Сеттарова М.Д.

Крымский инженерно-педагогический университет, Украина

PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES OF CANADIAN ENGLISH

Canadian English contains elements of British English and American English in its vocabulary. In many areas, speech is influenced by French, and there are notable local variations. Canada has very little dialect diversity compared to the United States. The phonetics and phonology in most of Canada are similar to that of the Western and Midland regions of the United States. The Canadian Great Lakes region has similarities to that of the Northeastern United States and Yooper dialect , while the phonological system of western Canadian English is virtually identical to that of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and the phonetics are similar. As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes classified together as North American English . Canadian English spelling is largely a blend of British and American conventions.

To justify the above we provide the following examples:

·          In the words adult , composite , and project - the emphasis is usually on the first syllable, as in Britain.

·          Canadians side with the British on the pronunciation of shone [ ’ ?? n] , lever [ ’ liv ? ] , and several other words; been is pronounced by many speakers as [bin] rather than [ ’ b ? n] ; as in Southern England, either and neither are more commonly [ ’ a ? ?? r] and [ ’ na ? ?? r] , respectively.

·          Schedule can sometimes be [ ’ ?? d ? ul] ; process , progress , and project are sometimes pronounced [ ’ pro ? s ? s] , [ ’ pro ?? r ? s] , and [ ’ pro ? d ? ? kt] ; leisure is often [ ’ l ? ? ? r] , harassment is often [ ’ h ? r ? sm ? nt] .

·          Again and against are often pronounced [ ?’ ? e ? n(st)] rather than [ ?’ ?? n(st)] .

·          The stressed vowel of words such as borrow , sorry or tomorrow is [ ?? ] rather than [ ?? ] .

·          Words such as fragile , fertile , and mobile are pronounced [ ’ fr ? d ? a ? l] , [ ’ f ? rta ? l] , and [ ’ mo ? ba ? l] . The pronunciation of fertile as [ ’ f ? rtl ? ] is also becoming somewhat common in Canada, even though [ ’ f ? rta ? l] remains dominant.

·          Words like semi , anti , and multi tend to be pronounced [ ’ s ? mi] , [ ’ ? nti ], and [ ’ m ? lti] rather than [ ’ s ? ma ? ], [ ’? nta ? ], and [ ’ m ? lta ? ] .

·          Loanwords that have a low central vowel in their language of origin, such as ll a ma , p a sta , and pyj a mas , as well as place names like G a za , tend to have [ ? ] rather than [ ? ] ; this also applies to older loans like drama or Apache . The word khaki is sometimes pronounced [ ’ k ? rki] , the preferred pronunciation of the Canadian Army during the Second World War . ^[18]

·          The most common pronunciation of vase is [ ’ ve ? z] [3].

·          Words of French origin, such as clique , niche , and croissant , are pronounced more like they would be in French, so [klik ] rather than [kl ? k], [ni ? ] rather than [n ? t ? ] , and [k ? ? ’ s ? n(t)] rather than [k ? ?’ s ? nt] .

·          The word syrup is commonly pronounced [ ’ s ? r ? p] .

·          The word premier "leader of a provincial or territorial government" is commonly pronounced [ ’ primj ? r] , with [ ’ pr ? mj ? r] and [ ’ primj ? r] being rare variants.

·          The herb and given masculine name basil is usually pronounced [ ’ b ? z ? l] rather than [ ’ be ? z ? l] .

·          Many Canadians pronounce asphalt as "ash-falt" [ ’ ? ? f ? lt] . This pronunciation is also common in Australian English, but not in General American English or British English.

·          Some Canadians pronounce predecessor as [ ’ pri ’ d ? s ? s ? r] [4].

In conclusion it would be obvious to add that Canadian English are quite conservative: the preservation of peripheral, almost monophthongal [ej] and [ow], and the back position of [aw], shared with the North of the United States.

Two general characteristics of Canadian English deserve special attention before proceeding to a more detailed analysis. The first is that Canadian English is an essentially North American variety, very similar to that spoken in the Midland and Western regions of the United States. While С anada had a longer and closer association with Britain than the United States, the linguistic effects of this association have been limited to relatively superficial levels of language, such as spelling ( centre and colour for center and color ) and phonemic incidence ( [o] not [ow] in shone ). The phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon of Canadian English have much more in common with American varieties than with Standard Southern British English. For example, the vocalization of [r] and the phonemic split of Middle English short- a into ? broad ? and fronted classes were never adopted in Canada, while the American pattern of flapping intervocalic [t] has become standard in Canadian English [2:220] .

 

List of reference links:

1.     Brend Kortman. A Handbook of Varieties of English/ Brend Kortman., Edgar W. Schneider. – Berlin, 2005. – 1116 p.

2.     William Labov. The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change/ William Labov., Sharon Ash., Charles Boberg. – Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2006. – 313 c.

3.     http://www.merriam-webster.com

4.     http://wapedia.mobi/en/Canadian_English