Prairie English

E58053

dialect regional variety of Canadian English

Prairie English is a regional variety of Canadian English spoken primarily in the prairie provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, characterized by distinctive vowel patterns and subtle lexical differences.

Jump to: Surface forms Statements Referenced by

Observed surface forms (2)

Surface form	Occurrences
Prairie Canadian English	1
Western Canadian English	1

Statements (45)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	dialect ⓘ regional variety of Canadian English ⓘ
country	Canada ⓘ
differsFrom	Atlantic Canadian English ⓘ British Columbia English in some lexical items ⓘ Newfoundland English ⓘ Ontario English in some vowel realizations ⓘ Canadian English ⓘ surface form: Quebec English
hasFeature	Canadian Raising of /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ ⓘ cot–caught merger ⓘ distinctive vowel patterns ⓘ fronted /oʊ/ vowel ⓘ fronted /uː/ vowel ⓘ lexical items shared with Western Canadian English ⓘ relatively homogeneous accent across large geographic area ⓘ rhotic pronunciation ⓘ subtle lexical differences ⓘ
hasLexicalFeature	use of "bunnyhug" in parts of Saskatchewan ⓘ use of Canadianisms such as "chesterfield" by some older speakers ⓘ use of Canadianisms such as "toque" ⓘ
hasPerception	often perceived as a relatively neutral Canadian accent ⓘ
hasPhonologicalFeature	Canadian Shift in short front vowels ⓘ merger of /ɛ/ and /æ/ before /g/ in some speakers ⓘ
hasSociolinguisticStatus	standard regional accent in the Canadian Prairies ⓘ
influencedBy	American English from the northern United States ⓘ settler dialects from Ontario ⓘ settler dialects from the British Isles ⓘ
languageFamily	Germanic languages ⓘ Indo-European language family ⓘ surface form: Indo-European languages West Germanic languages ⓘ
overlapsWith	Canadian English ⓘ surface form: Western Canadian English
partOf	Canadian English ⓘ
region	Western Canada ⓘ
spokenIn	Alberta ⓘ Western Canada ⓘ surface form: Canadian Prairies Manitoba ⓘ Saskatchewan ⓘ
studiedIn	sociolinguistics of Canadian English ⓘ
subtypeOf	Canadian English ⓘ surface form: Western Canadian English
timePeriod	20th century ⓘ 21st century ⓘ
usedBy	residents of Alberta ⓘ residents of Manitoba ⓘ residents of Saskatchewan ⓘ
writingSystem	Latin alphabet ⓘ

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Maritime English → contrastedWith → Prairie English ⓘ

this entity surface form: Western Canadian English

Canadian English → hasSubvariety → Prairie English ⓘ

North American English → includesDialect → Prairie English ⓘ

this entity surface form: Prairie Canadian English