British Columbia English

British Columbia English is the name used to describe the variety of the English language spoken in British Columbia, and its dialects.

There are many varieties of BC English, especially historically, as a result of the relative isolation of the various English-speaking communities, and the widespread use of Chinook Wawa especially in the central and northern parts of the Dominion. However, due to the advent of mass communications the various dialects are exhibiting a tendency towards merging. Until 1971, English-language radio and television broadcasts were made in Received Pronunciation (RP, also known as "BBC English" or "standard British English"), but that restriction was lifted and genuinely BC dialects have been used ever since. RP was taught in schools as "proper English" until 1974, so it is still common, but its actual usage is reflective of education, class, ethnicity, and register.

= Dialects of BC English = BC English is divided into three main dialect groups, called Island & Lower Mainland (ILM), West Kootenays (WK) and East Kootenays (EK) respectively, although these names are not entirely reflective of their geographic distribution; the subdialect spoken in Prince Rupert, for example, is an ILM variant, whereas that spoken in Prince George is largely an EK variant.

Like in Australian English, three "levels" of each dialect are defined - the Cultivated ("upper class"), the General ("educated middle class"), and the Broad ("working class" or "lower class"). The General variety of each is the most commonly encountered, and exhibit much less regional variation than the Broad varieties – for example, a speaker of General West Kootenay dialect from Kamloops sounds much like one from Penticton, but a speaker of Broad Nicola Valley variant of the West Kootenay dialect from Merritt has an accent distinct from that of a speaker of the Broad Boundary Country variant of the West Kootenay dialect from Sooyoos.


 * Island & Lower Mainland (ILM)
 * Island (ILM-I)
 * Vancouver Island (ILM-VI)
 * Prince Rupert (ILM-PR)
 * Lower Mainland (ILM-LM)
 * Greater Vancouver (ILM-GV)
 * Sunshine Coast–Squamish (ILM-SCS)
 * Fraser Valley (ILM-FV)
 * Lower Fraser Valley (ILM-LFV)
 * Upper Fraser Valley (ILM-UFV)
 * Lillooet (ILM-L)
 * West Kootenays (WK)
 * Nicola Valley (WK-NV)
 * South Okanagan (WK-SO)
 * Similkameen–Boundary Country (WK-SBC)
 * East Kootenays (EK)
 * Central East Kootenays (EK-C)
 * Southern East Kootenays (EK-S)
 * Cranbrook (EK-Cr)
 * North Okanagan-Shuswap (EK-NOS)
 * Prince George (EK-PG)

Island & Lower Mainland (ILM)
As the dialect spoken on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland (including the lower Fraser Valley west of Hope), the Island & Lower Mainland dialect is the most widely spoken of the BC dialects. It is a non-rhotic dialect; where it is articulated, /r/ is realised as [ɹ]. BC Standard English (BCSE) is based on the cultivated variant of the Island subdialect as spoken in Victoria.

The ILM dialect group has three major subdialects: Island (ILM-I), Lower Mainland (ILM-LM), and Fraser Valley (ILM-FV). Island can be further subdivided into the Vancouver Island (ILM-VI) and Prince Rupert (ILM-PR) variants; Lower Mainland includes the Greater Vancouver (ILM-GV) and Sunshine Coast–Squamish (ILM-SCS) variants; Fraser Valley consists of the Lower Fraser Valley (ILM-LFV), Upper Fraser Valley (ILM-UFV), and Lillooet (ILM-L) variants.

ILM-LFV tends to exhibit more characteristics of ILM-GV, whilst ILM-UFV tends to exhibit characteristics of the Nicola Valley variant of the West Kootenay dialect.

ILM-L is broadly similar to ILM-SCS, but with certain features that are distinctive of ILM-UFV, along with TH-STOPPING, which is otherwise found mostly only in the East Kootenays dialect group.

The influence of ILM-GV extends southwards into northwestern Washington State in the US, dominantly so around Bellingham, but extending as far south as Everett, north of Seattle. This, however, has been fading significantly since the 1960s under the influence of mass national media, notably television. Although the speech of this area is nowadays much more like the Pacific Northwest dialect of American English, with the addition of some features such as YOD-COALESCENCE, TR-AFFRICATION, and, to a lesser extent – a feature perceived as less educated – L-VOCALISATION.

ILM-PR is very similar to the Island subdialect, but is noticeable for the presence of TH-FRONTING, TH-ALVEOLARISATION and the articulation of /t/ as [ʔ].

West Kootenays (WK)
The West Kootenays dialect group is spoken in the West Kootenays, the Boundary Country, the Similkameen, the southern Okanagan, and the Nicola Valley. It is a rhotic dialect with /r/ articulated as [ɹ].

The WK dialect group has three major subdialects: Nicola Valley (NV), South Okanagan (SO) and Similkameen–Boundary Country (SBC). The Nicola Valley dialect is the basis of the stereotypical "uneducated redneck" in BC; the Boundary Country dialect is the closest to the General American and Canadian accents. The South Okanagan dialect shares similarities with certain variants of the East Kootenays dialect.

East Kootenays (EK)
Like WK, the dialect group of the East Kootenays and Central Interior (EK) is, with the exception of the Cranbrook dialect, rhotic; EK, being heavily influenced by the speech of Welsh, Scottish and Irish settlers, realises /r/ as [ɾ] (or, primarily amongst older speakers and in the most formal registers of younger speakers, as [r]). In the non-rhotic Cranbrook dialect, /r/ is realised as [ʋ]. Recently, it has become fashionable amongst lower middle class youth to pronounce it as [ɹ], as in the ILM dialects; however, this is stigmatised by both upper middle class and working class youth alike. The English spoken in the New Wales region centred on Blaenau, where Welsh is the dominant non-indigenous language, is generally not considered an EK dialect per se; rather, it is viewed in the same way as the English of First Nations populations: a second language influenced by the speakers' first language.

The EK dialect group has four major subdialects: Southern East Kootenays (EK-S), Central East Kootenays (EK-C), North Okanagan-Shuswap (EK-NOS), and Prince George (EK-PG).

EK-S shows very strong influence from the speech of Scottish settlers, though in certain small pockets the local Broad accent is – especially amongst older people – more reflective of the dialect spoken by the original settlers - notable for this is Cranbrook, where the local dialect shows many features, both phonological and lexical, of the dialects of Kent and Sussex in England, along with certain local innovations. Unlike most other local dialects, which are merging into the General variety spoken in the region, usage of the Cranbrook dialect (EK-Cr) remains strong amongst all segments of society in the city of Cranbrook. Some linguists consider the Cranbrook dialect as being entirely distinct from the EK-S group.

EK-C and EK-NOS are very similar to one another; EK-PG is quite distinct, showing heavy influence from the speech of the original - primarily Welsh - settlers, and from the First Nations languages of the area.

= Phonology = The following descriptions of the phonology of the dialects of BC English are based on Wells' lexical sets.

Consonants
This table gives an at-a-glance comparison of consonants in the various dialects.

BCSE	ILM-I	ILM-LM	ILM-FV	WK-Gen	WK-NV	WK-SO	WK-SBC	EK-G	EK-S	EK-Cr	EK-C	EK-NOS	EK-PG Unaspir. stops		*	*	*	*	*	*	*		*	*		*	*	* Rhotic							*	*	*	*	*	*		*	*	* FLAPPING /t/ > [ɾ]	(*)	(*)	*	*	*	*	*	*							1) GLOTTAL STOP /t/ > [ʔ]		(*)					*		*	*	*	*	*	*	2) YOD-DROPPING		(*)	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	3) YOD-COALESCENCE		*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*		*	*	*	TR-AFFRICATION				(*)	*	*	*	*	(*)							4) TH-FRONTING			(*)	(*)	*		*									5) TH-STOPPING			(*)	(*)	(*)	(*)	(*)	(*)	(*)	*	*	*	*	*	*	6) TH-ALVEOLARISATION			(*)	(*)		*									7) L-VOCALISATION				(*)	*		*		(*)							8) H-DELETION (function)		*	*	*		*		*			* H-DELETION (content)				(*)		*					*				9) Velar fricative		*	(*)	*	(*)			*		*	*	*	*	*