Editing Canadian English (section)

=== Regional variation ===
While Canadian English has vocabulary that distinguishes it from other varieties of English across the world,<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Avis |first1=Walter S. |title=A Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles |last2=Crate |first2=Charles |last3=Drysdale |first3=Patrick |last4=Leechman |first4=Douglas |last5=Scargill |first5=Matthew H. |last6=Lovell |first6=Charles J. |publisher=Gage Education |year=1991 |edition=1st ed [1967 reprint] |pages=n/a (online edition)}}</ref> there is significant regional variation in its lexis within Canada as well. A balanced cross-continental sample of 1800 Canadians and 360 Americans<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boberg |first=Charles |date=2005 |title=The North American Regional Vocabulary Survey: new variables and methods in the study of North American English |journal=American Speech |volume=80 |issue=1 |pages=29|doi=10.1215/00031283-80-1-22 }}</ref> the Canada and the USA is the result of Boberg's North American Regional Vocabulary Survey (NARVS), a questionnaire employed by Boberg from 1999–2007 <ref name="Archived copy">{{Cite journal |journal=World Englishes |url=https://www.academia.edu/4001738 |title=On the Autonomy and Homogeneity of Canadian English |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=449–466 |year=2012 |access-date=11 April 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406204237/https://www.academia.edu/4001738/On_the_Autonomy_and_Homogeneity_of_Canadian_English_with_Sandra_Clarke_ |url-status=live |last1=Dollinger |first1=Stefan |last2=Clarke |first2=Sandra |doi=10.1111/j.1467-971X.2012.01773.x }}</ref> that sought out lexical items that vary regionally within Canada. Six regions were identified in the NARVS data collection: The West, which includes British Columbia and the Prairies; Ontario; Quebec, which represents data from Montreal mostly; New Brunswick and Nova Scotia; Prince Edward Island; and Newfoundland.<ref name="Archived copy"/> Many regional differences in the lexis are item-specific. For example, one of these items has to do with the nationally enjoyed meal of pizza, and more specifically, the term used to refer to a pizza that features all available toppings. While Atlantic Canada refers to this order as ‘the works,’ the majority term used from eastern Ontario to the West Coast is deluxe, and terms such as 'all-dressed' and 'everything-on-it' are used in Quebec and Toronto, respectively. Other examples include the regionally varied usage of running shoes/runners/sneakers to describe athletic shoes, and notebook/scribbler/cahier to describe any type of plain [[Notebook|note-pad.]]<ref name="Archived copy"/> Despite the regional variation of vocabulary items within Canada, the lexis of Canadian English still maintains greater commonality between its own regions than it does with American English or British English.

==== Quebec ====
Quebec recognizes French as its primary language. As a result, English has no official status in Quebec and is not used often in the public sphere. Although, in more metropolitan areas such as Montreal or Quebec City, it is not uncommon to see English media in public, such as in advertisements and store-fronts. Also, the provincial government must officially be referred to as the "Gouvernement du Québec", regardless of the language being used by the speaker. While the lexical catalog of Quebec English contains items influenced or borrowed by French, the influence of the dominant French language on Quebec English is marginal.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com">{{cite journal | url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2012.01776.x?saml_referrer | doi=10.1111/j.1467-971X.2012.01776.x | title=English as a minority language in Quebec | year=2012 | last1=Boberg | first1=Charles | journal=World Englishes | volume=31 | issue=4 | pages=493–502 | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=8 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408095502/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1467-971X.2012.01776.x?saml_referrer | url-status=live }}</ref> The francophone dominance in Quebec makes the province a linguistic anomaly within Canada, where English maintains a negligible role in government and public domains.<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/> The French influence on Quebec English operates through five distinct processes, as identified by Charles Boberg: elective direct lexical transfer of non-English words (e.g., garderie for daycare), imposed direct lexical transfer of non-English words, for example, SAQ for ''Société des alcools du Québec'', loan translation/calques such as 'all-dressed' for the French equivalent 'toute garnie'. Semantic shifts of existing English words, like 'magasin' for 'store', in addition to syntactic influences; e.g, "we're living here three years" instead of the English "we've been living here for three years".<ref name="onlinelibrary.wiley.com"/> Although Quebec English differs from other Canadian regional lexes due to its special contact with French, it still shares some similarities with the lexis of other Canadian regions. For instance, the use of lexical items such as all-dressed has been successfully transferred to most other Canadian regional lexes.<ref name="Archived copy"/>

==== Ontario ====
Southern Ontario was initially settled by white Protestants, with the late 19th century witnessing the migration of white Protestant settlers from Ontario to western Canada following the suppression of the Métis opposition. This migration facilitated the transplantation of the Ontario accent and the emergence of a homogeneous Canadian English dialect.<ref name="hdl.handle.net">{{cite book | url=http://hdl.handle.net/1974/27537 | hdl=1974/27537 | title=Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader | year=2010 | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=11 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411040907/https://qspace.library.queensu.ca/handle/1974/27537 | url-status=live | last1=Gold | first1=Elaine | last2=McAlpine | first2=Janice }}</ref> Distinctive to Ontario are Canadianisms such as concession roads, which refer to roads that transect a township, dew-worm, which refers to an earthworm, and fire-reel, which refers to a fire truck.<ref name="hdl.handle.net"/> Walter S. Avis identified several linguistic features characteristic of Ontarians, including their preference for the word vacation, rather than holiday—which is considered more British English—and sack over paper bag. While there may be numerous such lexical differences in the speech of provincial and national borderers, Avis asserts that these are relatively minor compared to the linguistic features held in common.<ref name="cambridge.org">{{Cite journal |title=Speech Differences along the Ontario-United States Border  |journal=Canadian Journal of Linguistics / Revue canadienne de linguistique |date=October 1954 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=13–18 |doi=10.1017/S0319573200025145 |last1=Avis |first1=Walter S. |s2cid=247198153 }}</ref> Furthermore, Avis suggests that the difference between American English and Ontario English is relatively small near the border due to their close proximity. The historical settlement patterns of southern Ontario, coupled with linguistic research, indicate the existence of distinctively Ontarian lexical items. However, Ontario maintains greater similarities with other Canadian regions than it does with the neighbouring American English and its regional variations.<ref name="cambridge.org"/>

Northern Ontario English has several distinct qualities stemming from its large [[Franco-Ontarian]] population. As a result several [[French language|French]] and English words are used interchangeably. A number of phrases and expressions may also be found in Northern Ontario that are not present in the rest of the province,<ref>{{cite web |last=Stone |first=Laura |date=27 September 2011 |title=Looking for true Canadian English, there? Go north |url=https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/09/27/looking_for_true_canadian_english_there_go_north.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141013145609/http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2011/09/27/looking_for_true_canadian_english_there_go_north.html |archive-date=13 October 2014 |access-date=5 August 2014 |work=Toronto Star}}</ref> such as the use of ''camp'' for a summer home where Southern Ontario speakers would idiomatically use [[cottage]].

In the mid to late 90s, certain words from [[Jamaican Patois]], Arabic and Somali were incorporated into the local variety of English by [[Toronto]] youth, especially in immigrant communities, thus giving rise to [[Toronto slang]].<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Elango |first1=Vidhya |last2=Denis |first2=Derek |title=Variable BAN-laxing in Multicultural Toronto English |url=https://cla-acl.ca/pdfs/resumes-2021-abstracts/ElangoDenis.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210729050620/https://cla-acl.ca/pdfs/resumes-2021-abstracts/ElangoDenis.pdf |archive-date=2021-07-29 |website=(CLA) Canadian Linguistic Association}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-07-17 |title=The past, present, and future of Canadian English: What our accent tells us about being Canadian |url=https://the-pigeon.ca/2020/07/17/canadian-accent/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220505081732/https://the-pigeon.ca/2020/07/17/canadian-accent/ |archive-date=5 May 2022 |access-date=2022-06-08 |website=The Pigeon |language=en-CA}}</ref> These examples included words such as ''mandem'', ''styll'', ''wallahi'', ''wasteman'', and ''yute''.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Denis |first1=Derek |date=2016-10-05 |title=A note on mans in Toronto |url=https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/26973 |url-status=live |journal=Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics |volume=37 |doi=10.33137/twpl.v37i0.26973 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221213022451/https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/26973 |archive-date=13 December 2022 |access-date=11 April 2023 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-03-08 |title=Opinion: The revolution of Toronto slang |url=https://thevarsity.ca/2020/03/08/opinion-the-revolution-of-toronto-slang/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230411040922/https://thevarsity.ca/2020/03/08/opinion-the-revolution-of-toronto-slang/ |archive-date=11 April 2023 |access-date=2022-05-31 |website=The Varsity |language=en-US}}</ref>

==== Prairies (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) ====
The Prairies, consisting of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta, have their own lexical features. The linguistic legacy from the settlement patterns in these regions, along with the Indigenous communities, specifically the large Métis population in Saskatchewan and Manitoba also carry certain linguistic traits inherited from the French, Indigenous, and Celtic forebears. The linguistic features brought by Ukrainian, German, and Mennonite populations in the Saskatchewan Valley of Saskatchewan and Red River Valley of Manitoba have also influenced the lexis of the Prairies. Some terms are derived from these groups and some are formed within the region by locals throughout time. An example of the former is the high-profile variable bunnyhug, a term for a hooded sweatshirt in Saskatchewan.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305326586 |title=the Written Questionnaire in Social Dialectology: History, Theory, Practice |access-date=11 April 2023 |archive-date=6 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406204237/https://www.researchgate.net/publication/305326586_The_Written_Questionnaire_in_Social_Dialectology_History_Theory_Practice |url-status=live }}</ref> As discussed in The Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles,<ref name="DCHP-2">{{cite web | url=http://www.dchp.ca/dchp2/ | title=DCHP-2 | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=18 October 2019 | archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/4160/20191018173237/http://www.dchp.ca/dchp2/ | url-status=live }}</ref> bunnyhug is purposely and commonly used by young Saskatchewan speakers to indicate a sense of provincial identity, and is referred to as a Saskatchewanism. It should be further noted that it is assumed based on circumstantial evidence that teenagers played a crucial and special role in the spread and adoption of the term bunnyhug for hooded sweatshirts.<ref name="DCHP-2"/> Across Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Manitoba there are other terms consistent in or throughout the 3 provinces. Biffed is a term for falling, such as "John biffed it over there". Pickerel is Manitoba's official fish, also known as Walleye. Play structure is used to describe a playground for children consisting of monkey bars, slides, etc.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://globalnews.ca/news/2479009/can-you-speak-prairies-here-is-your-guide-to-deciphering-the-dialect/ | title=Can you speak Prairies? Here is your guide to deciphering the dialect &#124; Globalnews.ca | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=8 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408095503/https://globalnews.ca/news/2479009/can-you-speak-prairies-here-is-your-guide-to-deciphering-the-dialect/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick & Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland)====
Canada's Atlantic provinces were the first part of North America to be explored by Europeans. The Atlantic provinces, historically and collectively called the Maritimes, consist of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island. Newfoundland and Labrador, which is not part of the Maritimes, is also part of Atlantic Canada. The historical immigrants from Europe have shaped cultures and lexical catalogs across the regions of Atlantic Canada that reflect British, Scottish, Gaelic, and French customs.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://thecanadaguide.com/places/atlantic-canada/ | title=Atlantic Canada | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=6 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406204238/https://thecanadaguide.com/places/atlantic-canada/ | url-status=live }}</ref> The vernacular variations of English spoken in the Atlantic region of Canada. Newfoundland and Labrador English (NLE) possesses unique vocabulary compared to standard Canadian English. The Dictionary of Newfoundland English covers the vocabulary common to Newfoundlanders, such as Newfoundland "screech rum", a Newfoundland-specific brand of rum; mummering, referring to a Christmas tradition; and gut-foundered, meaning starving or fastened.<ref>{{cite thesis | url=https://research.library.mun.ca/13789/ | title=The rough food mystique: The evolution of Newfoundland food culture, 1945-1975 | date=March 2019 | publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland | type=masters | last1=Alford | first1=Norma | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=6 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230406204238/https://research.library.mun.ca/13789/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Nova Scotia also is home to its own vocabulary. The term "Sobeys bag", used to refer to a plastic grocery bag, originates from the Nova Scotian grocery store chain [[Sobeys]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/maritime-dictionary-slang-canadian-english-scribbler-1.4040334 |title='Sobeys bag' and 'scribbler' are uniquely Maritime terms, says new dictionary |access-date=11 April 2023 |archive-date=9 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409044710/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/maritime-dictionary-slang-canadian-english-scribbler-1.4040334 |url-status=live }}</ref> Similarly, Prince Edward Island has its own vocabulary and dictionary. For example, angishore refers to a fisherman who is too lazy to fish and likely is a lexical item originating from Irish Gaelic settlers in Newfoundland.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2ttx17 | jstor=10.3138/j.ctt2ttx17 | title=Dictionary of Prince Edward Island English | year=1988 | publisher=University of Toronto Press | isbn=9780802079046 | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=7 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407162227/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctt2ttx17 | url-status=live }}</ref> Sarah Sawler, a writer from Halifax, highlights terms that are common to Maritimes, such as dooryard for front yard, owly for when someone is angry or irritable, and biff for throw.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.etalk.ca/fun/stuff-youll-hear-maritimes.html | title=Stuff you'll only ever hear in the Maritimes | date=March 2020 | access-date=11 April 2023 | archive-date=8 April 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230408095514/https://www.etalk.ca/fun/stuff-youll-hear-maritimes.html | url-status=live }}</ref>