Canadian English
Set of varieties of the English language native to Canada / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA)[5] encompasses the varieties of English used in Canada, while Standard Canadian English is the Canadian standard variety of English.[6] According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French (20.8%) or other languages (21.1%).[7] In Quebec, 7.5% of the population are anglophone, as most of Quebec's residents are native speakers of Quebec French.[8]
| Canadian English | |
|---|---|
| Region | Canada |
Native speakers | 20.1 million in Canada (2016 census)[1] about 15 million, c. 7 million of which with French as the L1 |
Early forms | |
| Latin (English alphabet) Unified English Braille[2] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | cana1268 |
| IETF | en-CA[3][4] |
| This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. | |
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Phonologically, Standard Canadian and General American English may be grouped together as North American English, emphasizing the two varieties' identical phonemic inventories, whose realizations, however, differ.[9] While Canadian English tends to be closer to American English in most regards,[10][11] it does possess elements from British English and some uniquely Canadian characteristics.[12] The precise influence of American English, British English and other sources on Canadian English varieties has been the ongoing focus of systematic studies since the 1950s.[13]
Canadians and Americans themselves often have trouble differentiating their own two accents, particularly when someone speaks with an urban Standard Canadian English accent because it sounds similar to Western American English. There is also evidence that Standard Canadian English and Western American English have been undergoing a similar vowel shift since the 1980s.[14] Canadian English varies little from Central Canada to British Columbia. But, some noticeably different accents can be found in the Atlantic provinces, most especially in Newfoundland with Newfoundland English. Accent differences can sometimes be heard between those who live in urban centres versus those living in rural settings.[15]
In the early 20th century, western Canada was largely populated by farmers from Central and Eastern Europe who were not anglophones.[16] At the time, most anglophones there were re-settlers from Ontario or Quebec who had British, Irish and/or Loyalist ancestry.[17] Throughout the 20th century, the prairies underwent anglicization and linguistic homogenization through education and exposure to Canadian and American media.