Biography

J. K. "Jack" Chambers (born 12 July 1938 in Grimsby, Ontario, growing up in Stoney Creek, Ontario) is a Canadian linguist, and a well-known expert on language variation and change, who has played an important role in research on Canadian English since the 1980s; he has coined the terms "Canadian Raising" and "Canadian Dainty", the latter used for Canadian speech that mimics the British, popular till the mid-20th century. He has been a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto since receiving his a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1970. He has also been a visiting professor at many universities worldwide, including Hong Kong University, University of Szeged, Hungary, University of Kiel in Germany, Canterbury University in New Zealand, the University of Reading and the University of York in the UK. He is the author of the website Dialect Topography, which compiles information about dialectal variation in the Golden Horseshoe region of Ontario, Canada. He is a longtime contributor to the Globe and Mail (Toronto), Coda magazine, and other jazz journals, and a participant in annual conferences. His jazz writings include the prizewinning biography Milestones: The Music and Times of Miles Davis; Bouncin’ with Bartok:The Incomplete Works of Richard Twardzik; and numerous articles and reviews.

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