West/Central Canadian English

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The West/Central Canadian English dialect is one of the largest and the most homogenous dialect area in North America. It forms a dialect continuum with the accent in the Western United States, and borders the dialect regions of North, Inland North, and North Central. While it is the most homogenous in that the regional differences inside the dialect area are very small, it has very few features that are completely unique. It is also fairly similar to General American English.

Pronunciation

A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below

	Bilabial	Labio- dental	Labio- velar	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	p  b				t  d			k  g
Affricate						tʃ  dʒ
Nasal	m				n			ŋ
Fricative		f  v		θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ			h
Approximant			(ʍ)  w		ɹ		j
Lateral approximant					l

The phoneme /ʍ/ is present only in older speakers who have not undergone the wine-whine merger.

The vowel phonemes are shown in the table below:

Monophthongs	Front	Central	Central rhotacized	Back
Close	i			u
Near-close	ɪ			ʊ
Close-mid	e			o
Mid		ə	ɚ
Open-mid	ɛ		ɝ	ʌ
Open	æ			ɑ

The diphthongs are shown in the next table:

Diphthongs	Closer component is front	Closer component is back
Opener component is unrounded	aɪ	aʊ
Opener component is rounded	ɔɪ

While the West/Central dialect is mutually intelligible with many dialects of English spoken in England, especially Received Pronunciation, in general it preserves more archaic features, that existed before the dialects split.

• Unlike RP, the West/Central dialect is rhotic. This means it maintains the pronunciation of r before consonants. Rhoticity has been largely influenced by Hiberno-English, Scottish English, and West Country English. The sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a retroflex or alveolar approximant rather than a trill or a tap. The 'er' sound of (stressed) fur or (unstressed) butter, which is represented in IPA as stressed [ɝ] or unstressed [ɚ] is realized in Canadian English as a monophthongal r-colored vowel.
• It has also not shifted [æ] to [ɑ] (the so-called "broad A") before [f], [s], [θ], [ð], [z], [v] alone or preceded by [n].

Both RP, and the West/Central dialect have gone through the following changes:

• The horse-hoarse merger of the vowels [ɔ] and [oʊ] before 'r', making pairs like horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning etc. homophones.
• The wine-whine merger making pairs like wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales, wear/where etc. homophones, in most cases eliminating /ʍ/, the voiceless labiovelar fricative. This is preserved in some older speakers, as well as being an archaicism.

The following changes are innovations, and do not occur in RP. It shares these changes with General American.

• The merger of {{IPA, making father and bother rhyme.
• The replacement of the lot vowel with the strut vowel in most utterances of the words was, of, from, what, everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody, and because.
• Vowel merger before intervocalic /r/.
• The merger of [ʊɹ] and [ɝ] after palatals in some words, so that cure, pure, mature and sure rhyme with fir in some speech registers for some speakers.
• Some speakers have Dropping of [j] after alveolar consonants so that new, duke, Tuesday, suit, resume, lute are pronounced /nuː/, /duːk/, /tuːzdeɪ/, /suːt/, /ɹɪzuːm/, /luːt/.
• Both intervocalic /nt/ and /n/ may be realized as [n] or [ɾ̃], making winter and winner homophones for some speakers. This does not occur when the second syllable is stressed, as in entail.
• Laxing of /e/, /i/ and /u/ to /ɛ/, /ɪ/ and /ʊ/ before /ɹ/, causing pronunciations like [pɛɹ], [pɪɹ] and [pjʊɹ] for pair, peer and pure.
• The flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to alveolar tap [ɾ] before reduced vowels. The words ladder and latter are mostly or entirely homophonous, possibly distinguished only by the length of preceding vowel. For some speakers, the merger is incomplete and 't' before a reduced vowel is sometimes not tapped following [eɪ] or [ɪ] when it represents underlying 't'; thus greater and grader, and unbitten and unbidden are distinguished.
• The vowels in words such as Mary, marry, merry are merged to the open-mid front unrounded vowel [ɛ], except in Quebec.

The following changes are shared with the Western dialect in the US:

• Traditionally diphthongal vowels such as [oʊ] as in boat and [eɪ], as in bait, have acquired qualities much closer to monophthongs in some speakers. However, the continuing presence of slight offglides (if less salient than those of, say, British Received Pronunciation) and convention in IPA transcription for English account for continuing use of [oʊ] and [eɪ].
• The cot-caught merger exists. A notable exception occurs with some speakers over the age of 60, especially in rural areas in the Prairies, although the merger is the most widespread overall.
• [ɛ] is pronounced [e] before g.
• The words origin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, are all generally pronounced as [-ɔr-], rather than [-ɑr-].
• [u] is fronted after coronals. Otherwise it is back and rounded.
• The -ing ending in words of more than two syllables is pronounced as /in/, /ɪn/, or /ɪŋ/.
• Milk is pronounced /mɛlk/ by some speakers, /mɪlk/ by others, although pillow is almost always /pɪlo/.

The following changes are shared with the Western dialect in the US, but to a lesser extent:

• A recently identified feature (1995) is a chain shift known as the Canadian Shift. The Canadian Shift is a chain shift triggered by the cot-caught merger. The vowels in the words "cot" [kɒt] and "caught" [kɔ:t] merge to [kɒt]. The Canadian Shift then shifts both "cot" and "caught" towards [kɔ:t]. The /æ/ of bat is retracted to [a], the /ɛ/ of bet shifts to [æ], the /ɪ/ in pin then shifts to the /ɛ/ in bet.[3]

The following changes are shared with the Pacific Northwest English dialect, as well as other dialects:

• æ-tensing /æ/ is tense before /g/ which causes "bag" and "beg" to sound very similar, and in some speakers, especially in Ontario, before /n/ as well.
• Tomorrow is generally pronounced as [-ɔr-], instead of [-ɑr-].
• The following feature is most prominent in the Prairies and Ontario: "Canadian raising": diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants (e.g., [p], [t], [k], [s], [f]). For example, IPA /aɪ/ (the vowel of "eye") and /aʊ/ (the vowel of "loud") become [əɪ] and [əʊ], respectively, the /a/ component of the diphthong going from a low vowel to schwa ([ə]). Note also that this phenomenon preserves the recoverability of the phoneme /t/ in "writer" despite the North American English process of flapping, which merges /t/ and /d/ into [ɾ] before unstressed vowels, so "writer" and "rider" can be distinguished from each other even though the t and d in those words are pronounced the same. The most noticeable feature is the raising of /aʊ/ to [əʊ] because [əʊ] is an allophone of /oʊ/ (as in "road") in many other dialects, so the Canadian pronunciation of "about the house" may sound like *"a boat the hoas" to speakers of dialects without the raising, and in many cases is misheard or exaggerated to "aboot the hoose". Some stand-up and situation comedians, as well as television shows actually do exaggerate the pronunciation to *"aboot the hoos" for comic effect, for example in the American television series South Park.

In contrast to General American:

• The broad /ɑ/ of foreign loan words in words like drama or Iraq are usually pronounced like the short a of bat: /dɹæmə/, /ɪɹæk/.
• Been is usually pronounced /bin/ rather than /bɪn/.
• Words such as borrow, sorry, and sorrow are generally pronounced as [-ɔr-], instead of [-ɑr-].
• Americans sometimes claim to be able to recognize the Western/Central Canadian dialect instantly by their use of the word eh. However, only a certain usage of eh (detailed in the article) is peculiar to Canada. It is common in southern Ontario, the Maritimes and the Prairie provinces. eh is used quite frequently in the North Central dialect, so a Canadian accent is often detected in people from North Dakota, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.

Regional Variation

British Columbia

The dialect is very similar to the English spoken in the Prairies and Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. BC is home to a very diverse population. In parts of the Fraser Valley the intonation and cadence of Dutch and Mennonite German have influenced local English. British accents and a wide range of European and Asian second-language flavoured English have always been common, to the point of the British flavour being identifiably a hallmark of early 20th Century British Columbia, as has been English as spoken by First Nations peoples, which is distinct as an accent but also remains largely undocumented. Unlike in the prairies, Canadian raising (one of the most noticeable features of Canadian English), found in words such as "about" and "writer" is receding in BC, and many speakers do not raise /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants. Younger speakers in the Greater Vancouver area do not even raise /aʊ/, causing "about" to sound like "abowt". The "o" in words such as in the words "holy," "goal," "load," "know," etc. is pronounced as a back and rounded [o], but not as rounded as in the Prairies where there is a strong Scandinavian, Slavic and German influence. The interrogative "eh" is not used as frequently as in the Prairies.

Chinook Jargon

British Columbia English has several words still in current use which are loanwords from the Chinook Jargon, which was widely spoken throughout the province by all ethnicities well into the middle of the 20th Century. Granted these originally came from the lower Columbia River (for the most part) but the Jargon came to B.C. before the mainland colony was declared and the development of the Jargon in the form it spread to here as is the direct result of British influence (the HBC's activity) in the region. These words tend to be shared with, but are not as common in, the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and, to a lesser degree, Idaho and western Montana.

• Skookum — The most famous of these words, and probably the most popular still — and the most versatile — is skookum, which was used in the Jargon either as a verb auxiliary for to be able or an adjective for able, strong, big, genuine, reliable - which sums up its use in BC English, although there are a wide range of possible usages: a skookum house is a jail or prison (house in the Jargon could mean anything from a building to a room. "He's a skookum guy" means that the person is solid and reliable while "we need somebody who's skookum" means that a strong and large person is needed. A carpenter, after banging a stud into place, might check it or refer to it as "yeah, that's skookum". Asking for affirmation, someone might say "is that skookum" or "is that skookum with you?" Skookum can also be translated simply as "O.K." but it means something a bit more emphatic.
• Chuck, saltchuck — Other Jargon words in BC English include chuck, originally meaning water or any fluid but adapted into English to refer to bodies of water, particularly "the saltchuck" in reference to salt water. In combination with skookum the compound word skookumchuck, meaning a rapids (lit. "strong water"), is found in three placenames although not used with its true meaning in ordinary speech. Chuck and saltchuck, however, remain common, notably in local broadcast English in weather/marine reports).
• Muckamuck, high muckamuck. There's also "high muckamuck" and even its proper form "hyas muckamuck" (pronounced "high-ass", and in English carrying that connotation), and the variant "high mucketymuck"; "high mucketymuck/muckamuck" has spread far beyond the Pacific Northwest, and meaning a big boss, a high poohbah, and while literally meaning "big feed" or "important banquet", potentially meaning even a fullblown potlatch - another very BC word, by the way - in English it has a sense of "the guys at the head table" since "muckamuck" or "a feed" is in the same vein in non-city BC English as "grub" or "a meal/dinner".
• Quiggly, quiggly hole — refers to the remains of an old Indian pit-house, or underground house, from "kickwillie" or "kekuli", which in the Jargon means "down" or "underneath" or "beneath".
• Siwash — (SAI-wash) properly a First Nations man, but sometimes used for women as well. Nowadays considered extremely derogatory but still in use, typically with the connotation of "drunken no-good Indian". Historically it did not necessarily have this connotation and was the generic term for Natives to the point where some writers thought there was a "Siwash tribe" in the region. The origin of the word is from the French sauvage. When pronounced Sa-WASH, with the rhythm of the original French, it is used by modern speakers of the Chinook Jargon in Grand Ronde, Oregon with the context of meaning a Native American, or as an adjective connoting connection to same (the SAI-wash prononciation is considered offensive in Grand Ronde).
• Klootchman — in the Jargon meaning simply "a woman" or the female of something - klootchman kiuatan (mare), klootchman lecosho (sow), tenas klootchman or klootchman tenas (girl, female child). Still in use in English in some areas and with people of an older background to mean a First Nations woman, or to refer to the wives/women attached to a certain group in a joking way e.g. "we sent all the klootchman to the kitchen while we played cards". Unlike its male equivalent siwash, klootchman does not generally have a derisive tone nowadays (when used).
• Masi — In northern BC and the Yukon, and used in broadcast English in those areas, the Chinook Jargon adaption of the French merci remains common, i.e. mahsi or masi, with the accent on the first syllable (unlike in French).
• Tyee — leader, chief, boss. Also "Big Tyee" in the context of "boss" or well-known person. In Campbell River and in the sport-fishing business, a really big chinook salmon (Campbell River) is a Tyee. In the Jargon Tyee meant chief, and could also be an adjective denoting "big", as with "tyee salmon" or tyee lamel (boss mule). A hyas tyee means "important/big ruler/leader", i.e. — king, big boss, important ruler, and is also sometimes used in English in the same way as Big Tyee. e.g. "He was the undisputed hyas tyee of all the country between the Johnstone Strait and Comox" This was also the common title used for the famous chiefs of the early era, such as Maquinna, for whom it was applied by Captain Vancouver and others in the context of "king". The Hyas Klootchman Tyee — "Great Woman Ruler", roughly "Her Majesty", was the historical term for Queen Victoria. The word tyee was commonly used and still occurs in some local English usages meaning "boss" or someone in charge. Business and local political and community figures of a certain stature from some areas are sometimes referred to in the British Columbia papers and histories by the old chiefly name worn by Maquinna and Concomly and Nicola. A man called hyas tyee would have been a senator, a longtime MP or MLA, or a business magnate with a strong local powerbase, long-time connections, and wealth from and because of the area.
• Hiyu — less common nowadays, but still heard in some places to mean a party or gathering. From the Chinook for "many" or "several" or "lots of". The Big Hiyu was a week-long joint celebration of Dominion Day and the Glorious Fourth in the Fraser Canyon town of Lillooet, featuring horse races, gambling, a rodeo and other festivities (also known as "The July" for obvious reasons). A tenas hiyu (small gathering) was on a much smaller scale.

[Hear BC English]

Prairies

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 widely 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 Métis population in Saskatchewan also carries with it certain linguistic traits inherited from French, aboriginal and Celtic forebears.

[Hear Prairies English]

Ontario

Canadian raising is often quite strong in Ontario.

Southwestern Ontario

In southwestern Ontario, especially in rural areas there are a number of pronunciations reminiscent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. For example, not is pronounced as [nat]). This pronunciation is exagerated to signify sarcasm or emphasis: not becomes [næt], and hockey may be pronounced as [hæki]. Before nasals, /æ/ is raised and diphthongized to [eə] or [ɪə]: Andy is pronounced [eəndi] or [ɪəndi].

Central Ontario

In Central Ontario (especially the region around Toronto), [ð] is often pronounced as [d]. Sometimes (particularly in North York, an area of Toronto, [ð] is dropped altogether, resulting in "Do you want this one er'iss one?" The word southern is often pronounced with [aʊ]. In the regional area north of York and south of Parry Sound, notably among those who were born in these bedroom communities (Barrie, Vaughan, Orillia, Bradford, Newmarket) as opposed to those who moved there to commute, the cutting down of syllables is often heard, e.g. "probably" is reduced to "prolly" when used as a response.

Ottawa Valley

The Ottawa Valley has its own distinct accent, known as the Ottawa Valley Twang.

Toronto

Slang terms used in Toronto are synonymous with those used in other major North American cities. There is also a heavy influx of slang terminology originating from Toronto's many immigrant communities, of which the vast majority speak English only as a second or minor language. These terms originate mainly from various European, Asian, and African words. Many Torontonians use buddy (without a capital) as it is often used in Newfoundland English – as equivalent to that man (I like buddy's car.).

In Toronto's ethnic communities there are many words that are distinct, or come straight from Jamaica.

• mans (Toronto): Slang for 'men', popular with the youth of Toronto
• fete (Barbados): a really big party.
• jam (Toronto): a big party.
• waste (Toronto) : something is “waste,” something sucks, is stupid, is pointless
• brainer, (one gets…) brainz (Toronto): one who gives oral sex to men, synonym to “head”
• live (Toronto): cool, good, lively.
• snuff (Toronto) : punch.

[Listen to a sample of Ontario English]

Quebec

English is a minority language in Quebec, but has many speakers in Montréal, the Eastern Townships and in the Gatineau-Ottawa region. Among Montréal-native anglophones, there is a distinction between /æ/ and /a/, unique in Canada, so that Mary and merry are not homophones. Among Eastern Townships-native anglophones, syrup is often pronounced as sir-rup. Quebec also has French influence. A person with English mother tongue and still speaking English as the first language is called an Anglophone. The corresponding term for a French speaker is Francophone and the corresponding term for a person who is neither Anglophone nor Francophone is Allophone. Quebec Anglophones generally pronounce French street names in Montreal as French words. Pie IX Boulevard is pronounced as in French, not as "pie nine". On the other hand, Anglophones do pronounce final d's as in Bernard and Bouchard; the word Montreal is pronounced as an English word and Rue Lambert-Closse is known as Clossy Street.

[Hear Quebec English]

See also

• North American English
• Newfoundland English
• Maritimer English
• Quebec English
• Pacific Northwest English
• Canadian Shift
• Vowel Shift
• Canadian raising

References

• Barber, Katherine, editor (2004). The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, second edition. Toronto: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-541816-6.
• Chambers, J.K. (1998). “Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making,” in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., p. xi.
• Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge Guide to English Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 052162181X.

1. ↑ 
2. ↑ 
3 Clarke, Sandra, Elms, Ford, &Youssef, Amani. (1995). The third dialect of English: Some Canadian evidence. Language Variation and Change 7:209–228.

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