Atlantic Canadian English is a class of Canadian English dialects spoken in Atlantic Canada that is notably distinct from Standard Canadian English. [1] It is composed of Maritime English (or Maritimer English) and Newfoundland English. It was mostly influenced by British and Irish English, Irish and Scottish Gaelic, and some Acadian French. Atlantic Canada is the easternmost region of Canada, comprising four provinces located on the Atlantic coast: Newfoundland and Labrador, plus the three Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. [2] Regions such as Miramichi and Cape Breton have a wide variety of phrases and words not spoken outside of their respective regions.
Canadian English owes its very existence to important historical events, especially the Treaty of Paris of 1763. English was first spoken in Canada in the 17th century in seasonal fishing communities along the Atlantic coast, including the island of Newfoundland, and at fur trade posts around Hudson Bay. [2] Treated as a marker of upper-class prestige in the 19th century and the early part of the 20th, Canadian dainty was marked by the use of some features of British English pronunciation, resulting in an accent similar to the Trans-Atlantic accent known in the United States. Students in school were not permitted to use Gaelic, upon threat of punishment for not using the King's English, and thus Gaelic fell into disuse. The Canadian dainty accent faded in prominence after World War II, when it became stigmatized as pretentious, and is now almost never heard in contemporary Canadian life outside of archival recordings used in film, television, or radio documentaries. [3]
Distinctive regional settlement histories have also created several smaller, less broadly recognized speech enclaves within Canada, which likewise challenge the notion of a unified Canadian English, if not as starkly as the case of Newfoundland. Today, these are found mostly in Nova Scotia, where they include Cape Breton Island (the northern part of Nova Scotia), settled mostly by Scottish Highlanders; Pictou County, a second centre of Highland Scots settlement on the mainland; Lunenburg, a town on the south shore settled largely by Germans; and an African-Canadian community, dispersed among several locations, made up of descendants of the servants who accompanied Loyalist immigrants and of refugees from American slavery. [4]
The Atlas of North American English (2006) revealed many of the sound changes active within Atlantic Canadian English, including the fronting of PALM in the START sequence ( /ɑːr/ ) and a mild Canadian raising, but notably a lack of the Canadian Shift of the short front vowels that exists in the rest of English-speaking Canada. Canadian raising means that the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ are raised to, respectively, [ʌɪ] and [ʌʊ] before voiceless consonants like /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, /f/. In all Atlantic Canadian English, /æ/ (the "short a sound") is raised before nasal consonants. That is strongly true in Nova Scotia's Sydney English specifically, which also features a merger of /æɡ/ and /eɪɡ/ (making haggle sound like Hagel). [5] The merger, typical of Standard Canadian English as well, is not typical of the rest of Atlantic Canadian English, however. Nova Scotia's Halifax English and New Brunswick's Saint John English show /æ/ raising before a few consonants, somewhat reminiscent of a New York accent, but nowhere near as defined (bad has a different vowel sound than bat and back), [6] though Charles Boberg suspects that to be an older recessive feature. [7] Nova Scotia's Lunenburg English may show non-rhotic behaviour, [2] and Nova Scotia English generally has a conservatively-back /uː/ compared with other Canadian English dialects. [8]
Certain Atlantic Canadian English dialects have been recognized by both popular and scholarly publications for distinctly sounding like Irish English dialects. [9] [10] Irish immigration patterns have caused a strong influence of Irish English features in Newfoundland English, Cape Breton English, and some Halifax English, including a fronting of /ɑː/ ~ /ɒ/ , [11] [12] a slit fricative realization of /t/, and a rounded realization of /ʌ/. [12] Newfoundland English further shows the cheer–chair merger, the line–loin merger, and a distinct lack of the marry–merry merger, [13] which is the merger of /e/ and /æ/ before /r/.
The flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to an alveolar tap [ɾ] between vowels, as well as pronouncing it as a glottal stop [ʔ], is less common in the Maritimes than elsewhere in Canada and so "battery" is pronounced [ˈbætɹi] instead of with a glottal stop. The varied but similar Maritimer accents are influenced by an overwhelming majority of early Scottish and Irish immigration namely in the regions of Saint John, Miramichi, Cape Breton and parts of Halifax.
In addition to the above, the English of the Maritime Provinces (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island) has some unique phonological features:
The interrogative "right?" is raised to [ˈɹʌɪt] and is also used as an adverb, as in "It was right foggy today!" That sense may be influenced by Yorkshire dialect "reight" [ˈreit], [2] which means "very, rather, or considerably".
Ingressive speech exists; "yeah" and "no" are spoken by people while they inhale (colloquial pronunciation). That is often referred to as a "Gaelic gasp." [2] [ pages needed ]
Prince Edward Islanders use more British terms more often than any other Maritimers because of the overwhelming homogeneity of the province's Scottish and Irish ethnicity. [2]
Some Maritimers add an /s/ to the end of "somewhere" and "anywhere" and produce "somewheres" and "anywheres". [2]
Canada as a country has two official languages: English and French. This is due to the long withstanding history of its colonization and settlement by both France and Britain, as well as the continuation of the French language which was sanctioned by the ruling British authorities at the time. There was no assimilation of English into the francophone population simply due to their solid establishment into the province. According to historians, [14] the consensus is that approximately 15,000 New York Loyalists emigrated and settled into New Brunswick. However, it was not until a wave of 35,000 Loyalists [14] arrived in New Brunswick in 1783 that cemented a substantive English-speaking community, combined with the francophones in creating a larger population, which enabled it to become its own province.
Most of the French settlers in New Brunswick were descendants of Acadians during the great emigration. [15] The francophones in New Brunswick constitute more than 5% of the francophone population in Canada. Francophones are not outnumbered by the speakers of non-official languages and make up a third of the population, thus making them the only official bilingual province. In comparison to its Maritime neighbours, New Brunswick is considered less anglophone due to its relatively big francophone population. [14]
In a reported merger of couch and coach, observations from Charles Boberg indicate that lower values for the F2 of /awT/ tend to occur in New Brunswick. [14]
In New Brunswick, the combination of typical standardized toppings at Canadian pizzerias that includes pepperoni sausage, mushroom, green pepper, tomato sauce and cheese is referred to as the works. Additionally, where the term notebook is used to describe lined paper that is bound together, in the Maritimes, the type 1 Canadianism scribbler takes over. [14]
The distinct regional differences have led to the creation of less widely recognised speech enclaves in Canada: Nova Scotia, which includes Cape Breton Island (the northern part of Nova Scotia), settled mostly by Scottish Highlanders; Pictou County, a second centre of Highland Scots settlement on the mainland; Lunenburg, a town on the south shore settled largely by Germans; and an African-Canadian community, dispersed among several locations, made up of descendants of the servants who accompanied Loyalist immigrants and of refugees from American slavery. [16]
The town of Lunenberg, in particular, has been a huge influence in Nova Scotia English; its dialect traditionally includes the familiar "all" for "all gone", and a final "ain't" as a request for confirmation. [17] The most distinctive characteristic of Lunenberg speech is the complete absence of /r/ postvocalically. The Lunenberg dialect today is very much like that of the surrounding region along the South Shore of Nova Scotia and bears far greater resemblance to the Yankee New England speech likely spoken by the early planters.[ citation needed ] Outside of the treatment of /r/, South Shore speech shares many similarities with other parts of the Maritimes owing to its (indirect) English ancestry throughout Atlantic Canada. Contrary to reports of velar /r/, the most distinctive characteristic of Lunenberg speech is the complete absence of /r/ postvocalically, making it much more similar to neighbouring South Shore dialects, so that it is often confused with the speech of New England by outsiders. [18]
The total population of Prince Edward Island is approximately 130,000 – only slightly larger than that of Cape Breton. [19] As with other provinces, PEI's urban population steadily increased throughout the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, but at a much slower rate than seen in most other provinces. Between 2001 and 2006, PEI's urban population grew by only 0.8 per cent while its rural population declined by 12.8 per cent. Nevertheless, 45 per cent of PEI's population dwelled in urban areas as of 2016. [20] Along with Canada's Eastern Arctic, PEI is one of the most culturally homogeneous regions in Canada. The overwhelming majority of the Island's population (91.5 per cent) reported English as their mother tongue in the 2016 census, while only 3.8 per cent of the total population reported French. The most commonly reported ethnic origins were Canadian, Scottish and English. Visible minorities comprise 4.8 per cent of the population, with Chinese, South Asian and Black people making up the largest visible minority communities. Indigenous people (including First Nations, Métis and Inuit) make up 2 percent of the population. [20]
First published in 1988 by the University of Toronto Press in conjunction with T.K. Pratt a professor of English at the University of Prince Edward Island. Pratt makes a major scholarly contribution to the growing list of regional dictionaries further enabling us to discover the rich heritage of the language as spoken in the eastern province. Furthermore, it offers a splendid general introduction to the historical and sociological life of the island. There are approximately 1000 entries of non-standard or dialect words, past and present. The notes by Pratt deal with usage, pronunciation, alternate forms and spellings, and stylistic and regional labels. [21] Much of the increased public interest in Canadian English seen during the past half century emerged from lexicographical work and landmark publications such as the Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English. [22]
Below is a list of words that are distinctive of Newfoundland English found in the Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English: [23]
1. Angishorehangashore (DPEIE Page 5)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A fisherman who is too lazy to fish. Critical term. Someone who didn't want to fish (II 083).
2. Ballast Lath (DPEIE Page 9)
n. — Prince Edward Island, One of the strips of wood on the bottom of a lobster trap that secures the ballast.
3. Corkcorker (DPEIE Page 38)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A hired hand on a fishing boat, especially a lobster boat.
4. Grayback (DPEIE Page 68)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A large ocean wave.
5. HillerPotato Hiller (DPEIE Page 73)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A machine with two rotating discs used to hill or pile soil around potatoes.
6. KippyKipper, Dilsey, Trappy (DPEIE Page 86)
verb. — Prince Edward Island, Usually of a woman, well dressed or attractive.
7. Round White (DPEIE Page 123)
n. — Prince Edward Island, Any roundish, white-fleshed variety of potato.
8. Scoff (DPEIE Page 126)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A big meal, often of seafood or other seasonal food and in connection with a party.
9. SlobbyLolly, Slob Ice, Slurry (DPEIE Page 138)
adj. — Prince Edward Island, Of the sea, covered with a dense, slushy, mass of ice fragments, snow and freezing water.
10. Whitewashed IslanderWhitewashed American (DPEIE Page 166)
n. — Prince Edward Island, A Prince Edward Islander who has picked up affected 'foreign' manners, especially in the 'Boston States.'
The distinctiveness of Newfoundland English derives from a variety of factors: historical, economical and geographic. [24] In the eighteenth century there was a clear divide between the small managerial class which consisted of English merchants and agents from Devon, Dorset, and neighboring counties and laborers most of which were Irish. [25] English was transmitted in the families in towns and outports, infused every summer with folk speech from England and Ireland. [25] The nineteenth century provided a model of educated and cultural English and Anglo-Irish speech due to the governor becoming the focus of a small elite circle in the capital city of St. John's that included naval officers, principal merchants, clergymen, doctors, officials, and a steady stream of educated visitors and scientists. [25] Newfoundland English, especially its common and folk varieties, began before many English speakers had settled in the present area of Canada and at least 200 years before the Dominion of Canada was created in 1867. [25] Researchers find it difficult to identify specific Canadian pronunciations, intonations, grammatical forms, idioms, or regional vocabulary brought from other provinces to Newfoundland before 1949. [25] Newfoundland's linguistic development has also been influenced by the United States. During World War II many Newfoundland brides were brought home by American soldiers and consequently close familial ties in both countries. [25] Other activities like the medical and missionary activities in Northern Newfoundland and Labrador of the Englishman Dr. Wilfred Grenfell drew American nurses, teachers, and volunteer college students to northern outports. [25] Thus, the personal relations within families may have resulted in subtle American influences in some Newfoundland areas. [25]
The following list provides a list of the principal grammatical features of various folk speech types to be found in Newfoundland and Labrador as outlined in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: [26]
Below is a list of words that are distinctive of Newfoundland English found in the DCHP-2 [27] as well as the Dictionary of Newfoundland English. [26] The definitions are taken from DCHP-2 with a link to the definitions from Dictionary of Newfoundland English (with the exception of 8 and 10, linked to the DCHP-2 definitions):
1.bangbelly bang-belly (DCHP-2 October 2016)
n. — Newfoundland, Food
a pudding, cake, or pancake.
2. Cockabaloo (DCHP-2 April 2016)
n. — Newfoundland
someone who teases; a bully.
3. duckish duckies, duckest (DCHP-2 July 2016)
exp. — Newfoundland, somewhat rare
dusk or twilight.
4. figgy duff Figgy Duff (DCHP-2 October 2016)
n. — Newfoundland, Food
a boiled pudding made with raisins.
5. flahoolach flahoolagh, flooholic, < Gaelic 'flaitheamhlach' (DCHP-2 May 2016)
adj. — Newfoundland
generous, extravagant or wasteful.
6. jinker joner, jonah, jader (DCHP-2 April 2016)
n. — Newfoundland
a person believed to bring bad luck.
7. mummering mumming (DCHP-2 October 2016)
n. — also attributively, Newfoundland, Social customs
the practice of visiting houses in elaborate costumes and disguises, participating in various group activities over Christmas.
8. screech-in Screech-in, Screech-In (DCHP-2 October 2016)
n. — Newfoundland, Social customs
an informal bonding ceremony in Newfoundland, involving drinking rum and kissing a (dead) fish, usually cod
9. sleeveen sleveen, slieveen, sleiveen, < Irish Gaelic slighbín 'trickster' (DCHP-2 May 2016)
n. — Newfoundland, slang, informal
a sly, mischievous person; a rascal.
10. Jiggs' dinner Jigg's dinner, Jiggs dinner, Jigg's Dinner (DCHP-2 October 2016)
n. — Food, Newfoundland
a dinner of corned beef and cabbage, with potatoes and other vegetables on the side.
American English (AmE), sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States; the de facto common language used in government, education and commerce; and an official language of most U.S. states. Since the late 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide.
Canadian English encompasses the varieties of English used in Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French (20.8%) or other languages (21.1%). In the Canadian province of Quebec, only 7.5% of the population are mother tongue anglophone, as most of Quebec's residents are native speakers of Quebec French.
The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Canada's population. Together with Canada's easternmost province, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Maritime provinces make up the region of Atlantic Canada.
North American English is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken varieties are often grouped together under a single category. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, with British spellings of certain words preferred in more formal settings and in Canadian print media; for some other words the American spelling prevails over the British.
General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American, is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. It is often perceived by Americans themselves as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic characteristics, though Americans with high education, or from the (North) Midland, Western New England, and Western regions of the country are the most likely to be perceived as using General American speech. The precise definition and usefulness of the term continue to be debated, and the scholars who use it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness. Other scholars prefer the term Standard American English.
Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, though concentrated increasingly in more rural areas, and spoken primarily by White Southerners. In terms of accent, its most innovative forms include southern varieties of Appalachian English and certain varieties of Texan English. Popularly known in the United States as a Southern accent or simply Southern, Southern American English now comprises the largest American regional accent group by number of speakers. Formal, much more recent terms within American linguistics include "Southern White Vernacular English" and "Rural White Southern English".
A Baltimore accent, also known as Baltimorese and sometimes humorously spelled Bawlmerese or Ballimorese, is an accent or sub-variety of Delaware Valley English that originates among blue-collar residents of Baltimore, Maryland, United States. It extends into the Baltimore metropolitan area and northeastern Maryland.
Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an even larger dialect area of New England, for example, including the eastern halves of Vermont and Connecticut for those born as late as the early twentieth century. Studies vary as to whether the unique dialect of Rhode Island technically falls within the Eastern New England dialect region.
Eastern Canada is generally considered to be the region of Canada south of Hudson Bay/Hudson Strait and east of Manitoba, consisting of the following provinces : Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.
Philadelphia English or Delaware Valley English is a variety or dialect of American English native to Philadelphia and extending into Philadelphia's metropolitan area throughout the Delaware Valley, including southeastern Pennsylvania, all of South Jersey, counties of northern Delaware, and the northern Eastern Shore of Maryland. Aside from Philadelphia and the surrounding counties and arguably Baltimore, the dialect is spoken in places such as Reading, Camden, Atlantic City, Wilmington, Vineland, and Dover. Philadelphia English is one of the best-studied types of English, as Philadelphia's University of Pennsylvania is the home institution of pioneering sociolinguist William Labov. Philadelphia English shares certain features with New York City English and Midland American English, although it remains a distinct dialect of its own. Philadelphia and Baltimore accents together fall under what Labov describes as a single Mid-Atlantic regional dialect.
Quebec English encompasses the English dialects of the predominantly French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec. There are few distinctive phonological features and very few restricted lexical features common among English-speaking Quebecers. The native English speakers in Quebec generally align to Standard Canadian English, one of the largest and most relatively homogeneous dialects in North America. This standard English accent is common in Montreal, where the vast majority of Quebec's native English speakers live. English-speaking Montrealers have, however, established ethnic groups that retain certain lexical features: Irish, Jewish, Italian, and Greek communities that all speak discernible varieties of English. Isolated fishing villages on the Basse-Côte-Nord of Quebec speak Newfoundland English, and many Gaspesian English-speakers use Maritime English. Francophone speakers of Quebec also have their own second-language English that incorporates French accent features, vocabulary, etc. Finally, the Kahnawake Mohawks of south shore Montreal and the Cree and Inuit of Northern Quebec speak English with their own distinctive accents, usage, and expressions from their indigenous languages.
North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken North American English —what are commonly known simply as "regional accents". Though studies of regional dialects can be based on multiple characteristics, often including characteristics that are phonemic, phonetic, lexical (vocabulary-based), and syntactic (grammar-based), this article focuses only on the former two items. North American English includes American English, which has several highly developed and distinct regional varieties, along with the closely related Canadian English, which is more homogeneous geographically. American English and Canadian English have more in common with each other than with varieties of English outside North America.
The cot–caught merger, also known as the LOT–THOUGHT merger or low back merger, is a sound change present in some dialects of English where speakers do not distinguish the vowel phonemes in words like cot versus caught. Cot and caught is an example of a minimal pair that is lost as a result of this sound change. The phonemes involved in the cot–caught merger, the low back vowels, are typically represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet as and or, in North America, as and. The merger is typical of most Indian, Canadian, and Scottish English dialects as well as some Irish and U.S. English dialects.
New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the "Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features still remain in Eastern New England today, such as "R-dropping". Accordingly, one linguistic division of New England is into Eastern versus Western New England English, as defined in the 1939 Linguistic Atlas of New England and the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE). The ANAE further argues for a division between Northern versus Southern New England English, especially on the basis of the cot–caught merger and fronting. The ANAE also categorizes the strongest differentiated New England accents into four combinations of the above dichotomies, simply defined as follows:
Western American English is a variety of American English that largely unites the entire Western United States as a single dialect region, including the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. It also generally encompasses Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, some of whose speakers are classified additionally under Pacific Northwest English.
Midland American English is a regional dialect or super-dialect of American English, geographically lying between the traditionally-defined Northern and Southern United States. The boundaries of Midland American English are not entirely clear, being revised and reduced by linguists due to definitional changes and several Midland sub-regions undergoing rapid and diverging pronunciation shifts since the early-middle 20th century onwards.
Northern American English or Northern U.S. English is a class of historically related American English dialects, spoken by predominantly white Americans, in much of the Great Lakes region and some of the Northeast region within the United States. The North as a superdialect region is best documented by the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE) in the greater metropolitan areas of Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, Western and Central New York, Northwestern New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Northern Indiana, Northern Illinois, Northeastern Nebraska, and Eastern South Dakota, plus among certain demographics or areas within Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, and New York's Hudson Valley. The ANAE describes that the North, at its core, consists of the Inland Northern dialect and Southwestern New England dialect.
The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The accent of the New York metropolitan area is one of the most recognizable in the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio, film, and television. Several other common names exist based on more specific locations, such as Bronx accent, Brooklyn accent, Queens accent, Long Island accent, North Jersey accent. Research supports the continued classification of all these under a single label, despite some common assumptions among locals that they meaningfully differ.
Standard Canadian English is the largely homogeneous variety of Canadian English that is spoken particularly across Ontario and Western Canada, as well as throughout Canada among urban middle-class speakers from English-speaking families, excluding the regional dialects of Atlantic Canadian English. Canadian English has a mostly uniform phonology and much less dialectal diversity than neighbouring American English. In particular, Standard Canadian English is defined by the cot–caught merger to and an accompanying chain shift of vowel sounds, which is called the Canadian Shift. A subset of the dialect geographically at its central core, excluding British Columbia to the west and everything east of Montreal, has been called Inland Canadian English. It is further defined by both of the phenomena that are known as Canadian raising : the production of and with back starting points in the mouth and the production of with a front starting point and very little glide that is almost in the Canadian Prairies.
Western New England English refers to the varieties of New England English native to Vermont, Connecticut, and the western half of Massachusetts; New York State's Hudson Valley also aligns to this classification. Sound patterns historically associated with Western New England English include the features of rhoticity, the horse–hoarse merger, and the father–bother merger, none of which are features traditionally shared in neighboring Eastern New England English. The status of the cot–caught merger in Western New England is inconsistent, being complete in the north of this dialect region (Vermont), but incomplete or absent in the south, with a "cot–caught approximation" in the middle area.