Vocabulary
There are some specific features of the Australian Eng.vocab.:
Australia -> Commonwealth, Aussie
Sweet -> lolly; chewing gum -> chewie; chicken -> chook; potato -> spud; serviette;
friend -> mate, cobber; girl ->sheila; farm-> station; forest-> bush; field ->paddock;
Aust.words: dingo, kangaroo, yakka
Some AusE terms came from aboriginal speech: Cooee – word of the original inhabitants of the Sydney area and means "come here", and has now become widely used in Australia as a call over distances
Grammar
The use of prepositions:
- around=round ex: The car went round the block
- arround= “about”
- amongst/ whilst = among/while
- Will is always used instead of “shall”
-Write: labor, but armour, flavour; Recognise, never “z”; allright
- They use “It’s I” and never “It’s me”
Canadian English
CanE is a mixture of AE with some French influence. The phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon for most of C. are similar to that of the Western and Midland regions of the USA.
Spelling
There is no universally accepted standard of Canadian spelling. Canadian Press (CP) style, which is used by most Canadian newspapers, agrees with British and American rules:
Words that in AE end with -or and -er, such as color or center, usually retain Br spellings (colour, honour and centre). Canada uses the Br spelling defence, practice.
CanE borrows Am version: -ize, -yze to Br –ise, - yse (realize, paralyze)
Some nouns take -ice while matching verbs take –ise (advice (n), advise (v); practice(n,) practice (v))
CanE retains Br double “ll”. Ex : travelled, controllable, cancelled
The first Can. dictionary: The Beginner's Dictionary (1962) by Walter Spencer Avis
Intonation and Phonetics
The primary aspect is a feature called "Canadian raising," when diphthongs are raised before voiceless consonants.
- There is a tendency to monophthongize. Ex: bait [be:t], boat [bo:t], our=or
- [t] is a glottal stop b-n vowels. Ex: writer, rider (similar)
- [o:] -> [o], [a:]-> [a] Ex: cot = caught
- Canadian shift [i] ->[ɛ], [ɛ]->[æ]. Ex: bit [ɛ], bet [æ]; in some cases: [æ] -> [a]
- Pre-consonantal [r] is sometimes deleted.
- use of the word eh, which replaces many words
Vocabulary
CanE: solicitor/barrister (in Br – 2 different people, in Can – 1 person) – AE: lawyer; CE:vacation –BE:holiday; CE:tin – BE:can; CE:serviette –AE: napkin; CE:tap – AE:faucet; CE: Metro – AE: subway;
Canadian words: yogourt (spelling); timmy = a cup of coffee; ABM=ATM; French fries=chips; pencil crayon= coloured pencil; garburator= garbage disposal; parkade=parking garage; chesterfield= sofa; dépanneur= a corner store;