Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles
CONTE - Corpus of Early Ontario English
| Introduction | TOP |
While we know quite a lot about the languages of Geoffrey Chaucer, the Beowulf poet or William Shakespeare, the study of Late Modern English is a relative newcomer to the field of historical linguistics. The first text book dedicated to that period was only published last year (Joan Beal. 2004. English in Modern Times. 1700-1945.). During the Late Modern English period the English language was further diversified, as its original colony became independet (USA), and new colonies were established (e.g. Canada, Australia and New Zealand).
Given the relative temporal proximity to our age, it may not be surprising that we know so little about the language of, e.g. Sir John A. MacDonald, the first Canadian Prime Minister (1867), or Governor John Graves Simcoe, the first 'Premier' of today's Province of Onatrio (1791). Even less, we can say about the varieties of Canadian settlers and pioneers.
There is a number of questions that one can study in Early Candian English. Here are some of them:
| How did earlier generations of Canadians speak, write, pray, swear, word their advertisements, give directions, apologize, express their anger etc.? |
| Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles | TOP |
A revision of this 1967 landmark publication is in the making, we're working towards a new DCHP! Access the project webpage at www.dchp.ca.
| Conference abstracts | TOP |
At ICAME-24 (24th Conference of the International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English) in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, UK, the Corpus of Early Ontario English was presented to the research community. April 2003.
Read the abstract of the conference paper here (pdf format).
At LMEC-2 (2nd International Conference of Late Modern English) in Vigo, Spain, first findings based on CONTE-pC (pre-Confederation section, 1776-1850) were presented. November 2004.
Read the abstract of LMEC-2 here (pdf format).
At the first conference entirely dedicated to the study of Canadian English in the Global Context, in honour of J.K. Chambers on the occasion of his retirement, findings on the modal auxiliaries were presented. Toronto, January 2005.
Read the CanEngConf abstract here (pdf format).
| CONTE - Corpus of Early Ontario English: | TOP |
Find out more about the CONTE here.
| Links | TOP |
Find out more about Canadian English, an understudied variety of English, here.