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79-757: Ottawa Valley English is Canadian English of the Ottawa Valley , particularly in reference to the historical local varieties of the area, now largely in decline. The accents of such traditional varieties are commonly referred to as an Ottawa Valley twang or brogue . The Ottawa Valley historically extends along the Ottawa River from northwest of Montreal through the city of Ottawa and north of Algonquin Park . The Atlas of North American English identifies an Ottawa Valley traditional dialect enclave in Arnprior , which lacks

158-445: 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

237-474: A "living room" or what Ottawa Valley inhabitants would call a "parlour." "Rones" is used in place of "eavestroughs" and " gutters ." Phonologically, the English of Renfrew County is influenced by Polish-speakers in the region but also by a greater contact with Irish populations. One of the strongest Irish influences on Ottawa Valley twang and the English of the area, in general, is the introduction of "for to." That

316-457: 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"

395-551: 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

474-460: 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

553-817: 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

632-508: 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,

711-471: A gloomy and overcast day. Some phonological features are also transferred from Gaelic, such as the marked devoicing of final voiced consonants as well as the alteration of consonant clusters. Many residents of Lanark County originated from the Scottish Lowlands , bringing vocabulary elements of their heritage dialects as well. The term "ben," for example, is used to refer to what most Canadians would call

790-441: 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

869-470: 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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948-604: 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

1027-410: 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

1106-625: 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

1185-431: 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

1264-545: 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

1343-466: 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

1422-631: 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

1501-907: 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

1580-514: 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

1659-568: Is a syntactic feature where "for" is added to the "to" infinitive before verbs. The use of "for to" is an important characteristic of Belfast English, a prominent dialect spoken in Northern Ireland . While that is Irish-influenced, there has also been evidence of its use in Early English. Until around the 1600s, citizens of the poorer and lower classes have been known to use "for to" in their speech and dialogues. The following are common uses of

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1738-536: 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

1817-408: 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

1896-474: 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

1975-504: 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"

2054-485: 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

2133-506: 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

2212-706: 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

2291-413: 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

2370-643: Is quite rare in the region today. Raising (phonetics) In i-mutation , a front vowel is raised before /i/ or /j/ , which is assimilation. In the Attic dialect of Ancient Greek and in Koine Greek , close-mid /eː oː/ were raised to /iː uː/ . The change occurred in all cases and was not triggered by a nearby front consonant or vowel. Later, Ancient Greek /ɛː/ was raised to become Koine Greek [eː] and then [iː] . For more information, see Ancient Greek phonology § Vowel raising and fronting In Czech ,

2449-459: 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

Ottawa Valley English - Misplaced Pages Continue

2528-426: 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

2607-602: Is reminiscent of Irish and Scottish English, have been reported in traditional speakers of the Ottawa Valley. The north shore of the St. Lawrence Valley is home to Loyalist dialect pockets from the United States, including a dominant trend of the absence of the cot-caught merger , unlike most speakers of Standard Canadian English. English in Glengarry features occasional borrowing from Gaelic words, an example being "gruamach" to describe

2686-659: 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

2765-451: The Glengarry , Lanark , Renfrew , Grenville, Dundas, Stormont, Prescott, and Russell Counties, for example, each area also has its unique vocabulary and phonological traits as well. The Irish were undoubtedly the most significant group of settlers in the Ottawa Valley in terms of numbers, as such they had the largest influence on the accents spoken there. In some townships, as many as 95% of

2844-688: 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

2923-542: The Ottawa Valley may possess their own vocabularies (lexical features) as well. While the French were among the first to settle in the Ottawa Valley during the early-19th-century fur trade, they were later joined by the Irish and Scottish and they became the major cultural groups in the region. Work and trade opportunities and access to cheap land all made settlement in the Ottawa Valley attractive. The valley's population peaked in

3002-691: 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,

3081-573: 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

3160-471: 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

3239-457: The alveolar trill /r/ was raised before /i/ to become the raised alveolar trill / r̝ / , spelled ⟨ř⟩ as in ⟨ Dvořák ⟩ . That is a form of palatalization , and it also occurred in Polish in which it became a simple sibilant fricative /ʐ/ (spelled ⟨rz⟩ or ⟨ż⟩ ) around the 16th century. The pronunciation [ r̝ ] in Polish

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3318-555: 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

3397-599: The British Crown during the wars were offered free land grants throughout Upper Canada , particularly in the area known today as the Ottawa Valley. Over-represented in the British armed forces, Scottish men and their families received grants and ended up settling in the valley. Those who settled in Glengarry County were mostly Gaelic -speakers arriving from the Scottish Highlands , who eventually learned English from

3476-522: 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

3555-428: 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

3634-501: 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

3713-470: The Canadian raising of /aʊ/ and strongly fronts /ɑ/ before /r/ , but neither feature is documented in the City of Ottawa itself or in other nearby urban areas, which speak Standard Canadian English . In the 1980s, linguist Ian Pringle and colleagues claimed that there was a huge variation in dialect features throughout the thinly-populated Ottawa Valley, notably with large Hiberno-English influence; however,

3792-443: 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

3871-609: 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

3950-611: 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 ,

4029-576: 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

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4108-471: 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,

4187-408: 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,

4266-496: 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

4345-478: 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

4424-465: The former expressing that the singer would "come home for to stay" and the latter expressing that the singer was "consigned to Harvey's wharf a cargo for to land". Although home to a large, diverse collection of heritages and cultures, the distinctive traits of the Ottawa Valley Twang are arguably in decline. Years ago in 1975, Chambers observed, "Little of this twang can be found today as most of

4503-592: 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

4582-708: 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

4661-400: 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

4740-437: The nature of such variation has never been thoroughly described. At a general phonetic level, the Ottawa Valley twang of Irish-descended people is characterized by raising of /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ in all contexts, as opposed to the Canadian English's more typical " Canadian raising ", which is context-dependent. In terms of syntax, the twang features the use of "for to" in place of the "to" initiative. Additionally, various regions of

4819-538: 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

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4898-403: The neighbouring Loyalists to the west and the south. Many of Lanark County's residents, however, originated from the Scottish Lowlands . While Renfrew County was also a Scottish Highland settlement, many of its original settlers seemed to have already known English upon their arrival. The fronting of /ɑ/ before /r/ and the consistent raising of /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ in any context, all of which

4977-417: 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

5056-466: The phrase: It can be used in statements of purpose ("I went to the shop for to get the cheese"), in exclamations ("For to tell her like that!"), and sentences where the infinitive is featured as the subject ("For to stay here would just be as expensive"). This trait can also be found in another variety of Canadian English, namely Newfoundland English , as shown in popular Newfoundland folk songs such as Grey Foggy Day and The Prisoner of Newfoundland , with

5135-547: The population claimed to be of Irish ethnicity in 1941. While much of Irish immigration can be attributed to the 19th-century famines, the Irish were also drawn to the Ottawa Valley for work opportunities, examples being in the thriving timber industry at the time as well as infrastructure projects. Following the Napoleonic Wars , Scottish groups settled primarily in the Glengarry, Lanark, and Renfrew Counties. Soldiers who had served

5214-469: 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

5293-488: 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

5372-411: The surrounding area and all the city have assimilated to General English." As a result, there is also a lack of literature in this subject. The study by Ian Pringle and Enoch Padolsky is among the only research entirely focused on Ottawa Valley and its linguistic features and characteristics. Even though it is one of the most recognizable traits of the Ottawa Valley twang, the data available in regards to

5451-656: 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

5530-714: 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

5609-454: The use of "for to" is limited and susceptible to skewing. While speakers have historically used that syntactic feature, many sentences containing it are considered grammatically incorrect in today's Standard Canadian English. As a result, the use of "for to" may be underreported or even further denounced by what is sometimes referred to as "negative over reporting." Canadian English Canadian English ( CanE , CE , en-CA ) encompasses

5688-609: 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

5767-404: 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

5846-435: The years following 1891. Although joined by Belgian , Swiss , Italian , German , Polish , and Loyalist settlers, those cultures managed to remain fairly distinct from one another. Concentrating in certain areas and preserving heritage languages and religions, the cultural pockets were what eventually led to the formation of the valley's townships. While the characteristics of the Ottawa Valley twang are evident throughout

5925-692: 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

6004-449: 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:

6083-494: 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)

6162-438: 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

6241-485: 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

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