Canadian English

Canada has two official languages, English and French. In the 2001 census 6864615 people listed French as a first language of whom 85% lived in Quebec and 17694835 people listed English as a first language. On July 7, 1969 French was made equal to English throughout the Canadian federal government. This started a process that led to Canada redefining itself as a bilingual and multicultural nation at a national level. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that French and English are equal as official languages. Debate in Parliament may take in either official language. Laws shall be printed in both official languages with equal authority. Anyone may deal with any court established by Parliament in either official language. Everyone has the right to receive the services from the federal government in his or her choice of official language. Members of a minority language group of one of the official languages have the right to have their children receive a public education in their language.

At the provincial level New Brunswick is the only officially bilingual province, a status specifically guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, with its citizens having the same language rights at the provincial level as all citizens in Canada have at the federal level. While no other province is officially bilingual most provincial governments do offer some type of service to their English or French minority populations.

The official language of Quebec is French as defined by the province`s Charter of the French Language. This law lays out various protections for the use of French as a vehicular language but also provides certain rights for English speakers and speakers of aboriginal languages. French is mostly spoken in Quebec, Ontario, New Brunswick and Southern Manitoba. Languages other than the official languages are also important in Canada with 5470829 people listing a non-official language as a first language. This is almost as many as those giving French as their first language. Among the most important non-official first language groups are Chinese, Italian and German. Speakers of great many native Canadian languages live in Canada. However, all but a few of the native languages are in decline. The only aboriginal languages are believed to be sustainable at present are Cree, Inuktitut and Ojibwa.

Canadian English is the form of English used in Canada. In many respects the spelling of Canadian English is intermediate between British and American English. However, the spoken language is much closer to American English than British English. It is also influenced by Canadian French. 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, metre, theatre) along with many other classes of British/American spelling destructions. In most cases –ize (dramatize, realize, plagiarize) is preferred to –ise in words where either ending is possible. American spellings prevalent in Canada include aluminum, artifact, jail, curb, program, specialty, tire, carburetor.

In 1998 the Oxford University Press produced a Canadian English dictionary, after five years of lexicographical research, called The Canadian Oxford Dictionary. It listed uniquely Canadian words borrowed from other languages and was able to survey whether colour or color was the most popular choice in common use. The island of Newfoundland has its own dialect distinct from Canadian English, called Newfoundland English. This separate dialect developed because of Newfoundland`s history as well as its geography and some of its phrases and words are used throughout Canada. Newfoundland English differs from standard Canadian English in vowel pronunciation, in morphology and syntax, in preservation of archaic adverb-intensifiers.

The most predominantly used Newfoundland English expression across Canada would arguably be Whadd`ya At? (What are you at?), loosely translated to How are you? Coming in a close second with the same meaning would be How` she cutting `? to which you would often respond Like a knife. (Very well, thank you). A third very popular expression involves the word “b`y”, pronounced “bye” and meaning “boy”. This has arrived from Manx dialect, where the meaning is similar. Although it is most commonly heard in the expression “Yis b`y (Yes boy), meaning good job, it is also used in standard sentences: What`re the b`y`s at? (How are things?). There are lots of slang variants in Canadian English. One of them is called Joual. It is the name given to working-class dialect of the French language. The term is said to have been coined by journalist Andre Laurendeau. A joual is a cheval (a horse). It is a variation of standard Quebec French, which includes many Gallicized English words.