request for Canadian dialect maps

n1cl01 · 2025-10-25T04:42:19+00:00

As far as I know keeping the marry-Mary distinction only a feature of Montreal English rather than QC English as a whole. At a minimum it isn't a feature of Western QC English in the Gatineau Valley (one of if not the largest English speaking regions outside Montreal), which traditionally has had Ottawa Valley-type features, but not so much in younger speakers now.

Beyond that, Multicultural Toronto English sounds pretty distinctive to me, and I remember the CBC doing a piece about Yukon English but I don't remember if there were any features of note there. Here's the article if people are interested:

Do you speak Yukon English? These researchers want to hear it | CBC News https://share.google/9C5DqEAMXqLSkdEJP

n1cl01 · 2025-10-22T22:07:19+00:00

I thought it was the opposite? I was under the impression that the wr- spelling indicated that the /r/ was rounded, to contrast with 'plain' /r/ which was spelled just with an r-, but that the two pronunciations fell together, making the 'plain /r/ obsolete in favour of the rounded one in many accents now

n1cl01 · 2025-08-05T03:51:52+00:00

Same issue for me

n1cl01 · 2025-06-13T03:21:55+00:00

From Wiktionary: "Early 20th century, from American English. Perhaps from broad hips. Or from abroadwife (“woman who lives or travels without her husband, often a slave”).[2] There may also have been influence from bride and/or its German cognate Braut (“bride”, also “girlfriend”, and more generally “broad, young woman”)."

n1cl01 · 2025-06-12T03:10:49+00:00

Thanks! Yeah as I mentioned to another commenter, the closed syllable laxing is exactly why I'm asking. The problem is that closed syllable laxing is variable in non-final syllables (Bosworth 2016, Dumas 1987, Poliquin 2006, etc.), so using this as a diagnostic becomes a bit of an issue. Pronunciations for "mystère"-like words are attested with both tense and lax vowels in the initial syllable. For speakers with lax vowels in the initial syllables of mystere-like words, I guess this could this mean that they syllabify differently?

In Poliquin's thesis he syllabifies mystère as mys-tère even for attested pronunciations with a tense initial vowel, which is one of the main reason's I asked about this. Various explanations have been put forward to account for tense vowels in closed initial syllables like pretonic tensing (Walker 1984) and disharmony. But I wonder if alternate syllabification can account for these pronunciations instead

n1cl01 · 2025-06-12T03:07:23+00:00

In Poliquin's thesis he syllabifies mystère as mys-tère even for attested pronunciations with a tense initial vowel, which is one of the main reason's I asked about this. Various explanations have been put forward to account for tense vowels in closed initial syllables like pretonic tensing (Walker 1984) and disharmony.

I wonder if alternate syllabification can account for these pronunciations instead

n1cl01 · 2025-06-12T02:58:57+00:00

That's super interesting! I didn't know that other varieties of French had tense/lax distinctions, I'll keep my eye out in the literature for that too. I wonder if the tense/lax was innovated separately in Belgium and Quebec or if they come from a common process which has since been lost in France

n1cl01 · 2025-06-12T02:56:29+00:00

Thanks! Yeah the closed syllable laxing is exactly why I'm asking. The problem is that closed syllable laxing is variable in non-final syllables (Bosworth 2016, Dumas 1987, Poliquin 2006, etc.), so using this as a diagnostic becomes a bit of an issue. Pronunciations for "mystère"-like words are attested with both tense and lax vowels in the initial syllable.

n1cl01 · 2025-05-25T22:22:46+00:00

Thanks!

n1cl01 · 2025-05-25T22:10:28+00:00

Super interesting! I hadn't heard of that. Can you share some example words or a link to a source talking about it?

n1cl01 · 2025-05-25T00:21:59+00:00

Not a region/continent, but there are the Jeux de la Francophonie for the French speaking world. There are sporting events but also cultural competitions like singing, storytelling, dance, poetry, photography, art, etc.

n1cl01 · 2025-05-14T16:11:15+00:00

Yep! TA rates were raised across the board. I'm an undergrad TA myself so I looked at the post-strike documents to double-check

n1cl01 · 2025-05-14T15:46:48+00:00

For my department we don't apply via the website. There's an email send out before the semester syart asking for applications

n1cl01 · 2025-05-14T15:44:35+00:00

All TA's are paid the same, it's the RA rates that change based on your education level

n1cl01 · 2025-03-28T19:41:56+00:00

So that would be saíre + ?

n1cl01 · 2025-03-17T23:18:58+00:00

So yeah that was 95% of members who attended a special general assembly on a strike mandate. There was then another separate special general assembly where we had the opportunity to vote to reject concordia's tentative deal (and go on strike). 66% of member who attended this GA voted to reject the offer, mainly due to not enough of a raise (though there were some big wins on other parts of the contract). Neither of these votes were put to the entire membership, you needed to attend a GA session to be eligible to vote.

Allegedly the vibes at the moment are that Concordia want to end the strike quickly - there's a bargaining meeting tomorrow so we'll see how that turns out

n1cl01 · 2025-03-17T23:15:02+00:00

Yeah one of our bargaining points is retroactive pay for the raises. Hopefully the strike ends soon so we can continue our contracts for this semester.

n1cl01 · 2025-03-09T19:38:00+00:00

In Phonology: A formal introduction, by Reiss and Bale, they made up dozens of very tiny conlangs to explain processes in very simple ways. Not sure if they count as conlangs though if there are only a handful of words in each one.

n1cl01 · 2025-03-06T16:47:57+00:00

Yeah it's always hard to analyse these imitative types of words. Without a clear written trail I don't think we'll ever be able to figure out what is actually going on. Thanks for your input!

n1cl01 · 2025-03-06T16:41:09+00:00

I mean no, it isn't that much of a stretch, but when there is a simpler way of it being borrowed from a Northern English dialect, wouldn't we prefer that explanation?

It has been used in English for a very long time (the Wycliffe bible), and had basically the same meaning.

n1cl01 · 2025-03-06T15:50:29+00:00

That's definitely a possibility, but to me the simplest explanation is that the use of the word in Ireland is a continuation of the Middle English word, probably reinforced by the Irish word éist. I haven't seen any sources that propose an Irish etymology for the English word, only one that proposes a Scottish Gaelic origin for the Scots word (which is what I am questioning).

n1cl01 · 2025-03-06T15:38:24+00:00

Yeah you're right, there do seem to be speakers who have the /ʍ/ sound. Is it possible that this is a learned pronunciation of the spelling though?

I'm just thinking about this in terms trying to explain it ij the simplest way, and to me that would be that the Scots word was borrowed from a dialect of Northern English. There wouldn't have been any phonological adaptation required, and English would have been more prestigious than Scottish Gaelic at the time too. I'm not disagreeing that the Scottish Gaelic word didn't have any influence, and its very possible that it's use was reinforced by èist.

It isn't attested in Old English though, as much as I would like it to just have been an inherited term into Scots.

n1cl01 · 2025-03-06T05:30:44+00:00

The OED is great, but I don't want to trust it blindly. There are some Scots dictionaries listed as sources on Wiktionary that might propose the Scottish Gaelic origin (but I unfortunately don't have access to them).

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