Canadian English Essay PDF

Preview

Summary

Saggio sulle varietà dell'inglese nel mondo, in particolare Canadian English...

Description

Università degli studi di Salerno “Canadian English” - Final Task Linguistic analysis of Canadian English

Corso di laurea in Lingue e Culture straniere Università degli Studi di Salerno! Anno accademico: 2018-2019 Alessandra Lepore (matricola 4312202850)

Contents Basic information History - The country and its settlement Canada as a linguistic area Spelling • British VS Canadian • American influence and the Praire provinces of Canada • French influence on CanE CanEng Phonology Canadian Raising “Oot and Aboot” Canadianisms

- Lexis - Expressions and language curiosities Canadian Soul Architecture influences Canadian stars Conclusion

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 2!

Basic information The name “Canada” comes from the indigenous Indian word “kanata” which means “village “ or “settlement”. Canada is located in North America and stretches all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific, being made up of ten Provinces and three Territories. To the North is the Artic ocean; Davis Strait on the North East separates it from Greenland, to the East is the Atlantic Ocean; the South is bordered by the United States of America and the West by the Pacific Ocean and Alaska. A country of outstanding natural beauty, Canada has a wide variety of landscapes: the mountains, the prairies, lakes and rivers with many national and provincial parks to protect the habitats. 1

History - The country and its settlement The land was inhabited for millennia by various groups of aboriginal people. In the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763, after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. It wasn’t until the signing of the Canada Act in 1982, that legal dependence on the British Parliament ended. Canada is, nowadays, a federation composed of ten provinces and three territories. Over centuries, elements of Indigenous, French, British and more recent immigrant customs have combined to form a Canadian culture that has also been strongly influenced by its linguistic, geographic and economic neighbour, the United States. Since the conclusion of the Second World War, Canadians have supported multilateralism abroad and socioeconomic development domestically.

1

www.isnare.com by Dave Lympany - General information about Canada

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 3!

It is a bilingual and multicultural country, with both English and French as official languages at the federal level.

Canada as a linguistic area Canadian English is a mixture of American and British English with a number of Canadianisms added. Canadians borrow freely from both American and British English and appropriate it to suit their needs, both when it comes to pronunciation and on spelling. Thanks to the presence of two languages, the lack of words is resolved by picking certain elements from a language to another. For this reason, the vocabulary is almost identical: a mix with peculiar words.

Spelling Mix of British and American English, CanE has not a fixed way of spelling. Spelling varies from province to province, but it’s also based on the person who’s speaking. Canadian spelling is, as mentioned, a tug-of-war between the British and the Americans . • British VS Canadian I.

Canadians choose the -ize / -yze ending over -ise / -yse . Most verbs which are commonly spelled with “-ise” in Britain - e.g. “organise”, “recognise”, “realise” are spelled with “-ize” in Canada - e.g. “organize”, “recognize”, “realize” although the “-ize” form is actually considered to be more correct even in Britain nowadays. There are, however, some words which are spelled with “ise” in both British and Canadian usage - e.g. “advertise”, “despise”, “supervise”, “chastise”, “revise”, “surprise”, “exercise”, ”improvise”.

II. Some nouns ending in “-ce” in Britain and Canada - e.g. “offence”, defence”, “pretence” - are spelled with “-se” in American - e.g. “offense”, “defense”, “pretense”. Some nouns ending in “-ce” in Britain and Canada which have a “Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 4!

related verb ending in “-se” - e.g. “practice” / “practise”, “licence” / “license” lose that distinction in Canadian usage - “practice” is used for both noun and verb, “license” is used for both noun and verb. Derivatives are generally spelled with an “s” in both countries. III. Dropped “e” : when adding a suffix to a word ending in “e”, British spelling often keeps the “e” - e.g. “ageing”, “likeable”, “sizeable”, “judgement” - whereas the American and Canadian drops the “e” - e.g. “aging”, “likable”, “sizable”, “judgment”. But there are many exceptions, where both Britain and the US drop the “e”, and the “e” is retained in all countries where needed to preserve a soft “c” or “g” sound (e.g. “changeable”, “knowledgeable”, “traceable”). IV. Hyphens: word starting with “e” which have a prefix ending in “e” are hyphenated in English and Canadian - e.g. “re-elect”, “re-enter”, “re-entry”, “reexamine”, “pre-empt”, “pre-exist”, “pre-eminent”- but not in American - e.g. “reelect”, “reenter”, “reentry”, “reexamine”, “preempt”, “preexist”, “preeminent”. A few other words which are hyphenated in Britain - e.g. “counterattack” - lose the hyphen in American usage - e.g. “counterattack”.

• American influence and the Praire provinces of Canada I.

Words ending in an unstressed “-our” in English and Canadian - e.g. “honour”, “colour”, “flavour”, “armour” - are usually spelled without the “u” in American usage - e.g. “honor”, “color”, “flavor”, “armor”. The Prairie provinces of Canada, however, tend to follow the Americans on this. A notable exception is “glamour” which retains the “u” in American, as often does “saviour”.

II. Derived words are usually consistent with this rule, although with the suffixes “ate”, “-ation”, “-ize”, “-ific”, “-iferous” and “-ous” the “u” disappears in all countries - e.g. “honorific”, “humorous”, “vigorous”, “laborious”, “invigorate”. Words ending in an unstressed “-re” in English and most of Canada - e.g. “centre”, lustre”, “spectre”, “fibre” - are usually spelled with “-er” in American

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 5!

usage - e.g. “center”, luster”, “specter”, “fiber” -

as well as in the Prairie

provinces of Canada.2 • French influence on CanE When you think of French in Canada you probably think of Quebec, and most of the French speakers in Canada do live there and speak what is known as Quebecois. But there is another dialect, Acadian French, which is largely spoken in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The two varieties differ in accent and certain words and phrases. Acadian French uses more terms derived from seafaring, and a number of old words now obsolete in France. The two varieties developed differently as the languages of separate 17th century French colonies (Canada and Acadia) with separate administration.

 2 Canadian, British and American Spelling “General Rules for Regional Differences” www.lukemastin.com#

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 6!

CanEng CanE phonology, like spelling, shows signs of vacillations between British and American norms. Since Canada is so deeply intertwined with American culture, most interest in Canadian English tends to centre around the ways American and Canadian English conventions deviate.

Phonology Most Canadian accents have a single merged vowel phoneme for the sets “thought” , “cloth”, “lot”, “palm”, and “start”. The quality of the vowel is open, back and rounded. Clarke’s sociolinguistic work shows that back vowels in CanE [ʊ - ɑ] are undergoing a shift to the effect that they are fronted, in contrast with the Northern cities. Consonant system is quite identical with that of General American (GA), including the existence of certain recessive features, such as /hw-/ pronunciation in wh- words.

Canadian Raising Canadian Raising is a phonological process characteristic of the CanE, in which the onset of the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ raise in the mouth the mid vowels when they precede voiceless obstruents /p/, /s/, /t/, /k/ Examples:

• /aɪ/ : height, life, psych, type • /aʊ/ : clout, house, south, scout

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 7!

“Oot and Aboot” The second one is the case of “Oot and Aboot” (Out and about) , and here, the raise is actually referring to the jaw and the tongue.

As a Canadian I was always puzzled by the "oot and aboot" thing. When, after many years, I finally did a very careful analysis of the sounds I discovered that I, and I assume I am too untypical, really turn the "ou" into two sounds. It comes out as something like "owoot". I notice that the final position of the lips is the slightly pursed extended position of the "oo" sound. My daughter goes to a international school with many Americans and they love to get her to say "oot and aboot". 3

In younger Canadians, It has been noticed a variation of this which is a bit fronter in the mouth–something like a-beh-oot (IPA əbɛʊt). This is probably one of those bits of dialect folklore that survives despite evidence to the contrary. Canadianisms Canadianisms are words which are native to Canada or words which have meanings native to Canada. Those include words and expressions borrowed from other languages and which do not appear in other varieties of English. These Canadianisms stand as evidence of the difference between Canadian and American culture. It is very important for Canadians to maintain that difference. Though English- speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British. Include the words and expressions borrowed form other languages, which do not appear in other varieties of English.

3

Comment of a Canadian woman who participated in a conversation on a blog about the “Canadian ‘Oot and Aboot’ theme

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 8!

- Lexis • Landscape: the chutes, or saults, the muskeg of the hinterland, the buttes and parklands of the prairies, and the bluffs, or islands of trees • Trees and plants: cat spruce, Douglas fir, Manitoba maple, Sitka spruce, and tamarack; • Birds were discovered: Canada goose, fool hen, siwash duck, turkey vulture and whiskey jack. • Fish of all sorts: cisco, inconnu, maskinonge, kokanee, ouananiche, oolichan, tuladi and wendigo !

- Expressions and language curiosities I.

‘Sorry’ is pronounced like ‘gory’ [ˈgɔːri] - as Justin Bieber says in his song

II. Bathroom is “washroom” in CanE, because there’s not always a bath, but you always wash your hands4 III. The winter hat (‘beanie’ for Americans) is called ‘toque’ in CanE - this is a case of French Canadian IV. A loonie, the Canadian $1 coin, gets its name from the picture of the Canadian bird, the loon, that appears on one side of the coin. A toonie, the name for the $2 coin, gained a similar nickname to match the sound of the loonie. V. More over “eh?” is a spoken interjection in CanE that is similar in meaning to "Excuse me?" ,”Please repeat that", or "Huh?". It is also commonly used as an alternative to the question tag “right?”, method for inciting a reply - as in "It's nice here, eh?" (instead of "It's nice here, right?”).

4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FloezYMRkxk&t=383s&frags=pl%2Cwn

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 9!

Canadian Soul Architecture influences If we take a closer look at Canadian cities, they are more or less American in style and architecture. Toronto, with over 3 million inhabitants, has as many skyscrapers as New York, and is a modern business centre. Vancouver on the west coast, is surrounded by beautiful scenery and has such a large population of Asians and it has received the nickname, Hongcouver. Maybe it is the French-style city of Quebec that distinguishes Canada from the US? All signs are in French, and the architecture is more French than in France. A Canadian author once claimed that the only reason why Canada is not part of the US is the French-speaking Quebecois.

Canadian stars A list of notable comedians from Canada, ranked by comedy fans. Many of these comic actors, stand-ups and humorists, originally from Canada, have found fame outside of their native land and are now international stars, while some have largely remained well-known to their fellow citizens. But all have proven themselves to be lasting performances making a considerable impact in the entertainment industry. Many actors and singers that we’ve known and loved for years are originally from Canada. Some others aren’t Canadian but had to play the part of it, learning the way they speak and many canadianisms. We all know the amazing voice of Céline Dion and the brillant figure of Jim Carrey. But we can appreciate Cobie Smulders who is Canadian and had to picture as an actress all of the peculiar and funny aspects of her culture in How I met your Mother. And …”Justin loves being in Canada because it’s very peaceful," a source told PEOPLE 5

5

PEOPLE Journal

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 10 !

Curiosities I.

The 6ix refers to the cities that make up the Great Toronto Area (or GTA), but is mostly used when talking about Toronto. Thanks to Drake, “Hogtown,” “Big Smoke,” and “Tdot” are out, while “The 6ix” is in. Also seen as #TheSix and #The6. Represent, Drake. “Shit’s hot up in The 6ix right now” • Two-four Commonly used to refer to a case of 24 beers.

II. Zed - The word for the letter “Z” in the alphabet. “Zee” is acceptable as well, but if you want to follow the British tradition, go for the zed. 6

6

https://play.howstuffworks.com/quiz/do-you-really-know-all-these-canadian-slang-words

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina !11

Conclusion Canada doesn’t have many varieties, but its language is special, thanks to the balanced mixture of two languages which are completely different the one from the other. Over all the mixture of these two cultures added to the indigenous population has made this language and this country very rich of original elements - as we have seen thanks to the Canadianisms. Canadians are very proud to live in Canada, they don’t feel to be alone, because off the multiplicity of cultures, languages and traditions mixed and tied one to the other. Nature, architecture, education and health care are all positive feature of a nation which tends to take care of its inhabitants.

“Canadian English” - Final Task

ALESSANDRA LEPORE

Pagina 12 !...