Dialects within Canadian English

• Canadian English/ Newfounland

Elements from European Languages of 15-17th centuries non-existent in Europe. Spanish, French, Irish, English

Spoken very quickly, not intelligible

• Canadian English/ Eastern

Close to Am E, considered as Canadian English in the USA

• Quebec

Strong French accent, Throaty sounds

• Canadian English/ western

60% population, close to northern US accents

• Canadian English/ Ottawa

million people, Impact of Scottish and French, Irish

 

 

American English

Northern is not to be confused with political North during the Civil war, historically it is New England

Southern – coastal areas of Waryland, Virginia, Georgia, Gulf States

Midland – area extending through all the country

Sing/ Plural coordination

BrE The team is …/AmE The team are

 

2. Past Simple in AmE with words already, just, yet

 

3. Get –passive is more common in AmE

Subjunctive mood is more common in AmE

BrE He suggested they should apply…

AmE He suggested they_____ apply..

 

5. Irregular verbs in AmE form past tense forms as regular verbs (learned, leaped, spelled)

Usage of prepositions: AmE to meet with someone

Monday to Friday, AmE Moday thru Friday

In Churchill Street, AmE on Churchill Street

BrE toward s, backward s AmE toward__

AmE divided highway

BrE dual carriageway

 

Among the countless American coinages are these:

radio, disc jockey, waterfront, right away, get along with, fall for, make the grade, get around to, babysitter, boyfriend and girlfriend, knowhow, in the red, hitchhike, show business, merger, publicity, executive, hindsight, commuter etc.

 

 

• Many americanisms have become comprehensive thanks to Hollywood

biscuit cookie

queue line

flat apartment

fancy-dress party costume party

Pensioner retiree

lorry truck

football soccer

trousers pants

crisps potato chips

 

British and American automobile vocabulary

British American

windscreen windshield

bonnet hood

wing fender

quarterlight wing

boot trunk

indicator turn signal

hazard lights flashers

running lights parking lights

Tyre tire

 

British VS American English / Corpus Linguistics contribution.

Cambridge International Corpus (CIC)

1. Shall is infrequent in AmE, they prefer will or be going to. I shall be in the office at 9.30. Frequency of Shall per 1 million words BrE AmE 118 16	However, AmE allows shall in first person interrogatives, especially functioning as suggestions or in semi-fixed expressions:   Let’s try to find other words, shall we? How shall we say it?
1. Must is much more frequent in BrE than in AmE which prefers have to to express obligation. Frequency of Must per 1 million words BrE AmE 450 151	Had better is 6 times more frequent in spoken BrE than AmE.
Be going to (and the contracted form gonna) are not a characteristic use in BrE, which prefers imperatives in direction-giving: You’re gonna to go two blocks and then you’re gonna to see a big modern white building… (AmE) Come to T-junction, turn left. Go down…, you come …. (BrE)	1. I guess is 30 times more frequent in spoken AmE than in BrE where I suppose, I reckon are more frequent. I reckon we should have more coffee after this.
The present tense form of have with got is more than twice frequent in spoken BrE than AmE: I’ve got one sister and one brother (BrE)	Ir(regular) verbs In AmE, the past tense of fit is most often fit, while in BrE fitted: Jennifer says she never really fit in… I found a pair of boots that fitted me
Interrogative tags are around 4 times more frequent in BrE than in AmE: He’s brilliant, isn’t he?	In informal contexts, AmE speakers often use an interrogative copy tag with rising intonation in responses involving surprise or emotional involvement: I changed schools three times You did? In one year. Wow. Wow. In BrE Did you?
Affirmative copy tags occur in both variants but are much rarer in AmE than in BrE: I think it’s really funny that they live together, I do. (BrE)	The universal tag,right? is 4 times more frequent in AmE than in BrE: You lived in Canada, right? (AmE) I was hoping we could change this one, right? (BrE)
Tails are considerably less common in AmE than in BrE, but they do occur in informal spoken AmE: That was a nightmare, that one. (BrE) He’s a scary guy, that Dan Boland (AmE)	Good is often used in informal spoken AmE where BrE requires well: Hi, how are you doing? I’m good.
Present Perfect is less frequent in AmE where the tendency is to use Past Simple.	AmE uses some exclamative and intensifying expressions which are not common in BrE: geez, goddam, oh my gosh: It was the best tastinggoddamstuff I’ve ever eaten in my life. It’s been eighty degrees here.- Oh my gosh!

 

African American English

l A reference to varieties of English used in the United States (referred to in Canada as African Canadian English) by people who are wholly or partially of African descent. This accounts for over 10 per cent of the population, the figures depend on the definitions of African American: the United States Census Bureau gave the total population ‘Black or African American alone or in combination’ in 2010 as 13.5 per cent or some 42million;

l ‘Black or African American alone’ was given as 12.6 per cent or 39 million. The majority of African Americans are the descendants of slaves taken by the British from West Africa to America to work on the plantations of the South. Initially, the transportation was via the Caribbean, then directly to the south-east coast of the later United States. Although there was a concentration of African Americans in the rural South, the migration to the large cities of the inland north in the early twentieth century (Anderson 2008 [5.1.10]) meant that Urban African American varieties developed outside the South. Because these were severed from the historical core area they have frequently undergone developments not shared with the original varieties in the South. Varieties of African American English embody a large number of non-standard features on all levels of language. Some of these are almost conventional stereotypes and their frequency varies greatly – some are indeed quite rare.

l There is also a range of sub-varieties, for example with young/urban/hip hop contrasting with rural/traditional, and they have characteristics of their own. Furthermore, most of these features are not distinctive and are shared with many other non-standard varieties.

Pronunciation

l (1) Consonant clusters in non-initial position are reduced to a single segment: test [tes], desk [des] looked [luk], talked [tɔːk].

l (2) Non-prevocalic /r/ is absent: car [kaː], party [paːti].

l (3) Frequent deletion of final /l/, particularly before labials or wordfinally with auxiliaries: help [håp], he’ll be home [hi bi hoːm].

l (4) Stopping of initial /р/ to either [d̪] (dental stop) or [d] (alveolar stop): this [d̪ɪs], there [d̪åː].

l (5) In word-final position /θ/ is frequently shifted to [f] (also found in cockney English); this shift is also found for /р/ (→ [v]) in word-internal position: bath [baːf], teeth [tiːf] brother [brʌvə].

l (6) Velar nasals are realized as alveolars: She’s comin’ tomorrow.

l (7) The distinction between short /å/ and /ɪ/ is frequently lost before nasals (also in southern white American English). The neutralization is to the raised vowel [ɪ]: pen, pin [pɪn]; ten, tin [tɪn].

l (8) Glide reduction with /ai/, a feature typical of the Upper South, is also found in African American English before voiced segments: five [faːv], time [taːm].

l (9) Initial stress is often found with words with non-initial stress in other varieties, e.g. ˈ police, ˈ define.

Grammar, general

l 1) Negative concord (the agreement of all polarity items with each

l other within a clause) serves the purpose of intensifying a negation, for example I ain’t givin’ nothin’ to nobody.

l (2) Existential there is replaced by it: It ain’t no football pitch at school.

l (3) Plurals are not marked if preceded by numerals. He here for three year now.

l (4) The genitive is not necessarily marked with /s/ (as position is sufficient to indicate this category) I drove my brother car.

l (5) A formal distinction is frequently made between second person singular and plural: you [juː] (singular) and y’all [jɒːl], derived from you + all (plural); this is also a general southern feature.

Grammar, syntax

(1) Third person singular - s is variably omitted. She like my brother.

(2) The copula is deleted in equative sentences, that is those of the form X = Y. She a teacher. They workers in the factory.

(5) Bare subject relative clauses occur, for example He the man (who) got all the cars.

(6) Double modals are found occasionally within the same verb phrase (as elsewhere in the South, e.g. in Appalachian English): He might could do the work. She may can do the work. This is probably an inherited feature from Scots-derived dialects originally brought to the United States in the eighteenth century which then diffused into the language of the African-American population.

Vocabulary

l Some items are clearly of West African origin, such as buckra ‘white man’, tote ‘to carry’, goober ‘peanut’, yam ‘sweet potato’ (note: the origin of jazz is unknown).

l Semantic extensions of existing English words are:

homies ‘close friends; prisoner inmates’, bloods ‘other blacks’,

whities ‘white people’, bad ‘good, admirable’,

cool ‘good, neat’,

hip ‘knowledgeable’,

dude ‘male’ (often disparaging).

 

Chicano English

A reference to vernacular varieties of English spoken by Spanish immigrants in the south-west of the United States. Most of these are from Mexico (‘Chicano’ apparently derives from this name). There is a long association of the south-west of the present-day United States with Mexico. People from Central American countries have also been among these immigrants so that, at around 40 million, Spanish-speaking or Spanish-descent Americans constitute the major ethnic population of today’s United States. Chicano English covers a range of varieties and applies to both L1 and L2 speakers of English. In its most basilectal form it shows considerable influence from (Central American) Spanish

l Vocabulary Apart from actual Spanish words used in English because of code-switching Chicano English speakers may use words related in sound but different in meaning, so-called ‘false friends’, for example molest to mean ‘disturb’ based on Spanish molestar with this meaning. Other instances are extensions of English meanings, for example barely to mean ‘just recently’ as in She barely rang her mother.