Talk:Canadian English

Yod-dropping in B.C.

@Jyqwang You wrote the following line:

"It is only after alveolar consonants (/t/, /d/, /n/, /s/, /l/) the /j/ is then dropped (e.g. duke, new, tune)"

This seems typical of North America, especially among yod-dropping dialects, but I notice that the list doesn't include the palatals /t͡ʃ/, /d͡ʒ/, /ʃ/, /ʒ/, and /j/, the dental /θ/, and the rhotic /ɹ/. If this line is meant to imply that yod-dropping really does only happen after alveolars (and not in the environments I listed), I think it should put emphasis on where it doesn't drop because of how common yod-dropping is in North America. On the other hand, if it does include those consonants, I think the line should be simplified or dropped, because that's where you would expect yod to go. If this a typo or something where it's supposed to say that yod is preserved after alveolars, but not after other coronals (similar (I think) to nearby Victoria according to Roeder, Onosson, and D'arcy (2018)), then obviously that should be fixed. (If the source doesn't specify at all, that's fine.) Tyrui (talk) 03:47, 3 May 2023 (UTC)

American-Centric comparisons

I feel as if a lot of the comparisons are directed toward the US. Although its Canadas' direct neighbour, examples should be diversified to add additional understanding to more readers, rather than relying on knowledge of American-culture and lingustics. Moonsoftoday (talk) 12:56, 26 June 2023 (UTC)

Rhoticity in Canadian English

I was wondering if Canadian English is rhotic or non rhotic! How can I learn rhoticity in Canadian English? 47.145.181.198 (talk) 00:30, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

Refer to the Article on Rhoticity in English. Mediatech492 (talk) 01:47, 26 March 2024 (UTC)

more like American or British English?

The long-standing version of the lead has been:

While Canadian English tends to be close to American English in most regards, classifiable together as North American English, Canadian English also possesses elements from British English as well as some uniquely Canadian characteristics.

Australian IPs are attempting to change this to:

While Canadian English tends to be close to British English in most regards, it also possesses elements from American English as well as some uniquely Canadian characteristics.

This drops the mention of North American English and is a complete reversal of the long-standing meaning. The new www.vec.ca ref replacing the existing scholarly refs does not appear to be a reliable ref. It is a commercial site targeting potential foreign students. Meters (talk) 05:04, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

Americanisms are just more prominent as per Canadian encyclopedia written by Canadians Moxy🍁 05:50, 3 February 2025 (UTC)

It appears that the "Labov" ref is Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006). The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016746-8. Meters (talk) 10:19, 4 February 2025 (UTC)

References

'sorry', 'water closet'

When I briefly visited Ontario, the salient differences I noticed in comparison to U.S. English were the ones in the title. This could be appropriate content for the article. 24.236.207.173 (talk) 22:39, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

We'd need to have reliable sources. I don't see that "water closet" has any currency in Canadian English. Differences in the meaning of "sorry" would have to be sourced beyond opinions that Canadians are excessively polite. _signed, Willondon (talk) 23:12, 19 April 2025 (UTC)

There is already a page for the "sorry legislation" in Ontario, which covers this anglophone Canadian English phenomenon quite well.

That could usefully be linked into this page: Since one person took the time to request it, there are likely many who looked here but didn't leave feedback; and readers outside Canada may not know about the "sorry legislation" at all.

Canadian English speakers are well-known for the sorry thing so I'd argue it's worth adding. Sorry I can't suggest where exactly it would fit on this page though. ChekovsMoustache (talk) 21:32, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

Dave's Dictionary

Hello all - I updated the link for Dave's Dictionary as given on his redirect page, but it still lands on the redirect page. All the results for this source on Google also land on the redirect page, and the Wayback Machine doesn't seem to have a useful copy archived. Unless someone knows how to reach him for his new url, it might be better to remove it for now - alas the useful niche sites of the 00s. ChekovsMoustache (talk) 21:19, 4 May 2025 (UTC)

The "A" vowel in words like pasta, Mazda, Islam, Basmati

This is probably the biggest difference I notice with Canadian English in BC. Whereas in the US everyone says "pasta" where the first A has an "ah" sound like in British English, in CE that vowel is instead the same as in "past". This shows up twice in the word Basmati. Forgive me if I missed it in the article but it seems like a significant difference to the US?

Also in the word "sorry" the O is similar to the vowel in "sore" instead of "ah" like in the US. 207.102.156.136 (talk) 23:42, 8 October 2025 (UTC)

FWIW, this is probably related to the Canadian shift (Low-Back-Merger Shift), which is covered in the article under § Phonology and phonetics. The shift makes the TRAP phoneme /æ/ move back, to become closer to [a] (front-ish) or [ä] (central), nearer to /ɑː/ as in PALM. — W.andrea (talk) 13:41, 11 December 2025 (UTC)

Confusing image

This image is in the article with little explanation. Does it make sense to anyone? Would it make sense to the average reader? Magnolia677 (talk) 19:43, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

It makes perfect sense to me as an amateur linguist. I added a link to vowel chart to help explain. — W.andrea (talk) 22:07, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

to add: If it helps you understand, a vowel chart is a representation of tongue position in the mouth viewed from the left (e.g. [i] is all the way at the top front). Check out File:IPA vowel chart.svg for reference, which shows all possible vowels and their "canonical" position. The Toronto vowel chart uses the same symbols in a different position to illustrate what the accent sounds like. Compare with File:General American monophthong chart.svg to see the differences (excluding /e, ɝ, o/), or see File:Canadian Vowel Shift according to Clarke and Boberg.svg, which shows the Canadian shift as arrows.

Hopefully this gives you some material to add to the article if it needs clarifying. — W.andrea (talk) 22:23, 18 June 2026 (UTC)

Ah. Magnolia677 (talk) 22:37, 18 June 2026 (UTC)