| Popis: |
of English which is thought to be a blend of Scottish and Irish types, with Irish characteristics predominating. Since it is clearly different from the kind of English spoken in adjacent urban areas, and especially the city of Ottawa, it is naturally considered to be a less-than-perfect variety of English, and therefore it is sometimes referred to as the Ottawa Valley "twang"; in addition, and in the circumstances more justly, it is sometimes called the Ottawa Valley "brogue." Since 1974, we have been investigating the complex linguistic realities which are the source of these comfortable myths. The Ottawa River is the major tributary of the St. Lawrence. Together, the two rivers drain a vast area of the North American Continent. The area commonly referred to as the Ottawa Valley, however, extends only from the confluence of the two rivers at Lac des Deux Montagnes, just west of Montreal, northwestwards to Algonquin Park (a total distance of some 500 kilometers), and in fact is often restricted only to that part of the river valley which extends from the City of Ottawa (200 kilometers west of Montreal) to Algonquin Park. The area under investigation by the Linguistic Survey of the Ottawa Valley, of which we are Directors, might be loosely described as that portion of the Ottawa River's drainage basin between the Lac des Deux Montagnes and Algonquin Park in which the population is English speaking. More precisely, the area of the Survey includes the whole of Renfrew, Lanark, Carleton, Grenville, Dundas, Stormont, Glengarry, Prescott, and Russell Counties in the Province of Ontario and of Argenteuil County in the Province of |
