The Bochum Gateway to World Englishes
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The Bochum Gateway to World Englishes |
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Books Literature on Canadian English Bähr, Dieter (1981). Die englische Sprache in Kanada; Eine Analyse des ‘Survey of Canadian English’ (Tübinger Bände zur Linguistik, 165). Tübingen: Gunther Narr Verlag. The book is written in German and therefore easy to understand for German students. It does not require much linguistic knowledge and is easily comprehensible. The first part of the book deals with the Survey of Canadian English and the first chapter describes the survey, its undertaking and the evaluation. Additionally, the second chapter deals with the results in systematic representation, for example the geographic variation or the language evolution. In chapter three, results are presented and in chapter four, edited diagrams can be found. This helps the reader to understand what the survey is about and what results emerge from it. [Central library: JDA 6471 or GB/8 M895] Boberg, Charles (2004). English in Canada: phonology. In:Kortmann, Bernd (ed.). A Handbook of Varieties of English; a multimedia reference tool; two volumes plus CD-ROM. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter. 351-366. This article in the Handbook of Varieties of English is about the phonology of Canadian English. It is well structured and comprehensible and consists of several subordinate points. These are an introduction, a summary of the history and status of Canadian English, a summary of the phonological and phonetic features of Canadian English and a conclusion. The whole article is written in an informative style. The language the author uses is easy to understand and requires only some linguistic background knowledge. Only chapter three which is about the phonological features of Canadian English is more difficult than the other chapters, but the subordinate points are brief. All in all, the article is not too long and interestingly written. As a special feature, a CD-ROM accompanies the two volumes of the book. [English seminar library: SBP Z04..(1)] Boberg, Charles (2004). The Dialect Topography of Montreal. English World-Wide 25 [2]. 170-198. In this research article on Dialect Topography, “a new survey of variation and change in Canadian English”, the author Charles Boberg compares data from Montreal to data from the Toronto region and to Quebec English. His aim is to examine differences between the varieties of English spoken in Canada. The article is well-structured and starts with an introduction and overview of the method the author uses. Part three deals with the results and the analysis of the data and is subdivided into subordinate points, as for example, “British vs. American variants” or “Contact with French (or not)”. The article ends with some concluding remarks. As regards the style, the language the author uses is quite simple, but nevertheless requires some linguistic knowledge because the content of the article is special. However, some tables can be found throughout the article to illustrate its contents. [Central library: ZGB 3217] Clarke, Sandra (ed.) (1993). Focus on Canada (Varieties of English around the world: General series; 11). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. This book consists of several different articles on Canadian English. Each one is about 25 pages long. There are a number of main emphases to be found, for example pronunciation, spelling or sociolinguistics. In some articles, figures are added to the text to make it easier to understand. Quite a few articles require a lot of linguistic background knowledge and are difficult to understand concerning the language, others are more accessible. The authors use different degrees of difficulty. [We have ordered the book and hope that it is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).] Görlach, Manfred (1988). English studies in varieties of English 1984-1988 (Varieties of English around the world: General series; 9). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 108-121. The chapter The identity of Candian English, written in 1987, is clearly structured and easily accessible. It consists of a short introduction, a survey of existing research, the settlement history, the nature of Canadian English on individual linguistic levels such as spelling or pronunciation, a survey of comparable cases of national varieties and some prospects. In addition, the subordinate points are brief and easy to understand. The author uses a language which requires not much linguistic knowledge. Furthermore, the chapter is written in an informative style. One figure which shows the regional and social variation in Canadian English can be found in this chapter. [We hope that this book is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).] McArthur, Tom (2003). Oxford Guide to World English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 207-225. In this book, the author Tom McArthur gives a survey of the English language as it is used all over the world. It consists of analyses of the vocabulary, the pronunciation and the grammar of varieties of English. Chapter three, “The Americas”, deals with the English language in America. On pages 207-225, the author concentrates on the English language as it is used in Canada. At first, he gives an overview of the languages spoken in Canada and then briefly mentions Canadian vocabulary. Furthermore, Quebec and the rest of Canada and Atlantic Canada are mentioned. Concerning Atlantic Canadian English, its pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary are explained and examples are given, too. The last part of the analysis on Canadian English concentrates on double-standard English and General Canadian and provides information on Canadian pronunciation. Altogether, the book is well written and requires no linguistic background. The language the author uses is easy to understand and the book is suitable as a good reference book. [We hope that this book is available in our library soon. In the meantime, please use the inter-library loan system (Fernleihe).] Trudgill, Peter; Hannah, Jean (42002). International English; A guide to the Varieties of Standard English. London: Arnold. This book gives an introduction to the varieties of English around the world. It has to be mentioned that in the book, the authors often use the term North American English to refer to United States English and Canadian English. In chapter three, The pronunciation of North American English, one subordinate point is concerned with the pronunciation of Canadian English. On three pages, the varieties General Canadian English, Maritime English and Newfoundland English are mentioned and their pronunciation is described. Chapter four deals with grammatical, orthographical and lexical differences between English (here: British Standard English grammar and vocabulary with the RP accent) and North American English. Some examples are used to help the reader. The language the authors use is easily understandable, but requires some linguistic knowledge because various technical terms are used. In addition, the reader has to know the phonetic alphabet in order to understand the differences between the pronunciation of United States English and Canadian English. (review by Nina Kappenberg) [There is a copy of the 2008 edition available at the central library: JDB 12094:5]
Websites http://www.canadianenglish.org/ This website, published by the Department of Linguistics of the University of Toronto, is, as it calls itself, “a resource for Canadian English on the web”. It gives information on courses at Canadian universities and current research. Furthermore, the reader can visit a conference website on Canadian English in the global context or other websites related to Canadian English. The website itself does not provide the reader with much information, but the links to other websites are quite useful as they often contain sound files to make clear the differences between the various ways of pronouncing words. All in all, the website is well structured and easily leads the reader to what he wants to know. http://www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html The website is entitled “Canadian raising and other oddities” and was published by the York University. You get there by using one of the links on the previously mentioned website http://www.canadianenglish.org/. It contains information on Canadian raising, the Canadian –eh and the rounding of non-high back vowels in individual words. Each aspect is accompanied by sound files. The descriptions of the different phenomena are brief but require some linguistic knowledge as several technical terms are used. At the end of each phenomenon described on the website, suggestions for further reading are mentioned. http://web.ku.edu/idea/northamerica/canada/canada.htm On this website, the reader finds information about the pronunciation of the different dialects and accents of Canada. You get there by following one of the links mentioned on the website http://www.canadianenglish.org/. On the right side, the reader chooses the dialect region he is interested in. The regions he can choose are Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. For each region, sound files with different examples of the dialect spoken in the particular area are available and can be listened to. Furthermore, some basic information about the speaker is given and the reader also finds a full biographical text about the speaker. In this text, special features of the speaker’s pronunciation are mentioned, too. The website is well structured and provides the reader with the most important information. It requires no linguistic background knowledge and is also suitable for non-linguists.
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© Christiane Meierkord and individual reviewers 2010 |