We know that we can define two key moments in the expansion of English around the

world: the two Diasporas

During the expansion of the English language around the world, around the 17th century,
English was brought to the New World. Although initially the settlers were mainly
British, Scottish and Irish people, their success soon attracted the attention of migrants
all across Europe and all around the world. Most of those settlers who didn’t speak
English adopted it, and their children became native speakers of English, giving birth
two multi-ethnic and multicultural nations: the United States and Canada

But of these two nations, Canada represents an interesting case of two languages co-
existing side by side not just in the social sphere, but also sharing official status as
national languages

Canadian bilingualism originates from the fact that both British and French migrants
settled in North American territory ((((((and that following the British Conquest (1760),
the authorities allowed the continuation of French language, culture and institution in
Quebec, rather than trying to culturally assimilate their French-speaking subjects into
English))))))). When Canada became an autonomous British dominion in 1867, its
founding legislation protected French as one of the two official languages (although its
francophone population had declined to about a third of the total population), later
ratified in 1982 as Canada gained independence. .

However, this coexistence hasn’t been peaceful throughout the years. Although
Canadian bilingualism stands as a symbol of the nation, the relationship between
English speaking and French speaking Canadians has often been difficult.

Despite their official status, the two languages have never really been equal in
practice, with French struggling to survive outside its main base in Quebec. This
lead to the rise of a French-Canadian nationalist movement in the 60s that posed a
serious threat to the unity of the country. In 1969, the federal Official Languages
Act sought to promote bilingualism across both institutions and society all across
Canada.

The reality is that the two languages are still unevenly distributed. By 2006, 86% of
Francophones lived in Quebec, with the rest distributed across the other provinces,
where they barely represent 5% of the population. (a quick glance at the latest census
in 2021 shows that things haven’t changed much in the last 17 years).

(Official status aside, neither English nor French have any right from an
aboriginal perspective, by which both languages are intrusive colonial languages)

As with any other language in any other country in the world, there is no easy way to
define what Canadian English actually is, given its highly varied and multi-ethnic
population. For the purposes of this study, then, Canada English is defined as that
variety of English spoken by people who acquired English as their mother tongue in
Canada (to differentiate it from those immigrants who either have English as L1 but
from a different country and those who speak it as L2). EVEN THEN, there is not a
single uniform variety of English spoken across all Canada, as there are many factors
that influence the language.

Go back to 2.6 for more immigration history

Regarding vocabulary, Canadian English is more aligned with American English than
with its British counterpart, which is understandable as the flow of communication over
the last two centuries was much easier with their neighbors in the south than across the
Atlantic Ocean.
On the other hand, despite the general Americanization of Canadian English, there are
some examples of British vocabulary choices over American counterparts, although
with variable usage, by many Canadians who do not wish to appear American. Some
these examples include: zee over zed, tap over faucet, or bill over check.

Apart from being mostly American, Canadian vocabulary is more aligned with those
varieties in the north of the Unites States than with those in the south.
However, research shows that although Canadian English has elements of both
American and British English, it is neither one nor the other: it is distinctively
Canadian.

Like many other varieties of English, Canadian English takes many elements from
aboriginal languages, mainly to refer to the natural world, but more notably to the
names of some of the biggest cities such as Ottawa and Toronto, and some provinces
such as Ontario, Quebec and Yukon. Some of the more common aboriginal words that
permeate everyday language are husky, kayak, chipmunk, moose and igloo.

(Chinook Jargon is a pidgin combining English, French and aboriginal languages)

All the words mentioned above refer to elements exclusively Canadian, rarely found in
other parts of the world. What about elements that are commonplace all around the
world? The following table shows expressions that are exclusive to Canada and their
American and British counterparts (it should be noted, however, that some of these
lexical items compete within Canada with some of the other variants) (NARVS: North
American Regional Vocabulary survey)

Another interesting peculiarity is how Canadian English is influenced by the

CLIMATE and the POPULARITY OF ICE HOCKEY

Canadian climate also impacts its vocabulary with many compound nouns with the
words ice and snow. The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists over 60 compounds
containing the word snow, as opposed to the mere 30 compounds found in the British
Concise Oxford English Dictionary.
The popularity of ice hockey has also given rise to specific expressions being used
outside the rink and in everyday language, such as stickhandling a problem, by analogy
to how a player handles the puck with a stick, or hoser, a word that originated from the
losing team of a hockey game having to hose down the rink to make it smooth again.

Of course, food and drink also present interesting lexical variations, not just for
Canada-specific elements, such as brown bread.

AROUND 7-8 minutes reading

A very interesting feature of Canada English is the use of the tag “eh?”, which could
correspond to something like “right?” or “okay?” in other varieties of English, its use in
Canada is much more prominent and it extends beyond its common use for
confirmation. Many Canadians across the country use this particle interwoven in their
speech for any sort of comment, without expecting a response from the addressee.

GRAMMATICAL FEATURES OF CANADIAN ENGLISH

Canada English doesn’t really differ much from other standard varieties of English, and
once again, it is more aligned with American English than with British English.

Some notable examples, which don’t necessarily constitute syntactic structures but have
to do with choices of grammatical elements are the following:

We can observe cases of analogical levelling and proportional analogy in the

conjugations of the verbs DRINK/DRANK/DRANK, where the past and past participle
forms converge in one item, and DIVE/DOVE (same as AmE as opposed to DIVED in
the British Standard)

In the case of the use of subjunctives in conditionals, not only is there variation
between the use of WAS/WERE but more interestingly, many Canadians now tend to
use two conditionals instead of a past subjunctive+conditional, as in IF YOU
WOULD HAVE TOLD ME, I would have gone with you rather than the standard IF
YOU HAD TOLD ME…

Another shift towards American grammar is the replacement of the British “Have
you (got)…?” with the American “Do you have…?”. Similarly, there has been a
rise in the adoption of the American form “gotten” as the past participle of “get”
instead of the British standard of “got”

Lastly, although less common across all of Canada, The use of anymore in
affirmative sentences with the meaning of “currently” or “nowadays” as in I spend a
lot of time in the city anymore. (This is not a widespread use of the element, but it is
typical of the Midland American variety and can be explained by the American
Loyalist settlements created by immigrants during the American Revolution)