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Notes on The Pronunciation of Canadian English as Spoken in Vancouver, B.C.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

R. J. Gregg
R. J. Gregg*
Affiliation:
University of British Columbia
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Extract

1. In the studies of Canadian English which have appeared up to date, emphasis has largely been placed been on the social-historical factors which account for the distribution of different groups of English-speaking settlers. This work, of course, provides an indispensable basis for further linguistic investigations, and equally useful are the lexical distributions that have been studied. In the phonological field, however, there is an urgent need for more material based on first-hand phonetic observation.

2. The present article sets out to analyse phonetically the English spoken in the Vancouver area, specifically among the younger generation. Some fifty local students, ranging in age from sixteen to twenty-two, have co-operated in this exploratory analysis during the last two years, and the detailed investigation of their speech has been supplemented and checked by further investigation outside the group.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1957 , pp. 20 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1957

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References

1 See Walter S., Avis, “A Bibliography of Writings on Canadian English,” in JCLA, Vol. 1, No. 2, (October 1955), 19 and 20.Google Scholar

2 See H. C., Wyld, A History of Modern Colloquial English (HMCE) (London 1920), pp. 6–7.Google Scholar

3 See Nos. 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11 in 6. below.

4 The Phoneme its Nature and Use (Cambridge, England, 1950), p. 109, footnote.

5 The Pronunciation of English (PE) (Cambridge, England, 1950), p. 35, No. 86.

6 See D. Jones, PE, Nos. 70-219.

7 See C K., Thomas, An Introduction to the Phonetics of American English (IPAE) (New York 1947), Chapters 5-15Google Scholar.

8 See D. Jones, PE, No. 75.

9 Some speakers use vowel No. 7 in these words : [bpm], ['fpðƏr], ['spmƏn], etc., which makes balm and bomb homophones, and makes father rhyme with bother.

10 See also No. 15. p. 9.

11 For the imitation of ‘fashionable’ pronunciation as distinct from unconscious sound changes, see H. C. Wyld, HCME, p. 211, 1. 34 ft.

12 See C. K. Thomas, IPAE, pp. 66-67.

13 See D. Jones, PE, p. 89, Nos. 301, 302.

14 In a subsequent article it is hoped to discuss some of the phonemic Problems that arise in connection with the distribution of the vowel sounds in Vancouver English.