加拿大英語也存在嗎？如果存在，它又當如何呢？
The standard stereotype among Americans is that Canadians are like Americans, except 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 as proof will hold aloft the spellings colour and centre and the name zed for the letter Z.
按美國人的標準，加拿大人跟美國人沒什麽不壹樣，只是前者愛說“eh”，將“out and about”說成“oot and aboot”。而許多加拿大人則會說加拿大英語更像英式英語，證據就是仍然堅持colour和centre的拼寫法，zed代替字母Z。
Canadian does exist as a separate variety of English, with subtly distinctive features of pronunciation and vocabulary. It has its own dictionaries; the Canadian Press has its own style guide; the Editors’ Association of Canada has just released a second edition of Editing Canadian English. But an emblematic feature of Editing Canadian English is comparison tables of American versus British spellings so the Canadian editor can come to a reasonable decision on which to use… on each occasion. The core of Canadian English is a pervasive ambivalence.
加拿大英語作為英語的壹個變體的確存在，二者存在細微的差異，體現在發音和詞匯上。加拿大英語有自己的詞典；加通社有自己的風格指南；加拿大編輯協會剛剛發布了《加拿大英語編輯》第二版。然而其中的壹個標誌性特征就是書中有壹個美式英語和英式英語對照表，這樣加拿大編輯就可以做出合理的決定在何種情況下使用何種拼寫方式。加式英語的關鍵在於彌漫著矛盾性。
Canadian history helps to explain this. In the beginning there were the indigenous peoples, with far more linguistic and cultural variety than Europe. They’re still there, but Canadian English, like Canadian Anglophone society in general, gives them little more than desultory token nods. Fights between European settlers shaped Canadian English more. The French, starting in the 1600s, colonised 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 ‘New France’ to England. The English allowed any French to stay who were willing to become subjects of the English King.
加拿大的歷史有助於解釋這種矛盾性。最初，這兒有其土著民，語言和文化各不相同，其數量之多遠超歐洲。他們至今都還在那兒，但加式英語，壹般像加拿大英語協會壹樣，對他們來說，不過是增加壹點點頭之交而已。加拿大英語的形成還要歸功於歐洲殖民者之間的爭鬥。在17世紀，法國人在聖勞倫斯河地區及其南邊的大西洋沿岸開始殖民統治。在18世紀中葉，英國人與法國人開戰，1763年結束戰爭，簽訂了《巴黎和約》(1763)，合約規定將“新法蘭西”割讓給英國。只要願意臣服英國國王的法國人，英國都允許他們留下來。
At the time of the Treaty of Paris, however, there were very few English speakers in Canada. The American Revolution changed that. The founding English-speaking people of Canada were United Empire Loyalists – people who fled American independence and were rewarded with land in Canada. Thus 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.
然而，在《巴黎和約》鑒定之時，加拿大幾乎沒有人說英語。美國革命改變了這壹切。在加拿大開始說英語的人都是聯合帝國忠臣--這些人是從美國逃離而來，在加拿大得到土地饋贈。因此，加式英語從壹開始都有美國味和非美國味之分，前者是因為說英語的人都是來自美國殖民地，後者拒絕美國這個新獨立的國家。
Loyal to the Crown
Just as the Americans sought to have a truly distinct, independent American version of English, the loyalists sought to remain more like England… sort of. These were people whose variety of English was already diverging from the British and vice versa: when the residents of London and its environs began to drop their r’s and change some of their vowels people in certain parts of the United States adopted some of these changes, but Canadians did not.
忠於皇室
正如美國人追求的是要有壹種真正有區別的，獨立的美式英語壹樣，反獨立者堅持保留更多的英國味。這些人的英語已經從英式英語分離出來了，反之亦然：住在倫敦及其教區的人開始扔掉“r”而且還改變了元音，在美國某些地區的人也采用了其中某些改變，但加拿大人沒有改變。
There did end up being more British influx and influence in Canada. After the War of 1812, Mother England encouraged emigration to Canada to ensure that loyal sentiments prevailed. The accent did not become British, though British schoolteachers and authorities did leave their marks on spelling and grammar. Canadians are indeed subjects of the Queen, but they are also neighbours – and the greatest trading partners – of the United States. The British may be family, but Americans are friends. Or sometimes ‘frenemies’.
更多的英國人湧入及其產生的影響得以終結。1812年戰後，母國英國鼓勵人們移民加拿大以確保人們忠誠情緒。盡管來自英國的中小學老師和專家們註明了拼寫和語法標記，但無法把口音也改變成英式口音。加拿大人至今確實還是英國女王的臣民，但他們也有自己的鄰居--美國這個最大的貿易夥伴。英國人可以算作是家庭成員，但美國人卻是朋友，或者說有些時候還可算作是“友敵”吧。
Canadian English varies only a little across most of the continent. The Canadian west was not much settled by Europeans until the late 1800s, when land incentives were given to Anglo-Canadians from Ontario and to immigrants from Britain and some other countries (for example, Ukraine, from where immigrants began arriving in Canada in 1891). There are more distinctions in the Atlantic coast provinces, but especially in Newfoundland, which had been settled by Irish English-speakers and was not officially a province of Canada until 1949.
北美大陸大部分地區的加式英語變化不大。加拿大西部知道19世紀才有歐洲人定居，當時對來自安大略的盎格魯加拿大人、來自不列顛和其他國家(如烏克蘭，這移民1891年開始到達加拿大)的移民實施土地激勵政策。在大西洋沿岸省份還是有很多區別，尤其是在紐芬蘭，這兒原本是說愛爾蘭英語的人定居地，直到1949年才成為加拿大的壹個省。
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 Americans, with bits from other cultures mainly in the kitchen, a few traces of the indigenous cultures who used to be the only occupants, and some influence from the French roommate.
今天，五分之壹的加拿大人都不是以英語或法語為自己的母語，--其數量之多接近以法語為母語的人數。然而加式英語的壹個基本特點還是出現在親英美國人家庭中，這些家庭中其他文化上的細微差異主要體現在廚房中，還留有壹些土著文化的痕跡，這些土著文化本屬於房屋的主人，有些還受到法國室友的影響。
‘Oot and aboot’
Canadian spelling is, as mentioned, a tug-of-war between the British and the Americans – jail but centre, analyze but colour. Because Canada is bilingual, French may also have an effect. For example, many signs and labels and institutional names are in French and English, and it’s easier if you can press a word into double service: Shopping Centre d’Achats.
加式拼寫，正如上面所提及的那樣，是壹種英式和美式英語的拔河比賽。“監獄”采取美式拼寫jail，而“中心”又吸取英式拼寫centre，“分析”為美式拼寫analyze，但“色彩”又是英式拼寫“colour”。由於加拿大是雙語國家，因此，加式英語也受法語的影響。比如，許多標牌和標簽，機構名稱都用法語和英語拼寫，只要輸入壹個詞，就很容易得到雙語服務：“購物中心”的雙語為：Shopping Centre d’Achats。
Most Canadians will tell you they don’t say ‘eh’ much
加拿大人大多會告訴妳他們不會“啊，啊”說過不停。
Also possibly influenced by French is the Canadian eh. French Canadians use hein (also colloquially spelled han) in most of the same kinds of places English Canadians use eh, and they use it more. The eh of Canadian English is not a Canadian invention; it is used in England and elsewhere, but it is used in more different ways in Canada, notably as an emphatic and to maintain conversational involvement: No kidding, eh; Thanks, eh; So I was going to the store, eh, and this guy cut me off. The truth of it is, though, that most Canadians will tell you they don’t say “eh” much, and it is more associated with less-educated speech.
可能受法語影響的還有加拿大人口中的“eh(啊)”。法裔加拿大人使用hein(口語拼寫為han)，在相同場合，英裔加拿大人使用“eh”，而且使用頻率更高。加式英語中的eh並非加拿大人的發明；英國或其他地方都是使用這個詞，只是加拿大使用的方式更為不同，特別是被當作強調來使用，旨在表示在參與討論：別開玩笑了啊，謝謝啊；那我要去商店了啊，可者家夥就是不讓我走。然而，事實是大多數加拿大人會對妳說他們不是老是說“啊”，這個詞更多是與未受教育的話聯系在壹起。
The Canadian accent – or accents, since there is a bit of variation across the country (and much more in Newfoundland) and a larger amount across socioeconomic levels – has a few signal features, and they, too, trace partly to the US and partly to Britain. The best-known feature is ‘Canadian raising’, which affects two specific diphthongs before voiceless consonants: the first part of the diphthong is higher in ice and out than it is in eyes and loud. The out raising makes the vowel sound more like ‘oot’ to American ears. This feature is present across much but not all of Canada. It may be influenced by Scottish English (many British emigres were Scots), or it may be a relic of Shakespeare-era pronunciation.
這種加拿大口音--加式腔--由於各地都有些變體(尤其在紐芬蘭)，各個社會經濟層面數量較大--因此，也有幾個標誌性特征，因此，這種口音的形成部分原因可以追溯到美國，部分可以追溯到英國。最明顯的特征是“加式升音”，雙元音如出現清輔音前，雙元音中的每個元音都會受到影響：ice[ais]和out[aut]中雙元音中第壹個元音的音就要比eyes[aiz]和loud[laud]中的第壹個元音要高壹些。Out中的這種升音，讓美國人聽起來就像是“oot”。這個特征雖說不是全加拿大都有，但至少說大部分地區都這樣。這可能受到蘇格蘭英語的影響(許多英國人移民都是蘇格蘭人)，或者說可能是莎士比亞時代發音的遺跡吧。
Another feature is the ‘low back merger’, which makes caught and cot sound the same. Following on this is what is called the “Canadian vowel shift”, whereby bit sounds a bit like bet, bet sounds a bit like bat, and bat is said a bit farther back in the mouth. This shift is still in progress. These changes seem to have originated in Canada, though similar patterns can be seen in some parts of the US.
另壹個特征就是“低後混合元音”，這就讓caught和cot聽起來是壹樣的。這種現象叫“加拿大元音遷移”，所以，bit聽起來有點像bet，bet聽起來有點像bat，據說bat發音時在口腔中要靠後壹點。這種前移還在持續。這些變化好像源自加拿大，盡管相同的發音模式在美國有些地方也可以聽得見。
Happy ‘May two-four weekend’!
Beyond these details, Canadians tend to sound like Americans, especially depending on where the Americans are from. This is why citizens of each country can be blindsided by the unexpected differences peppered throughout the vocabulary. There are many. Katherine Barber, former editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, has collected many signature Canadianisms in her book Only in Canada, You Say.
“5.24周末”愉快！
除了以上那些細節差異外，加拿大人還有壹個趨勢，就是聽起來要像美國人，尤其是那些來自美國的人。這就是為什麽每個國家的市民都可能因為散布在詞匯中意外的差異受到出其不備的打擊，而且還有很多。前《加拿大牛津詞典》主編凱瑟琳.巴貝在她的書《加拿大語言薈萃》中收集了許多這種具有鮮明特征的加拿大英語詞匯。
Sometimes Canadians use the same words as Americans in different ways: in Canada, if you write a test, you’re the one being tested, while in the US you’re the test maker. Sometimes Canadians use different words for the same things: garburator for kitchen disposal, bachelor apartment for studio apartment,runner for sneaker or running shoe, two-four for a case of 24 bottles or cans of beer (the uniquely Canadian holiday Victoria Day, which occurs on a Monday near 24 May, is called the ‘May two-four weekend’ in reference to this).
有時，加式英語所用的字詞，美式英語用另壹種方式：在加拿大，如果妳說妳write a test，意思說在參加考試，但在美國，意思妳在制卷。有時，同壹個事情加式英語用不同的詞來表達：garburator指廚房處理，bachelor apartment指單身小公寓，runner指運動鞋或跑鞋。Two-four指壹箱24瓶/廳的啤酒(獨特的加拿大節日維多利亞紀念日，指5月24日的星期壹，故用“5.24周末”來指稱。)
Some words refer to things Americans don’t seem to have:toque for a kind of fitted knitted hat; poutine, Nanaimo bars, and butter tarts for three of Canada’s great culinary gifts to the world if the world would but accept them; Caesar for a bloody Mary made with clamato juice (tomato plus clam). There are hockey metaphors, of course, like deking someone out and stickhandling a problem. There are occasional borrowings from Quebec French (unrecognisable in France) such as the aforementioned poutine, and dépanneur for a convenience store.
有些詞所知的東西，美國好像是沒有的，如toque指編制帽；poutine(普丁薯條), Nanaimo bars（納奈莫甜點）, butter tarts （牛油撻），這三種甜點，如果能得到世界的接受，也算是加拿大呈現給世界的三大廚房禮物吧。Caesar指血腥瑪麗，由番茄汁(番茄+蛤肉)。當然，還有些隱喻來自曲棍球，如deking someone out (騙出某人)，stickhandling a problem (靈活處理...)。有些偶爾借自魁北克法語(這些法語法國也沒有)，比如前面提到的poutine，dépanneur(即方便店)
These Canadianisms stand as evidence of the difference between Canadian and American culture. It is very important for Canadians to maintain that difference, even if people from Vancouver sound more like people from San Francisco than people from San Francisco sound like people from San Antonio. Though English-speaking Canadians remain loyal to the Queen, they aren’t truly interested in being British or sounding British; they’re just interested in using the British connection to assert their independence from the independent United States, which they left because they didn’t want to leave. An ambivalent situation indeed.
這些加式英語就是活生生的證據，表明加拿大和美國文化之間的差異。保持這種文化差異對加拿大人來說是非常重要的，來自溫哥華的人與來自舊金山的人口音相似，舊金山人與自聖安東尼奧的人的口音。即便如此，前者的相似度大於後者。盡管說英語的加拿大人依然忠誠於英國女皇，他們對成為英國人或者聽起來像英國人並不真正感興趣。他們感興趣的只是用英式英語來顯示他們是從獨立的美國中獨立的，他們離開並不是因為真的想離開。這的確是壹種矛盾的心情。
希望能幫助到妳，望采納！