Canadian English

Canadian　 English

General Features

• Historical influence from British is seen in the vocabulary of Canadian English.

• Geographical influence from American English is seen in the phonology and syntax of Canadian English.

• Orthographically, the spelling is a blend of British and American English.

Phonological Features

• Canadian raising (=the diphthongs [aɪ] and [aʊ] become [ʌɪ] and [ʌʊ] – [əbʌʊt] rather than [əbaʊt] (‘about ‘)

• Words of French origin pronounced as in French– [ni:ʃ] rather than [nɪtʃ] (‘niche’)

• More faithful to spelling– [ə ɡeɪn(st)] rather than [ə ɡɛn(st)] (‘agaiˈ ˈn’ ‘against’)

– [bi:n] rather than [bɪn] (‘been’)

Lexical Feataures

• Influence of British English vocabulary– tin (‘can’), cutlery (‘silverware’), serviette (‘n

apkin’), tap (‘faucet’), chips (‘French fries’)

Syntactic Features

• Tag question with ‘eh’– "It's four kilometres away, eh, so I have to go by bike." (‘eh?’ is used to confirm the attention of the listener and to invite a supportive noise such as mm or oh or okay.)

Dialect Diversity

• Both socially and regionally, Canada has very little diversity compared to the US.

• English and French are the two official languages. 60% of the population speak English as their first language, while 23% French.

Canadian English

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Nen_hH2rBs&feature=related

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW9cect-GHc