The Lesser-Known Varieties of English: Canadian Maritime English

Introduction The present chapter gives a brief overview of the dialectsof three regions in Nova Scotia: Halifax, Lunenburg and Cape Breton. Although this cannot hope to describe dialectalvariation in the Maritimes with any depth, it does serve to give an impression of the major dialectalvarieties that exist in the region. Maritimers are keenly aware of the differences in speech between natives of the region and other Canadians. The English-language dialectsspoken across the Maritimes (i.e. New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia) vary considerably in their phoneticcharacteristics. Indeed, some residents claim they can pinpoint a particular speaker's community of origin based solely on their speech characteristics. The phoneticdifferences between Maritime dialectscan be traced in part to historic settlement patterns over the last three centuries. For example, residents of Cape Breton, Nova Scotiaspeak dialectsvery similar to those spoken in Newfoundland given their common Scottish and Irish roots. In contrast, speech along the South Shore of Nova Scotiais largely non-rhotic, similar to the speech of the New Englanders who largely settled in this area. These phoneticpatterns are quite distinct from those of more standard Canadian dialectsor even from those heard in Halifax, the economic centre of the region. Other equally distinct differences in speech patterns can be heard elsewhere in the Maritimes.