Canadian English
- noun
- Canadian
:
inglés canadiense
- Anonymous and a biochemist discussed the use of "sorry" and "excuse me" in British and American English, respectively, and I found that especially interesting because I think in this case Canadian English falls right in the middle, and we simultaneously use both.
Examples
-
Resource Links is Canada's national journal devoted to the review and evaluation of Canadian English and French resources for children and young adults. Once again, they have granted Teacher Librarian permission to reprint their list of the best Canadian resources of the year. (Resource Links, Vol. 17, #2, December 2011)
Academic text (2012) -
Even with English, we have fundamental differences with our American friends regarding what certain words mean in Canadian English versus American English.
Academic text (2001) -
(I also usually spell in a horrible bastardized mixture of Canadian English and US English because I lived in Canada and read too
Blog text (11) -
Atwood fits Coates's description of an author balancing between two languages - "English" English and "Canadian" English - and is subject to its doubling effects.
Academic text (2005) -
In Canadian English, words like "cheque" and "colour" are spelled differently than in American English.
-
Many Canadians use the term "toque" to refer to a knitted winter hat, which is a distinct feature of Canadian English.
-
The pronunciation of certain vowels, such as in "about," is unique to Canadian English and can be confusing for non-Canadians.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'Canadian' (connected with Canada) + 'English' (the language) yields the variety of English used in Canada. This follows a regular adjective + noun pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Canadian English comes from the simple idea of English spoken in Canada: settlers brought English from Britain and, over time, it mixed with French, local languages and nearby American speech to make its own words and sounds. That's why Canadian English today means the 'variety' of English used in Canada.
