“INNER CIRCLE” ENGLISHES – FOCUS ON CANADA
Criteria for “Inner circle” Englishes
- English
the primary language
- either
- English
English itself
- settled
by migration
Examples include
- England
- Scotland,
Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland
- USA,
Canada
- Australia,
New Zealand
Terms
include
- “native-speaker”,
ENL
- “inner
circle”
- “settler”
[Ask Canadians in the class if they’re aware
of regional differences]
- Newfoundland
- East
- other
regions’ pronunciation of <a>
SETTLER
ENGLISHES ARE CHARACTERISTICALLY HOMOGENEOUS RELATIVE TO BRITISH ENGLISH
- settlement
history?
- homogeneity
of settlers’ language -> modern language
- dialect
mixing & leveling?
- heterogenous
dialects level after a few generations
Settlement
- of
some regions by settlers who spoke like each other already
- e.g.
Newfoundland, by people from SW England and Ireland
- e.g.
early Canada in late C18th/early C19th, by UELs from eastern US
- children
of later British settlers assimilated to their speech
- later
British settlers encouraged after war of 1812
- of
some areas of Canada by Scots
- THOUGHT,
COT merger shared by Scottish, Canadian English
- PRICE
pronunciation similar
- but
with different distribution
- via
internal migration routes
- St
Lawrence
- railway
to west
- brought
the basically American accent west
- why
Central/West accents sound so similar to each other
Dialect contact -> homogenization
- usually
within a couple of generations
- interesting
that it’s in the 1850s that the Rev Geikie complains
- his
complaints include boss ‘master’
- reinforced
by modern trend of urbanization?
- capital
cities classic locus for dialect leveling, e.g. London England
Some
regional variation
- east
coast: e.g. Newfoundland
- earliest
settled – time depth
- fish
wars: Labrador is from Portuguese lavrador “worker”
- late
arrival: joined confederation in 1949
- enclaves
- rural,
e.g. Lunenberg (Germans), Ottawa valley (Scots/Irish)
- modern/urban,
e.g. Woodbridge (Italian-Canadians)
THERE’S
ALWAYS VARIATION WITHIN EVEN ‘HOMOGENEOUS’ VARIETIES
[Ask non-Canadians WHAT’S DISTINCT ABOUT
CANADIAN ENGLISH?]
- nothing
that impedes daily life
- lexical
differences
- about
- eh?
- sorry
? for what?
FEW
GRAMMATICAL DIFFERENCES FROM BrE
§
Chambers charts more exx of dove (and
more younger people) than dived
o
more “American” innovation
o
upset the Rev Geikie in 1850s
o
ask them to explain what’s so odd about it
§
some variation between British “Have you
got” and American “Do you have”
o
ask them to explain the variation between
the very formal British “Have you a pen?” and “Do you have a pen?”
§
some variation in preposition usage
o
e.g. twenty of/to nine?
o
e.g. in/on a street
o
e.g. seen him in/for weeks
PRONUNCIATION
DIFFERENCES FROM BRITISH ENGLISH MOST SALIENT
Canadian
English sounds a lot like US English
- similar
ingredients? both US and Canada settled by
- early
English (before loss of postvocalic /r/ in statusful southern dialect)
- Scots,
Irish
- American
UELs
- available
model
- but
Chambers has observed that some northern US changes haven’t happened
across the border, e.g. Northern City Shift cat /kɪət/
SOME
REASONS FOR DIFFERENCES IN PRONUNCIATION BETWEEN BrE AND SETTLER ENGLISHES
Settlement
by speakers of non-standard British dialects, e.g. Scots
- THOUGHT,
LOT merger
- pronunciation
of PRICE
- not
the same as in Scots, though
- and
in Ottawa Valley, generalized further
Independent development of changes already underway
- existing
variation can be “reanalyzed” in different ways in different places
- completion
of GVS
- Generally,
wide and white: /i/ -> /əɪ/ -> /aɪ/
- in
Canada: white /i/ -> /əɪ/
- Generally,
loud and lout: /u/ -> /əʊ/ -> /aʊ/
- merger
of /yu/ and /u/ after coronals
- STUDENT:
/yu/ or /u/?
- Chambers
has more /u/ (70%) than /yu/, and more younger people
- happening
in Canada, northern US, middle class England
- disagrees
with Crystal 341, who says that /yu/ is preferred/prestige
pronunciation in Canada
Linguistic
changes happening subsequently in Britain but not in the ‘colonial’
- loss
of postvocalic /r/
- pre-fricative
lengthening of /æ/ to /ɑ/: words like bath and class
Linguistic changes happening in colony but not in Britain
- voicing
or flapping of intervocalic /t/
Lexical-incidental pronunciations often the most salient to laypeople
- leisure:
/i/ or /ɛ/
- Chambers:
83% /i/ (esp younger), 17% /ɛ/
- more
American
- more
people aware of issues with herb: British /h/ or American h-less?
- shone:
rhymes with John or Joan?
- 92%
have “John” – more British
- most
Canadians unaware that this pronunciation distinguishes them from most
Americans
IN WRITING, THE MOST PROMINENT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH
ENGLISH AND OTHER “INNER CIRCLE” VARIETIES ARE LEXICAL
·
some of this
information comes from talks given to other classes by Katherine Barber, editor
of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary
New setting, topography: new words needed
- place
names: often borrowed from indigenous languages, e.g.
Canada, Toronto
- Canada
from Iroquois via French
- flora,
fauna: raccoon, moose, caribou
- caribou
from Mi’kmaq via Canadian French
- indigenous
culture:
- names
of groups
- now
being respelled (‘renovation’ late stage of codification)
- Mi’kmaq
- Ojibwa
-> Anishnawbe and many other variants
- culture-specific
artifacts: kayak, igloo, toboggan
- debatable
how many words have really made it into everyday English
- muskeg
(Cree) focus of argument about whether a Canadian English distinct from
US really does exist (Jaan Lilles’ article in English today)
- a
few students in class told me after the lecture that they had no idea
what muskeg was
Often used old English words in new ways
- classic
examples are robin, Indian
Or retain meanings of words that were subsequently lost in Britain
- e.g.
fall “autumn”
- speaking
about NAm English generally
Contact with other European languages in colonial situation
- French:
prairie, levee, sault, portage, poutine, toque
- French
words describing indigenous culture: brave, lodge
- in
US, Spanish: corral, mesa, patio, plaza
- European
languages often medium for indigenous languages
- French:
caribou and toboggan from Mi’kmaq
- Spanish:
barbecue, canoe, chocolate
- other
early immigrant languages
- guess
source: boss, cookie, coleslaw, Santa Claus
Lexical difference reflect culturally distinct things
- e.g.
politics and law
- from
English
- riding
“constituency”
- reeve
“mayor”
- wordformation:
transfer payment, notwithstanding clause, conditional
sentence, dangerous offender
- from
French
- concession:
main survey lines a mile apart, concession roads
- more
recent political institutions from Quebec French
- Anglophone,
Francophone, allophone
- e.g.
sports: hockey “ice hockey”, midget basketball
- e.g.
education: Reading week, bird course, CEGEP
- e.g.
financial institutions: Bay street, loonie, T4 slip
Some Canadianisms are more recent loans from immigrant languages
- e.g.
from Italian but only into Canadian: friulano, panzarotto (vs calzone),
bomboniere (OED has French bonboniere but not Italian)
- multiculturalism:
Hermes House of Bomboniere
- Sarah
from Cincinnati noticed Gino, Gina – “my community doesn’t
have a synonym for this”
Different trends in Canadian English (Chambers)
- remaining
or becoming more distinct?
- resistance
to Northern Cities Shift, retention of “running shoes” vs “sneakers”
- EFL
enclaves: urban Englishes influenced by
FL
- urban
settlement patterns different now: it’s not necessarily the case that
the third generation is going to speak only English and without an
accent
- different
developments of PRICE, MOUTH words in cities
- Canadian
and US English becoming more similar?
- loss
of Canadian raising
- spread
of COT, CAUGHT merger beyond Canada
Does a distinct Canadian English exist?
- if
you look at shared features with US: not very distinctive
- easier
to justify if you consider Canadian English with reference to its unique
history
Is
it distinctive enough to codify?
- the
codification
of Canadian English in dictionaries has only happened fairly recently,
in conjunction with nationalist movements
- mid
1950s -> 1967 Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles
- cf.
Webster’s role in the codification of US English after the revolution
- KB:
considers Canadianisms as words and meanings “native to” rather than
“unique to” Canada
- more
words are uniquely Canadian than you realize
- trade
names: Gravol
- ordinary
words: eavestrough, butter tart, shit disturber
- helps
to draw on Oxford corpora
- derived
from local reading program(me)s
- Canadian
Tire and Loblaws flyers
- books:
Eric Lindros autobiography
- exemplifies
the need with Compact Oxford Dictionary’s definition of shovel:
“implement for removing coal” -> “snow”
- past:
tension between Britain and US as models
- reflected
in spelling: KB only in Canada will you find tire centre
- -ize:
American
- -our,
-re: British
- more
–or out west: more American influence?
- standardization:
norms have to become accepted as well as being codified
- Webster
had to retract a lot of his more radical changes!
- what
do Canadian newspapers do? not all have used -our
- Dept
of English doctoral theses have to use COD (but it accepts
variation)
- competing
norms: perceived competition with Microsoft Word’s spellchecker?