![]() ![]() Sometimes Canadians use different words for the same things: garburator for kitchen disposal, bachelor apartment for studio apartment, runner for sneaker or running shoe, two-four for a case of 24 bottles or cans of beer (the uniquely Canadian holiday Victoria Day, which occurs on a Monday near 24 May, is called the ‘May two-four weekend’ in reference to this). Sometimes Canadians use the same words as Americans in different ways: in Canada, if you write a test, you’re the one being tested, while in the US you’re the test maker. Katherine Barber, former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, has collected many signature Canadianisms in her book Only in Canada, You Say. This is why citizens of each country can be blindsided by the unexpected differences peppered throughout the vocabulary. These changes seem to have originated in Canada, though similar patterns can be seen in some parts of the US.īeyond these details, Canadians tend to sound like Americans, especially depending on where the Americans are from. Following on this is what is called the “Canadian vowel shift”, whereby bit sounds a bit like bet, bet sounds a bit like bat, and bat is said a bit farther back in the mouth. It may be influenced by Scottish English (many British emigres were Scots), or it may be a relic of Shakespeare-era pronunciation.Īnother feature is the ‘low back merger’, which makes caught and cot sound the same. This feature is present across much but not all of Canada. The out raising makes the vowel sound more like ‘oot’ to American ears. The best-known feature is ‘Canadian raising’, which affects two specific diphthongs before voiceless consonants: the first part of the diphthong is higher in ice and out than it is in eyes and loud. The Canadian accent – or accents, since there is a bit of variation across the country (and much more in Newfoundland) and a larger amount across socioeconomic levels – has a few signal features, and they, too, trace partly to the US and partly to Britain. For example, many signs and labels and institutional names are in French and English, and it’s easier if you can press a word into double service: Shopping Centre d’Achats. Because Canada is bilingual, French may also have an effect. And yet the basic character of Canadian English still appears like a household of Anglophile Americans, with bits from other cultures mainly in the kitchen, a few traces of the indigenous cultures who used to be the only occupants, and some influence from the French roommate.Ĭanadian spelling is, as mentioned, a tug-of-war between the British and the Americans – jail but centre, analyze but colour. Today, one-fifth of Canadians have a mother tongue other than English or French – nearly as many as have French as their mother tongue. There are more distinctions in the Atlantic coast provinces, but especially in Newfoundland, which had been settled by Irish English-speakers and was not officially a province of Canada until 1949. The Canadian west was not much settled by Europeans until the late 1800s, when land incentives were given to Anglo-Canadians from Ontario and to immigrants from Britain and some other countries (for example, Ukraine, from where immigrants began arriving in Canada in 1891). Or sometimes ‘frenemies’.Ĭanadian English varies only a little across most of the continent. The British may be family, but Americans are friends. Canadians are indeed subjects of the Queen, but they are also neighbours – and the greatest trading partners – of the United States. The accent did not become British, though British schoolteachers and authorities did leave their marks on spelling and grammar. After the War of 1812, Mother England encouraged emigration to Canada to ensure that loyal sentiments prevailed. There did end up being more British influx and influence in Canada. ![]()
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