[Handout with data] New data for an English usage puzzle: the long history of spelling variation in Canadian English and its linguistic implications (2010) (original) (raw)
Related papers
The English Language in Canada: Status, History and Comparative Analysis
2010
English in the Canadian context -- The establishment and growth of Canada's English-speaking population -- The principal features of Canadian English : a comparative view -- Variation and change in the vocabulary of Canadian English -- Variation and change in the phonetics of Canadian English -- Summary and future directions.
2023
The goal of this talk is to link the events that led to the publishing of four fine dictionaries of Canadian English between 1962 and 1967 and the ensuing acceptance of “Standard Canadian English” as an entity. This Avis and Lovell period, begun in Charles Lovell’s private collection of Canadianisms as of 1946, will be connected with the failed attempts to update the DCHP-1 in the 1970s, the changes in linguistics in North America (Harris 2021, Kretzschmar 2010) and English Studies, the developments around DCHP-2 (2006-2017). The real focus, however, will be the new work around DCHP-3, itself an academic “trick”, in the digital workspaces of today, and the long awaited, most welcome addition of a new project for a contemporary dictionary of Canadian English project, the “Consortium Dictionary” (precise name to be decided), as the present-day standard variety has been left undocumented since 2004 (Dollinger 2008, in the DSNA Newsletter).
Cambridge University Press, 2019
Praise by Peter Trudgill: "For this brilliantly researched book, Stefan Dollinger bravely ventured to parts of the archives other scholars had never reached. He emerged with the fascinating story of how the "Lennon & McCartney of Canadian English", Walter S. Avis and Charles J. Lovell, persuaded Canada - and then the world - to recognize Canadian English as the distinctive language variety that it truly is." Advance praise by Jack Chambers (University of Toronto): "Stefan Dollinger has undertaken heroic archival sleuthing to resuscitate the coalition of amateur logophiles and English professors that succeeded in bringing Canadian English into print and, more important, into our consciousness. Through him, this small, almost forgotten band of scholars come to life with their foibles, their labours and above all their dedication." Synopsis: "Two fatal heart attacks are among the many reasons why the names of Walter S. Avis and Charles J. Lovell, the Lennon-McCartney of Canadian English, have not become the Canadian household names they should perhaps be. This book tells their stories and those of the other Big Sixers from the 1940s to the 1990s, with a good helping of present-day hindsight. This book also writes into disciplinary history the few women researchers in early 20th-century Canada. The main goal of the book is more generally to enrich and correct the social and linguistic histories concerning some long-forgotten individuals. This exercise is thrilling and enlightening at the same time, presenting the relatively small field of Canadian English linguistics in a new, fully contextualized light, telling the stories of how Canadian English was "discovered" and eventually lifted from ridicule and disdain to — cautious, because Canadian — appreciation."
Routledge Handbook of Lexicography, ed. by Pedro A Fuertes Olivera, 2017
This article presents the result of a 10-year project revising the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, First Edition (DCHP-1). DCHP-1 was the product of a period of nationalist zeal in Canada. Rushed to publication in 1967 to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian state, DCHP-1 was very warmly received – and relatively quickly forgotten. By the 1980s only specialist circles were aware of it. The Second Edition (DCHP-2) project set out in 2006 to place the lexicography of Canadian English on a new footing. The plan was to offer clear evidence for all Canadianisms, which are defined as words, expressions or meanings that are native to Canada or distinctively characteristic of Canadian usage. While DCHP-1 did conceptually do many things rights, it is only now, with the backing of computational methods, that the inherently comparative approach that this type of dictionary requires can be executed. All Canadianisms are classified by at least one of six categories and an explicit rationale is offered for their classification. It is a principle of DCHP-2 to offer the evidence and empirical data with each entry as much as possible while keeping the account readable and succinct. In addition to the six types, a rubric of "not Canadian" is added to dispel and correct some erroneous classifications. DCHP-2 is expected to go live in open access during the course of 2016 and is comprised of a digitized DCHP-1 (10,000 words) with an update of about 1,000 new Canadianisms in a contrastive framework.
New Englishes in a New World: A Brief Introduction to Canadian English
When discussing English, it is no longer possible to consider British English as the only acceptable standard. We have to take into account American, Canadian or Australian English as well as the numerous other varieties. Despite the fact they are considered to be essentially the same language by both native and non–native speakers, there are numerous differences between the innumerable varieties of English currently being used around the world. This study focuses on the Canadian English variety. Should it be considered a New or an Old English? The diversity of Canadian English has been analysed through its grammatical structures, syntax and vocabulary. There are numerous differences not only when compared to traditionally recognised standards such as British English and American English but also within the territory of Canada itself, with it being influenced by various phenomena such as immigration and colonization. Canadian English is a variety full of linguistic forms that are not only related to the local contexts but are under continual evolution.
Dictionaries of Canadian English: the first century (1912-2017) [rev.]
The lexicography of Canadian English is a niche field today. Once looming large, the field was abandoned by academic linguistics in the early 1980s. Since around 2000, Canadian dictionary publishing has proven to no longer be economically viable, which successively forced the retreat of dictionary publishers Funk & Wagnalls, then Nelson, then Gage, and at last Oxford University Press, which had been carrying on the tradition to a degree. Consequently, the lexicography of Canadian English is currently not adequately institutionalized. There is, however, a strong history with many impressive dictionaries and some landmark works, including three regional scholarly historical dictionaries (Story, Kirwin and Widdowson 1999, Pratt 1988 and Davey and MacKinnon 2016), a recently updated open access historical dictionary of Canadianisms (www.dchp.ca/dchp2) and at least three carefully crafted desk dictionaries from around 2000. It needs to be added that a good number of dictionaries geared towards the Canadian market have been of questionable quality. With one exception, the latter ones will not be mentioned in this essay. Popular wordbooks (e.g. Casselman 1995), while useful, are also beyond the scope of this brief account.
The study of Canadian English (CanE) has undergone phases of considerable activity in the 20th century and must today be considered a field in its own right. The purpose of this overview is to present the research on CanE from a diachronic, and, wherever possible, real-time perspective. Given the lack of a consistent historical research tradition in CanE linguistics, the present chapter aims to link real-time studies of CanE with the most relevant apparent-time approaches. The following pages are intended as a spring board to CanE for those approaching it from a historical and sociohistorical linguistic perspective.
The Eh-Bee-Cee of Canadian English: Attitudes, Perceptions, and National Identity
Canadian English has constituted a separate variety of English for several decades; however, outside Canada and the States not many people know about it, and additionally, for the past few years it has been highly influenced by its neighbouring variety, American English. The purpose of this research was to examine perceptions of Canadians towards their own variety, and the questions asked were whether they continue to regard it as a separate and ongoing variety, and an integral part of their national identity; in addition, how Swiss individuals in my adopted country, Switzerland, perceive the specific variety of Canadian English and whether they think a variety is central to the identity of a nation. A combination of qualitative and quantitative study was used, which employed two focus groups, the Canadians and the Swiss, with a common questionnaire for them to answer; post-questionnaire, a series of interviews were conducted. Key findings were that Canadians are very interested in keeping their variety alive and part of their national identity; for the Swiss, it is rather unknown as a variety, but they are very interested in learning more about it. The study was linguistically significant for the reason that it revitalised the presence of Canadian English among the more known varieties, such as American and British English; moreover, future researchers may be interested in what it has to offer as a subject and be motivated to write and research more extensively on it.