Does BC have a unique English dialect? Researchers want to find out

With Canada being the second largest country in the world, it’s only natural that the slang between provinces might differ. But, researchers at McGill University want to know exactly how different these provincial dialects are.

McGill University is recruiting for the New Survey of Canadian English, which, as the name suggests, is all about researching the type of English language Canadians use.

This isn’t the first study done on this topic. The original study was done by researchers at the University of Victoria in 1972, with over 14,000 responses to questions on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary and spelling.

The study helped map out the similarities and differences between Canadian English and other dialects of English, including British, American, and Australian. It also gave insights into how the dialects vary between provinces, sexes, and generations.

That’s what the researchers at McGill are hoping to do but with a fresher view than over 50 years ago.

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Professor Charles Boberg is leading the project and hoping to “get a longer-term perspective on the evolution of Canadian English,” according to the study page. The new language questionnaire will feature 50 of the original questions alongside 30 new ones that focus on regional variation and change over the years.

Some of the key questions they’re hoping to answer are whether the regional differences in Canadian English have gotten bigger or smaller, whether the speech of teenagers and parents today is different from those in 1972, and whether Canadian English is converging with American English. Let’s hope it’s a no to that last question.

So, if you want to see how your BC dialect might vary from people in the other provinces, sign up for McGill’s study.