B. A. Major Thesis Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Chovanec, Ph
Different Lexical Preferences within Canada: Toronto (Ontario) and Montreal
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- 3.5 Contemporary Comparison of Canadian and American Lexicons
3.4 Different Lexical Preferences within Canada: Toronto (Ontario) and MontrealA number of studies have already shown that while British and American words co-exist in Canada, their distribution is uneven. As in other varieties of English, there exist several regional and local ‘sub-varieties’ which differ one from another; and in Canada, one of the distinguishing features may be different lexical preferences. As the language develops and changes in time, however, the vocabulary preferences change as well. This phenomenon can be illustrated by comparing several older and recent studies of Toronto and Montreal’s vocabularies. First of all, let us focus on the variety of English spoken in Montreal. In 1929, an American Helen Munroe declared that Montreal English is more British than American, supporting her claim by a list of different Montreal and American expressions for the same thing. The list included Montreal = BrE AmE pram baby carriage tram street-car sweet dessert tin can serviette napkin pickerel pike boot shoe braces suspenders zed zee long holidays summer vacation and other items (Orkin 1970: 73). A year later, W. S. W. McLay objected that “in both Toronto and Montreal11 the ordinary speech of even cultivated Canadians approximates in the matter of words to that of the United States” (1930, qtd. in Orkin 1970: 73, emphasis by italics added)12 and followed that Canadians in Toronto do prefer baby carriage, street-car and dessert and that “pickerel and pike are different kinds of fish, and boot and shoe are not synonyms” (1930, qtd. in Orkin 1970:74). In the 1950s, on the basis of his study of Montreal English, D. E. Hamilton concluded that it has more in common with AmE than with BrE and he compiled a list of different words used in Montreal and in Britain (Orkin 1970: 74). He mentions expressions such as Montreal = AmE BrE apartment flat boundary frontier candy sweets pants trousers wrench spanner (qtd. in Orkin 1970: 74-75). Interestingly, the 1960s comparison of Ontario and Montreal usage of selected four words revealed that the preferences in the two varieties differed: Ontarioans preferred British variant in three cases out of four whereas Montrealers favoured American expressions.13 Differences in usage were equally noted in the most recent study on regional vocabularies. When questioned about how they generally call carbonated beverages, the prevalence of Toronto respondents chose pop (72%) which is also frequent in the United States whereas the Montrealers largely preferred soft drink (73%) (Boberg 2005: 39, 48). The occurrence of pop in Montreal likewise of soft drink in Toronto was negligible. In Eastern Ontario which forms a transitional zone between Greater Toronto and Quebec, however, the preferences were 30% for soft drink and 43% for pop (Boberg 2005: 39). 14 Similarly, 95% respondents from Montreal opted for all-dressed pizza, i.e. a pizza with all toppings, while only 12% chose this term in Greater Toronto; the prevalent term there was the American expression everything-on-it, chosen by 60% respondents (Boberg, 2005: 39).15 The above-mentioned examples of lexical variation conveniently illustrate the ‘passage’ from initially ‘more British’ nature of the common, everyday lexicon, to the ‘more American one’. But this is not to say that British expressions have disappeared from CanE or that CanE it has become fully Americanized. The development of Montreal which has first been perceived as ‘more British’, later as ‘more American’ and it seems that currently as either because of some lexical features which, according to the Boberg’s study, were not recognized as either prevailingly British or prevailingly American, suggests that Canadian lexicon can never be fully identified with a lexicon of another variety of English. 3.5 Contemporary Comparison of Canadian and American LexiconsBoberg’s study is particularly useful for marking out the variables by which CanE as a whole differs from AmE. As it follows from the study, the greatest lexical differentiator is how people name successive school years. While Americans describe them as first grade, second grade, etc., Canadians prefer to say grade one, grade two etc. There are some minor variations, such as Quebec’s usage of first grade for the first year of elementary school. Unlike the US’s freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior, no special designations for high school years exist in Canada: these are simply grades nine through twelve. The study also points out that out of top five US variants16 by which, in a certain aspect, the US most differs from Canada – first grade, candy bar, faucet, zee, studio apartment – none can be heard in Britain, and only two out of the five Canadian variants are British – tap and zed. “The remaining three – grade one, chocolate bar and bachelor apartment – are Canadianisms” (Boberg 2005: 46-48). What should be accentuated most, however, is the important finding of the survey that the variables distinguishing Canadian regions one from another do not coincide (save a few exceptions) with those differentiating CanE from AmE. Thus the conclusion that “Canada’s regions have much more in common lexically with each other than any of them does with the United States” (Boberg 2005: 52) clearly proves the idea that the variety of English spoken in Canada is distinct. Download 331.17 Kb. Share with your friends:
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