DCHP-2

eh eh?, eh! DCHP-2 (March 2017)

• • Eh is a preservation from British English, where some uses are still common. OED-3, s.v. "eh", identifies two meanings, which are roughly equivalent to meaning 1a (OED-3, meaning 2: 'often inviting assent') and meanings 2b and 3 (OED-3, meaning 3: 'a request for . . . repetition or explanation').
    This account distinguishes between four main functions (with meaning numbers): 1 Confirmational uses, 2 Contesting uses, 3 Pardon eh, and 4 Narrative uses.
    Its use in Canada and in other Commonwealth countries, e.g. as a marker of group identities in New Zealand, see Meyerhoff (1994), can be seen as developments of the inherited form. What stands out in the North American context is the perceived differential use of eh in Canada and the US, which created a precondition for enregisterment of eh as a Canadian form (see Agha 2006: 55). Enregisterment means that a particular form comes to be seen as a stereotypic marker of identity.
    While eh is found both in the US and Canada, during the post-war period eh in both places came to be seen as marking a Canadian-American contrast, and, within Canada, as marking a rural-urban contrast.
    The earliest evidence for eh as Canadian stems from Allen (1959, reprint 1975), who considered one meaning of eh (meaning 3, pardon eh), as early as the 1950s,
    

    so exclusively a Canadian feature that immigration officials use it as an identifying clue [to tell Canadians from Americans]. (Allen 1975 [1959]: 105)

    Hard evidence for this assessment, however, must have been scarce at the time, as eh was deliberately not included in DCHP-1.
    
  • Eh is a good example of the important role language attitudes can play in language change. Attitudinal change affected eh after World War II at a speed that was difficult to capture in the written record, posing a challenge to linguists and lexicographers alike. Since that time, eh has developed into the "quintessential Canadian English stereotype" (Denis 2013: 1). While occasionally used by speakers of higher social standing (e.g. former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1971 quotation under meaning 1c), there is strong evidence that eh in the Canadian context eh is aligned primarily with "blue collar, non-urban, male" speakers (Denis 2013: 5). The enregisterment of eh as a marker of unsophisticated, rural characters of the beer-drinking type is connected with the comedy skit The Great White North by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (see the 1981 quotation and video link in meaning 5).
    Chart 1 shows the differential frequencies of eh in a Toronto speech corpus by the speakers' birth years and social class (red = blue-collar, blue = white-collar workers). It can be seen that across all ages blue-collar workers use eh more frequently and that for those born in the 1960s or later the overall frequency of eh, at least in big cities such as Toronto, has declined considerably. These speakers use other pragmatic markers, such as right, you know, yeah or huh, among others, in place of eh for meanings such as 1a, 1b and 1c. What is interesting is that eh is a rather infrequent feature in Canadian English. Despite an increase in reported use between the early 1970s, when only 15 and 27 percent of Canadians reported eh in meanings 1a or 3 (Scargill & Warkentyne 1972: 75-76), to 78 and 39 percent respectively in the 2000s (Gold & Tremblay 2006: 252), eh is not as frequent as commentary on it would suggest. In their Toronto data, eh is used only in 6 percent of cases, competing with right, you know, yeah and other terms (Denis & Tagliamonte 2016: 97) and is "very infrequent at all ages despite its status as a stereotype of Canadian English" (ibid: 98). Denis (2013: 7-8) cites blog data where more than 95% of uses of eh stem from Americans commenting on Canadians using eh, which stresses its performative aspect. Because of this association, if Canadians want to sound Canadian, they may use the form internationally.
    In the early 1970s, Walter S. Avis took issue with the idea that eh was Canadian. It was consequently not included in DCHP-1, but was listed in Avis' general language dictionaries (Gage-1 and its Beginner's and Intermediate editions) without a Canadian label. Responding to reviewers' criticism of its omission from DCHP-1, Avis was arguing that eh is general English with Canadians and Americans merely 'thinking' that there was a Canadian character to it:

    the implication seems clear that lexicographers class it as universal English. This being the case, how did word get around that eh? is a Canadianism? (Avis 1972: 90)

    Given that the lexicographers were Avis and his team at the time, their assessment of the status of eh is couched as a generally established fact that Avis, as far as the print record is concerned, defended brilliantly in his 1972 paper. As far as spoken language was concerned, eh was by that time already showing some signs as a Canadian identity marker and it was on the way to becoming "enregistered" as a Canadian emblem, despite its history in other varieties (as can be seen in a number of studies, e.g. Gibson 1976); Avis offered no spoken evidence and seems to have possibly missed early cues for the enregisterment in Canadian English of eh, which has a documented history of use in British, American, Australian and New Zealand Englishes, among others.
    Gold & Tremblay (2006) compared the use of Canadian French hein and Canadian English eh, both particles with very similar functions. They conclude rather differently from Avis some three decades earlier that:
    

    eh [, but not hein,] has developed into a marker of both dialect and national identity, taking on connotations associated with other non-linguistic institutional markers of Canadian identity. Eh has expanded its function from an oral discourse marker to an icon of Canadian identity, widely used in newspapers, advertising, and on the Web. (Gold & Tremblay 2006: 262)

    All meanings below are considered Canadian by virtue of enregisterment and cultural significance. Images 1 and 2 show examples of eh? in popular culture. In Image 1, a slogan button, a beaver, a symbol for Canada, says "Yeh" rather than "Yeah". Image 2 shows just two T-shirt designs of about 25 with eh available for order at https://www.wordans.ca/.
    

• 1a particle — informal, slang

  to elicit confirmation for one’s statement.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — This is the most common use of eh in writing, as it covers more than 95% of (written) uses in the BCE. When people talk about "Canadian" eh, this meaning is the most frequent type of example offered and, together with meaning 4, usually the only two types that are reported in popular media. In Scargill & Warkentyne (1972: 75-76) between 15 and 27% report the use of eh in So that's what he thinks, eh?.
  
  A prototypical sentence would be: You have a new dog, eh?

  • Gage-5, s.v. "eh" (2), marks and defines the term as (2) "Can. Informal, an all-purpose tag question", while meaning (3) is given as "Cdn Informal, a filler"; ITP Nelson does not mark the term as Canadian.
    COD-2 lists four meanings of eh, of which only meaning 2 is considered as "Cdn": 'ascertaining the comprehension, continued interest, agreement, etc. of the person or persons addressed: it's way out in the suburbs, eh, so I can't get there by bike. This meaning is complemented with a usage note:
    "This is the only usage of eh that can be categorized as peculiarly Canadian, all other uses being common amongst speakers in other Commonwealth countries and to a lesser extent in the United States."
    Note that our evidence does not confirm the exclusive status of this rather comprehensive meaning in Canadian English.

  • 1830s  (1852)  "Well, how are you, Mr. S---?" cried the farmer, shaking my brother heartily by the hand. "Toiling in the bush still, eh?"
    "Just in the same place."
    "And the wife and children?"
    "Hearty. Some half-dozen have been added to the flock since you were our way." 
  • 1850  [the women's practice of using bright red colour to paint their cheeks was found in mid-19th century western circles. Copway makes the parallel case for the Ojibway actors, asking for confirmation of his assessment]
    Doubtless the most interesting of all games is the "Maiden's Ball Play," in the Ojibway language, Pah-pah-se-Kah-way. [...]
    This play is practiced in summer under the shade of wide-spreading trees, beneath which each strives to find their homes, tahwin, and to run home with it. These having been appointed in the morning, the young women of the village decorate themselves for the day by painting their cheeks with vermilion, (how civilized, eh!) and disrobe themselves of as much unnecessary clothing as possible, braiding their hair with coloured feathers, which hang profusely down to the feet. 
  • 1887  [the speaker is not as experienced as the interlocutor] "I fancy we can make Oakville with this breeze, eh?"
  • 1889  [confirmation of one's belief]
    "A year ago, " he said, "I sold out my drug business and went to Wall Street, and in less than a week's time I doubled my capital. That's making money fast, eh?" "Yes, indeed. You must be very rich now?" 
  • 1914  [Ho expresses his belief that Bo had a painful operation, seeking confirmation for it] Ho--"Why the 'sad eyed stuff,' friend? Recovering from a painful operation, eh?"
    Bo--"Yeah! the M. D. just took ten bones out of my hand." 
  • 1920  [seeking confirmation from Mertel on Joe's self-assessment as being "good"; spelling errors are intentional] They is going to be another relay race in March and with this and 2 rugby games I stood be a rich man through betting. I hate to take other people's money, but if they are foolish they shouldnt have money and they are foolish if they bet against me. I gess I am pretty good this wk., eh Mertel? I always was clever, though. You no what I am, Mertel.
    JOE. 
  • 1933  [seeking confirmation that she refers to Frances] "Who says I did?"--"She does."--"Frances, eh?"
  • 1959  [seeking confirmation of one's guess] "I guess you know, eh?"
  • 1993  [asking for confirmation of the opinion that the name of the ferry is a good one] "Just up to ninth grade. I go to Salt Spring Secondary. Next week, I start grade eleven." "I'm just starting grade nine," Dave confided. "Will you go on this ferry every day?" he asked, thinking how much fun that would be. [...] "Actually, us school kids have a special water taxi," said Rick. "It's called the Scholar Ship. Good name, eh? Should be about half a dozen of us from Mayne Island this year." 
  • 2006  [seeking to confirm that a "two four", a 24-case of beer is to be consumed on that day] Still, Doug McKenzie will always be a mere vocal inflection away for Thomas. When I ask when the CBC special will air, he says to watch for it on May 24, 2007. And suddenly Doug's voice comes on the line: "May two four, as in two four of beer, eh?" 

• 1b particle — informal, slang

  to elicit acknowledgment.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Rather than seeking confirmation of a belief or opinion (meaning 1a), the speaker aims to receive the interlocutor's acknowledgement of a fact. Boberg (2010: 122) suggests that this function, or a subtype confirming that the addressee has "understood what was said" (ibid), is a Canadian extension of uses.
  A protoypical example sentence would be I have a new dog, eh?

  • 1896  [Bruce is trying to get Arthur to agree to discuss the matter another day and not tonight]
    Now, Bruce was not one to commit himself rashly, and Arthur's proposal was so entirely novel that he wanted time to consider it, so he just said pleasantly: "It's a great notion, Arthur, but I'd like to think it over. We'll talk about it again to-night, eh?" 
  • 1971  [The speaker knows that it was Canada Day, which had been renamed from Dominion Day, yet questions the usefulness of the name change] So that was Canada Day, eh? Well, you can have it! I'll take good old Dominion Day! Dominion Day used to be the real McCoy!
  • 1990  [invited to acknowledge the problem of the missing "big, tough forward"] "His team currently enjoys the best over-all record in the National Hockey League, but he's convinced it won't hold up unless he can lock an iron fist around a big, tough forward. So who's a big, tough forward who's available, eh?" 
  • 2013  [Iginla invites acknowledgement of the fact that he is continuing his hockey career in Pittsburgh]
    WAYNE GRETZKY: It's hard. It's not easy, especially a guy like Jarome who is beloved in Calgary. He's been a big part of their community, part of their organization, big part of the city.
    SILVAGGIO: So much so, even the voice of the Calgary Flames suspects a few Flames fans may leave with their captain.
    PETER MAHER (Calgary Flames Announcer): I think we're going to have a lot of people in the city cheering for the Penguins as the season goes forward.
    SILVAGGIO: Winning is never guaranteed, but when it comes to Jarome Iginla, class is - both on and off the ice.
    IGINLA: You won't have seen the last of me one way or the other, eh, so, but no, thanks a lot for everything and thanks for coming today and wish the Flames the absolute best. Thanks. 

• 1c particle — informal, slang

  to create or confirm agreement.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — The function is to increase the chances that a suggestion will be accepted by the interlocutor, which is reached by toning down the suggestion's force with eh. It can be used in a number of contexts, from political interviews (see the 1971 quotation) to informal editorials (see the 2013 quotation).

  • 1971  [the Prime Minister explaining the purpose of the measures, asking for acknowledgement] The purpose is to take four of five million people off the tax-roll, eh?
  • 1972  [used to prompt the reader to answer the question when Jesus laughed. Eh supposes that they cannot answer the question, which would increase the chances for agreement with the writer]
    "But when did he ever laugh? Eh? You ever catch Jesus laughing?"
  • 1990  [eliciting agreement to a universal truth that should excuse inaccuracies of political opinion polling]
    70 per cent of those polled still care about whom they vote for and -- a real surprise -- 83 per cent of them "trust the government to do what is right" either just about always, or most of the time, or at least some of the time. Hey -- nobody's perfect, eh? The trouble with today's excitement about the latest polls is that today's journalism treats the results as though there was no yesterday. Polling may have become more precise and more reliable, but hardly more noteworthy. 
  • 2013  [the writer is seeking the agreement of the reader that the named people are "hosers" and icons at the same time] Now, I happen to think Black should be allowed to stay in Canguest Canada. Give back his citizenship. Everybody's entitled to a mistake. Anyway, he's an icon of the Great White North as genuine as Eddie Shack, Rob Ford and any other hoser, eh? And he's a fine writer. Hey, it's a big country. We're big people. 

• 1d particle — informal, slang

  to confirm a shared sentiment.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — This use is only possible when speaker and interlocutor (writer and reader) have shared the same experience. In some instances, this use is called exclamative eh (Gibson 1976, Gold & Tremblay 2006). The experience can be a specific context (as in the 1863 quotation of two pioneer settlers) or a general truth, such as living in the Western world (see the 2004 quotation).
  A prototypical example would be: What a great game, eh? or What’s he talking about, eh? [when the assumption is that all listeners are confused].

  • 1863  [two settlers talking, with the speaker referring to the shared experience of hard labour when clearing the ground of trees] "Nonsense, Wynn, can that be you? Glad to see some face I know among these endless trees. They're nearly as sickening to me as waves to a fellow in his first voyage. Hope the farm has been well cleared of them; you know the ground, eh?" "Not all cleared by any means; but if you had to take the axe in hand, as we have------" 
  • 1877  [A Manitoban writer paraphrases Napoleon, who shares his sentiment of surprise] " 'It is a straggler who has deserted his post, your majesty. I have halted him here, and was about to call for the guard, when you came up.' 'A deserter, eh?' exclaimed Napoleon, shortly. 'A straggler? Shoot him on the spot sentinel. You know my orders.' " 
  • 1975  What a day eh. (informant 3)
    What a life eh. (informant 46)
    What a drag eh. (informant 17)
    What the hell eh. (informant 18)
    What a way to spend Christmas eh. (informant 37)
    How do you like that eh? (accompanied by a wink, leer, and nduge) (informant 38)
  • 1993  [discussing the side effects of illicit substances, such as obsessive talking; shared sentiment]
    He eyed me again, figured correctly that I was free from any illicit substances and asked, "Do you know what that guy was on?"
    When I told him, he nodded. "I've seen more and more of that around. They never shut up, eh?"
    No, I said, settling back. 
  • 2004  [Reporter Bourbeau interviewing soldiers. The unidentified man, a soldier, appeals to the shared experience of living in a modern world, where army life is compared with civil, non-army life]
    COUTURE: We can't afford, with a high-profile mission like that, especially that it is a dangerous mission, we can't afford to have people under the influence of illicit substances.
    BOURBEAU: On the base, soldiers tried their best to explain how this could happen.
    UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's not easy to be in the army so.
    UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It's like everywhere else in civil world I guess those things can happen eh.
    BOURBEAU: The military has a strict zero tolerance policy on drug use. But that doesn't seem to deter some soldiers. Last year, 450 of them were ordered to take drug tests and 106 tested positive. Punishments can be severe, including being discharged from the army. Rob Tyler used to serve in the military, now he's a psychotherapist. He says the military needs to be compassionate. 

• 1e particle — informal, slang

  to confirm compliance.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — This use is synonymous with will you? and tones down the force of what is essentially a command or request. At times this sense is called imperative eh (e.g. Gibson 1976: 46-48) or classified as a type of command (Gold & Tremblay 2006: 249).
  A prototypical sentence would be Get me a drink, eh?. Both speaker and listener would be in the social roles or situations that would make the process of getting the speaker a drink feasible, yet eh, similar to will you, tones down the command.

  • 1920  [urging the students to smoke at outdoor games rather than in the gym] Some of the students forgot themselves and smoked in the gym. It isn't done boys. Better duck the odd pipe during your sojourn at a game eh? 
  • 1959  [request for compliance using the informal address term] "Call me Alex, eh?" he said.
  • 2003  And how about this: The second most "Canadian" term, after "eh?" is "two-four." As in: "Strap that two-four to the back of the Ski-Doo, eh?" " 'Two-four,' for beer," marvelled Derek Oland, chairman and chief executive of Moosehead. "That's something I guess you don't hear anywhere else in the world. It sure defines a Canadian." 

• 2 particle — informal, slang

  expression of disbelief.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Linked to meanings 1a-1e, the function is not to confirm one's belief or obtain compliance, but to express one's surprise over the offered information.

  • 1836  [marking Marm's dissatisfaction over the advice of the Clockmaker that her son Johnny should become a farmer] Ahem! says Marm Drivvle, and she began to clear her throat for action; she slumped down her nittin, and clawed off her spectacles, and looked right straight at me, so as to take good aim. I seed a regular norwester a bruin, I knew it would bust somewhere sartan, and make all smoke agin, so I cleared out and left old Drivvle to stand the squall. I conceit he must have had a tempestical time of it, for she had got her Ebenezer up, and looked like a proper sneezer. Make her Johnny a farmer, eh! I guess that was too much for the like o' her to stomach. 
  • 1877  [expressing disbelief that an earlier warning had no effect] "Didn't I tell you, miss, I'd cuff the ears off your head if you cracked another dish? Eh? How are you going to pay for it? Nobody in Little Bassett'd give you house room for a week." 
  • 1889  [disbelief over the news of Gus' engagement]
    George - "Eh? You got engaged last night? Gus, my old, my dear friend, tell me how you did it."
    Gus - "Really, I hardly know myself. Couldn't help it. Just like falling down stairs. I was on the edge of a proposal, she gave me a push, and there I was engaged." 
  • 1930  [expressing disbelief over the sheer number of murders Tompunta committed]
    2nd Woman: We heard they are looking for a haiduc! Maria: A brigand!
    1st Woman: His name is Tompunta.
    2nd woman: He has murdered seven people.
    Petre: Eh--! Seven people! That's a bit thick.
    Maria: And he was seen here?
    2nd Woman: So they say. 
  • 1963  [the speaker is expressing her surprise about a Quebecker studying at a relatively young university in Alberta]
    "So you're from Quebec, eh. What are you doing at the University of Alberta? Did you flunk out of McGill, or something?"
    This is usually the first reaction of people when they find out that I am from Montreal and attended Bishop's University ("never heard of it, must be some kind of a theological retreat.") Yes Virginia, there is a place called Bishop's University. 
  • 2014  Thanks for this quick rebuttal. Dad passed along the Laura Jones article, saying, 'This can't be right, eh?' Sure enough it wasn't. 

• 3 particle — informal, slang

  to elicit repetition; "I beg you pardon?"; "what?"

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Referred to as "Pardon eh", this use is synonymous with I beg your pardon in the sense of asking for a repetition of what was said.

  • 1958  [The Brigadier did not clearly hear the snarled comment] "Desert Rats," snarled Jonesy....--"Eh?" The Brigadier pulled his head back.
  • 1975  Speaker A: He did it on purpose! He did it on purpose! Didn't you Bill? Didn't you?
    Speaker B: Eh? (hasn't been paying attention) (informant 46)

• 4 particle — informal, slang

  to check that the listener is following (narrative eh).

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Since Avis (1972), there have been reports that narrative eh is a distinctly Canadian use as it is claimed to be "found primarily in oral evidence of Canadian origin (1972: 101). Narrative eh used to be the most stigmatized use of eh, often associated with working class, uneducated or rural speech (see the 1946 quotation). Even today, however, narrative eh remains rare, though it is used by people of higher social standing, such as the former Newfoundland & Labrador Premier Danny Williams (see the 2004 quotation). Gold and Tremblay (2006: 254) report low uses of eh in general, but particularly negative assessments of narrative eh for English speakers even today.

  See also: Great White North  

  • One continuing problem is the varying interpretation of category names. While Columbus (2010: Tables 4 & 5) identifies narrative eh as the third most frequent use of eh in the International Corpus of English - Canada (out of 18 categories), she seems to include meaning 1b in her "narrative" category (example in Table 6).

  • [1946]  (2000)  [meta comment on narrative eh] There were at least four languages spoken in Aklavik at that time: English and Eh?; Eskimo and Eh?; Slavee and Eh?; and Loucheux and Eh?. The "Eh?" was added to almost all statements of fact, particularly in explanatory narrative, as in "I'm going to put two 14 inch planks across the gunnels and pile the two by sixes on top of them, eh?" Or "There's a creek coming in on the right side, eh?. and about half a mile below it the channel crosses, eh?" That usage of "eh?" was common in Aklavik back there in 1946 long before it became one of the identifying features of Canadian speech.
  • 1972  [narrative eh, as a pragmatic tool to maintain rapport] "He's holding on to a firehose, eh? The thing is jumping all over the place, eh, and he can hardly hold onto it eh? Well, he finally loses control of it, eh, and the water knocks down half a dozen bystanders."
  • 1975  [from a half-hour interview, which contained 114 occurrences of eh, all narrative] Like, Ok, when I bought the business out from my partner, and I was temporarily alone eh, now even though I knew I could cover it, the business, quite easily, like run it myself eh? (Yeah) but by this time I had acquired other things, like a house and so forth and so on, like a car and all that jazz eh, then, you know, even though I knew I could still cover everything, you know, on paper I could do it, I was, I don't know, I was a bit sceptical at that point, eh? But after one month it vanished eh cause there was no problem. (informant 1)
  • 2004  [the dialogue between reporter Smith and Premier Danny Williams illustrates the comprehension check that narrative eh performs. Williams uses eh, Smith backchannels with hmmm]
    Smith: Can you explain why it is you expect Ottawa to fund in a certain level when health care is a provincial jurisdiction? If they're going to take a bigger role in funding, surely they deserve to take a bigger role in telling you how to run the system?
    Williams: But it's a question of affordability. I mean their revenues have been going...growing significantly, ours have been depleting, so there's now a mismatch, there's a huge fairly fiscal problem eh,...
    Smith: Hmmm. Hmmm. 

• 5 particle

  metalinguistic commentary to express a link with Canada or rural Canada.

  Type: 4. Culturally Significant — Commentary on the Canadian status of eh has contributed its share to the enregisterment of eh and commodification (see Images 1 and 2) of the form in association with Canada. The SCTV skit The Great White North, airing on TV since 1981, has had a considerable share in this process as it "popularized several expressions putatively representative of vernacular Canadian speech, such as "how's it goin' eh?"; "had a good day, eh?" (Boberg 2010: 45). See the Video link for a clip of The Great White North skit below.

  • 1970  Mention should be made of the interrogative eh?, pronounced to rhyme with "hay" and used when calling for the repetition of something not heard or understood clearly. T'his, says Allen, "is so exclusively a Canadian feature that immigration officials use it as an identifying clue."
  • 1975  [imitations of "Canadian accents", by informants from Vancouver]
    How was it eh?
    What do you say eh? Well, well, well, what do you know" (informant 14)
  • 1981  Moranis, on the phone from the studio in Edmonton, reports that bits of language created for the MacKenzie skits ("take off, eh" and "hoser") are becoming common usage in parts of the country. 
  • 1982  The Bob and Doug Canadian Culture Grant This grant has been made available by the National Identity Committee of Canada and the Federation of Quebec to any student who can prove killing more than three people who have used the words "hoser" or "eh" more than twice in a single conversation. 
  • 2011  
    3. Eh
    Canadians are known worldwide for tacking on the word "eh" to sentences, turning them into a bit of a question, for example, "That was a good hockey game last night, eh?"