LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.11.08 (02) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 08.NOV.2002 (02) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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 A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
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From: George M Gibault <gmg at direct.ca>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2002.11.06 (01) [E]

>Hello again!

Criosoir had 5 questions about Canadian English which I will attempt to
tackle:

1. Canadian has sounded distinct from British English for a couple of
centuries. The failure to drop "r"s in our dialects (unlike BBC, some New
England and southern US) reflects our relatively strong Scots influence.
The younger generations - especially on the west coast, are sounding more
like teenagers in California - but the Broadcast standard of the US is
closer to educated English Canadians' everyday speech than it is to most
colloquial American speech - so ironically, Canadians sound more like US
newscasters than most Americans do. There seems to be a gradual divide
growing between the west coast and the rest of the continent which may in
time be stronger than the linguistic divide along the border.

2. The French influence on Canadian English is almost entirely on
vocabulary - particularly officialese. In the province of Quebec, this
means that English is laced with terrms which sound odd eleswhere in
Canada. Instead of Inland Revenue or the IRS, for example, we have "Revenue
Canada". During the 60s it was discovered that an easy route to official
bilingualism in naming public sector entities was to choose a Latin based
noun common to English and French, and to stick "Canada" on the end of it
to indicate federal government ownership. It has also resulted in such
monstrosities as a government fitness promotion program called
"Participaction." This sort of thing is a bit of a jokle, especially among
Anglophone Quebeckers who have to suffer under restrictive language laws
aimed at preserving French and making it the working and dominant language
in the province. The backlash in western Canada is such that French
influence has been discouraged and/or parodied particularly in rural and
lower class English circles.  Some people do occasionally throw a well
known French phrase into their conversations like Quelle heure est il?
Bonjour. Bonsoir Comment allez vous? etc. as a sort of friendly sort of
joking - based on the fact that several years of French are mandatory parts
of every Canadian's education.

3. The Southern Vancouver Island British Accent seems to be a survival of a
more widespread genteel British accent spoken in the province 100 years ago
- revived after the Second World War as a sort of social climbing advantage
- but now falling out of fashion as "put on."

4. There are several Newfoundland accents. Newfoundland was predominantly
settled from two very distinct sources - southwest Ireland and southwest
England. The local variety in any place depending on the mix which varied
from 100% to 0% Cork/Kerry Irish. There was also a degree of settlement
from Nova Scotia along the south shore. Most people think of St. John's as
Newfoundland English - and it is VERY Irish - but some of the outports are
Devon/Dorset. While there was a lot of mixing with forced resettlement from
the smaller outports under the Smallwood government - there seems to be
very little Canadianization of Newfoundland speech - although the oil
industry is now bringing the first substantial influx of mainlanders to
"the Rock" and this could change in future - but the Newfoundlander seems
far more proud than ashamed of his/her distinctiveness, so I personally
would bet on Newfoundland dialects continuing strong into the future. Once
again this is reinforced by a very vibarant traditional folk music scene.

5. The Loyalist migration was early enough to be formative in the English
speaking regions where it was dominant. Since the Yankees were overwhelmed
by the Irish Italian Portuguese immigrations etc. in the late 19th and
early 20th century, Loyalist Canadians in Eastern Ontario and southern New
Brunswick perhaps sound more like the inhabitants of upstate New York and
western New England did in the 18th century than the urban residents of
those regions do today.

Slan na bradain leibh                   George

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