THE DIFFERENCE BETWEE BRITISH ENGLISH AD CAADIAN ENGLISH

HISTORY
The term "Canadian English" is first attested in a speech by the Reverend A. Constable Geikie in an address to the Canadian Institute in 1857. Geikie, a Scottish-born Canadian, reflected the Anglocentric attitude prevalent in Canada for the next hundred years when he referred to the language as "a corrupt dialect," in comparison to what he considered the proper English spoken by immigrants from Britain.

Canadian English is the product of four waves of immigration and settlement over a period of almost two centuries. The first large wave of permanent English-speaking settlement in Canada, and linguistically the most important, was the influx of British Loyalists fleeing the American Revolution, chiefly from the middle Atlantic states. The second wave from Britain and Ireland was encouraged to settle in Canada after the War of 1812 by the governors of Canada, who were worried about anti-English sentiment among its citizens. Waves of immigration from around the globe peaking in 1910 and 1960 had a lesser influence, but they did make Canada a multicultural country, ready to accept linguistic change from around the world during the current period of globalization.
The languages of Canadian Aboriginal peoples started to influence European languages used in Canada even before widespread settlement took place and the French of Lower Canada provided vocabulary to the English of Upper Canada.

SPELLING
Canadian spelling of the English language combines British and American rules. Most notably, French-derived words that in American English end with -or and -er, such as color or center, usually retain British spellings (colour and centre), although American spellings are not uncommon. Also, while the U.S. uses the Anglo-French spelling defense (noun), Canada uses the British spelling defence. (Note that defensive is universal.) In other cases, Canadians and Americans stand at odds with British spelling such as in the case of nouns like tire and curb, which in British English are spelled tyre and kerb.

Like American English, Canadian English prefers -ize endings whenever British usage allows both -ise (the Cambridge model) and -ize spellings (the Oxford model) (e.g. realize, recognize). However, some of the technical parts of the Air section of Transport Canada, e.g., Air Policy,[3] use a compromised Cambridge model; e.g., tires instead of tyres, but organisational rather than organizational.

Canadian spelling rules can be partly explained by Canada''s trade history. For instance, the British spelling of the word cheque probably relates to Canada''s once-important ties to British financial institutions. Canada''s automobile industry, on the other hand, has been dominated by American firms from its inception, explaining why Canadians use the American spelling of tire and American terminology for the parts of automobiles.

A contemporary reference for formal Canadian spelling is the spelling used for Hansard transcripts of the Parliament of Canada. Many Canadian e***ors, though, use the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Oxford University Press, 2004), often along with the chapter on spelling in E***ing Canadian English, and, where necessary (depending on context) one or more other references.

PHONOLOGY AND PRONUNCIATION
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Although there is no single linguistic definition that includes Canada as a whole, a fairly homogeneous dialect exists in Western and Central Canada. William Labov identifies an inland region that concentrates all of the defining features of the dialect centred on the Prairies, with periphery areas with more variable patterns including the metropolitan areas of Vancouver and Toronto.

The following features distinguish Canadian English from a phonologically conservative Northern U.S. accent:

Canadian raising: Diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants. For example, IPA /aẫê/ and /aấS/ become [ẫTẫê] and [ẫTấS], respectively, before [p], [t], [k], , [f]. It is found throughout Canada, including much of the Atlantic Provinces.[6] It is the strongest in the Inland region, and is receding in younger speakers in Lower Mainland BC, as well as certain parts of Ontario. Many Canadians do not possess this feature, and defining the dialect by this would exclude parts of Atlantic Canada and include some adjacent portions of the U.S.
Cot-caught merger: Speakers do not distinguish between the open-mid back rounded vowel [ẫ"] and open back unrounded vowel [ẫ'].
Canadian Shift: It is the defining feature of all of Canada except the Atlantic Provinces.[7] It is a chain shift triggered by the cot-caught merger. The vowels in the words cot and caught merge to [kẫ"t]. The /Ư/ of bat is retracted to [a], the /ẫ>/ of bet shifts to [Ư], the /ẫê/ in bit then shifts to the [ẫ>] in bet.[8] The Canadian shift is absent from the U.S., except for some speakers scattered throughout the far West, although the California vowel shift contains similar features.
Tra***ionally diphthongal vowels such as /oấS/ (as in boat) and /eẫê/ (as in bait) have qualities much closer to monophthongs in some speakers especially in the Inland region.
/o/ and /aấS/ are pronounced back.
/u/ is fronted after coronals.
/Ư/ is tense before velar stops.
Words such as borrow, sorry or tomorrow are realized as [-ẫ"r-], rather than [-ẫ'r-].
The island of Newfoundland has a distinctive dialect of English known as Newfoundland English; many in the Maritime provinces õ?" Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island õ?" have an accent that sounds more like Scottish English and, in some places, Irish English than General American. There is also some French influence in pronunciation for some English-speaking Canadians who live near, and especially work with, French-Canadians.

The phonology of Maritimer English has some unique features:

Pre-consonantal [ẫạ] sounds are sometimes removed.
The flapping of intervocalic /t/ and /d/ to alveolar tap [ẫắ] between vowels, as well as pronouncing it as a glottal stop [ấ"], is less common in the Maritimes. Therefore, battery is pronounced as [ậ^bƯtẫại] instead of [ậ^bƯẫắ(ẫT)ẫại].
Northern Canada is, according to Labov, a dialect region in formation.[


Pronunciation
The /ẫ'/ of foreign loanwords (such as pasta) is pronounced as /Ư/.
Been is pronounced by many speakers as /bin/ rather than /bẫên/.
Words such as fragile, fertile, and mobile are pronounced as [fẫạƯdấ'ajlèâ], [fẫtajlèâ], and [moấSbajlèâ]. The American pronunciation of fertile as [fẫẫắlèâ] is also becoming somewhat common[citation needed] in Canada, even though [fẫạƯdấ'ajlèâ] remains dominant.
Words like semi, anti, and multi tend to be pronounced as [sẫ>mi], [Ưnti], and [mấOlti] rather than [sẫ>maẫê], [Ưntaẫê], and [mấOltaẫê]. Often, a Canadian will use the former in general use, but the latter in order to add emphasis[citation needed].
Lieutenant is pronounced [lẫ>f''tẫ>nẫTnt].
The word premier "leader of a provincial or territorial government" is commonly pronounced [ậ^pẫại.mjiẫạ], with [ậ^pẫạẫ>.mjẫ>ẫạ] and [ậ^pẫại.mjẫ>ẫạ] being rare variants.
The herb and given masculine name basil is usually pronounced [ậ^bƯzẫTl] rather than [ậ^bezẫTl].
Some Canadians pronounce asphalt as "ash-falt" [ậ^aấf.fẫ'lt].[10] This pronunciation is also common in Australian English, but not quite so in General American English or British English.

VOCABULARY

Comparison of Canadian, British, and American lexicons
Where Canadian English shares vocabulary with other English dialects, it tends to share most with American English; many terms in standard Canadian English are, however, shared with Britain, but not with the majority of American speakers. In some cases the British and the American term coexist, to various extents; a classic example is holiday, often used interchangeably with vacation. In ad***ion, the vocabulary of Canadian English also features words that are seldom (if ever) found elsewhere.

As a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, Canada shares many items of institutional terminology with the countries of the former British Empire õ?" e.g., constable, for a police officer of the lowest rank, and chartered accountant.