Everything about The Canadian Shift totally explained
The
Canadian Shift is a
linguistic vowel shift found among many
anglophone Canadians. It involves the vowel /ɒ/ (as in
hot), and the front lax vowels /æ/ (as in
hat), /ɛ/ (as in
bet), and /ɪ/ (as in
bit). It was first described by Clarke, Elms and Youssef in
1995, based on impressionistic analysis.
The shift is mainly found in
Ontario, Anglophone
Montreal and further west. As each space opens up, the next vowel along moves into it. Thus, the short
a of
cat /æ/ retracts from a near-low front position to a low central position, with a quality similar to an
Italian or
Spanish a [a]. The retraction of /æ/ was independently observed in
Vancouver and is more advanced for Ontarians and women than for people from the
Prairies or
Atlantic Canada and men.
However, scholars disagree on the behaviour of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/:
Further Information
Get more info on 'Canadian Shift'.
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