University of Köln

The English Language in Canada

by

 Christian Hensgens

Table of Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Historical and Geographical Facts 1 - 2

2.1. Canada 1 - 2
2.2. Canadian English 2

3. Bilinguality 3

4. Canadian English vs. US and UK English: Similarities and Differences 3 - 7

4.1. The Types of Distinctiveness 4

4.1.1. Spelling 4 – 5
4.1.2. Vocabulary 5
4.1.3. Pronunciation Variation 5 – 6
4.1.4. Unique Features 6 – 7

a) Canadian Raising 6
b) Words and Phrases 7
c) The Use of “Eh?” 7
d) Retention of [r] 7

5. The Identity of Canadian English – Canada’s Self -Opinion and Self -Depiction 7 - 10

5.1. Language Identity and the Role of Québec: Indigenous Language Movement 8 – 9
5.2. The Identity of Canadian English 9 – 10

6. The Future of Canadian English 10 - 11

7. Conclusion 11 - 12

Works Cited 13

1. Introduction

„The flag is the symbol of the nation’s unity, for it, beyond any doubt, represents all the citizens of Canada without distinction of race, language, belief or opinion.”said Maurice Bourget, Speaker of the Senate on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on February 15, 1965, thereby lowering the Canadian Red Ensign and raising the new maple leaf flag¹. Defining the flag as a symbol of the nation’s unity, Bourget touches upon a question of unity not easy to answer in context of a country like Canada. As a multinational and multicultural country, Canada’s search for unity with regard to the language of it’s citizens is not easy to make out as a question of unity in most cases is a question of identity as well. Whenever we focus on a nation’s unity, we will have to focus on aspects defining the nation, chiefly it’s language enabling communication between it’s citizens and the identity resulting from the use of a language. This work will put a focus on the the language used in Canada and search for a Canadian identity. It will provide some historical facts and will then focus on the official language(s) spoken in Canada, their differences and similarities to US and UK English. Furthermore the problems resulting from Canada’s bilingualism will be portrayed and it will be asked if and how Canadians experience their English as a separate entity: The English Language in Canada.

2. Historical and geographical facts

2.1. Canada

After the foundation of Québec in 1608, French immigrants spreaded out at the region around the Saint Charles River and lead to confrontations with English colonialists. With the increase of the English immigration into French colonies, tensions between the both colonial powers occurred ending up in a war of seven years (1756 – 1763). A peace contract of Paris in 1763 determined that all French colonies fell to England as conquerer. The Constitutional Act of 1791 seperated Québec into two territories (Upper and Lower Canada) as a result of further political discrepancies. Various rebellions in Upper and Lower Canada in 1837 and 1838 resulted in the Act of Union of 1840. In 1867, the British North America Act (BNA) defined two cultures and their bilinguality and linguistic minorities in Québec and Ontario. With the statute of Westminster in 1931 Canada gained it’s independence. In 1980 the population of Québec refused the plans of the “Parti Québécois” to detach from Canada. A new Canadian constitution in 1982 replaced the BNA of 1867. Today, Canada consists of ten provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Fundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Québec, and Saskatchewan (McConnell 8 – 10; Encarta Encyclopedia, keyword “Canada”). Based on the dates of the year 2001, Canada has a total area of 9,976,140 sq km and a population of 31,592,805. In 1992, 82.4 % of Canada’s population were White, 11.2 % Asian, 3.8 % Amerindian, and 2.7 % Black².

2.2. Canadian English

Following McConnell, the first great division in the Englishspeaking peoples was the seventeenth century migration across the Atlantic Ocean to the New England and other North American colonies. The emigrants brought with them their regional and local varieties of Elizabethan English, that developed over a few generations, adding own innovations. When the North American people moved westward, the speech determined the various regional dialects of the present-day United States (McConnell 8).

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1 See http://www.canadianheritage.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/sc-cs/df1_e.cfm

2 See http://www.unitednorthamerica.org/simdiff.htm