The documentary covers the origins of how we Canadians talk and why we spell things
differently. It covers why there is a disparity in our dialect and why we speak the way we do.
Moreover, Talking Canadian covers how exactly we speak today and how we will sound in the
future. The documentary looks at how we debate our pronunciation of words (such as either),
and how our accent is a mix of British and American influences. This can relate back to what we
learned in class about cultural anthropology. Going deeper, it relates to a subset of cultural
anthropology, that being ethnography. Ethnography is the study of an aspect of culture within
our society, and in this case, the Canadian accent is very much a part of the culture in this
country. Whenever someone brings up Canada, one of the first things that is mentioned is our
accent, and how it differs from other English-speaking places. In the episode, we meet a linguist
named Jack Chambers, who is an expert in the history of the Canadian accent and dialect. He
mentions how we used to call sofas, "chesterfields", which is what it was called in Britain. He
also adds on how it went from chesterfield, to sofas, and then to couch, which is used by most
people today. This can relate back to linguistic anthropology. Linguistic anthropology studies
the construction and use of words within a society, and in this case, Chambers discusses the idea
of how the word sofa originated from a completely different word due to the British influence
behind it. I think these ideas are relevant because they give us a background on how our country
was made in a way. We see how Canadian culture evolved overtime, but never forgot its roots.
Lots of people continue to use the same words that were used back then, such as "eh", or
pronouncing words different such as "about". Further, it gives us an idea of why we say certain
things and use certain words, even in basic conversations. To us, it may not seem very different
but to people even just outside Canada, it is a completely different dialect to them.