Why Is Canadian English Unique?

Is there such a thing as Canadian English? If so, what is it?

The standard stereotype (刻板印象) among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except that they say “eh” a lot and pronounce “out and about” as “oot and aboot.” Many Canadians, on the other hand, will tell you that Canadian English is more like British English, and proof holds that the spellings “colour” and “centre” and the name “zed” for the letter Z.

Canadian does exist as a separate variety of English, with subtly (细微地) distinctive features of pronunciation and vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style guide. However, the core of Canadian English is ambivalence (矛盾).

Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning, there were the indigenous peoples (原住民), with far more linguistic (语言的) and cultural variety than Europe. Starting in the 1600s, the French colonized the St. Lawrence River region and the Atlantic coast south of it. In the mid-1700s, England got into a war with France, concluding with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, which ceded (割让) “New France” to England. The English allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects (臣民) of the English King.

At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada. The American Revolution(革命) changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were United Empire Loyalists — people who fled (逃离) American independence and were rewarded with land in Canada. As a result, Canadian English was, from its very beginning, both American — because its speakers had come from the American colonies — and not American, because they rejected the newly independent nation.

Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of English, the loyalists sought to remain more like England. These were people whose variety of English was already different from the British and vice versa. When the residents of London began to drop their r’s and change some of their vowels (元音), people in certain parts of the United States adopted some of these changes, but Canadians did not.

There did end up being more British influx (大量涌入) and influence in Canada. After the War of 1812, Mother England encouraged emigration to Canada to ensure the loyalty to England. The accent did not become British, though British schoolteachers and authorities did leave their marks on the nation’s spelling and grammar.

Today, one-fifth of Canadians have a mother tongue other than English or French — nearly as many as have French as their mother tongue. And yet the basic character of Canadian English still appears like a household of Anglophile (亲英派) Americans, with bits from other cultures mainly in the kitchen, a few traces of the indigenous cultures who used to be the only residents, and some influence from the French roommate.

The British live on a small island. They are surrounded by the sea, so it is not surprising that the sea has always played an important role in their lives. After the development of large, ocean­going sailing ships in the fifteenth century, the sea became even more important to the country’s development. Ships setting sail from England determined to extend Britain’s territories, its wealth and its knowledge of the world. Ships returned to England bringing goods, people and new ideas from foreign places. By the nineteenth century, Britain had the largest, most powerful navy in the world.

The great sailing ships were so much a part of British life that they even affected the language. Many English expressions we use today were originally nautical (航海的)terms, although most people no longer realize this. For example, people commonly describe an honest and fair business deal as being “above board”. This expression was originally used in sailing ship times when secretive, dishonest ship’s business would be carried out below decks (below the boards) out of public view. On the other hand, honest business was always conducted on deck (above the boards), in the open where everyone could see what was going on.

“Pipe down!”, meaning “Be quiet!”, is another common expression that has nautical origins. The ship’s boatswain (水手长) would blow a whistle, or pipe, at the end of the day to indicate (表明) to the sailors it was time to quieten down and go to sleep.

Most native English speakers have heard the expression “not enough room to swing a cat”, but few know that the “cat” does not refer to a small furry animal with four legs and a tail. The “cat” is actually a short form of “cat of nine tails”—a whip with nine knotted (打结的) tails. A boatswain needed a lot of space in order to swing the whip properly when lashing (鞭打) a poor sailor under his control!

Have you ever considered all the English expressions that include words about clothes? Let’s have a look.

People wear pants to cover the lower part of their bodies. We sometimes say that people who are nervous have ants in their pants. Sometimes, people may get caught with their pants down, which means they are found doing something they should not be doing. And, in every family, one person takes control. Sometimes a wife tells her husband what to do. Then we say she wears the pants in the family.

Pants usually have pockets to hold things. Money that is likely to be spent quickly can burn a hole in your pocket. Sometimes you need a belt to hold up your pants. If you aren’t able to make ends meet and have less money than usual, you may have to tighten your belt.

I always praise people who can save their money and not spend too much. I really take my hat off to them. Yet, when it comes to my own money, I spend it at the drop of a hat, which means I immediately spend it.

Boots are a heavy or strong kind of shoes. People who are too big for their boots think they are more important than they really are. I dislike such people.

My father is a successful business man who runs a big computer company. He wears a suit and tie, and a shirt with sleeves that cover his arms. Some people who do not know him well think he is too serious and never shows his feelings openly. But I know that my father wears his heart on his sleeve.