THE ONTARIO DIALECTS PROJECT:
A Grassroots Perpective On
History, Culture and Change
Sali A. Tagliamonte
Why does language change and how?
Language change tends to start in urban centres and spread
out to rural locales (e.g. Chambers & Trudgill, 1980).
This means that changes underway in Toronto may not have yet
reached outlying areas, particularly small Ontario towns
that are far away. In this project we will be documenting Ontario
dialects in the hinterland of Ontario. We hope to discover
Canadian dialects and uncover the roots of
Canadian English.
Every year in May I devote my research
time to visiting Ontario communities either on my own or
with som eof my students. In the summer of 2009–2010, we
visited North Bay and South Porcupine. In 2010-2011, we
were in Kirkland Lake and Temiskaming Shores. In May 2012,
we travelled to Haliburton and to Almonte.
As this research project develops, I will report my findings. Stay tuned!
Recent press
The Millstone, 3 May 2012: "Dialects
in the Community: Sociolinguistic Research in
the Almonte Area"
Haliburton Echo, 15 May 2012: "Linguist
Collecting Haliburton Stories for
Study," by Jenn Wyatt
CBC News
Ottawa, 1 June 2012: "'Pickin'
burries',
the Ottawa valley dialect" (includes an
audio file)
The Millstone, 2 June 2012: "Sali
Tagliamonte studies the Ottawa valley accent"
Ottawa Citizen, 4 June 2012: "Linguist
finds Ottawa Valley talk alive and well"
(includes a cow)
Your Ottawa Region, 26 June
2012: "Linguist
finds 'how she go' down the valley way
during research trip" by Desmond
Devoy
Language change in
Canada
The English language has been
changing rapidly over the past century and the
English spoken in Canada is no exception. My
recent research attests to dramatic patterns of
receding and innovating features. At least
some of these changes are progressing in a
unique way in Canada — a finding which
challenges the putative Americanization of
Canadian English and world Englishes more
generally.
Although we have extensive
information about changes underway in big cities
like Toronto; what is the nature of these
developments elsewhere in Ontario? A more
informative picture of the origins and
development of current change in Ontario
requires the examination of a wider variety of
communities, regions and social groups.
OntarioThe immense hinterland of Ontario presents a sociolinguistic situation antithetic to that of the urban centre of Toronto in the south.
First, from the beginning of the 19th century, immigrants from all over Northern England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Europe were recruited into the mines, lumber camps and farm land making the population multi-ethnic from its founders rather than developing from Loyalist (British) migrants as in the South.
Second, due to the rich natural resources (mining, lumber, pulp, and paper) the economic base has had a strikingly different trajectory. The early resource boom economy has developed serious challenges of sustainability in the 20th century.
Third, small communities have a distinct social structure with dense, multiplex social networks and influential local agencies.
Fourth, the geographical distribution of the population across Ontario is scattered. Most towns and villages were built around rich farm lands, mineral deposits or lumber mills and so the populations have remained self-contained to the present day.
Importantly, Ontario communities have a strong and distinct local identity, perhaps instigated by the urban-centric industrial and affluent south. Given the well-known sociolinguistic tenet that “language encodes social relations”, these factors together suggest that rural Ontario can be expected to be linguistically distinct from urban Ontario.
In sum, for academic as well as non-academic reasons, Ontario's many hinterlands presents an ideal context to explore Canada's dialects.
I would be very interested in hearing from you about words or expressions in your community!
If you know a place when I should visit next, please let me know!
