Joanna Urzdniczok

The varieties in phonology and vocabulary between Ontario, Atlantic and Western Canadian English.

As recently as 1948 it was remarked that very little research has been devoted to Canadian English both in comparison to American and British English and within the Canadian variations themselves. Even the projected Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada, which produced the groundbreaking studies of dialect variation along the Atlantic seabord of the United States was never extended to Canada, beyond only a few informants in Ontario and Manitoba interviewed in connection with studies of American English across the border. Nevertheless, since 1950s research on Canadian English has proliferated. Among The major themes of work related to Canadian English there were many about the Canadian raising, the articulation of diphthongs, for instance, // when they occur before voiceless consonants and the alternation among vocabulary, pronunciations and its usage in different areas of Canada. While defining the Canadian English it is worth mentioning that in spite of Canadas being a British Colony until 1867, with close cultural ties with Britain, Canadian English is fundamentally a North American variety. The first major English-speaking settlement of Canada came not directly from Britain but from the British colonies in what are today United States ( Avis 1973 as in Boberg: 353). First Englishmen arrived in thousands from Eastern New England in the early 1760s and took up land in Nova Scotia that has been abandoned by French-speaking people expelled by the British government. Moreover, later the Tories who were loyal to the British crown during the American revolution moved to Nova Scotia as well. Additionally, the Tories migrated also to the regions of Quebec and Ontario region. The Ontario region was the latest one where the people who were predominantly American even after the revolution moved. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Americans also played a major role in settling Western Canada. These facts can explain the overwhelmingly North American sound of Canadian English. While focusing on the variations of Canadian English itself it is important to mention that they have their background in the social context. In Nova Scotia, as it was mentioned above, the American settlement came mostly from Eastern New England. By contrast, the settlement in Ontario and New Brunswick came mostly from Vermont, New Jersey and New York State. The Western Canada was inhabited by people from much wider range of places,

Joanna Urzdniczok

including the American Midwest. There were also some the settlers from European immigrants that had lived in United States before (Boberg: 354). Moreover, this region of Canada is connected the most with the wave of immigration after the Second World War, drawing mostly on southern, central and eastern Europe. One of the major difference in pronunciation within the Canadian English is the Canadian raising. It refers to sound changes that occur in varieties of the English language, in which certain diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants (e.g., /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /f/). In Canadian English it affects both /a/ and /a/. This results in the stereotypical Canadian pronunciation of about as "aboot. In Canadian raising the raised variant of /a/ typically becomes [], whereas the raised variant of /a/ varies by dialect, In Ontario, it tends to have a mid-central or even mid-front articulation, sometimes approaching [], while in the West and Maritimes a more retracted sound is heard, closer to []. Moreover, among some speakers on the Prairies and in Nova Scotia, the retraction is strong enough to cause some tokens of raised // to merge with /o/, so that couch and coach sound the same, and about like a boat. (Boberg: 360). The second major distinguish feature in pronunciation within the Canadian English is the Canadian Shift. The shift involves the front vowels // (the short-a of trap), // (the shorte of dress), and // (the short-i of kit). It is triggered by the cotcaught merger: // (as in cot) and // (as in caught) merge as [], a low back rounded vowel. As each space opens up, the next vowel along moves into it. Thus, the short a // retracts from a near-low front position to a low central position, with a quality similar to the vowel heard in Northern England [a]. The retraction of // is more advanced for Ontarians and women than for people from the Prairies or Atlantic Canada and men. Additionally, the young Ontario speakers show a retraction of // to [a], a lowering of /e/ toward // and a lowering of // toward //. Hence, bet and bit tend to sound, respectively, like bat and bet as pronounced by a speaker without the shift. Moreover, the production of hat would mean the headwear in Ontario, but at the same time the same production would be the opposite of cold and an informal term for police officer across the border in Michigan or Western New York. (Boberg: 361) Another distinction between the Canadian dialects can be the raising of /ar/ as in the start and hence the words from the same set. Canadian pronunciation of this set commonly involves a non-low nucleus especially as a result of nuclear shortening before voiceless consonants. Similarly to the Canadian Raising, this feature is also a regional indicator. In Atlantic Canadian Speech (e.g. the Maritimes) it approaches the front region of the vowel space, accompanied by strong rhoticity, ranging from [] to []. Western Canadian speech

Joanna Urzdniczok

has much more retracted articulation with a longer non-rhotic portion, approaching a midback quality, []. Articulation of start in Ontario is in a position midway between the Atlantic and Western values. (Boberg: 360) Unlike in many American English dialects, // remains a low-front vowel in most environments in Canadian English. Nevertheless, Ontario and Maritime Canadian English commonly show some raising before nasals, however not as much as in many American varieties. On the other hand, some Prairie speech exhibits raising of // before voiced /g/ and // so that bag sounds close to vague. Apart from the variation in phonology between the Canadian regions, it can be also noticed a variation in the vocabulary of Canadian English both in respect to British and American English and within the Canadian English as well. Considering the Canadian English vocabulary as a mixture of British and American words, it is important to notice that the vocabulary of Canadian English features some uniquely Canadian words as well, even beyond the obvious category of words for things found only or mostly in Canada. For example, most Canadians say bachelor apartment, bank machine, grade one, runners or running shoes and washroom where most British say studio flat or bed-sit, cash dispenser, first form, trainers and loo and most Americans say studio apartment, ATM, first grade, sneakers and restroom. Moreover, the Canadian English vocabulary varies itself among different regions of Canada. Among the variables, one of the most striking is the set of words for the standard set of toppings on pizza. This is a prime example of variation in a lexical domain because is relevant to the lives of most contemporary Canadians. The standard set of toppings at Canadian pizzerias includes pepperoni sausage, mushrooms and green pepper, in addition to tomato sauce and cheese. This combination is known as the works in Atlantic Canada, as all-dressed in Quebec (where its French equivalent is toute garnie) and in eastern Ontario. Nevertheless, from southern Ontario to Vancouver, the most word is deluxe. (Boberg, 2010: 171) Another difference in vocabulary can be found in a small store that is open beyond normal hours, that sells snacks, tabacco products or lottery tickets. This type of store is most often called a convenience store in Canada, as in the United States, reflecting its being available closer to peoples homes than full-sized grocery stores or after larger stores are closed. This is its most common name from across most of Ontario and Atlantic Canada. In Vancouver or northwestern Ontario, location is more important than opening hours and hence the term corner store appears instead the convenience store. Moreover, in southern Ontario, the second-most common term after convenience store is variety store what stress the diversion

Joanna Urzdniczok

of the goods on offer. The distinction can be also found in a place where people can pay for the goods they have bought. In Ontario region the place is called cashier whereas in Atlantic region the term check-out occurs much more frequently. Another major eastwest divide appears in words for a house in the country where people go on weekends especially during the summer. The term cottage dominates eastern Canada, from southern Ontario to Nova Scotia where the rural region north of the city is known as cottage country. In western Canada, the territory from Vancouver to Saskatchewan is equally dominated by cabin. The difference in vocabulary can be also found in other vocabulary items. The athletic shoes are called runners in Western Canada while people from Ontario called them running shoes. The same shoes are called sneakers in Atlantic region of Canada. Similarly, a book of lined paper is called notebook both in Western Canada and Ontario region while the same item is called a scribbler in Atlantic regions. (Boberg, 2010: 173) Despite some variations in vocabulary in Canada, it is worth mentioning that there are not many of them and more often the youngest generations of Canadians tends to blur them in favor of North American word items.

Bibliography:

Boberg, Ch. 2004, English in Canada: phonology in: A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Toool, Volume 1, edited by Berd Kortmann, Boberg, Ch. 2010, The English Language in Canada Status, History and Comparative Analysis,Cambridge University Press