Canadian English (CanE) is the variety of English spoken in Canada. Canadian English contains elements of American English and British English in its vocabulary, as well as several distinctive Canadianisms. In many areas, speech is influenced by French, and there are notable local variations. Canada has very little dialect diversity compared to the United States. The phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon for most of Canada are similar to that of the Western and Midland regions of the United States. The Canadian Great Lakes region has similarities to that of the Northeastern United States and/or Yooper dialect, while the phonological system of western Canadian English is virtually identical to that of the Pacific Northwest of the United States, and the phonetics are similar. As such, Canadian English and American English are sometimes classified together as North American English. Canadian English spelling is largely a blend of British and American conventions. Canadian English shares a number of phonological properties with Standard American English. Among these are syllable-final rhoticity and alveolar flapping. Canadian English can be called rhotic because, like in Standard American and Irish English, syllable-final r is pronounced in words like car and farm. Flapping is the process of replacing an intervocalic t or d with a quick voiced tap of the tongue against the alveolar ridge. In both Canadian and American English, it can only occur if the t or d is between two vowels, and as long as the second vowel is not stressed. As a result, the alveolar stops in waiting, wading, seated, seeded, and capital are all flapped. Flapping can also occur if there is an r between the first vowel and the alveolar stop, as in words like barter and party. In Canadian English, this feature is age-graded. Woods (1993) shows that older Canadians are less likely than younger ones to replace alveolar stops with flaps.
