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Canadian English is the form of English used in Canada, spoken as a first language by more than 19 million people (as of 2003).
In many respects, the spelling of Canadian English is intermediate between British English and American English. However, the spoken language is much closer to American English than British English. It is also influenced by Canadian French, as Canada has both English and French as official languages.
There is no universally accepted standard of Canadian spelling. In general, Canadians agree with British usage as to -our (honour, colour, endeavour) as well as the usage of -re (centre, theatre) along with many other classes of British/American spelling distinctions. In most cases, -ize (plagiarize, dramatize, realize) is preferred to -ise in words where either ending is possible. American spellings prevalent in Canada include aluminum, artifact, jail, curb, program, specialty, tire, and carburetor. However, Canadian English uses the British spellings in such cases as cheque, grey, jewellery, pyjamas, storey and sulphur.
In some cases, British and American spellings may be mixed in different contexts. For instance, a Canadian would watch a television program, as in the United States, but would read the programme at a concert or theatrical performance, as in Britain. (See American and British English differences.)
Also, several lexical items come from British English or even archaic British English, such as lieutenant (/lEf/-) and light standard (lamp-post). Several political terms are uniquely Canadian, including riding (a parliamentary constituency or electoral district) and to win by acclamation (to win uncontested).
A plausible contemporary reference for formal Canadian spelling is the spelling used for Hansard transcripts of the Canadian Parliament.
The primary aspect is a feature called "Canadian raising", in which diphthongs are raised before voiceless consonants. For example, whereas many American dialects pronounce the first diphthongs in the words writer and rider the same, a Canadian will pronounce them (approximately) as /rVj4@r/ and /raj4@r/ (in SAMPA transcription). That is, the first part of the diphthong in both words in American English is ahh as in father; the first part of the diphthong in writer in Canadian English is uhh as in cut, a higher vowel than the American usage. However, some American English accents, particularly those near Ontario, speak like this. Note also that Canadian English shares with American English the phenomenon where /t/ and /d/ become /4/ after a vowel and before an unstressed vowel. Canadian raising preserves the voicelessness of /t/ and the voicedness of /d/ where it is etymologically appropriate, even where the contrast is lost in the consonant itself.
Similarly, about will be raised from /abawt/, as it is in American "Atlantic" dialect, to /abVwt/ ("abuhwt"), or nearly even /abowt/ ("aboat") in some dialects. The stereotypical "aboot" pronunciation, lampooned in the US TV series South Park is not usual; the stereotype may derive from an interpretation of the "aboat" pronunciation as heard by someone who is used to the much lower "abaut" pronunciation.
Anecdotally, the "abuhwt" or even "a-beh-oot" vowels are heard in Ontario and further east, and the "aboat" vowels are heard in the Western provinces. Also heard are: "can't", in Ontario, almost "kayant", whereas in the west, it becomes more "kahnt."
Notwithstanding the above, most Canadians say about as "a-bow-t" where you take a bow, not the bow and arrow.
Canadian English also pronounces the short "a" of "bat" slightly further back than American English. There is a tendency to monophthongize the long "a" and "o" sounds, resulting in /be:t/ for "bait" and /bo:t/ for "boat" (though this occurs usually in rapid speech). "Cot" and "caught" merge into /kAt/ as in Californian English. Finally, the broad /A/ of foreign loan words in words like "drama" or "Iraq" are usually pronounced like the short "a" of "bat": /dræm@/, /Iræk/.
Americans sometimes claim to be able to recognize some Canadians instantly by their use of the word eh. However, only a certain usage of eh (detailed in the article) is peculiar to Canada, and it is more common in southern Ontario and the Maritimes than elsewhere in the country.
(It should be noted that, in some parts of the United States, American English exhibits features of Canadian English, including Canadian Raising and the use of eh. Canadian accents are sometimes detected among Michiganders and their northern fellows.)
Where Canadian English shares vocabulary with other English dialects, it tends to be with American more than British English. However, some terms in standard Canadian English are shared with British, but not with American, English. These include:
Some British vocabulary that is not standard Canadian English (eg. arse, aubergine for the colour, bloke, bloody, bollocks, candy floss, car park, cupboard for a closet, dodgy, duvet, loo, pram, queue, roundabout in the sense of a traffic circle, telly, trolley, wank) is still more frequently heard and more readily understood in Canada than in the United States. These are variations in idiolect or in local dialect rather than standard terms in Canadian English, but they do not carry the sense of affectation that they would from an American speaker.
Like other dialects of English that exist in proximity to francophones, French loanwords have entered Canadian English, such as:
Canadian English also has its own words not found in other variants of English. In 1998 Oxford University Press produced a Canadian English dictionary, after five years of lexicographical research, called The Canadian Oxford Dictionary; a 2nd edition was published in 2004. It listed uniquely Canadian words, words borrowed from other languages and surveyed spellings, such as whether colour or color was the most popular choice in common use.
Uniquely Canadian English words include:
There are a few meaning differences between Canadian and American English; for example, to table a document in Canada is to present it, whereas in the US it means to withdraw it from consideration.
Also, when pronouncing letters of the alphabet, Canadians will usually use the Anglo-European (and French) "zed" rather than the American "zee" for the letter Z. Another quirk is that Canadian students add "grade" before their grade level, instead of after it as Americans do. For example, a student in "10th grade" in America would be in "grade 10" in Canada. (Québec anglophones will say "sec 5" (secondary 5) for grade 11.)
The island of Newfoundland has its own dialect distinct from Canadian English. (See Newfoundland English.)
For more Canadian English terminology, see Canadian slang.
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