Local Lexical Items in the Sociodialectical Survey of Vancouver English

Extract

Saltchuck? Skookum? Oolichan? Saskie? A Squamish? Saskabush? Slough? …How many Vancouverites are familiar with these words? How many know their meaning or meanings? How many have heard them used or actually used them? All of the words in question should be at home in the Vancouver area, some in British Columbia generally or even in the wider area of the old Pacific Northwest. A traditional dialect investigation would have localized such words, pinpointing on a map in a linguistic atlas the spots where they cropped up. Recent urban sociodialectal linguistic surveys, however, have been emphasizing the social rather than the geographical variability of language. In the recently completed Survey of Vancouver English (SVEN) it was decided to include a short component (Section VI) in the questionnaire that would elicit information about local words—a mere 26 questions out of a total of 1,058. This section aroused the interest of many of the informants who were able to add a considerable body of useful data to what was known about this group of words.

We interviewed a total of 240 informants over a period of six years. Included were equal numbers of males and females, divided into three age groups (old, middle, young) and fitted into four socio-economic classes which could be labelled lower working class, upper working class, lower middle class and upper middle class. If the informants knew the local lexical items they were asked the questions: (1) What does this word mean? (2) Have you ever heard anyone say it? (3) Do you use it yourself? In some cases questions were asked about pronunciation and spelling.