Standard Canadian English is the largely homogeneous variety ofCanadian English that is spoken particularly acrossOntario andWestern Canada, as well as throughoutCanada among urban middle-class speakers fromEnglish-speaking families,[1] excluding the regional dialects ofAtlantic Canadian English. Canadian English has a mostly uniform phonology and much less dialectal diversity than neighbouringAmerican English.[2] In particular, Standard Canadian English is defined by thecot–caught merger to[ɒ]ⓘ and an accompanyingchain shift of vowel sounds, which is called theCanadian Shift. A subset of the dialect geographically at its central core, excludingBritish Columbia to the west and everything east ofMontreal, has been calledInland Canadian English. It is further defined by both of the phenomena that are known asCanadian raising (which is found also in British Columbia and Ontario):[3] the production of/oʊ/[a] and/aʊ/ withback starting points in the mouth and the production of/eɪ/ with a front starting point and very little glide[4] that is almost[e] in theCanadian Prairies.[5]
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lax | tense | lax | tense | lax | tense | |
| Close | ɪ | i | u | ʊ | ||
| Mid | ɛ | eɪ | ə | (ʌ) | oʊ | |
| Open | æ | ɒ | ||||
| Diphthongs | aɪ ɔɪ aʊ (ʌɪ) (ʌʊ) | |||||
The onset of unraised/aʊ/ is usually low central[äʊ],[6] though it may be fronted before nasals./oʊ/ usually remains backed[oʊ~o], unlike the fronted values found in theSouth, theMidland orCalifornia. That said, fronted pronunciations of/oʊ/ may exist for some younger speakers. In addition, some younger speakers front and lower/ʊ/.[7]
Unlike mostNorthern American English, /u/ is generally fronted in Canadian English. In Victoria, where the historical distinction between post-coronal/ju/ and/u/ is often maintained, the latter may be so front as to gain a[j]-like onglide.[8]
Almost all Canadians have thecot–caught merger, which also occurs primarily in the Western United States but also often elsewhere in the country, especially recently. Few Canadians distinguish the vowels incot andcaught, which merge as[ɒ] (more common in Western and central Canada) or[ɑ] (more common in the Maritimes and eastern mainland Canada in which it can even be fronted). Speakers with the merger often fail to hear the difference when speakers without the merger, such asGeneral American (GenAm) andInland Northern American English, pronounce the vowels. The merger has existed in Canada for several generations.[9]
Some speakers may not exhibit the merger, especially older speakers and those living in rural areas or in the Prairies.
The standard pronunciation of/ɑr/ (as instart) is[ɑɹ], as in GenAm, or perhaps somewhat fronted as[ɑ̈ɹ]. As with Canadian raising, the advancement of the raised nucleus can be a regional indicator. A striking feature of Atlantic Canadian speech (in theMaritime Provinces andNewfoundland) is a nucleus that approaches the front region of the vowel space; it is accompanied by a strong rhoticity ranging from[ɜɹ] to[ɐɹ].
Words such asorigin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, as well astomorrow, sorry, sorrow, generally use the sound sequence ofFORCE, rather thanSTART.[10] The latter set of words often distinguishes Canadian from American pronunciation. In Standard Canadian English, there isno distinction betweenhorse andhoarse.[citation needed]
Loanwords that have a low central vowel in their language of origin, such asllama,pasta, andpyjamas, as well as place names likeGaza andVietnam, tend to have/æ/, rather than/ɒ/ (which includes the historical/ɑ/,/ɒ/ and/ɔ/ because of the father–bother and cot–caught mergers). That also applies to older loans likedrama orApache. The wordkhaki is sometimes pronounced/ˈkɒki/ (or even/ˈkɒrki/). The pronunciation ofdrama with/æ/ is in decline, and studies found that 83% of Canadians used/æ/ in 1956, 47% in 1999, and 10% in 2012.[11] More generally, younger speakers tend to use/ɒ/ more than they did before, though there's still quite a bit of variation.[12][page needed]Some words, includingplaza,façade, andlava will take a low central phone[ä], possibly distinct from both/æ/ and/ɒ/.[13]
The cot-caught merger creates a gap in the short vowel subsystem[14] and triggers a sound change known as theCanadian Shift, which involves the front lax vowels/æ,ɛ,ɪ/. The/æ/ ofbat is lowered and retracted in the direction of[a] except in some environments, as is noted below. Indeed,/æ/ is farther back than in almost all other North American dialects,[15] and the retraction of/æ/ was independently observed inVancouver[16] and is more advanced for Ontarians and for women than for people from thePrairies andAtlantic Canada and men.[17]
Then,/ɛ/ and/ɪ/ may be lowered (in the direction of[æ] and[ɛ]) and/or retracted, but studies actually disagree on the trajectory of the shift.[18][19][20][21] For example, Labov and others (2006) noted a backward and downward movement of/ɛ/ inapparent time in all of Canada except the Atlantic Provinces, but no movement of/ɪ/ was detected.
Therefore, in Canadian English, the shorta oftrap orbath and the broadah quality ofspa orlot are shifted oppositely from those of theNorthern Cities shift, which is found across the border inInland Northern American English, and is causing both dialects to diverge. In fact, the Canadian short-a is very similar in quality to Inland Northernspa orlot. For example, the production[map] would be recognized asmap in Canada butmop in Inland Northern United States.
Unlike many American English dialects,/æ/ remains a low-front vowel in most environments in Canadian English. Raising along the front periphery of the vowel space is restricted to two environments, before nasal and voiced velar consonants, and even then varies regionally. Ontario and Maritime Canadian English often show some raising before nasals, but it is less extreme than in many American varieties. Much less raising is heard on the Prairies, and some ethnic groups inMontreal show no pre-nasal raising at all. On the other hand, some speakers in the Prairies and British Columbia have raising of/æ/ before voiced velars (/ɡ/ and/ŋ/, with an up-glide rather than an in-glide, such thatbag may almost rhyme withvague.[22] For most Canadian speakers,/ɛ/ is also realized higher as[e] before/ɡ/.
| Following consonant | Example words[24] | New York City,New Orleans[25] | Baltimore, Philadelphia[26] | Midland US, New England, Pittsburgh, Western US | Southern US | Canada, Northern Mountain US | Minnesota, Wisconsin | Great Lakes US | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Non-prevocalic /m,n/ | fan, lamb, stand | [ɛə][27][A][B] | [ɛə][27] | [ɛə~ɛjə][30] | [ɛə][31] | [ɛə][32] | |||
| Prevocalic /m,n/ | animal, planet, Spanish | [æ] | |||||||
| /ŋ/[33] | frank, language | [ɛː~eɪ~æ][34] | [æ~æɛə][30] | [ɛː~ɛj][31] | [eː~ej][35] | ||||
| Non-prevocalic /ɡ/ | bag, drag | [ɛə][A] | [æ][C] | [æ][27][D] | |||||
| Prevocalic/ɡ/ | dragon, magazine | [æ] | |||||||
| Non-prevocalic /b,d,ʃ/ | grab, flash, sad | [ɛə][A] | [æ][D][37] | [ɛə][37] | |||||
| Non-prevocalic /f,θ,s/ | ask, bath, half, glass | [ɛə][A] | |||||||
| Otherwise | as, back, happy, locality | [æ][E] | |||||||
| |||||||||
Perhaps the most recognizable feature of Canadian English is "Canadian raising," which is found most prominently throughout central and west-central Canada and in parts of theAtlantic Provinces.[2] For the beginning points of the diphthongs (gliding vowels)/aɪ/ (as in the wordsheight andmice) and/aʊ/ (as inshout andhouse), the tongue is often more "raised" than in other varieties of English in the mouth when the diphthongs are beforevoiceless consonants:/p/,/t/,/k/,/s/,/ʃ/, and/f/.
Before voiceless consonants,/aɪ/ becomes[ʌɪ~ɜɪ~ɐɪ]. One of the few phonetic variables that divides Canadians regionally is the articulation of the raised allophone of that and/aʊ/. In Ontario, it tends to have a mid-central or even mid-front articulation sometimes approaching[ɛʊ], but in the West and the Maritimes, a more retracted sound is heard, which is closer to[ʌʊ].[40][6] For some speakers in the Prairies and in Nova Scotia, the retraction is strong enough to cause some tokens of raised/aʊ/ to merge with/oʊ/;couch then merges withcoach, and both wordssound the same (/koʊtʃ/). Also,about then sounds likea boat, which is often inaccurately represented as sounding like "a boot" for comic effect inAmerican popular culture.
In GenAm,out is typicallyäʊtⓘ, but with slight Canadian raising, it may sound more likeɐʊtⓘ, and with the strong Canadian raising of the Prairies and Nova Scotia, it may sound more likeʌʊt. Canadian raising makes words likeheight andhide have two different vowel qualities. Also, for example,house as a noun (I saw a house) andhouse as a verb (Where will you house them tonight?) can then have two different vowel qualities:[hɐʊs] and[haʊz].
Especially in parts of the Atlantic Provinces, some Canadians do not have Canadian raising. On the other hand, certain non-Canadian accents use Canadian raising. In the United States, it can be found in areas near the border in dialects in theUpper Midwest,Pacific Northwest, andNortheastern New England (likeBoston) dialects, but Canadian raising is much less common than in Canada. The raising of/aɪ/ alone is actually increasing throughout the United States and, unlike the raising of/aʊ/, is generally not perceived as unusual by people who do not exhibit the raising.
Because of Canadian raising, many speakers can distinguish between words such aswriter andrider, which can otherwise be pronounced the same in North American dialects[citation needed], which typically turn both intervocalic/t/ and/d/ into analveolar flap. Thus,writer andrider are distinguished solely by their vowel characteristics as determined by Canadian raising, which causes asplit betweenrider as[ˈɹäɪɾɚ] andwriter as[ˈɹʌɪɾɚ] (listenⓘ).
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Although Canadian English phonology is part of thegreater North American sound system and so is therefore similar to American English phonology, the pronunciation of particular words may have British influence, and other pronunciations are uniquely Canadian. TheCambridge History of the English Language states, "What perhaps most characterizes Canadian speakers, however, is their use of several possible variant pronunciations for the same word, sometimes even in the same sentence."[41]
Like most otherNorth American English dialects, Canadian English is almost always spoken with arhotic accent, meaning that ther sound is preserved in any environment and not "dropped" after vowels, as commonly done by, for example, speakers in central and southern England where it is only pronounced when preceding a vowel.
LikeGenAm, Canadian English possesses a wide range of phonological mergers, many of which are not found in other major varieties of English:theMary–marry–merry merger which makes word pairs likeBarry/berry,Carrie/Kerry,hairy/Harry,perish/parish, etc. as well as trios likeairable/errable/arable andMary/merry/marry haveidentical pronunciations (however, a distinction between themarry andmerry sets remains in Montreal);[2] thefather–bother merger that makeslager/logger,con/Kahn, etc. sound identical;the very commonhorse–hoarse merger making pairs likefor/four,horse/hoarse,morning/mourning,war/wore etc. perfecthomophones (as in California English, the vowel is phonemicized as/oʊ/ due to the cot–caught merger:/foʊr/ etc.);[citation needed]thehurry-furry merger;and the prevalentwine–whine merger which produces homophone pairs likeWales/whales,wear/where,wine/whine etc. by, in most cases, eliminating/hw/ (ʍ), except in some older speakers.[9]
In addition to that,flapping of intervocalic/t/ and/d/ toalveolar tap[ɾ] before reduced vowels is ubiquitous, so the wordsladder andlatter, for example, are mostly or entirelypronounced the same. Therefore, the pronunciation of the word "British"/ˈbrɪtəʃ/ in Canada and the U.S. is most often[ˈbɹɪɾɪʃ], while in England it is commonly[ˈbɹɪtɪʃ]ⓘ or[ˈbɹɪʔɪʃ]. For some speakers, the merger is incomplete and 't' before a reduced vowel is sometimes not tapped following/eɪ/ or/ɪ/ when it representsunderlying 't'; thusgreater andgrader, andunbitten andunbidden are distinguished.
Many Canadian speakers have the typical Americandropping of/j/ afteralveolar consonants, so thatnew,duke,Tuesday,suit,resume,lute, for instance, are pronounced/nu/ (rather than/nju/),/duk/,/ˈtuzdeɪ/,/sut/,/rəˈzum/,/lut/. Traditionally, glide retention in these contexts has occasionally been held to be ashibboleth distinguishing Canadians from Americans. However, in a survey conducted in theGolden Horseshoe area of Southern Ontario in 1994, over 80% of respondents under the age of 40 pronouncedstudent andnews, for instance, without/j/.[48] This glide-deletion is less common inVictoria, though younger speakers front/u/ to such a degree after coronals that some words can take a[j]-like onglide.[8]Canadians do include/j/ inrevenue andavenue.
Especially in Vancouver and Toronto, an increasing number of Canadians realize/ɪŋ/ as[in] when the raising of/ɪ/ to[i] before the underlying/ŋ/[49] is applied even after the "g" is dropped, leading to a variant pronunciation oftaking,[ˈteɪkin]. Otherwise it primarily is found in speakers from not justCalifornia but also from otherWestern states and Midwestern areas including theUpper Midwest.[50][51] Speakers who use the[in] variant use it only for the underlying/ɪŋ/, which makestaking with a dropped "g" no longer homophonous withtaken. This pronunciation is otherwise perceived as incorrect and has been described as a "corruption of the language" by some listeners.[52]
{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)Another pronunciation even more widely heard among older teens and adults in California and throughout the West is 'een' for -ing, as in 'I'm think-een of go-een camp-een.'
Regional Accents ... A distinguishing characteristic of the Upper Midwestern accent is the tendency to turn the 'ing' sound into 'een,' with a cheerful 'Good morneen!'