Moldova State University

Report on English Semantic

On topic : Dialects. Canadian English
Made by Iarahmedov Nastasia gr. EG151SE
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Chiinu 2017
 Plan:
1. Introduction
2. Canadian dialect .Historical point of view
3. Language and identity
4. Canadian English peculiarities
5. Regional differences.
6. Canadian spelling
7. Dictionaries of Canadian English
8. Canadianisms
9. Comparison between American and Canadian English
10. Conclusion

1
 Introduction
So, I want to begin with the definition of a dialect. Britannica gives us the following
explanation:

Dialect -- a variety of a language that signals where a person comes from. The notion is
usually interpreted geographically (regional dialect), but it also has some application in relation to a
persons social background (class dialect) or occupation (occupational dialect). The word dialect
comes from the Ancient Greek dialektos discourse, language, dialect, which is derived from
dialegesthai to discourse, talk. A dialect is chiefly distinguished from other dialects of the same
language by features of linguistic structurei.e., grammar (specifically morphology and syntax) and
vocabulary. In morphology (word formation), various dialects in the Atlantic states have clim, clum,
clome, or cloome instead of climbed, and, in syntax (sentence structure), there are sick to his
stomach, sick at his stomach, sick in, sick on, and sick with. On the level of vocabulary,
examples of dialectal differences include American English subway, contrasting with British
English underground; and corn, which means maize in the United States, Canada, and Australia,
wheat in England, and oats in Scotland. Nevertheless, while dialects of the same language
differ, they still possess a common core of features.

Although some linguists include phonological features (such as vowels, consonants, and
intonation) among the dimensions of dialect, the standard practice is to treat such features as aspects
of accent. In the sound system of American English, for example, some speakers pronounce greasy
with an s sound, while others pronounce it with a z sound. Accent differences of this kind are
extremely important as regional and class indicators in every language. Their role is well recognized
in Great Britain, for example, where the prestige accent, called Received Pronunciation, is used as
an educated standard and differences in regional accent, both rural and urban, are frequent. There is
far less accent variation in Canada, Australia, and large parts of the United States.

Frequently, the label dialect, or dialectal, is attached to substandard speech, language usage
that deviates from the accepted norme.g., the speech of many of the heroes of Mark Twains
novels. On the other hand, the standard language can also be regarded as one of the dialects of a
given language, though one that has attracted special prestige. In a historical sense, the term dialect
is sometimes applied to a language considered as one of a group deriving from a common ancestor.
Thus, English, Swedish, and German are sometimes treated as Germanic dialects.
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 Normally, dialects of the same language are considered to be mutually intelligible, while
different languages are not. Intelligibility between dialects is, however, almost never absolutely
complete. On the other hand, speakers of closely related languages can still communicate to a
certain extent when each uses his own mother tongue. Thus, the criterion of intelligibility is quite
relative. In more-developed societies the distinction between dialects and related languages is easier
to make because of the existence of standard languages.

Sometimes sociopolitical factors play a role in drawing the distinction between dialect and
language. Linguistic varieties that are considered dialects in one set of historical circumstances may
be considered languages in another. Before the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans in the 1990s, Serbo-
Croatian was viewed by its speakers as a single language consisting of several dialects, spoken in
Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Croatia; afterward, local communities began to talk of
Croatian and Serbian as distinct languages.

Among the synonyms for dialect, the word idiom refers to any kind of dialect, or even
language, whereas patois, a term from French, denotes rural or provincial dialects, often with a
deprecatory connotation. A similar term is vernacular, which refers to the common, everyday speech
of the ordinary people of a region. An idiolect is the dialect of an individual person at one time. This
term implies an awareness that no two persons speak in exactly the same way and that each persons
dialect is constantly undergoing changee.g., by the introduction of newly acquired words. Most
recent investigations emphasize the versatility of each persons speech habits according to levels or
styles of language usage.

3
 .

Canadian dialect. Historical point of view.

Linguistic historians usually cannot identify a single event or period of time as the beginning
of a particular dialect. This is so because there are normally many conditions needed for a speech
variety to emerge as a distinct homogeneous form. We can attribute the unique characteristics of a
dialect not only to the geographical or social isolation of its speakers, but to the speech of the
various populations from which it descends or with whom it has had contact.

One (perhaps oversimplistic) way of characterizing Canadian English is as a hybrid of British

and American Englishes. It would certainly seem that way to the initiate: Canadians drive trucks, not
lorries, but a Canadian who is pissed is intoxicated, and not (necessarily) angry. Canadians use
British spellings like labour, colour, and cheque, but American spellings like plow, draft, and
program. Although spelling habits don't really say anything about dialect speech patterns, they may
be exploited by the cynic who says there is no Canadian spelling. There are also always the
anecdotes of Canadians also 'sounding' halfway between the other two, but the lay-person's means of
describing dialect differences rarely can quantify that kind of judgment.

The idea that a dialect is a hybrid often implies that it is not a distinct variety. Coupled with a
collective sensitivity about their own identity, English Canadians will bristle at the suggestion that
their speech is half-American, half-British, and not at all their own. This need not be the case: a
dialect can be seen as a hybrid in terms of its history, but as a distinct form in terms of its current
usage. That is, Canadians can claim to speak a distinct variety of English that has the English of
both Americans and British as its predecessors.

We can tie the dualistic background of Canadian English directly to the dualistic background
of the settlement of English Canada. Following the seizing of the French colony of Quebec in 1761,
all of eastern North America was under the control of the British Empire. The thirteen American
colonies had already been densely settled, and the dialects of the eastern seaboard had begun to
emerge. Maritime Canada had also seen settlement, which is part of why Maritime English remains
distinct today.

However, Upper Canada, the region that was to become Ontario, now Canada's most populous
province, was at that time sparsely settled. Migration of Europeans to Ontario lagged behind that of
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the eastern colonies for several reasons, notably among them the harshness of the winter and its
distance from ocean ports. Following the American Revolution, however, settlement of Ontario
increased in pace, both with the continuing arrival of Europeans, but more significantly with the
migration of Loyalists (or "Tories") who fled the United States.

Chambers (1993, 1997) claims it is the speech of the first wave of Loyalists, who arrived in
southern Ontario from Pennsylvania and Virginia in the 1780's, that forms the basis of early
Canadian English. Later waves of New England loyalists and Scottish and Irish immigrants in the
mid-19th century are thought to have had little effect on the dialect, except where their numbers
were too large to have simply been absorbed into the settled population.

The social conditions of the time both allowed for Canadian English to diverge from other
American dialects, and arguably may have encouraged it to do so. It was able to diverge because it
was spoken in an area both geographically and politically separated from the eastern United States.
Although the introduction of steam power and railroads (and ultimately, air travel) reduces the effect
of geographical distance, the political border between Canada and the US has remained a factor in
maintaining the relative isolation of Canadian English from its southern neighbour.

One can also imagine how the sentiments of Loyalists and British Canadians may have
encouraged them, perhaps not even consciously, to try to avoid using American-sounding speech.
Whether they were successful is debatable, but it is certainly clear that British English was beyond
revival in North America. Chambers provides an overview of how writers of the time tended to
decry the vernacular of Upper Canada. Amid such testimonials is evidence that the English of Upper
Canada had become a homogeneous variety by the 1860's: the historian William Canniff noted in
1852 that the speech of those born as Canadians was quite uniform despite the diversity of accents
spoken by their parents.

This homogeneity of Upper Canadian speech provides an explanation of why modern

Canadian English is so uniform across the entire country. In the late 19th century, the settlement of
western Canada saw a surge in migration of Ontarians, who eventually outnumbered the French-
speaking and aboriginal communities of the Prairies to such an extent that later waves of
immigration assimilated to the English-speaking population. As a result, the phonological
differences among the English spoken today in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto are minimal.

5
 Language and Identity
In light of the continuing contact between Canada and Britain in the 19th century, Canadians
no doubt had ideas of what sounded British and what sounded American. As a young, emerging
nation, they may have had a harder time trying to figure out what sounded Canadian and whether it
should resemble either of the other varieties. It is likely, however, that they were more conscious of
word-choice than of sound patterns.

Thus, a trait of Canadian speech that survives to this day is the occasional preference for
perceived British vocabulary as a means for speakers to mark their speech as non-American. In fact,
a survey by Lipski (1976) uncovers a tendency among Canadians to use American lexical choice
and spelling in unguarded moments, but to use British forms in situations where nationalism is an
issue. Never, however, do Canadians try to adopt British phonology for the same purpose; rather,
they adhere strictly to Canadian phonology.

A famous recent example is seen in Molson's Joe Canadian advertisement, a patriotic

monologue in which the protagonist spiritedly proclaims his dedication to the words chesterfield for
couch and zed for zee. The word chesterfield is an example of a British word whose use, according
to Chambers, is disappearing from Canadian English, but Molson's Joe clings to it as a non-
American word. In the same spot, Joe avers that he never says about as "aboot" (an exaggeration
assigned to cinematic stock Canadians), but his emphatic correction features a very Canadian (and
un-British) diphthong.

The standard stereotype among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except they
say eh a lot and pronounce out and about as oot and aboot. Many Canadians, on the other hand,
will tell you that Canadian English is more like British English, and as proof will hold aloft the
spellings colour and centre and the name zed for the letter Z.

Canadian does exist as a separate variety of English, with subtly distinctive features of
pronunciation and vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style
guide; the Editors Association of Canada has just released a second edition of Editing Canadian
English. But an emblematic feature of Editing Canadian English is comparison tables of American
versus British spellings so the Canadian editor can come to a reasonable decision on which to use on
each occasion. The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence.

6
 The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence

Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning there were the indigenous peoples,
with far more linguistic and cultural variety than Europe. Theyre still there, but Canadian English,
like Canadian Anglophone society in general, gives them little more than desultory token nods.
Fights between European settlers shaped Canadian English more. The French, starting in the 1600s,
colonised the St Lawrence River region and the Atlantic coast south of it. In the mid-1700s, England
got into a war with France, concluding with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ceded New France
to England. The English allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects of the
English King.

At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada.
The American Revolution changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were
United Empire Loyalists people who fled American independence and were rewarded with land in
Canada. Thus Canadian English was, from its very beginning, both American because its speakers
had come from the American colonies and not American, because they rejected the newly
independent nation.

Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of
English, the loyalists sought to remain more like England. These were people whose variety of
English was already diverging from the British and vice versa: when the residents of London and its
environs began to drop their rs and change some of their vowels people in certain parts of the
United States adopted some of these changes, but Canadians did not.

There did end up being more British influx and influence in Canada. After the War of 1812,
Mother England encouraged emigration to Canada to ensure that loyal sentiments prevailed. The
accent did not become British, though British schoolteachers and authorities did leave their marks
on spelling and grammar. Canadians are indeed subjects of the Queen, but they are also neighbours
and the greatest trading partners of the United States. The British may be family, but Americans
are friends. Or sometimes frenemies.

Canadian English varies only a little across most of the continent. 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). There are more distinctions in
7
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.

Today, one-fifth of Canadians have a mother tongue other than English or French nearly as
many as have French as their mother tongue. 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.

Canadian English peculiarities.

Canadian spelling is, as mentioned, a tug-of-war between the British and the Americans jail
but centre, analyze but colour. Because Canada is bilingual, French may also have an effect. For
example, many signs and labels and institutional names are in French and English, and its easier if
you can press a word into double service: Shopping Centre dAchats.

Most Canadians will tell you they dont say eh much.

Also possibly influenced by French is the Canadian eh. French Canadians use hein (also
colloquially spelled han) in most of the same kinds of places English Canadians use eh, and they use
it more. The eh of Canadian English is not a Canadian invention; it is used in England and
elsewhere, but it is used in more different ways in Canada, notably as an emphatic and to maintain
conversational involvement: No kidding, eh; Thanks, eh; So I was going to the store, eh, and this
guy cut me off. The truth of it is, though, that most Canadians will tell you they dont say eh
much, and it is more associated with less-educated speech.

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. 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 out raising makes the vowel
sound more like oot to American ears. This feature is present across much but not all of Canada. It
may be influenced by Scottish English (many British emigres were Scots), or it may be a relic of
Shakespeare-era pronunciation.

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 Another feature is the low back merger, which makes caught and cot sound the same.
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. This shift is still in progress.
These changes seem to have originated in Canada, though similar patterns can be seen in some parts
of the US.

Beyond these details, Canadians tend to sound like Americans, especially depending on where
the Americans are from. This is why citizens of each country can be blindsided by the unexpected
differences peppered throughout the vocabulary. There are many. Katherine Barber, former editor-
in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, has collected many signature Canadianisms in her book
Only in Canada, You Say.

Sometimes Canadians use the same words as Americans in different ways: in Canada, if you
write a test, youre the one being tested, while in the US youre the test maker. 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).

Some words refer to things Americans dont seem to have: toque for a kind of fitted knitted
hat; poutine, Nanaimo bars, and butter tarts for three of Canadas great culinary gifts to the world if
the world would but accept them; Caesar for a bloody Mary made with clamato juice (tomato plus
clam). There are hockey metaphors, of course, like deking someone out and stickhandling a
problem. There are occasional borrowings from Quebec French (unrecognisable in France) such as
the aforementioned poutine, and dpanneur for a convenience store.

These Canadianisms stand as evidence of the difference between Canadian and American
culture. It is very important for Canadians to maintain that difference, even if people from
Vancouver sound more like people from San Francisco than people from San Francisco sound like
people from San Antonio. Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they
arent truly interested in being British or sounding British; theyre just interested in using the British
connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because
they didnt want to leave.

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 When it comes to Canadian English, my go-to source is Canadian linguist Charles Boberg. In
2008, Boberg did an acoustic analysis of Canadian speech, and found that there are indeed
differences between regions. Sample findings include:

Almost all Canadians have Canadian raising (whereby the vowel in about can sound slightly
like American a boat). But around Toronto the diphthong tends to be fronted (bt or a-beh-
oot), while in Western Canada and the Prairies it tends to be back (bt or a-buh-oot).

The vowel in goose is a back vowel (u:) in the Atlantic provinces, but a more fronted (:)
elsewhere.

Atlantic Canadians, and many Eastern Canadians in general, have a fronted a in words like
start ().

In the prairies, the vowel in words like face is frequently a monophthong (fe:s or fehs) than
elsewhere.

Bobergs study doesnt much delve into isolated dialects like traditional Newfoundland or the
Ottawa Valley Twang; such outliers are either outside the spectrum of mainland Canadian English
or spoken by a tiny fraction of the population. But as Bobergs study makes clear, there is reason to
believe that mainstream Canadian English is becoming more diverse. So why do all Canadians
sound the same?

In my opinion, this impression results from Anglophone Canada lacking several things: it has
no strong urban lect (like Cockney), no vast areas with radically contrastive pronunciation patterns
(like Americas North/South divide), and few ethnolects (like African American Vernacular English
or Multicultural British English). Canada lacks the standard markers of dialectical diversity.

But Anglophone Canada is young. Its language differences, in my opinion, havent evolved to
the point that we can talk about a Toronto accent as if it were as sharply defined as Scouse. But
that will no change with time, and the evolution will be exciting to watch.

Regional differences.
Aboriginal Canadian English

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 Aboriginal Canadian English is the language as it has been manipulated over time by the non-
English accents of First Nation languages. Because of its association with indigenous groups, people
who do not belong to the First Nations culture often mock this dialect. It is often related to the final
stages of merging with standard English. Recently, aboriginal youth has picked up on African
American vernacular. This language is mainly spoken throughout the Northwest Territories,
Nunavut, and Yukon provinces.

Cape Breton English

Cape Breton is a Canadian island belonging to the Nova Scotia province. Due to its isolation
from the mainland, this island has its own dialect. Cape Breton English is spoken by the people here,
the majority of whom are descendants of Highland Scottish, Irish, and French Acadian.
Characteristics of this dialect include an almost th sound when pronouncing the s and a
shortened a sound. Common jargon includes referring to everyone as boy which is pronounced
more like bye.

Lunenburg English

Lunenburg English is spoken in Lunenburg County of the Nova Scotia province. This dialect
was heavily influenced by German settlers and has a distinct pronunciation. The r dropped after
stressed syllables, pronouncing v instead of w, and d in place of th. Much of the jargon is
based on direct German translations. Some common phrases include saying get awake to mean
wake up and shortening all gone to simply all.

Newfoundland English

Newfoundland English is spoken in the Newfoundland and Labrador province and the Prince
Edward Island. The dialect was influenced by the British colony that was here until 1907.
Newfoundland English is full of unique expressions like where ya at? to mean where are you?,
youre some crooked for youre grouchy, and fadder or me fadder for my father.

Ottawa Valley English

The Ottawa Valley dialect is spoken along the Ottawa River which runs from the northwest of
Montreal through Ottawa city and north of Algonquin Park in Ontario and Quebec provinces. It is
characterized by a Scottish, Irish, and American Loyalist influence. These different cultures have

11
left the dialect with varying types of pronunciation and vernacular. Rones is the word for gutters
and the words cot and caught are pronounced differently rather than as a homophone like in
standard English. Also used in this dialect is the phrase for to, as in, He went to the store for to
buy a tie.

Pacific West Coast English

Also known as Pacific Northwest English, this dialect is spoken in British Columbia and
Yukon provinces. It is similar to California English and has picked up influences from the many
cultures and a rapidly changing population of the area. In Pacific West Coast English, the r is
pronounced unlike the other dialects and the word stick sounds like steck. People use the word
sunbreak to refer to an opening in the clouds on the typical long, rainy days of the Pacific
Northwest winters and the word spendy to refer to something expensive.

Quebec English

Quebec English is a dialect spoken in the French-speaking Quebec province. The dialect
borrows heavily from the French language and either adheres to the french pronunciation or
pronounces the word with an English accent. There is also a heavy use of interlanguage which
creates the Frenglish language and uses phrases like: take a decision, put your coat, and
close the TV.

Inland Canadian English

The Inland Canadian English is spoken throughout Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan
provinces. This dialect is also referred to as Canadian English. The accent reflects Canadian
raising which is a changing of vowel pronunciation before voiceless consonants. It is very similar
to American English though does retain some British influence as well as some strictly Canadian
sounds. The word map for example, could sound like mop to somebody from the US.

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Canadian spelling in comparison with American and British
spelling.
Words such as realize and paralyze are usually spelled with -ize or -yze rather than -ise or -
yse. (The etymological convention that verbs derived from Greek roots are spelled with -ize and
those from Latin with -ise is preserved in that practice.)

French-derived words that in American English end with -or and -er, such as color or center,
often retain British spellings (colour and centre).

While the United States uses the Anglo-French spelling defense and offense (noun), most
Canadians use the British spellings defence and offence. (Note that defensive and offensive are
universal.)

Some nouns, as in British English, take -ice while matching verbs take -ise for example,
practice and licence are nouns while practise and license are the respective corresponding verbs.
(Note that advice and advise are universal across all forms of English in this respect.)

Canadian spelling sometimes retains the British practice of doubling consonants when adding
suffixes to words even when the final syllable (before the suffix) is not stressed. Compare Canadian
(and British) travelled, counselling, and marvellous (more often than not in Canadian while always
doubled in British) to American traveled, counseling, and marvelous. In American English, such
consonants are only doubled when stressed; thus, for instance, controllable and enthralling are
universal. (Note that both Canadian and British English use balloted and profiting.) In other cases,
Canadians and Americans differ from British spelling, such as in the case of nouns like curb and
tire, which in British English are spelled kerb and tyre.

Canadian spelling conventions can be partly explained by Canada's trade history. For instance,
the British spelling of the word cheque probably relates to Canada's once-important ties to British
financial institutions. Canada's automobile industry, on the other hand, has been dominated by
American firms from its inception, explaining why Canadians use the American spelling of tire
(hence, "Canadian Tire") and American terminology for automobiles and their parts (for example,
truck instead of lorry, gasoline instead of petrol, trunk instead of boot).

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 Canada's political history has also had an influence on Canadian spelling. Canada's first prime
minister, John A. Macdonald, once directed the Governor General of Canada to issue an order-in-
council directing that government papers be written in the British style.

A contemporary reference for formal Canadian spelling is the spelling used for Hansard
transcripts of the Parliament of Canada. Many Canadian editors, though, use the Canadian Oxford
Dictionary, often along with the chapter on spelling in Editing Canadian English, and, where
necessary (depending on context), one or more other references.

Throughout part of the 20th century, some Canadian newspapers adopted American spellings,
for example, color as opposed to the British-based colour. Some of the most substantial historical
spelling data can be found in Dollinger (2010) and Grue (2013).The use of such spellings was the
long-standing practice of the Canadian Press perhaps since that news agency's inception, but visibly
the norm prior to World War II. The practice of dropping the letter u in such words was also
considered a labour-saving technique during the early days of printing in which movable type was
set manually. Canadian newspapers also received much of their international content from American
press agencies, therefore it was much easier for editorial staff to leave the spellings from the wire
services as provided.

In the 1990s, Canadian newspapers began to adopt the British spelling variants such as -our
endings, notably with The Globe and Mail changing its spelling policy in October 1990. Other
Canadian newspapers adopted similar changes later that decade, such as the Southam newspaper
chain's conversion in September 1998. The Toronto Star adopted this new spelling policy in
September 1997 after that publication's ombudsman discounted the issue earlier in 1997. The Star
had always avoided using recognized Canadian spelling, citing the Gage Canadian Dictionary in
their defence. Controversy around this issue was frequent. When the Gage Dictionary finally
adopted standard Canadian spelling, the Star followed suit. Some publishers, e.g. Maclean's,
continue to prefer American spellings.

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 Dictionaries of Canadian English
The first Canadian dictionaries of Canadian English were edited by Walter Spencer Avis and
published by Gage Ltd. The Beginner's Dictionary (1962), the Intermediate Dictionary (1964) and,
finally, the Senior Dictionary (1967) were milestones in Canadian English lexicography. Many
secondary schools in Canada use these dictionaries. The dictionaries have regularly been updated
since: the Senior Dictionary was renamed Gage Canadian Dictionary. Its fifth edition was printed
beginning in 1997. Gage was acquired by Thomson Nelson around 2003. The latest editions were
published in 2009 by HarperCollins. In 1997, the ITP Nelson Dictionary of the Canadian English
Language was another product, but has not been updated since.

In 1998, Oxford University Press produced a Canadian English dictionary, after five years of
lexicographical research, entitled The Oxford Canadian Dictionary. A second edition, retitled The
Canadian Oxford Dictionary, was published in 2004. Just as the older dictionaries it includes
uniquely Canadian words and words borrowed from other languages, and surveyed spellings, such
as whether colour or color was the more popular choice in common use. Paperback and concise
versions (2005, 2006), with minor updates, are available.

The scholarly Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles (DCHP) was first

published in 1967 by Gage Ltd. It was a partner project of the Senior Dictionary (and appeared only
a few weeks apart from it). The DCHP can be considered the "Canadian OED", as it documents the
historical development of Canadian English words that can be classified as "Canadianisms". It
therefore includes words such as mukluk, Canuck, bluff and grow op, but does not list common core
words such as desk, table or car. It is a specialist, scholarly dictionary, but is not without interest to
the general public. A digital edition in open access is now available. In 2006, a second edition
(DCHP-2) was commenced at UBC in Vancouver, and is/was launched on 17 March 2017 on
www.dchp.ca/dchp2.The pre-publication announcement can be found here. The principles of
DCHP-2, which includes frequency information on items and rationales for each term's assessment
as a Canadianism (or not) are explained in the chief editor's account. An example of the Frequency
charts, which are normalized internet domain searches, is shown on the right-hand side for the
example chuck wagon 'food cart for mobile lunches etc.' (the methodology behind the charts
[Dollinger 2016]).

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 Distinctive Canadianisms
bachelor: bachelor apartment, an apartment all in a single room, with a small bathroom
attached ("They have a bachelor for rent"). The usual American term is studio. In Quebec, this is
known as a one-and-a-half apartment; some Canadians, especially in Prince Edward Island, call it a
loft.

camp: in Northern Ontario, it refers to what is called a cottage in the rest of Ontario and a
cabin in the West. It is also used, to a lesser extent, in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, as well as in
parts of New England.

fire hall: fire station, firehouse.

height of land: a drainage divide. Originally American.

parkade: a parking garage, especially in the West.

washroom: the general term for what is normally named public toilet or lavatory in Britain.
In the United States (where it originated) the word was mostly replaced by restroom in the 20th
century. Generally used only as a technical or commercial term outside of Canada. The word
bathroom is also used.

rancherie: the residential area of a First Nation reserve, used in BC only.

quiggly hole and/or quiggly: the depression in the ground left by a kekuli or pithouse.
Groups of them are called "quiggly hole towns". Used in the BC Interior only.

gas bar: a filling station (gas station) with a central island, having pumps under a fixed metal
or concrete awning.

booze can: an after-hours establishment where alcohol is served, often illegally.

dpanneur, or the diminutive form dep, is often used by English speakers in Quebec. This is
because convenience stores are called dpanneurs in Canadian French.

snye, a side-stream channel that rejoins a larger river, creating an island.

16
 tin (as in tin of tuna), for can, especially among older speakers. Among younger speakers, can
is more common, with tin referring to a can which is wider than it is tall.

cutlery, for silverware or flatware.

serviette, especially in Eastern Canada, for a paper table napkin.

tap, conspicuously more common than faucet in everyday usage.

The following are more or less distinctively Canadian:

ABM, bank machine: synonymous with ATM (which is also used).

BFI bin: Dumpster, after a prominent Canadian waste management company, in provinces
where that company does business; compare to other generic trademarks such as Kleenex, Xerox,
and even Dumpster itself.

converter: Remote control. Likely from derived from a popular line of cable converters
manufactured by Phillips Canada in the early 1980s, which were early users of IR remote controls.

chesterfield: originally British and internationally used (as in classic furnishing terminology)
to refer to a sofa whose arms are the same height as the back, it is a term for any couch or sofa in
Canada (and, to some extent, Northern California). Once a hallmark of CanE, chesterfield as with
settee and davenport, is now largely in decline among younger generations in the western and
central regions.Couch is now the most common term; sofa is also used.

dart: cigarette, used primarily by adolescents and young adults.

dressing gown or housecoat: in the United States, called a bathrobe.

eavestrough: rain gutter. Also used, especially in the past, in the Northern and Western United
States; the first recorded usage is in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick: "The tails tapering down that
way, serve to carry off the water, d'ye see. Same with cocked hats; the cocks form gable-end eave-
troughs , Flask."

flush: toilet, used primarily by older speakers throughout the Maritimes.

garburator: (rhymes with carburetor) a garbage disposal.

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 homogenized milk or homo milk: milk containing 3.25% milk fat, typically called "whole
milk" in the United States.

hydro: a common synonym for electrical service, used primarily in New Brunswick, Quebec,
Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia. Most of the power in these provinces is hydroelectricity,
and suppliers' company names incorporate the term "Hydro". Usage: "I didn't pay my hydro bill so
they shut off my lights." Hence hydrofield, a line of electricity transmission towers, usually in
groups cutting across a city, and hydro lines/poles, electrical transmission lines/poles.These usages
of hydro are also standard in the Australian state of Tasmania. Also in slang usage can refer to
hydroponically grown marijuana.

loonie: the Canadian one-dollar coin; derived from the use of the common loon on the reverse.
The toonie (less commonly spelled tooney, twooney, twoonie) is the two-dollar coin. Loonie is also
used to refer to the Canadian currency, particularly when discussing the exchange rate with the U.S.
dollar; "loonie" and "toonie" describe coinage specifically. (for example, I have a dollar in pennies
versus "I have three loonies in my pocket").

pencil crayon:coloured pencil.

pogie or pogey: term referring to unemployment insurance, which is now officially called
Employment Insurance in Canada. Derived from the use of pogey as a term for a poorhouse. Not
used for welfare, in which case the term is "the dole", as in "he's on the dole, eh?".

The following are common in Canada, but not in the United States or the
United Kingdom.

runners: running shoes, especially in Western Canada. Also used in Australian English and
Irish English. Atlantic Canada prefers sneakers while central Canada (including Quebec and
Ontario) prefers "running shoes".

tuque (also spelled toque or touque): a knitted winter hat. A similar hat would be called a
beanie in the western United States and a watch cap in the eastern United States, though these forms
are generally closer-fitting, and may lack a brim as well as a pompom. There seems to be no exact
equivalent outside Canada, since the tuque is of French Canadian origin.

bunnyhug: a hooded sweatshirt, with or without a zipper. Used mainly in Saskatchewan.

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 Food and beverage

Most Canadians as well as Americans in the Northwest, North Central, Prairie and Inland
North prefer pop over soda to refer to a carbonated beverage (though neither term is dominant in
British English). Soft drink is also extremely common throughout Canada.

What Americans call Canadian bacon is named back bacon in Canada, or, if it is coated in
cornmeal or ground peas, cornmeal bacon or peameal bacon.

What most Americans call a candy bar is usually known as a chocolate bar (as in the United
Kingdom). In certain areas surrounding the Bay of Fundy, it is sometimes known as a nut bar;
however, this use is more popular amongst older generations. Legally only bars made of solid
chocolate may be labelled chocolate bars, others must be labelled as candy bars.

Even though the terms French fries and fries are used by Canadians, some speakers use the
word chips (and its diminutive, chippies) (chips is always used when referring to fish and chips, as
elsewhere).

whole-wheat bread is often referred to as brown bread, as in "Would you like white or brown
bread for your toast?"

An expiry date is the term used for the date when a perishable product will go bad (similar to
the UK Use By date). The term expiration date is more common in the United States (where expiry
date is seen mostly on the packaging of Asian food products). The term Best Before also sees
common use, where although not spoiled, the product may not taste "as good".

double-double: a cup of coffee with two measures of cream and two of sugar, most commonly
associated with the Tim Hortons chain of coffee shops.

Canadianisms relating to alcohol:

mickey: a 375 mL (12.7 US fl oz; 13.2 imp fl oz) bottle of hard liquor (informally called a pint
in the Maritimes and the United States). In Newfoundland, this is almost exclusively referred to as a
"flask". In the United States, "mickey", or "Mickey Finn", refers to a drink laced with drugs.

two-six, twenty-sixer, twixer: a 750 mL (25 US fl oz; 26 imp fl oz) bottle of hard liquor
(called a quart in the Maritimes). The word handle is less common. Similarly, a 1.14 L (39 US fl oz;
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40 imp fl oz) bottle of hard liquor is known as a forty and a 1.75 L (59 US fl oz; 62 imp fl oz) bottle
is known as a sixty or half gallon in Nova Scotia.

Texas mickey (especially in Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; more often a
"Saskatchewan mickey" in western Canada): a 3 L (101 US fl oz; 106 imp fl oz) bottle of hard
liquor. (Despite the name, Texas mickeys are generally unavailable outside of Canada.)

two-four: a case of 24 beers, also known as a case in Eastern Canada, or a flat in Western
Canada (referencing that cans of beer are often sold in packages of six, with four packages to a flat
box for shipping and stacking purposes).

six-pack, half-sack, half-case, or poverty-pack: a case of six beers

poutine: a snack of french fries topped with cheese curds and hot gravy.

Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta)

A strong Canadian raising exists in the prairie regions together with certain older usages such
as chesterfield and front room also associated with the Maritimes. Aboriginal Canadians are a larger
and more conspicuous population in prairie cities than elsewhere in the country and certain elements
of aboriginal speech in English are sometimes to be heard. Similarly, the linguistic legacy, mostly
intonation but also speech patterns and syntax, of the Scandinavian, Slavic and German settlers
who are far more numerous and historically important in the Prairies than in Ontario or the
Maritimes can be heard in the general milieu. Again, the large Mtis population in Saskatchewan
and Manitoba also carries with it certain linguistic traits inherited from French, Aboriginal and
Celtic forebears. Some terms are derived from immigrant groups or are just local inventions:

bluff: small group of trees isolated by prairie

bunny hug: elsewhere hoodie or hooded sweat shirt (mainly in Saskatchewan, but also in
Manitoba)

ginch/gonch/gitch/gotch: underwear (usually men's or boys' underwear, more specifically

briefs; whereas women's underwear are gotchies), probably of Eastern European or Ukrainian
origin. Gitch and gotch are primarily used in Saskatchewan and Manitoba while the variants with an
n are common in Alberta and British Columbia.

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 jam buster: jelly-filled doughnut.

porch climber: moonshine or homemade alcohol. Porch climber has a slightly distinguished
meaning in Ontario where it refers to a beverage mixed of beer, vodka, and lemonade.

slough: pond usually a pond on a farm

Vi-Co: occasionally used in Saskatchewan instead of chocolate milk. Formerly a brand of

chocolate milk.

In farming communities with substantial Ukrainian, German or Mennonite populations,

accents, sentence structure and vocabulary influenced by these languages is common. These
communities are most common in the Saskatchewan Valley region of Saskatchewan and Red River
Valley region of Manitoba.

Informal speech

A rubber in the U.S. and Canada is slang for a condom; however, in Canada it is sometimes
(rarely except for Newfoundland and South Western Ontario) another term for an eraser (as it is in
the United Kingdom and Ireland).

The word bum can refer either to the buttocks (as in Britain), or, derogatorily, to a homeless
person (as in the U.S.). However, the "buttocks" sense does not have the indecent character it retains
in British use, as it and "butt" are commonly used as a polite or childish euphemism for ruder words
such as arse (commonly used in Atlantic Canada and among older people in Ontario and to the west)
or ass, or mitiss (used in the Prairie Provinces, especially in northern and central Saskatchewan;
probably originally a Cree loanword). Older Canadians may see "bum" as more polite than "butt",
which before the 1980s was often considered rude.

Similarly the word pissed can refer either to being drunk (as in Britain), or being angry (as in
the U.S.), though anger is more often said as pissed off, while piss drunk or pissed up is said to
describe inebriation (though piss drunk is sometimes also used in the US, especially in the northern
states).

One of the most distinctive Canadian phrases is the spoken interrogation or tag eh. The only
usage of eh exclusive to Canada, according to the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, is for "ascertaining
the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc., of the person or persons addressed" as in,
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"It's four kilometres away, eh, so I have to go by bike." In that case, eh? is used to confirm the
attention of the listener and to invite a supportive noise such as mm or oh or okay. This usage is also
common in Queensland, Australia and New Zealand. Other uses of eh for instance, in place of
huh? or what? meaning "please repeat or say again" are also found in parts of the British Isles and
Australia. It is common in Northern/Central Ontario, the Maritimes and the Prairie provinces. The
word eh is used quite frequently in the North Central dialect, so a Canadian accent is often perceived
in people from North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

The term hoser, popularized by Bob & Doug McKenzie, typically refers to an uncouth, beer-
swilling male and is a euphemism for "loser" coming from the earlier days of hockey played on an
outdoor rink and the losing team would have to hose down the ice after the game so it refreezes
smooth. Bob & Doug also popularized the use of Beauty, eh, another western slang term which may
be used in variety of ways. This describes something as being of interest, of note, signals approval
or simply draws attention to it.

Other Canadianisms

The alphanumeric code appended to mail addresses (the equivalent of the similar British
postcode and the numeric-only American ZIP code) is called a postal code.

"Going camping" still refers to staying in a tent in a campground or wilderness area, while
"going out to camp" may refer to a summer cottage or home in a rural area. "Going to camp" refers
to children's summer camps. In British Columbia, "camp" was used as a reference for certain
company towns (for example, Bridge River). It is used in western Canada to refer to logging and
mining camps such as Juskatla Camp. It is also a synonym for a mining district; the latter occurs in
names such as Camp McKinney and usages such as "Cariboo gold camp" and "Slocan mining
camp" for the Cariboo goldfields and Slocan silver-galena mining district, respectively. A "cottage"
in British Columbia is generally a small house, perhaps with an English design or flavour, while in
southern Ontario it more likely means a second home on a lake. Similarly, "chalet" originally a
term for a small warming hut can mean a second home of any size, but refers to one located in a
ski resort. In Northern Ontario, these second homes tend to be called "camps". In Western Canada,
these second homes tend to be called "cabins". A "bunkie" is a secondary building at these second
homes that are small enough to require no building permits and house extra guests visiting.

A stagette is a female bachelorette party (US) or hen party (UK).

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 A "shag" is thought, erroneously, to be derived from "shower" and "stag", and describes a
dance where alcohol, entry tickets, raffle tickets, and so on, are sold to raise money for the engaged
couple's wedding. Normally a Northwest Ontario, Northern Ontario and sometimes Manitoba term,
a "stag and doe" or "buck and doe" is used elsewhere in Ontario. The more common term for this
type of event in Manitoba is a "social".

The humidex is a measurement used by meteorologists to reflect the combined effect of heat
and humidity (vs. US term heat index quantifying the apparent temperature).

Elementary school grades are usually referred to as Grade 1 (and so on), unlike in the United
States where they are referred to as 1st grade.

The States: Commonly used to refer to the United States or almost as often the U.S., much less
often U.S.A. or America which are commonly used in other countries, the latter more often used in
other English-speaking nations.

Drop the gloves: to begin a fight. A reference to a practice in hockey of removing gloves prior
to fighting.

Back east typically means 'Ontario or possibly Quebec' whereas Down East instead refers to
the Maritimes.

Transportation

Although Canadian lexicon features both railway and railroad, railway is the usual term in
naming (witness Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway), though railroad can be
heard fairly frequently in some regions; most rail terminology in Canada, however, follows
American usage (for example, ties and cars rather than sleepers and carriages).

A two-way ticket can be either a round-trip (American term) or a return (British term).

The terms highway (for example, Trans-Canada Highway), expressway (Central Canada, as in
the Gardiner Expressway) and freeway (Sherwood Park Freeway, Edmonton) are often used to
describe various high speed roads with varying levels of access control. Generally, but not
exclusively, highway refers to any provincially funded road regardless of its access control. Often
such roads will be numbered. Similar to the US, the terms expressway and freeway are often used

23
interchangeably to refer to controlled-access highways, that is, divided highways with access only at
grade-separated interchanges (for example, a 400-Series Highway in Ontario).

However, expressway may also refer to a limited-access road that has control of access but has
at-grade junctions, railway crossings (for example, the Harbour Expressway in Thunder Bay.)
Sometimes the term Parkway is also used (for example, the Hanlon Parkway in Guelph). In
Saskatchewan, the term 'grid road' is used to refer to minor highways or rural roads, usually gravel,
referring to the 'grid' upon which they were originally designed. In Quebec, freeways and
expressways are called autoroutes.

In Alberta, the generic Trail is often used to describe a freeway, expressway or major urban
street (for example, Deerfoot Trail, Macleod Trail or Crowchild Trail in Calgary, Yellowhead Trail
in Edmonton). The British term motorway is not used. The American terms turnpike and tollway for
a toll road are not common. The term throughway or thruway was used for first tolled limited-access
highways (for example, the Deas Island Throughway, now Highway 99, from Vancouver, BC, to
Blaine, Washington, USA or the Saint John Throughway (Highway 1) in Saint John, NB), but this
term is not common anymore. In everyday speech, when a particular roadway is not being specified,
the term highway is generally or exclusively used.

A railway at-grade junction can be called a level crossing, as well as the term grade crossing,
which is commonly used in the US.

A railway or highway crossing overhead is an overpass or underpass, depending on which part

of the crossing is referred to (the two are used more or less interchangeably); the British term
flyover is sometimes used in Ontario, and in the Maritimes as well as on occasion in the prairies
(such as the 4th avenue flyover in Calgary, Alberta), subway is also used.

In Quebec, English speakers often use the word "Metro" to mean subway. Non-native
Anglophones of Quebec will also use the designated proper title "Metro" to describe the Montral
subway system.

The term Texas gate refers to the type of metal grid called a cattle guard in American English
or a cattle grid in British English.

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How are Canadian English and American English different?
"About" or "a boat"?

The pronunciation of words with "ou" is the most famous feature of Canadian English. Some
common examples include out, about, and house. Canadians say these words like "oat", "a boat", or
"hose". Americans like to joke about how Canadians pronounce these words. The show South Park
is famous for making fun of Canadians and their accents. You might hear an American say that
Canadians say "a boot" instead of "about", but this is an exaggeration.

Nice weather today, eh?

The other Canadian language habit that all americans know is "eh". Canadians sometimes say
this at the end of a sentence, with a rising intonation. "Eh" is used in casual conversation, and
especially for small talk. Some younger Canadians say "hey" instead of "eh", but it works the same
way.

Sorry!

In Canada, "sorry" rhymes with "story". In the USA, it rhymes with "Ferrari".

Canadians are also known for saying "sorry" a lot more than Americans. People joke that if
you step on a Canadians foot, they will say sorry to you! However, there's no real research or
evidence about this.

Pasta, Drama, Obama

Some words with an "a" in the middle have a different pronunciation north of the border. For
example, let's look at the word "pasta". In the US, the first syllable rhymes with "lost". In Canada it
sounds like "past". We see this difference with the word "drama", names like "Mario", "Natasha"
and "Alana". (Most of these are "borrowed" words that come from other languages.)

British Influence

Many features of Canadian English come from the influence of British English. American
English came from British English too, but today it's not as similar. This is because of cultural and
historical differences between the two countries.

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 First, there are some small pronunciation differences you may hear. A few examples:

With the word "avenue", Americans sometimes pronounce the last part like "new", or like
"nyew". Canadians (and British people) always say "nyew" for this sound.

"Produce" (fruits and vegetables) is sometimes pronounced differently in Canada than the US.
The first part, "pro", rhymes with "go" in the US. In Canada, for many people it rhymes with "saw".

Most Americans call their mother "mom". You'll hear "Mom" in Canada too, but you'll
sometimes hear "Mum", too, which comes from British English.

Several vocabulary differences also come from British English. While Americans may say
"pardon" or "pardon me", they are more likely to say "excuse me". Canadians say "pardon me", or
"pardon" more often.

How Canadians talk about school

There are some major differences between education in the US and Canada, and these
vocabulary differences show that.

One difference is that instead of saying "first grade" or "seventh grade" like Americans,
Canadians say "grade one" or "grade seven". Canadian high schoolers are in "grade nine" through
"grade twelve".

Like Canada, most American high schools have four grades: 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th.
However, in the USA, these years are often referred to as "freshman year", "sophomore year",
"junior year", and "senior year". The same words are used for the four years of college. Canadians
don't use these terms at all! And for university, they say "first year" through "fourth year". And of
course for high school, they say "grade nine" through "grade twelve".

In the USA, "college" and "university" are basically the same thing. "College" is a more
common term. In fact, to an American, saying you're "in university" or a "university student" sounds
a bit strange. If someone is going to a school for a certificate or non-Bachelor degree, it's usually at a
"community college". In Canada, an institution with four-year Bachelor programs is usually a
"university", especially if it has graduate programs. If you say "college" in Canada, it's like "junior
college" or "community college" in the US.

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 Conlusion
It's true that Canadians speak a little bit differently than Americans, sometimes. It's also true
that people from Vancouver speak a little differently than people from Toronto. And between the
two countries, people from Portland sound a lot like people from Vancouver, and people from
Minnesota sound a lot like people from Manitoba. And of course, every individual speaks a bit
differently from the next individual. It's very difficult to find many general rules for Canadian and
American English differences.

In 2011, just under 21.5 million Canadians, representing 65% of the population, spoke English
most of the time at home, while 58% declared it their mother language. English is the major
language everywhere in Canada except Quebec, and most Canadians (85%) can speak English.
While English is not the preferred language in Quebec, 36.1% of Qubcois can speak English.
Nationally, Francophones are five times more likely to speak English than Anglophones are to speak
French 44% and 9% respectively. Only 3.2% of Canada's English-speaking population resides in
Quebecmostly in Montreal.

Attitude studies on Canadian English are somewhat rare. A perceptual study on Albertan and
Ontarians exists in combination with older literature from the 1970/80s. Sporadic reports can be
found in the literature, e.g. on Vancouver English, in which more than 80% believe in a "Canadian
way of speaking", with those with a university education reporting higher than those without.

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 References:
1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/dialect
2. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150820-why-is-canadian-english-unique
3. http://dialectblog.com/2012/08/28/yes-canada-has-regional-dialects/
4. http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/dialects-of-canadian-english.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_English
6. https://www.phrasemix.com/answers/how-are-canadian-english-and-american-english-
different

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