995) is a chain shift known as the
Canadian Shift. The Canadian Shift is a chain shift triggered by the cot-caught merger. The vowels in the words "cot" and "caught" merge to . The Canadian Shift then shifts both "cot" and "caught" towards . The /æ/ of bat is retracted to [a], the of bet shifts to [æ], the in bit then shifts to the in bet.[3]
The following changes are shared with the
Pacific Northwest English dialect, as well as other dialects:
★
æ-tensing is tense before velar stops. This can cause words such as "bag" and "beg" to sound very similar, and some speakers pronounce both as [beg]. Some speakers, especially in Ontario have tense æ-tensing before nasals as well.
★ Tomorrow is generally pronounced as , instead of .
★ The following feature is most prominent in the Prairies, Ontario, and the Maritimes: "
Canadian raising":
diphthongs are "raised" before
voiceless consonants (e.g., , , , , ). For example,
IPA (the vowel of "eye") and (the vowel of "loud") become and , respectively, the component of the
diphthong going from a low vowel to
schwa . Note also that this phenomenon preserves the recoverability of the phoneme /t/ in "writer" despite the North American English process of flapping, which merges /t/ and /d/ into [ɾ] before unstressed vowels, so "writer" and "rider" can be distinguished from each other even though the t and d in those words are pronounced the same. The most noticeable feature is the raising of to because is an
allophone of (as in "road") in many other dialects, so the (mainly Eastern) Canadian pronunciation of "about the house" may sound like
★ "a boat the hoas" to speakers of dialects without the raising, and in many cases is misheard or exaggerated to "aboot the hoose". Some
stand-up and
situation comedians, as well as television shows actually do exaggerate the pronunciation to
★ "aboot the hoos" for comic effect, for example in the
American television series ''
South Park''. However, as it is untrue, this exaggeration can be considered offensive by some Canadians.
In contrast to General American:
★ The of foreign loan words in words such as''drama'' or ''Iraq'' are usually pronounced like the ''a'' in ''bat'': .
★ Been is usually pronounced rather than .
★ Words such as ''borrow'', ''sorry'', and ''sorrow'' are generally pronounced with , instead of with .
★ Americans sometimes claim to be able to recognize the Western/Central Canadian dialect instantly by their use of the word ''
eh''. However, only a certain usage of ''eh'' (detailed in the article) is peculiar to Canada. It is common in southern
Ontario, the
Maritimes and the
Prairie provinces. ''eh'' is used quite frequently in the North Central dialect, so a Canadian accent is often detected in people from
North Dakota,
Michigan,
Minnesota, and
Wisconsin.
Regional Variation
British Columbia
The dialect is very similar to the English spoken in the Prairies and Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. BC is home to a very diverse population. In parts of the Fraser Valley the intonation and cadence of Dutch and Mennonite German have influenced local English. British accents and a wide range of European and Asian second-language flavoured English have always been common, to the point of the British flavour being identifiably a hallmark of early 20th Century British Columbia, as has been English as spoken by First Nations peoples, which is distinct as an accent but also remains largely undocumented. Unlike in the prairies,
Canadian raising (one of the most noticeable features of Canadian English), found in words such as "about" and "writer" is receding in BC, and many speakers do not raise before voiceless consonants. Younger speakers in the Greater Vancouver area do not even raise , causing "about" to sound like "abowt". The "o" in words such as in the words "holy," "goal," "load," "know," etc. is pronounced as a back and rounded , but not as rounded as in the Prairies where there is a strong Scandinavian, Slavic and German influence. The interrogative "eh" is not used as frequently as in the rest of Canada.
Hear BC English
Chinook Jargon
Main articles: Chinook Jargon use by English Language speakers
Pacific Northwest English and
British Columbian English have several words still in current use which are loanwords from the
Chinook Jargon, which was widely spoken throughout
British Columbia by all ethnicities well into the middle of the 20th Century.
Skookum,
potlatch, muckamuck, saltchuck, and other Chinook Jargon words are widely used by people who do not speak Chinook Jargon. These words tend to be shared with, but are not as common in, the states of
Oregon,
Washington,
Alaska and, to a lesser degree,
Idaho and western
Montana.
Prairies
A strong
Canadian raising exists in the
prairie regions together with certain older usages such as ''chesterfield'' and ''front room'' also associated with the Maritimes. Aboriginal Canadians are a larger and more conspicuous population in prairie cities than elsewhere in the country and certain elements of aboriginal speech in English are sometimes to be heard. Similarly, the linguistic legacy, mostly intonation but also speech patterns and syntax, of the Scandinavian, Slavic and German settlers — who are far more numerous and historically important in the Prairies than in Ontario or the Maritimes — can be heard in the general milieu. Again, the large
Métis population in Saskatchewan also carries with it certain linguistic traits inherited from French, aboriginal and Celtic forebears.
The noun ''bluff'' (and the adjective ''bluffy'') in reference to an aspen and willow grove typically surrounding a slough, appears to be unknown outside the Canadian prairies, whereas the eastern Canadian and international use of the term in reference to a low cliff or abutment, is largely unknown in western Canada and causes some puzzlement to newly arrived westerners in Ontario.
The phrase ''whack of'' is often used in western Canada to refer to a large amount, e.g., ''We sure got a whole whack of snow in town last week!''.
Prairie housewives formerly used the somewhat disparaging adjective ''boughten'', also used in the Northern U.S., in reference to bread purchased commercially rather than home-baked. The word is now considered nonstandard, and rarely used.
In
Saskatchewan, the term "bunny hug" refers to a
hoodie.
Other praire terms include:
Slough: a shallow pond that is located in a field that usually dries up in the summer.
Dugout: a small, artificial (or artificially-deepened) body of water, often dug to provide soil for road construction.
Chinook: a warm winter wind that causes sudden increase in temperature (20-30 degrees in a matter of an hour or two)
Hear Prairies English
Ontario
Canadian raising is often quite strong in
Ontario.
Midwestern Ontario
The subregion of Midwestern Ontario consists of the Counties of Huron, Bruce, Grey, and Perth. The "Queen's Bush" as the area was called, did not experience communication with Southwestern and Central dialects 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 is particularly strong in the County of Bruce, so much that it is commonly referred to as being the Bruce Cownian (Bruce Countian) accent.
Ottawa Valley
The
Ottawa Valley has its own distinct accent, known as the
Ottawa Valley Twang.
Eastern Ontario
Canadian raising is not as strong in
Eastern Ontario 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
Renfrew County a separate dialect known as
Ottawa Valley Twang has developed. 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 the
Quinte area.
Words in which the Eastern Ontario accent is significant:
★ Got it - often pronounced
★ Okay - often pronounced
★ Hello - often pronounced
Toronto
In Toronto and the areas surrounding Toronto (Central Ontario,
Greater Toronto Area), the [ð] is often pronounced as [d]. Sometimes (particularly in
North York, an area of Toronto, [ð] is elided altogether, resulting in "Do you want this one er'iss one?" The word southern is often pronounced with [aʊ]. In the regional area north of York and south of Parry Sound, notably among those who were born in these bedroom communities (Barrie, Vaughan, Orillia, Bradford, Newmarket) as opposed to those who moved there to commute, the cutting down of syllables is often heard, e.g. "probably" is reduced to "prolly", or "probly" when used as a response.
Slang terms used in Toronto are synonymous with those used in other major North American cities. There is also a heavy influx of slang terminology originating from Toronto's many immigrant communities, of which the vast majority speak English only as a second or minor language. These terms originate mainly from various European, Asian, and African words. Many Torontonians use ''buddy'' (without a capital) as it is often used in Newfoundland English – as equivalent to ''that man'' (''I like buddy's car.'').
In Toronto's ethnic communities there are many words that are distinct, or come straight from
Jamaica.
★ jokes (GTA): simply saying "jokes" implies just kidding, or joking. "that party was jokes" means it was a good time.
★ arms (Toronto): weak, poor, bad; More prominent amongst inner-city youth.
★ mans (Toronto): Slang for 'men', popular with the youth of Toronto
★ fete (
Trinidad and Tobago): a really big party.
★ jam (Toronto): a big party.
★ waste (Toronto) : something is "waste," something sucks, is stupid, is pointless
★ brainer, (one gets…) brainz (Toronto): one who gives oral sex to men, synonym to "head"
★ live (Toronto): cool, good, lively.
★ snuff (Toronto) : punch.
★ mangia-cake, cake, caker (Toronto) : used mostly by immigrants of Italian origin, referring to non-Italians or more specifically people of
British descent.
Listen to a sample of Ontario English
Other Toronto slang:
★ T-Dot and T-Oh (from the shortening of Toronto to T.O.): often used to refer to
Toronto istself
★ gino: a guy into eurodance music, often used to imply femininity
★ euro:
European, everything from outfits to music. "really euro" is often derogatory
★ custy: means often on drugs,generally unkept or promiscuous about a person and disgusting/nasty about anything else
★ Scarbz and E-Tobes:
Scarborough and
Etobicoke suburbs repectively
★ TTC: subway, buses or streetcars. Stands for
Toronto Transit Commission, but used in the sense of "I took the TTC to
Eglinton Station."
★ salted it up: messed up what you were doing
★ 905ers/416ers: refers to those in the 416 telephone area code (main toronto) and the 905 (GTA) area code
★ the Ex: the
Canadian National Exhibition (also can refer to ex-boyfriends/girlfriends)
★ cottage country:
Muskoka, primarily
Quebec
Main articles: Quebec English
English is a minority language in Quebec, but has many speakers in Montréal, the
Eastern Townships and in the
Gatineau-
Ottawa region. Among Montréal-native anglophones, there is a distinction between and , unique in Canada, so that ''Mary'' and ''merry'' are not homophones. Among Eastern Townships-native anglophones, ''syrup'' is often pronounced as ''sir-rup''. Quebec also has French influence. A person with English mother tongue and still speaking English as the first language is called an ''Anglophone''. The corresponding term for a French speaker is ''Francophone'' and the corresponding term for a person who is neither Anglophone nor Francophone is ''Allophone''. Quebec Anglophones generally pronounce French street names in Montreal as French words. ''Pie IX'' Boulevard is pronounced as in French, not as "pie nine". On the other hand, Anglophones do pronounce final d's as in ''Bernard'' and ''Bouchard''; the word ''Montreal'' is pronounced as an English word and ''Rue Lambert-Closse'' is known as ''Clossy Street''.
Hear Quebec English
See also
★
North American Regional Phonology
★
North American English
★
Newfoundland English
★
Maritimer English
★
Quebec English
★
Pacific Northwest English
★
Canadian Shift
★
Vowel Shift
★
Canadian raising
References
★ Barber, Katherine, editor (2004). ''
Canadian Oxford Dictionary'', second edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-541816-6.
★ Chambers, J.K. (1998). "Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making," in ''The Canadian Oxford Dictionary'', 2nd ed., p. xi.
★ Peters, Pam (2004). ''The Cambridge Guide to English Usage''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-62181-X.
#
American Voices: How Dialects Differ from Coast to Coast, Walt Wolfram and Ben Ward, editors, , , Blackwell Publishing, 2006, ISBN 978-1-4051-2108-8
#
The Atlas of North American English, Labov, William, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, , , Mouton-de Gruyter, 2006, ISBN 3-11-016746-8
3 Clarke, Sandra, Elms, Ford, &Youssef, Amani. (1995). ''The third dialect of English'': Some Canadian evidence. Language Variation and Change 7:209–228.
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