Ethnic Divergence in Montreal English

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Ethnic Divergence in Montreal English
Abstract
The author reports on his study of ethnic variation in the phonetics of Montreal English. The speech of 93 native speakers of Montreal English from three ethnic groups -- British-Irish, Italian and Jewish -- was recorded and subjected to acoustic analysis. The author identified several statistically significant differences among the ethnic groups. He found that while Jewish Montrealers show some signs of convergence with the British-origin standard, Italians — especially young Italian men — appear to be diverging from that model. The author suggestes that the unusual persistence and even intensification of ethno-phonetic variation in English-speaking Montreal reflects both the residential and social self-segregation of its ethnic communities and the local dominance of French.
Publication
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique
Volume
Vol. 59
Issue
no. 1
Pages
55-82
Date
March 2014
Language
en
Citation
Boberg, Charles. “Ethnic Divergence in Montreal English.” Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique Vol. 59, no. 1 (March 2014): 55–82.
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