Linguistics

Bruce Stonefish sitting in front of the entrance to a wooden lodge, with green tarp partially covering the entrance

A Lifeline for an Endangered Language

U of T linguists have partnered with an Indigenous community member to bring the Munsee dialect back from the brink of extinction Read More

Rows of school chairs with slang words written on the desk arms: Mans ting, nize it, ahlie, miskeen

Do You Know Toronto Slang?

Youth are drawing from several languages spoken by the city’s immigrants to create a novel form of English Read More

The Oxford English Dictionary in Robarts Library at the University of Toronto, June 19, 2019. Photo by Nick Iwanyshyn

The Great Canadian Word Hunt

Canadian meanings of “soaker” and “bush party” don’t exist in the Oxford English Dictionary. A U of T linguistics prof is aiming to change that Read More

I’ll Rassle You for a Dozen Up!

Small-town Ontario English preserves older terms that have fallen out of use in the province’s larger cities Read More

OMG I Luv IM

Teens use a lot of instant messaging terms, but not in spoken conversation, study finds Read More

You Say Tomato…

Retiring linguistics prof identified unique characteristics of Canadian speech Read More

The Power of Television

A popular sitcom may be changing the way we speak Read More

The Gay Voice

Some men may subconsciously adopt certain female speech patterns Read More

U.S. of Eh?

Canadian English is not being Americanized to the extent once thought, and in fact the reverse is also happening Read More