Aboriginal English in Canada
Indigenous English, also known as First Nations English, refers to varieties of English used by the Indigenous peoples of Canada. They are outwardly similar to standard Canadian English from the perspective of a non-Canadian. However, they differ enough from mainstream Canadian speech that Indigenous peoples are often identifiable by their speech to non-Indigenous people. This is primarily the result of the influence of non-English accents derived from Indigenous languages combined with a history of geographical and social isolation, since many Aboriginal people live in remote communities, in the North, or on Indian reserves.
Some analyses have concluded that contemporary Indigenous Canadian English may represent the late stages of a decreolization process, among peoples who historically spoke more creolized or pidginized forms of English. Since the 1990s, Indigenous Englishes have also adopted many features of African American Vernacular English under the influence of hip-hop music which is very popular with urban Indigenous youth.
The use of these "non-standard" dialects is not well perceived by the non-Aboriginal majority, evidenced by mockery and discrimination. Some features of the dialects, for example, may have led aboriginal children to be wrongly diagnosed as having a speech impairment or a learning disability. Academics have begun to recommend that Canadian schools accept Indigenous varieties of English as valid English, and as a part of Indigenous culture.
Few written works appear in Indigenous English dialects; an exception is Maria Campbell's Stories of the Road Allowance People, a collection of Métis folktales. An example from that work illustrates the type of speech used by Elders in rural Métis communities during her research :
