Guide to Canadian English Usage
Strathy Occasional Papers on Canadian English
Strathy Student Working Papers on Canadian English
Guide to Canadian English Usage
Second Edition, Reissue
Fee, Margery and Janice McAlpine (2011) Guide to Canadian English Usage (Reissue, 2nd ed.) Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press
The complexities of the English language can be daunting for even the most fluent speakers, and for Canadians this is doubly so with the mixture of British and American traditions. Almost anyone engaged in formal writing will sometimes need to consult a usage guide for advice, but Canadians have always been forced to choose between a British or an American source. With the Guide to Canadian English Usage, writers will have an authoritative reference based on Canadian sources that provides pithy direction on numerous details of the language.
From the indefinite article to zoology, alphabetically arranged entries clarify issues of word choice, punctuation, spelling, and abbreviation. Throughout it offers guidance on Canadianisms, confusibles, difficult expressions, First Nation names, foreign phrases, grammar, inclusive language, punctuation, spelling, and troublesome pronunciations. Each entry explains the problem at hand, outlines a range of prescriptions, and then either recommends a particular usage or reviews the alternatives from which the now-informed reader can choose. All entries feature a wide range of fascinating quotations from Canadian sources.
Newly reissued in an attractive hardcover edition, the Guide to Canadian English Usage is the essential reference for any writer, editor, or speaker of English in Canada.
Ordering Information for Usage Guide
Previous editions:
Fee, Margery and Janice McAlpine (2007) Guide to Canadian English Usage (2nd ed.) Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press
Fee, Margery and Janice McAlpine (1997) Guide to Canadian English Usage (1st ed.) Toronto: Oxford University Press
Click here for a description and reviews.
Strathy Occasional Papers on Canadian English
Number 1: In Search of the Standard in Canadian English
ed. W.C. Lougheed. 1986.
192 pages. ISBN: 0-88911-469-2
This volume contains proceedings of a 1985 conference at Queen's University that gathered a diverse group of professionals working with language (linguists, lexicographers, teachers, journalists, and editors) to discuss their understanding of and guidelines for standard English usage in Canada.
Number 2: Writings on Canadian English, 1976-1987: A Selective Annotated Bibliography
ed. W.C. Lougheed. 1988.
66 pages. ISBN: 0-88911-510-9
This annotated bibliography of scholarly and popular articles on the English of Canada includes the standard national variety and regional dialects.
We also distribute Writings on Canadian English 1792-1975, ed. Walter S. Avis and A.M. Kinloch. Originally published by Fitzhenry &Whiteside (Toronto, 1978). 156 pages.
Number 3: The English Language as Used in Quebec, A Survey
Tom McArthur. 1989.
82 pages. ISBN: 0-88911-518-4
When Tom McArthur, a Scottish linguist and educator, became Associate Professor of English at the Université du Québec, he was quite surprised to discover the extent to which the English of bilingual anglophones in Quebec was influenced by French. In this pioneering study of Quebec English, McArthur records many of its lexical peculiarities and surveys the attitudes of respondents toward gallicisms in their speech.
Number 4: The Ottawa Survey of Canadian English
Howard B. Woods. 1999.
323 pages. ISBN: 0-088911-880-9
This survey offers a quantitative documentation of general Canadian usage. Interviews with Canadian-born anglophone citizens of Ottawa were used to extrapolate a phonological, morphological, syntactic, semantic, and lexical profile of Canadian English. Highlights of the analysis include support of Woods' hypotheses of phonological/stylistic and phonological/socio-economic co-variation. In other words, phonological features varied directly with the level of formality of the speech task and with socio-economic class.
Number 5: The Survey of Vancouver English: A Sociolinguistic Study of Urban Canadian English
R.J. Gregg et al. 2004.
ed. G. Dodds de Wolf, M. Fee and J. McAlpine
309 pages. ISBN: 1-55339-054-7
This volume serves as an introduction to one of the most extensive sociolinguistic studies ever undertaken in the English-speaking world. It is also a tribute to the enormous energy and learning of the late Robert J. Gregg (Linguistics Department, University of British Columbia), who directed this project. Includes articles by M.M. Murdoch, L. Rodman, E. Hasebe-Ludt, D.J. Richards, G. Dodds de Wolf, and J. Esling.
Number 6: Canadian English: A Linguistic Reader
ed. Elaine Gold and Janice McAlpine. 2010.
241 pages.
Topics covered in this reader include Canadian "demolinguistics" and dialect formation, the name "Canada", English vocabulary peculiar to Canada, the sounds of Canadian English (Canadian accents), "eh?" in Canadian English, Irish influences in Newfoundland and Ontario, the Black Loyalists of Nova Scotia and the speech of their descendants, regional differences in the English of Quebec and Newfoundland, the "Babel" of western Canada (Prince Rupert's Land) in the 18th and 19th centuries, and contemporary First Nations dialects of English.
Ordering information: Volume 1 and volumes 3-6 are available as pdfs on our QSpace site. We have limited hard copies of volumes 1-5 available in our office. If you are interested in a hard copy please contact us.
Strathy Student Working Papers on Canadian English
The Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English ran from 2000-2010, featuring papers by students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. All eight volumes are available for download by clicking the links that follow. Our new version of the series, Strathy Student Papers on Canadian English, includes papers by undergraduate and graduate students at any institution. The new series is hosted on our QSpace site. For more information and a call for papers, please click here.
Past volumes of Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English:
Volume 1: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. E. Gold and J. McAlpine. 2000.
132 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include Amerindian words in Canadian place naming, mechanisms of adopting French words into Quebec English, and social strife over a plural morpheme in the name of a Toronto neighbourhood.
Click here to download a pdf of volume 1. [9.47 MB]
Volume 2: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. E. Gold and J. McAlpine. 2001.
108 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include African English in Nova Scotia, Yiddish terms in urban Canadian English, an inter-tribal trading language in pre-Confederation British Columbia, the language policies of the CBC, and a well-known Canadian diphthongal shibboleth that affects how we say words such as "ice" and "out".
Click here to download a pdf of volume 2. [7.72 MB]
Volume 3: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. E. Gold and J. McAlpine. 2002.
144 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include French borrowings in Hawkesbury English, technological vocabulary across the generations, factors affecting British immigrants' adoption of Canadian vocabulary, spellings of new words, and acronym recognition at Queen's University.
Click here to download a pdf of volume 3. [9.37 MB]
Volume 4: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. W. Guyitt. 2003.
Series editors: E. Gold and J. McAlpine.
101 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include lexical variation across Canadian regions, classification of Ontario place names, the price of international success for Canadian lyricists, and ethnic influences on pronunciation and word choice.
Click here to download a pdf of volume 4. [6.11 MB]
Volume 5: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. S. Morrison. 2004.
Series editors: E. Gold and J. McAlpine.
99 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include the influence of the Harry Potter series on Canadian English, Halifax English, "vacation" and "holiday" in Canadian usage, urban slang, dialect in traditional songs from the Atlantic region, "b'y" in Newfoundland English, and "zero" and "oh" in recitation of phone numbers.
Click here to download volume 5. [6.44 MB]
Volume 6: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. E. Gold and J. McAlpine. 2007.
149 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University (the last volume in our print series). Topics include Pictou County (Nova Scotia) dialect, brand names used as generic vocabulary, regional proclivities in sports team naming, Canadian nationalism in Canadian English, diachronic changes in newspaper writing, euphemisms for the room with the toilet, alcohol-related vocabulary, and differentiation of synonyms in Canada and the US.
Click here to download a pdf of volume 6. [9.24 MB]
Volume 7: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. K. Heffernan. 2009.
Series editor: J. McAlpine.
59 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University (the first volume in electronic format). Topics include the effect of the Vietnam War on Canadian spelling; Canadians' under-reporting of phonological dialect features; differences in rural and urban use of "eh"; attitudes toward Brits, Americans and Canadians in relation to their speech act preferences; prestige usage in private high schools in Ontario; and factors predisposing first-generation Asian immigrants to acquire Canadian English phonological features.
Click here for the table of contents and pdfs of the articles for Working Papers volume 7.
Volume 8: Strathy Undergraduate Working Papers on Canadian English
ed. J. McAlpine. 2010.
92 pages.
This volume contains a collection of research papers written by undergraduate students in the Canadian English course at Queen's University. Topics include the Canadian perception of unfamiliar lexis in the Harry Potter series; hockey, donuts, coffee shop lexis, and national identity in Canada; Canadians' use of the word "sorry"; native and non-native speakers of English compared in their choice of Canadian lexical, spelling and pronunciation variants; social dominance and the construction of refusals on a Canadian campus.
Click here for the table of contents and pdfs of the articles for Working Papers volume 8.
Other
Dictionary of Canadian English [English-English, English-Chinese]
Xu, Hai and Janice McAlpine (2010) Dictionary of Canadian English [English-English, English-Chinese] . Beijing: Commercial Press of Beijing.
![Cover of Dictionary of Canadian English [English-Chinese, Chinese-English]](/strathy/sites/stratwww/files/uploaded_images/publications/chinesedict.jpg "cover of chinese-english dictionary")
Ordering Information
Usage Guide: The reissue of the second edition of Guide to Canadian English Usage is available from Oxford University Press [ISBN-13: 9780195445930]. It can be ordered from your preferred on-line book dealer.
Occasional Papers and Working Papers: Hard copies of volumes 1-5 of the Occasional Papers, volumes 1-6 of the Working Papers and the Avis & Kinloch bibliography are all available through the unit. Please contact us and we will be happy to mail you a copy.
English-Chinese Dictionary: This volume is available through Commercial Press of Beijing. To place an international order, please contact Dr. Xu Hai at xuhai1101 (at) yahoo.com.cn.