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Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP
Path: utzoo!lsuc!msb
From: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Canadian/American/British English
Message-ID: <1033@lsuc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 14-Jan-86 17:39:58 EST
Article-I.D.: lsuc.1033
Posted: Tue Jan 14 17:39:58 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 14-Jan-86 18:54:07 EST
Reply-To: msb@lsuc.UUCP (Mark Brader)
Organization: Law Society of Upper Canada, Toronto
Lines: 76
Summary: C = .74A + .25B + .01(nonAnonB), in my opinion


Since I was somewhat responsible for starting this topic, I think
I'll say a bit more about English as used here in Canada.  First of all,
it seems to me that our language is more like American English than it
is like British English, but has notable resemblances to British as well.

The resemblance to American is perhaps strongest in pronunciation.
I can't think of a place in Canada where a British person would not
be recognized as a foreigner by accent alone; but to many of us,
Australians also sound British, whereas British and Australian people
have no trouble telling each other apart.  On the other hand, Americans
from the northeast and Canadians from Ontario sound a great deal alike;
while I can identify some Americans by accent, there are many whom I
can't.  And British people certainly have trouble telling Americans
from Canadians.

There isn't really a distinctive Canadian or American pronunciation,
there are just regional dialects, some of which are only in one country.
The "Canadian ou" in "about" is an example of a regional pronunciation
that happens to be confined to parts of Canada, just as "route" pronounced
like "rout" (instead of like "root" as here) is a regional pronunciation
confined to parts of the US.  I'm not sure about "lever" ("leever" to me,
"levver" to many Americans).  It's true that "Z" is just about always
"zee" (by analogy with "bee", "cee", etc.) in the US and "zed" (from Greek
"zeta") everywhere else, but this is more a matter of vocabulary than
pronunciation -- it's the NAME of the letter that changes.

In the matter of spelling, most Canadians would say that they use
British spelling, and they would be wrong.  In fact the situation is
that British spelling is used for certain of the highly noticeable
points of variation, and American spelling for almost everything else.
Some words are commonly seen both ways.  For instance, the sentence
that might be rendered in Britain as:

     The travelling speciality cheque centre draughtsman manoeuvred the
     coloured aluminium phial onto the anaemic gaoler's jewellery disc,
     hiccoughing at his baulking dependant's sulphurous programme of tyre
     byelaw offences shewn in connexion with ploughing modernised kerbs.

...and in the US as:

     The traveling specialty check center draftsman maneuvered the
     colored aluminum vial onto the anemic jailer's jewelry disk,
     hiccupping at his balking dependent's sulfurous program of tire
     bylaw offenses shown in connection with plowing modernized curbs.

...in Canada might show up this way:

     The traveling specialty cheque centre draftsman manoeuvred the
     coloured aluminum vial onto the anemic jailer's jewelry disk,
     hiccupping at his balking dependent's sulfurous program of tire
     bylaw offences shown in connection with plowing modernized curbs.

though it might also have "colored", "anaemic", "disc", and "programme",
depending on who is writing it.

(I had fun composing that!  Notice that each point of variation is
 different!  In one or two places it could be argued that there are
 really two different words rather than two different spellings.)

Now, as for vocabulary, we have a very few words that are unknown in
other countries; besides geographical references, which are trivial,
and political ones, which I wouldn't know about uniqueness of, about
all I can think of offhand is "pogey", slang for unemployment insurance,
which I wouldn't even use myself.  Maybe somebody else will list some more.
Is "toque"/"tuque" one?  I'd think it would have penetrated parts of the US.
(Both spellings are seen, and it can rhyme with "poke" or "duke".)

Most of the time, again, we use a mix of American and British.  Our
legal/political system being British-based, for instance, it tends
to use a mostly British vocabulary; in transportation, on the
other hand, we have followed American styles and accordingly the
American vocabulary is used pretty well completely.  And so it goes.

Mark Brader
Toronto, Canada