Echo of the Highlands: A Linguistic Analysis of Cape Breton English Past, Present, and Future

Résumé

The island of Cape Breton off the coast of mainland Nova Scotia has a unique and varied culture and history. Over the centuries, it has served as a home to Mi’kmaw, French, Celtic, and English inhabitants. As a result, the linguistic status of Cape Breton is complex and diverse, and the variety of English spoken on the island reveals multiple layers of interwoven cultural and linguistic contact and admixture. Although there exists literature on specific aspects of Cape Breton English, none (as of yet) has supplied a unified account of the dialect or its origins. This paper provides an explanation of the dialect’s origins through analysis of the region’s settlement history, as well as its linguistic features. Finally, this paper evaluates the relationship between Cape Breton English and Standard Canadian English to speculate on its future.