Introduction

Canada occupies a vast territory, embracing several regions distinguished from one another by climate, topography, network ties, orientation, and all the other factors that naturally accrue to geophysical spread. Sociocultural perspectives are further complicated by the existence within the Canadian boundaries of two long-standing national consciousnesses which simultaneously share Canadian nationality and maintain their own. Québec is the power base for the francophone minority, equal partners in Confederation since its inception in 1867. Newfoundland joined Confederation only in 1949 after centuries of colonial ties to Britain and self-government.

Linguistically, their presence affects Canadian English (hereafter CE) in interesting and very different ways. Québec's location interrupts the continuity of the English-language majority, splitting the Atlantic provinces from the central and western provinces, and it perpetuates bilingual buffer zones in the adjacent provinces of New Brunswick on the east and Ontario on the west. Newfoundland, though overwhelmingly anglophone, did not share mainland Canadian settlement history, and her political autonomy gave rise to an indigenous standard accent which is only now beginning to reflect the influence of mainland CE. Any generalisations that might be hazarded about CE must necessarily be qualified – implicitly or explicitly – by their presence.