How "British" Are Victorians?

Victorians have a reputation for being “more British than the British.” But is that true, compared to other Canadians? If you look at the spoken word, it may be the case, says University of Victoria linguist Dr. Alexandra D’Arcy. To find out how much British English remains in the speech of current Victoria residents, she would like to interview people who were born and raised in the city. She’s also looking for old voice recordings of native Victorians. Aided by state-of-the-art language software, D’Arcy and her team search, transcribe and analyze voice samples, looking for key words and phrases that are markers of British and North American usage. For example, while British people tend to pronounce the word “news” as nyooz, North Americans say nooz. Other telltale words include “schedule” (shedule or skedule) and “due” (dyoo or doo).
       “With historical as well as contemporary data we’re able to put the development of English in Victoria into context with the development of standard urban Canadian English,” says D’Arcy, who studies dialect formation and how languages change over time. Preliminary results of her study suggest that, linguistically, Victorians may indeed be more “British” than other Canadians.
       Native Victorians who would like to participate in the study, or who have old voice recordings of native Victorians, are asked to contact D’Arcy at adarcy@uvic.ca or call 250-472-4579.

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