ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN CANADA official language

ENGLISH LANGUAGE IN CANADA

official language communities: English and French historical roots: - England other parts of the British Isles; -European, Asian, Caribbean, African, Latin American, and Pacific Island cultures; -French Canada and North American Aboriginal groups

26 million Canadians (85% of the population) have some knowledge of English 17 million speak English as their native language

Canadian English contains: elements of British English in its vocabulary “Canadianisms’’ influence of French notable local variations

The post was written by Canadian teacher and professional Communication Coach Ric Phillips: «I hear the standard “mid-west” accent that Hollywood and the media love to use, although it is split up into 2 accents. One is the ‘professional’ accent which you will hear in the big cities and in professional circles. The vowels are tighter, proper grammar rules are adhered to and the vocabulary is richer. The other accent is the ‘relaxed’ English, which you can hear in small towns and in manual labour or “blue collar” circles. In this dialect, the people do not mind purposefully breaking some grammar rules, have a variety of rich and colourful slang and favourite expressions used, and sound more “American” in their pronunciation of longer, stretched out vowels.

There is also the distinctive French-Canadian or “Quebecois” accent which is quite different from accents from other French speaking countries. There is the distinctive “East-Coaster” accent, due to the previous immigrants from Ireland Scotland Finally there is the native aboriginal accent. »

CHARACTERISTICS OF CANADIAN ENGLISH The first characteristic Canadian raising raises the onsets of diphthongs before voiceless consonants house, about, mouth, louse

the diphthongs [aj] and [aw]

examples:

all the consonants that follow [ʌj] and [ʌw] are voiceless all of the consonants that follow regular [aj] and [aw] are voiced.

The second characteristic Roof – too [ru: f – tu: ] Hoof – goof [hu: f – gu: f] Roof [ruf ] – hoof [huf ]

The third characteristic Cot [kot] – caught [ko: t], [kəut] Collar [ˈkɔlə] – caller [ˈkɔ: lə] (Cornerstone, 1999).

The fourth characteristic Sound «i» different in words: fife and five knife and knives life and lie light and lied bite and bide price and prizes rite and ride rite and rye (Penner & Mc. Connell, 1980)

The fifth characteristic Varying pronunciations in these Canadian regions: In Quebec (Cornerstone, 1999) In Atlantic Canada (Penner & Mc. Connell, 1980) In parts of Nova Scotia (Penner & Mc. Connell, 1980) In the Ottawa Valley (Penner & Mc. Connell, 1980)

A uniform Canadian dialect covers a larger land mass than any other one dialect in the world.

Thanks for attention