Inter-relation of canadian dialects and standard english

Thus, the vowel in words like calm and palm is pronunced as [a] in Standard Canadian English, and among uneducated speakers [æ] can occur sometimes. On the other hand, in Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island, where nonstandard Canadian English is spoken, calm and palm are pronunced with the vowel [æ].

/?~?~a/ in words like door and boy

While [?] tends to disappear in favor of [?] in the neutralization of contrasts such as caught [k?t] vs cot [k?t], the phonetic realization [?] is found before [?] in words such as door [d?:?], and at the beginning of the diphthong [??] as in boy [??], noise [??] (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:5). From this, it can be concluded that [??] is gradually disappearing from the phonological system of General Canadian English.

In the dialect of Nova Scotia the word boy is not pronounced as [b??] but as [ba?] (Falk, Harry, 1999:22).

To sum up, the vowel in words like boy and door is pronunced as [?] or [?] in Standard Canadian English. On the other hand, in the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Nova Scotia, it is pronunced as [a].

Thus, in this part of the phonological system we have seen alternations not only between Standard and Nonstandard Canadian English, but also within General Canadian English. We have noticed that in some points, the speech of younger speakers of General Canadian English differs from the older generation. Also, females of the upper middle and lower middle classes show some differrences in their speech, as well as women over 40.

Diphthongs

Canadian Raising

In General Canadian English the pronunciation of the diphthongs /a?/ and /a?/ (as in house and tight) with nonlow nuclei before voiceless obstruent is called Canadian Raising. Moreover, the most important aspect of /a?/ in General Canadian English is its involvement in Canadian Raising. This is the pattern where the low monophthongs, /a?/ and /a?/, have non-low nuclei before voiceless obstruents. This means that /a?/ and /a?/ in open vowel through raising shift to the near-open central unrounded vowel [?], open-mid back unrounded vowel [?] or sometimes even to open mid-central unrounded vowel [?] or mid-central vowel [?]. Thus, raised nuclei in lout [l??t] and house [h??s] contrast with unraised nuclei in loud [la?t]and house [ha?s]; raised nuclei in tight [t??t]and rice [r??s] contrast with unraised nuclei in tide [ta?d] and rise [ra?z]. The raised allophone [??t] (based on the words doubt, house, shout and south) is higher than the unraised allophone [a?] (cow, foul, loud, proud, sour), while raised [??t] (fight, sight, spice, tight, writer) is higher than unraised [a?] (file, rider, side, sign, tide, tie, tire).

On the onset of the diphthong /a?l/ there are allophonic variants as a result of the rule of Canadian Raising, so that occurrences before tautosyllabic voiceless consonants have a mid-back onset, [??], whereas elsewhere the diphthong has a low back onset, [??]. In the last three decades, among younger Canadians there is a tendency to front the onset vowel, giving rise to a new set of variants. Before voiceless consonants there is a plentitude of possibilities: besides [??], there is also fronted [??] and sometimes fronted further to [??], but it also occurs with low onsets, as [a?] or (very infrequently) [æ?]. In other words, there is a tendency not only to front the onset, called (aw) - Fronting, but also to fail to raise it from low to mid, called (aw) - Non - Raising (Clarke, 1993:249).

There are cases where the articulation of /a?/ is in a relatively back position [??], as in cow [k??]. On the other hand, the above-average raising of /a?/ can be heard on the Prairies, in southern and eastern Ontario, and in the Maritimes. Clarke (1993) argues, that in Toronto and Vancouver younger people have more fronted onsets than their elders, females tend to front more than males of the same age, and the tendency to front the onset is greater for all groups when the vowel does not precede a voiceless consonant. Also, in Vancouver and Toronto middle-class speakers in both cities participate in the (aw)-Fronting change at very similar rates. The only difference between them is that younger population in Vancouver has a rounded variant which does not occur in Toronto.

From our point of view, the fact that such a similar change takes place in such distant cities show clearly that the forces that brought about the homogeneity of inland, urban, middle-class Canadian English are still functioning to maintain it.

According to Clarke (2012), many Newfoundland English speakers, particularly on the Irish-settled Avalon, do not display Canadian Canadian Raising pattern for the /au/ diphthong, even though they typically do for /a?/. Generally, Newfoundland English vowel systems tend to be more conservative than those of General Canadian English.

Closing diphthong /ou/

Speakers of General Canadian English pronounce /ou/ as a closing diphthong, starting in mid-back position and moving towards high-back [o?]. In addition to this, they use [o?] in both stressed and unstressed position, in words such as notes, moving, know. In pre-stressed position /ou/ is often monophthongal or barely diphthongized. In post-stress final position, such as in tomorrow, potato, diphthongization is generally less audible than in stressed syllables. The glide in [o?] is very slight. Also, diphthongization is most audible in stressed and open syllables. However, General Canadian English shows some differences among speakers in Toronto. There, both a high back, rounded monophthong [u:] and a closing diphthong [o?] are heard. Some research showed that the diphthong [o?] is more likely to occur in stressed syllables (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:37-42).

To sum up, in General Canadian English closing diphtong /ou/ is pronunced as [o?]. However, General Canadian English is not homogeneous in this feature, in General Canadian English in Toronto, closing diphtong /ou/ is pronunced as [u:] in unstressed position, but as [o?] in stressed position.

/a?~?i~?i~æ?~??/ in words like night, right, invite

Clarke (1993) writes, that nowadays, in words like night, right, invite, where variable /a?/ is in the position before voiceless final consonants, it is pronounced as [?i]. However, it is a high diphthong, and this Canadianism is slowly decreasing in the frequency of use in General Canadian English. Instead, the pronunciation [?i] is becoming replaced by [?i].

Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin (1997) do not agree with this. They explain that, only among older generation of speakers of Standard Canadian English, words like night, right, invite begin with a mid-central vowel [?]. This allophone occurs before voiceless consonants (like in ride, fly), and the [a?] variant exists in all other environments. However, they state that among the younger generations of Torontonians only the distinction between the realizations of the /a?/ diphthong before voiced and unvoiced consonants, as in write [r??t] and ride [ra?d], seems to be disappearing from the speech. Instead, in all cases, [a?] tends to be the only realization among these group of speakers, not [?i], as Clarke (1993) states.

Analyzing this feature, we will partly agree with both statements. We conclude that in General Canadian English there are two ways of words like night, right, invite: [a?], and [?i]. This is because earlier, this diphthong was pronounced as [?i] among all speakers of General Canadian. Nowadays, that way of pronunciation is almost completely lost and instead, among the older generation of speakers of General Canadian English the [a?] occurs. Furthermore, the younger speakers of General Canadian English went even further in developing in pronunciation of this diphthong, and the allophone [?i] becomes more and more common.

Also, it is interesting that among the younger generation of General Canadian English, in closed syllables, the upglide tends to be briefer, especially before /r/, so that the diphthong in fire, desire could be transcribed as [æ?] or even [fa??r]. We think that the change in pronunciation of this diphthong is not over yet, and it will be interesting for future linguists to follow its further transformation.

[e?] in words like late, stay, arrange

The diphthong [e?] begins somewhere in the mid-front position and closes to [?]. It occurs in words such as late, stay, arrange, and it occurs among all speakers of Standard Canadian English. Moreover, this variant occurs in almost all positions, although the diphthongization tends to be more pronounced in stressed and open syllables in general (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:37-42). It should be pointed out, however, that the diphthong is never long and drawn out, but consists of a very rapid change from one vowel position to another. Also, this can be said to be true of all Canadian diphthongs.

Thus, we can conclude that the main characteristic of diphtongs in Canadian English is Canadian Raising which changes the vowel pronunciation with opet-vowel starting. It is present in General Canadian English, but even in this feature General Canadian English displays non-homogenity. However, Canadian Raising is not present in the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Newfoundland.

Moreover, as far as diphtongs are concerned, General Canadian English shows some differences in speech of younger and older generations of speakers. This can mean that General Canadian English is changing rapidly, from generation to generation.

Consonants

Occlusive

Voiced "t" in the intervocalic position and preceded by a sonorant

General Canadian `voiced t' (in the intervocalic position) is pronunced [d] (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:72). Voiced "t" cannot occur unless it is preceded by a vowel or a sonorant (/n/, /l/, /r/), and is followed by an unstressed syllable-forming element (vowel, /l/, /r/, but not homorganic /n/). The examples for this are words and expressions like malted, twenty, better, altogether, want to go, at eleven, rattle, center. On the other hand, there is not voicing in table, try today, repeat, return (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:74). Furthermore, in pre-stressed position, /t/ is voiceless, like in words: atomic, potato, return, artistic, until. Also, initial and final /t/ in both stressed and unstressed syllables is voiceless.

On the other hand, after /s/, in words such as stop or student, /t/ is unaspirated, but voiceless. Furthermore, preceding [h], /t/ remaines voiceless: put him can be pronounced as: [p?d?m], [p?th?m]. Additionally, before syllabic [n], in the words rotten and button, /t/ is generally realized as a glottal stop [b??n] (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:74).

Voiced variants of /t/ consistently occur intervocalically both in immediate post-stress position, as in patio or water, and when separated from the stress by a number of other syllables, as in personalities or imaginative. Also, /t/ is voiced in word boundaries when the final /t/ is followed by an initial stressed vowel as in phrases shut up, get into. In a similar pre-stressed position minus the word boundary, voiced /t/ would not appear. Voiced /t/ occurs consistently following [r] and preceding an unstressed vowel as in Alberta, article, quarter. Also, voiced /t/ occurs before syllabic [l], when preceding either by [r], as in turtle or by a stressed or unstressed vowel, as in battle or capital (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:74-76).

Woods (1999) writes that, the post tonic, medial /t/ as in city, Ottawa, little, out of is pronounced as [t] or [d], which is found between vowel sounds or between the liquid sounds /l/ and /r/ and vowel sounds, e.g. shelter, delta, titled, belted and dirty, party, thirty, quarter, and smarty. In addition, this variable occurs frequently after most voiceless fricatives: after /f/ in after, often, fifteen, and fifty; after /s/ in sister, sixteen, mister, twister, blister, etc.; and after /?/ in wished our, washed (h)is, fished it, etc. Furthermore, a medial /t/ variation sometimes takes place after /n/, e.g. carpenter, seventy, seventeen, winter, center and pointed. The medial /t/ rule also applied after /k/ in picture and arctic.

To sum up, voiced /t/ occurs:

1. Intervocalically before an unstressed vowel;

2. Intervocalically, before a stressed vowel, only in word-final position;

3. Following [r], before an unstressed vowel;

4. Before syllabic [l], following a vowel or [r];

5. After [n], before an unstressed vowel, but only in certain cases.

6. In the medial position in a word: 1. between vowel or liquid sounds; 2. after most voiced fricatives /f/, /s/, /?/; 3. after /t/ and /n/.

The phonetic process of voicing of /t/ can have phonological consequences to the extent that its output is phonetically indistinguishable from /d/, thereby causing a conditioned merger of /t/ and /d/. Some General Canadian speakers report that pairs of words like shutter and shudder, plotted and plodded, or hurtle and hurdle are homophones, both having either [d] or [?], while others insist they maintain a difference, with [?] for /t/ and [d] for /d/. Moreover, in the humorous account of nonstandard Canadian English speech, there is a full merger with respellings like “Albirda” for “Alberta”, “Briddish” for “British” and “Oddawa” for “Ottawa”.

Furthermore, for some Canadians, this also applies after /n/ (like in center [sen?r], twenty [tweni], printer [prin?r]), where it can result in complete deletion rather than voicing of the /t/, so that winter and winner are homophones. In humorous slang spelling, plenty, Toronto and winter are spelled as “plenny”, “Tirana”, “winner”. This characteristic is especially present in Vancouver and Toronto speech. Nonetheless, medial /t/ is still an active variable in Canadian English, and voicing is a change in progress, led by young, working-class males and resisted by older, middle-class females.

Occlusive sonorants

/?? ~ in ~ ?n/ in pronunciation of the ending “-ing”

Clarke (1993) writes that in General Canadian English, occlusive sonorant [?] is commonly heard in the grammatical suffix “-ing” which marks the progressive aspect, gerund and serves as a nominalizing suffix as in examples: doing, fishing, morning, building, (human)being. The pronunciation of it [??] is prevalent form in Standard Canadian English.

On the other hand, there is a nonstandard variant [in] which is used in some rural dialects from Kingston to Edmonton. Additionally, in Ottawa, many older men of the working and lower middle classes use [?n].

According to Boberg (2010), the standard variable concerning “-ing” is sometimes treated as a morphological variable, since it involves alternation between two allomorphs of the verbal suffix” -ing”: one with a full vowel and a velar nasal, [??], and one with a reduced vowel and an alveolar nasal, [?n], commonly identified in written representations of casual speech as “in'”. In General Canadian English, a third variant combines a full, usually tense vowel with the alveolar nasal, [in].

However, vowel reduction and the replacement of a velar with a coronal consonant are both phonetically natural processes of unvoicing, so “-ing” will be treated here as a phonetic variable. In the overall, according to some research, the frequency of the standard velar variant, [??] reaches 84 % in Vancouver, a surprisingly high level, but only 47 % in Ottawa. Also, the data from both cities show less correlation with speech style and social class than has been observed elsewhere. Moreover, the third variant, with a full vowel but an alveolar nasal, is much more common than the variant with a reduced vowel, which is assumed to be the non-standard variant.

To sum up, in General Canadian English, “-ing” is pronunced as [??] or [?n]. In Vancouver, [??] reaches the highest rate in usage, while [?n] displays the highest frequency in Ottawa, as well as among older men of working and lower middle class. On the other hand, the nonstandard way of pronunciation of “-ing” is [in], and it occurs in the rural dialects from Kingston to Edmonton.

/s/ pronounced as [?] in the position before [t]

In Nova Scotia words like straight, strong, street, string sound as if they began with “sh”. In other words, /s/ is realized as [?] when it is in the initial position in a word before [t] (Falk, Harry, 1999:17, 19).

However, this is not the case in General Canadian English. In our research, there were no cases in General Canadian English where /s/ is pronounced as [?] in this position, but it is pronunced as [s].

From that, we can conclude, that /s/ pronounced as [?] in the position before [t] is the characteristic of the Nova Scotia nonstandard Canadian English dialect, while in General Canadian English the innitial /s/ before [t] is [s].

Constrictive sonorants

/r/ in Canadian English

Clarke (1999) writes, that Standard Canadian English is highly rhotic and bunched, and maintains [r] both, before consonants and in word-final position, e.g. barber [?barb?r]. Boberg (2010) claims, that nowadays, General Canadian English is r-full.

To explain this, it is necessary to go back in history, to the period after World War II when the r-less speech was no longer fashionable in Canada. Moreover, in Canadian society, it became associated with stereotypes of snobby Boston, grubby Brooklyn, or Old South gentility. That is why, the new General Canadian standard became decidedly r-full, in marked contrast to Standard British English.

However, some nonstandard dialects of Canadian English differ from General Canadian English in /r/ pronounciation. For example, in Lunenburg town and in some towns around it, the sound [r] before consonants or in the final position is lost in pronunciation. Instead, the sounds [?:], [?:], [?:], [?:] are pronounced. Some examples that we found in the survey of the city of Lunenburg are:

[?:]: farm [f?:m], park [p?:k], far [f?:].

[?:]: hear, here [h?:], fierce [f?:s], gear [g?:], gears [g?:z].

[?:]: air [?:], pair, pear, pare [p?:].

[?:]: sort [s?:t], cord [k?:d], fourth, forth [f?:è], horn [h?:n], warp [w?:p], warm [w?:m], sore, soar [s?:].

It must be noted that not all the people of Lunenburg speak in this way. Falk and Harry (1999) state, that in the speech of the younger people, the sound [r] occurs in the same way as it does in Standard Canadian English. We will agree with this statement. In our opinion, this is because nowadays, in Canada, there is a tendency, especially among younger generations, to speak in the way that most of Canada speaks, that is in Standard Canadian English, since it is considered to be the prestigious way of speaking.

According to Clarke (1993), in the Newfoundland nonstandard dialect of Canadian English, all stressed syllables that contain /-r/ show the loss of [r], and the vowel of the syllable is [?:].

In the Survey of Newfoundland English, we found some examples of this feature: purpose [p?:p?s], curb [c?:b], surf [s?:f], worm [w?:m], hurt [h?:t], fern [f?:n], worth [w?: è], search [s?:è], work [w?:k], curse [k?:s], sure [s?:], your [y?:], were [w?:], her [h?:].

Also, in Standard Canadian English, we did not find any examples with this characteristic, so the conclusion will be that this feature characterizes only the nonstandard dialect of Newfoundland English.

To sum up, Standard Canadian English is r-full, rhotic and bunched. On the other hand, some nonstandard dialects of Canadian English, like in Lunenburg, or Newfoundland display the loss of [r] before consonants or in the final position in a word. Instead [?:], [?:], [?:], [?:] or [?:] occur. However, nowadays, there is a tendency of younger speakers of nonstandard Canadian English dialects to obtain r-full speech as in General Canadian English.

Reduction before /r/

Speakers of General Canadian English have reduced stressed vowel phonemes occurring before /r/ as in pier [p?r], pear [p?r], purr [p?r], poor [p?r], par [p?r]. Some speakers of General Canadian English, however, pronounce over-rounded [?] before /r/ in words like porridge, Dorothy, orange and sorry (Woods, 1999:32).

Yod-dropping in General Canadian English

In words like inducing, introduce and produce, where /u/ is preceded by consonant “d”, these are pronounced with [ju] by the upper-class speakers of Standard Canadian English and women, while it is pronounced as [u] among lower class speakers and males (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:106).

Both, Clarke (1993) and Woods (1999) state, that in General Canadian English, deletion of the semivowel "yod" [j] between the alveolar consonants [t], [d], [n] and the vowel [u?] is present. Examples of this are words like:

duke [du:k]

new [nu:]

tune [tu:n]

Yod-dropping or palatal glide usage has been widely studied in Canada. It is interesting that in territory of General Canadian English, this is pretty much divided in terms of this feature. Furthermore, the Ontario usage is very much unsettled, with a majority of its speakers preserving the palatal glide in words Tuesday, news, and dew, but only half retaining it in duke, tune, due and student. This divided usage was confirmed in many later studies by Charles Boberg in Vancouver, in Saskatchewan, in greater Toronto, in Ottawa, Hamilton, in Montreal and in St. John's. Also, Boberg (2010) found out that the frequency of the palatal glide in Canada is 50-60 % among oldest participants but 90 % among youngest.

It is important to mention that in General Canadian English the palatal glide [j] normally occurs after /f/, /v/, /m/, /b/, and /k/. In standard Canadian English, The palatal glide used to enjoy prestige. However, Clarke (1993) states, that this Canadianism is nowadays decreasing in usage.

Thus, /u/ after “d” is pronunced as [ju] in General Canadian English among upper-class society, women and young people, while it is pronunced as [u] among lower classes and males. Regionaly, General Canadian English in Ontario is devided in usage, as well as in Montreal, St. John's. Vancouver, Saskatchewan, Toronto and Hamilton. Here we see, that one more time General Canadian English is not homogeneous.

The palatal glide following the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/

According to Clarke (1993), there is a rule of the Standard Canadian English pronunciation of the palatal glide following the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ which says that affrication occurs if preceding a coronal obstruent, and ensuing deletion of the glide to result in a palatal affricate. Examples for this are: tune [t?un], gradual [gr ?ræd?u?l], immature [?m?t??r]. This occurs more often in unstressed syllables and is heard in Standard Canadian English, in the speech of many educated Canadians in Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver.

In Saskatchewan, this is prevalent among social groups which are typically sensitive to linguistic markers bearing prestige: females and upper social classes. Also, it is more common among older speakers there (Clarke, 1993:86).

To sum up, a palatal africate occurs following the alveolar stops /t/ and /d/ in Standard Canadian English, especially in Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and Saskatchewan, as well as among females, older speakers and uper-class society.

Th-stopping

Th-stopping can be defined as the variable use of the stops [t] or [d] for the interdental fricatives [ð] and [è] in words like thin, bath, then and other. This variable occurs in every community of Newfoundland and has been documented in the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Newfoundland for over two hundred years.

According to Clark (2012), stopping is particularly frequent for voiced [ð]. Its realizations contain a large proportion of unstressed function words (e.g. the, this, these, that, those, there), and occurs to some degree in the speech of most Newfoundlanders, as well as some speakers of St. John's. Their stopping rates are associated with men rather than women.

In our research, we did not find any example of this feature in Standard Canadian English. That is why we will conclude here, that th-stopping is a characteristic of the nonstandard Newfoundland dialect of Canadian English only.

However, younger speakers use this less often, because urbanization, and modern migrations to the area where Standard Canadian English is spoken more and more influence their speech.

/hw~w~ in “wh”

According to Woods (1999), many speakers of nonstandard Canadian English in Ottawa Valley pronounce [hw] in words like whether, where, what, which, why, whine, white when these words are stressed.

In Standard Canadian English: In Ontario, in the London-Windsor area and Kingston, words that start with “wh” are pronunced with [w] whip [wip], whetstone [wetsto?n]. However in Hamilton whinny is pronunced as [hw?ni], but in Kingston it is pronunced both, as [hw?ni] and [w?ni]. In the London area from Kingston to Montreal wharf is [w??rf], but it is [hw??rf] on the American side of the St. Lawrence.

From this, it can be concluded that both, [w] and [hw] occur on Standard Canadian English. [w] is more frequent in urban areas of Canada, it characterizes the Canadian side of the United States/Canada border. Also, there are some statements that the [w] variant has become the prestigious form despite the efforts of teachers to reinstate [hw] (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:116).

Thus, we can conclude that in the system of consonants we have noticed some differences between the Standard and nonstandard Canadian English. However, we also showed various alternations within the General Canadian English between younger and older speakers, males and females, between working class, middle class and upper class society as well as some regional variations.

Unstressed vocalism

Stress is the active factor that affects the distribution of vowels in a word. The syllable, allowing the opposition of two prosodic structures, is a stressed syllable. According to Kleiner (2010), this position can occur only in root morphemes. The fact that during a morphological division of a word, short vowels and consonants occur in morphemes which are not the root of a word, makes it possible to talk about stressed and unstressed positions. Kleiner (2010) states, that shortening and lengthening of vowels also show the contrast of the stressed and unstressed position.

In Canadian English, in some cases, the stress position in the same word is different in different territories. Also, the stress positon in the same word is sometimes different between older and younger generations, or among people of different social status or different gender.

/i:~ ?i~ i,~ ?/ in Phoneme /i/

In General Canadian English there are two common ways in the pronunciation of phoneme /i/: a monophthong [i:] and a closing diphthong [?i]. The distribution of it appears to be more a matter of stress and phonetic environment than of individual variation.

The diphthongal variant is generally less common than the monophthong and is seldom used in words that are not stressed. Sometimes a short and slightly more open variant of /i/, something between [i:] and [?], is used (to represent this sound, in our work we will use the symbol [i,]). Furthermore, [i,] commonly occurs in post-stress position, as in words anybody, happy, very, and in prefixes, as in decide, beginning. However, in the latter case, it sometimes tends to alternate with [?]. Pronouns such as he, she, we are also pronounced with [i,] when unstressed. A lower variant of /i/ also tends to occur before /r/, as in veering, cheered, here. It is longer than the pre- and post- stress [i,], and can be transcribed as [i,:] (Léon, Rouillard, Baligand, & Martin, 1979:37-42).

/?~a?/ in “Italian”

The standard pronunciation of this word is [??tæly?n]. It is significantly more often used by urban speakers of Standard Canadian English.

However, there is one more way of pronouncing it: [à?tæly?n]. This way is considered to be nonstandard and is used in rural parts of Canada, such as Cape Breton or Lunenburg (Clarke, 1993:210).

/ai~?/ “Genuine”

The nonstandard way of pronunciation of the word genuine is [jényuàin] and it is pronunced by rural males, especially in Amber Valley and Fredericton.

On the other hand, the standard pronunciation [jényu?n] is preferred by the majority of Standard Canadian English speakers, especially males (Clarke, 1993:209).

/u~?/“Lieutenant”

This word has two ways of pronunciation in General Canadian English: [l?f?t?n?nt] is pronounced especially among urban and rural male adults, and older speakers, and is considered to be the prestigious form.

On the other hand, it is pronounced as [l?ut?n?nt] by younger speakers and teenagers and is considered to be a trend (Clarke, 1993:211).

/?~o/ in “Colle”

There are two possible ways of the pronunciation of this word in Standard Canadian English: [k??li] and [?koli]. The first way is considered to be the dominant form, while the second way is used more often by rural male and female residents, and by rural teenagers and adults. Also, some researches showed, that one's exposure to an urban environment increases the use of [k?li], while contact with a rural local increases uses of [kóli] (Clarke, 1993:207).

/?~æ/ in “Threshing”

The pronunciation of it is [èr?ši??] among speakers of General Canadian English, and [è?ræši?] among speakers of rural nonstandard Canadian English speakers, especially in Ottawa Valley (Clarke, 1993:213).

/í~?/ in “Zebra”

General Canadian English is diverse in pronunciation of this word. Younger speakers of General Canadian English, as well as female adults, pronounce this word as [zíbr?]. Older speakers of General Canadian English, as well as male adults and rural adults, pronounce this variable as [z?br?] (Clarke, 1993:215).

/ei~?/ in “Again”

The word again is pronounced as [?gein] among Ottawans with new Canadian background. Also, that way of pronunciation is not considered to be the standard way. The less stressed variable [?g?n] is pronounced among speakers of Standard Canadian English (Woods, 1999:200).

/i~a?~?/ in “Anti-“

Anti- has three ways of pronunciation in General Canadian English: [ænti], [ænta?], [ænt?]. The form [ænti] is becoming a very strong Canadianism and it is gaining further strength among the younger informants of General Canadian English. On the other hand, [ænt?] and [ænta?] are pronounced by speakers of General Canadian English who are over forty (Woods, 1999:201).

/æ~ei/ in “Apricots”

This word is pronounced in two ways in Standard Canadian English: [æpr??k?ts] and [eipr??k?ts]. Among younger speakers of General Canadian, especially in Ontario, [æpr?k?ts] is more common, but is not considered to be the frequent form. On the other hand, the variant [eipr?k?ts] is the more frequent way of pronouncing this variable (Woods, 1999:202).

/?~æ/ in “Balcony”

Balcony can be pronounced as [b?l?k?ni] or [bæl?k?ni] in General Canadian English. The speakers of upper middle and lower upper classes of General Canadian English prefer to use more [bælk?ni], while the lower, working, and lower middle classes have the highest scores for [b?lk?ni] (Woods, 1999:204).

/æ~?/ in “Caramel”

The word caramel can be pronounced as [k?r?m??l] or [kær?m??l] in General Canadian English. Younger speakers of General Canadian English collapse [ær] to [?r]. The [kær?m?l] variant occurs mostly among the speakers of upper middle and lowers upper classes of General Canadian English (Woods, 1999:207).

“Athlete”

The Standard Canadian English pronunciation is [?æèlit] and it is used more often by urban residents, regardless of age and sex. The three-syllable non-standard variant is also heard in some nonstandard dialects of Canadian English, like in Ottawa Valley [?æè?lit] (Clarke, 1993:206).

/æ~?/ in ”Garage”

Woods (1992) writes, that this variable has to ways of pronunciation within General Canadian English: [?gær?d?] is more popular in British Columbia, while in Ottawa it is pronounced as [?g?r??].

“Library”

According to Woods (1999), this word is pronounced differently in General Canadian English. Among speakers under forty, it is pronounced as [?la?br?ri]. On the other hand, speakers over forty use [?la?bri].

/ei~æ/ in “Tomato”

In General Canadian English, the word tomato has values: [t?mæ?to] and [t?mei?do]. The first way of pronunciation has prestige value for women over forty years of age of all social classes, while the other way is pronounced more by men (Woods, 1999:157, 160).

“Film”

In General Canadian English the word film is pronounced as the one-syllable form [f?lm]. On the other hand, there is a two-syllable form [fíl?m] which does not occur in General Canadian English, but in rural areas in some parts of Canada, such as Ottawa Valley, and rural areas of Saskatchewan (Clarke, 1993).

Characteristics of Variability of the Phonetic System of Canadian English

First of all, according to the analyzed features of both, standard and nonstandard forms of Canadian English, we can conclude that in Canadian English, the pronunciation of vowels depends on their position in the word. In other words, the pronunciation of any vowel is affected by the environment (for example, whether it is in the position before the voiced or unvoiceless consonant). As for consonants, the pronunciation of these also depends on the environment.

Second of all, in Canadian English, we cannot talk about length and shortness of vowels, but the vowel quality depends directly on the position of the vowel in a word.

It is important to stress out that in our research we have noticed that there are differences in speech not only between Standard and nonstandard Canadian English, but also within the General Canadian English itself. General Canadian English displays non-homogenity in the systems of vowels, diphtongs, consonants and unvoiced vocalism. It shows alternations between the speech of younger and older generations of speakers, between males and females, among social classes, as well as between rural and urban residents.

2.2 Grammar

The grammatical structure is the most conservative element of any language. The phonology and lexicon of various dialects of any language vary widely one from another, but it is at the levels of morphology and syntax that dialects are most similar. However, there are some parts of morphology and syntax in Canadian English which cannot be found in any other dialect of English Language. In this part of our paper, we will give some description of verbs, adverbs, pronouns, exclamations, prepositions. Also, we will show that Canadian English displays some differences in grammar between its standard and nonstandard dialects.

Verbs

Present Simple Tense

In Newfoundland nonstandard dialect of English language, in the Present Simple Tense, there is the present inflection “-s” which is added to a verb after all persons and numbers of the subject, as in example "we plays hockey" (Clarke, 1993:77).

Hovewer, this in not the case in General Canadian English. In Standard Canadian English, the inflection “-s” is added only in the 3rd person singular form in the Present Simple Tense. This means that in Standard Canadian English, the example “we plays hockey” will be “we play hockey”.

Historically, in the Middle English period, a verb in all forms, persons and numbers had its endings, as in the Slavic languages ??(this is an Indo-European feature). In the Middle English period, the reduction and deletion of all endings occur, except for the third person singular “-s” which was codified, thanks to the activities of grammarians. In nonstandard forms of English, this “-s” can be added to all verb forms, or it can be completely deleted. In grammar, this phenomenon is called Elimination of Neutralisation of Grammatical Categories of Person. In the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Newfoundland, we have a case where the inflection “-s” is added to all persons and numbers of a verb.

Have you got vs do you have

General Canadian English displays some differences in the use of have you got and do you have forms. In Standard Canadian English, middle and upper classes prefer the have you got form, and the majority of the younger informants employing do you have.

Woods (1999) state, that have you got has moderate usage among the older informants of the lower middle classes but less usage among the younger speakers.

Immediate past (after + present participle)

The construction after+present participle occurs in some areas in Canada where nonstandard dialects of Canadian English are spoken: these are some parts of Newfoundland, Port Hawkesbury, the Ottawa Valley, and Peterborough County.

He's after coming from the mainland.

He is after telling me all about it. (Lougheed, 1986:8)

The meaning of this construction is that the action of the participle has been recently completed, and the equivalent in the Standard Canadian Present Perfect with an adverb is:

He's just come from the mainland.

He has just told me all about it.

A singular verb following a multiple subjects

In the nonstandard regional dialect of Canadian English in Nova Scotia, there is a use of a singular verb following a multiple subjects as in the example:

Eliza and me has been rompin.

(Falk, Harry, 1999:199)

We did not find any example of this characteristic in General Canadian English. This means that this feature is characteristic only for the nonstandard regional dialect of Canadian English in Nova Scotia.

The preterite and past participle

In the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Lunenburg (Nova Scotia) some verbs swiched verb forms of the preterite and past participle. Constructions such as they come here yesterday and I should have went there can be heard, especially among older speakers. Moreover, Falk and Harry (1999) state, that these patterns are not simply the result of confusion, but they occur in a stable pattern. The same feature is attested in the regional nonstandard dialect of Nova Scotia.

Since within Standard Canadian English, we have not found any similar examples, we can conclude that the constructions they come home yesterday and I should have went there will be they came home yesterday and I should have gone there.

Also, the nonstandard dialect of Canadian English in Lunenburg shows a tendency to use the preterite in the negative and interrogative forms, where Standard Canadian English would use the perfect.

Did you just come? Did you do it yet?

(Falk, Harry, 1999:46)

(Instead of Standard Canadian "Have you just come?" and Have you done it yet?")

He didn't come yet

(Falk, Harry, 1999:46)

(Instead of Standard Canadian "He hasn't come yet".)

should and will replace ought and shall

According to Clarke (1993), modal verbs ought and shall with their contracted negative forms oughtn't and shan't are rare in General Canadian English. Instead, forms should and will (or shouldn't and won't, in the negative) have largely replaced them.

Even though The Corpus of Canadian English, where there are 1648 examples given for ought, and 3092 examples for shall, while should is given 41968 times, and will 125447, confirms Clark's statement, we consider that this issue should be researched more detailly to see if the meaning of these modal verbs somehow merges.

Past tense of the verb /to dive/

Past tense of the verb to dive has two competing forms in General Canadian English. These are dove and dived (Clarke, 1993). In the 1970s, National and regional Surveys of Canadian usage which were done by Chambers, Scargill, and Warkentyne, it was showed, that almost 50% of the Canadian population uses both forms equally frequently. However, Clarke (1993) states, that younger urban speakers of General Canadian English use the form dove more often, while the form dived can occur but is considered to be a childish mistake.

Additionally, Scargill (1974) states, that in nonstandard Canadian dialects (especially in Ottawa Valley), a relatively some people prefer to use the form dove of human beings and dived of submarine.

Infinitive with for

In the dialect of Lunenburg (Nova Scotia) the infinitive with for is common, especially in the expressions of purpose, as in I went back for to fetch it (Falk, Harry, 1999:40). In Standard Canadian English, there are no examples of such feature. The above sentence in General Canadian would be: I went back to fetch it.

Adverbs

2.2.9. Positive anymore

The construction with positive anymore implicates negativity. The meaning of anymore in this construction is "nowadays" or "at present" and is used in positive sentences:

I spend a lot of time with my family anymore.

Anymore, I spend a lot of time with my family.

(Boberg, 2010)

John watches television a lot anymore.

Mechanics are not pretty careless anymore.

(Chambers, 1975)

On the other hand, in some parts of Canada anymore is used only in negative sentences as in the example:

I don't spend a lot of time with my family anymore.

(Boberg, 2010)

Positive anymore is a syntactic variant used by a small group of Canadian English Speakers in Ontario and might have origins from Loyalist settlement of that region, but is not considered to be a part of the widespread Standard Canadian English (Boberg, 2010). Furthermore, the sentences with positive anymore are used by both, older and younger speakers in that area (Clarke, 1993:10).

Positive anymore occurs in the nonstandard dialects of Canadian English in Niagara Peninsula, the Detroit River area and sporadically western Canada.

Lougheed (1986) gives examples found in these areas:

He complains a lot anymore.

Anymore, they usually call it "cottage cheese".

War, anymore, is genocide.

(Lougheed, 1986:9).

Here as well, anymore has the meaning "nowadays", and it typically occurs in the non-negative context (unlike the Standard Canadian "anymore", which requires a negative marker) only in sentences which have a mildly derogatory meaning.

Pronouns

The first-person singular pronoun in between you and (I/me)

Boberg (2010) states, that the form of the first-person singular pronoun in between you and (I/me) is one of many pronoun structures that show variation in the grammatical case in General Canadian English. Furthermore, he explains that it perhaps occurs as a confused reaction to school teachers' attempts to stigmatize and eradicate non-standard pronoun usage.

For instance, in a subject position many people now say her and I went shopping rather than she and I, while in object position many say Mary saw John and I downtown rather than John and me (Boberg, 2010).

Singular and plural forms of the second-person pronoun

According to Clarke (1993), in Newfoundland nonstandard dialect of Canadian English, there is a systematic contrast between singular and plural forms of the second-person pronoun. In singular it is You and sometimes Ya, and in plural ye [ji?] is used. This means that Ye, boys can occur there.

In a recorded speech of a 64 old male born in Ferryland (Newfoundland), there are examples of this feature. The speech was recorded on 27. 05. 2014.

"So I couldn't - I certainly couldn't understand, like, where she was part of. She said that, "Do you have your computer on?" And I said that, "Yeah, as a matter a fact, it's runnin' right." She said that, "You have a problem with your Windows." I said, "No missus, I got a new house and me windows are perfectly good, and I'm nearly too busy now to talk to ya".

However, in a recorded speech of a 36-year-old female Newfoundland citizen, who was born and lives there, we did not find any other examples of the second-person pronoun rather than "you". The speech was recorded on 08. 04. 2000.

"That means there's a difference, uh, between doing something and taking it to an extreme. So you can, you know, you can set out to, uh, play a part, for instance, in the current context; or, you can, you know, go to hell with it, you know, it is all that means: the difference between scratching your arse and tearing it to pieces."

From this, we can conclude that this feature is decreasing in use, and the singular and plural forms of the second-person pronoun, Ya and ye, are nowadays used only among older speakers of the Newfoundland dialect, while younger generation uses the form you, as in General Canadian English.

Exclamations

Exclamations with component "ever"

The sense of the exclamations with the component "ever", in sentences like: Does he ever drives fast! Is he ever stupid! is highly emphatic, and the sentences almost presuppose a Wow! at the beginning. Here, the syntax is the same as in Yes/No questions, with inversion of the auxiliary, but there is no sense of interrogation implied.

Here, the word ever, seems only vaguely related to its standard meaning "at any time", as in Does he ever drive fast? Is he ever stupid? The ever exclamation means something like "habitually, at all times". Ever exclamations are patently colloquial and occur in some parts of Canada where nonstandard dialects of Canadian English are spoken, such as Ottawa Valley (Lougheed, 1986:9, 10).

Prepositions

As well as in the initial position

Sentence-initial "as well" is a true Canadianism in the General Canadian English grammar. This phrase can be found in an uncommon position, as in: He told Mary to be careful. As well, he asked all of us to help her. The phrase has its expected meaning "also, in addition", just as in sentence-medial or sentence-final positions, where it occurs almost regularly in standard Canadian English (Lougheed, 1986:9, 10).

Thus, analyzing some features of verbs, adverbs, exclamations, prepositions and pronounces in Canadian English, we showed that Canadian English displays some differences in grammar between standard and nonstandard Canadian English. However, there are some differences within General Canadian English, such as the usage of have you got and do you have forms. Also, there are some differences in grammar in General Canadian English among middle and upper classes, as well as younger and older speakers.

Summing up:

1. General Canadian English differs from the nonstandard dialects of Canadian English of Eastern Atlantic provinces and Newfoundland. For example, “au” in the innitial position is [æ] in General Canadian English, in the Eastern, Atlantic Canadian provinces [?], and in Newfoundland, [?]; words like roof are pronounced with the vowel [u] in General Canadian, and with [?] in Newfoundland; words like care, bare are pronunced with [?] in General Canadian English, with [æ] in Newfoundland; in the Present Simple tense in Newfoundland the inflection “-s” is added to all persons and numbers of a verb, and in General Canadian it is added only in the third person singular.

2. General Canadian English differs in grammar from the nonstandard dialects of Canadian English in Niagara Peninsula and the Detroit River area. For example Positive anymore occurs in these nonstandard dialects while it doesn't occure in General Canadian.

3. There are certain differences in phonology between the General Canadian English and the nonstandard dialects of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Thunder Bay, The Red River Valley, the Canadian Prairies. For example, in General Canadian English short /a/ before /g/ is [eig] or [æg] like in plague or vague, while in nonstandard Canadian English of Wisconsin and Minnesota, Thunder Bay, The Red River Valley, and across the Canadian Prairies it is [æig] or [å:g].

4. There are differences between General Canadian English and the nonstandard dialect of Halifax and Nova Scotia. For example, Standard Canadian English is r-full and rhotic, and the nouns with final “er” are pronunced with [?r] in General Canadian, but with [?] in Halifax, and in Lunenburg or Newfoundland with [?:], [?:], [?:], [?:] or [?:]. Also, words like boy are pronunced with [?] or [?] in Standard Canadian English, and with [a] in Nova Scotia; /s/ before [t] is pronounced as [?] in Nova Scotia and as [s] e in General Canadian; In Nova Scotia, there is a use of a singular verb following a multiple subjects as in the example: Eliza and me has been rompin, while in General Canadian it is Eliza and me have been romping.

5. General Canadian English differs from the nonstandard dialect of Prince Edward's Island. For example words like calm and palm are pronunced with [a] in Standard Canadian English and with [æ] in Prince Edward Island.

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