Article
First of all this article is written by I am who is not an English native speaker, but my major is in the field of applied linguistics where English is being used widely in my classroom. Any errors in this article can be occurred and I open for any comments. Thanks.
About or A boat?
English is spoken by many countries around the globe; however, it is quite different from Great Britain to New Zealand. Since I am in eCanada, I select Canadian English to write in this article. This dialect is interesting since Canada is a neighbor of America, but still reflects British strongly both in politics and education. Therefore, learning about Canadian English will show us some examples how the language changes, as well as the reasons why it changes and in what features.
Background
Starting in as early as 1497 (Cystal D., 2002), it was the first that English language came to Canada; however, it took a century later to develop when fishing, faming, and fur-trading brought British settlers to Canada. After French defeated in Queen Ann’s war (1702-13), lots of French and Indian were deported from Nova Scotia (named for New Scotland), a lot of people from England, Ireland, and Scotland came to Canada. Canada became a colony of the British Empire in 1763; furthermore, because of American Revolution (1776), lots of Americans who still wished to remain under British migrated to Canada.
Although Canadian English may have been similar to English spoken in North America, the influences of British English in Canadian English can appear in spelling, pronunciation, and a significant feature in discourse is the use of eh? as a tag (Cystal D. 2002).
Spelling variation
Although British is the origin of Canada, including a number of people from America who are its neighbor, spelling variation seems to mix both with BrE and AmE such as tire and centre. Tire is AmE’s spelling and centre is BrE’s spelling. Moreover, there is a matter in Quebec where French is widely spoken so that sometimes there is some conflicts over spelling such as Canadian Airlines which is Canadien in French so that the airline came up with replacing “a” to “>” as a company logo instead. Words ending with –ize which is AmE also uses in Canada English such as apologize.
BrE colour, cheque, programme
AmE color, check, program
CanE colour or color, cheque, program
In addition, most of automobile words derived from American English more than British English since Canada has closer relationship in this industry with America.
Pronunciation
There are two significant features in Canadian English: the sound of a certain diphthongs are raised before voiceless consonant such as /É’I/ becomes /ÊŒI/, and /É’ÊŠ/ become /ʌʊ/ so that out will sound like oat, or about will sound like a boat. This feature is called “Canadian Raising”.
Vocabulary
Many words and phrases in Canadian English derived from both British English and American English, and some of them derived from Native American such as kayak and kerosene.
Discourse features
The use of eh? as a tag is usually spoken in Canada English with a rising intonation.
He finally gets to the garage, eh, and the car’s gone.
*This tag is found in NZE as well as aye? NZE’s tag derived from Maori language. However, Canadian English derived from Scottish English.
Canada combines with 10 provinces and 3 territories. In addition, English and French are the first languages for 59.7% and 23.2% respectively, and around 98% speak English or French with 68.1% speak only English, 12.2% only speak French, and 17.5% speak both English and French according to Census of Canada (2011).
When we consider in Canadian English, they have features of British English and American English because in the past, lots of people from British Isle moved to Canada, together with the trading between two nations which it showed in Canadian English why there are some business words in British English appears in Canadian English. In addition, Canada has close relationship in automobile industry with America, as well as some Americans moved there during the American Revolution so that this is the reason why some feathers in American English also appear in Canadian English. Furthermore, there are some words from Native American are borrowed to use in Canadian English as well.
The regional variation, in North America, and the social variation, trading with British and American, have some influence in Canadian English, and make it have mixed features both in British English and in American English.
Hopefully, this article may help you to see what is Canadian English, and again any comments particularly form native Canadians are more than welcome.
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About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
