Chambers, J. K.

John Kenneth Chambers (12 July 1938 – 2 March 2026) was a Canadian linguist, and a well-known expert on language variation and change, who played an important role in research on Canadian English beginning in the 1980s. He coined the terms "Canadian Raising" and "Canadian Dainty", the latter used for Canadian speech that mimics the British, popular till the mid-20th century. Born in Grimsby, Ontario, Chambers was a professor of linguistics at the University of Toronto since receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 1970. He was also 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 United Kingdom. He was the author of the website Dialect Topography, which compiles information about dialectal variation across Canada. Chambers also wrote extensively on jazz, including such figures as Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Chambers died at the age of 87 on 2 March 2026, from pancreatic cancer.