A preliminary survey of the regional English of Saskatchewan based on a study of some archival documents

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Date
1989-06Author
Ahmed, Soheil
Type
ThesisDegree Level
MastersMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
The purpose of my research is to compile a list of words and expressions from a
study of the Pioneer Folklore Questionnaire. Based on these findings I intend to
demonstrate that a regional variety of English may exist in this province whose affiliations
extend to other regional varieties of North American English. To establish this
point, I have tried to evaluate Canadian English itself within the context of North
American English.
In hypothesising the existence of a regional variety of English in this province, I
have applied the continuum model to the analysis of this problem. This model serves as
the theoretical premise for my work. The first chapter considers the concept of the dialect
continuum and other related issues such as heteronomy and autonomy, showing how
these may apply to a specific variety.
The second chapter describes the archival documents on which this work is based. It
also gives an account of the methodology used; the linguistic analysis and description of
the findings that follow are intended to suggest what their dialectal significance might be.
The final chapter consists mainly of the findings incorporated into a Word List and
an Appendix, respectively. This chapter has an introductory section which further
describes the archival documents used, and provides information on the informants themselves.
This introduction also describes the criterion of selection of the items in the Word
List.