Canadian Shift
Encyclopedia
The Canadian Shift is a linguistic
vowel shift
found in Canadian English
. It was first described by Clarke, Elms and Youssef in 1995, based on impressionistic analysis.
The shift involves the front lax vowels /æ/ (the short-a of trap), /ɛ/ (the short-e of dress), and /ɪ/ (the short-i of kit).
It is triggered by the cot–caught merger: /ɒ/ (as in cot) and /ɔ/ (as in caught) merge as [ɒ], a low back rounded vowel. As each space opens up, the next vowel along moves into it. Thus, the short a /æ/ retracts from a near-low front position to a low central position, with a quality similar to the vowel heard in Northern England [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/:
Due to the Canadian Shift, the short-a and the short-o are shifted in opposite directions to that of the Northern Cities Shift
, found across the border in the Inland Northern U.S.
, which is causing these two dialects to diverge: the Canadian short-a is very similar in quality to the Inland Northern short-o; for example, the production [maːp] would be recognized as map in Canada, but mop in the Inland North.
In the Western U.S.
, one in four Western speakers in the Atlas of North American English exhibit the Canadian Shift, as defined quantitatively by Labov et al. based on the formant values for /æ/, /ɒ/, and /ɛ/.
The California Shift in progress in California English
contains the features of the Canadian Shift; the two phenomena may however be different, since in California the retraction of /æ/ has occurred even though Californian /ɒ/ is more centralized and less rounded than Canadian /ɒ/.
In Pittsburgh
, where cot and caught are merged to a back rounded vowel, the mouth vowel /aʊ/ is traditionally a monophthong [äː] that fills the low central space, thus preventing /æ/ from retracting. Among younger speakers, however, /æ/ begins to move backward as the monophthongization of /aʊ/ declines.
Durian (2008), via instrumental analysis, found evidence of the Canadian Shift in the vowel systems of men born circa 1965 and later in Columbus, Ohio
, a city located within the U.S. Midland. /ʌ/ is undergoing fronting without lowering, while still remaining distinct from the space occupied by /ɛ/. At the same time, historical /ɑː/ (the vowel in "father") is merged with the /ɒ/ class. This allows a "free space" for the retraction of /æ/, a possibility also suggested for Western U.S. dialects being potentially capable of showing the Canadian Shift by Boberg (2005). In Columbus, the Canadian Shift closely resembles the version found by Boberg (2005) in Montreal, where /ɒ/ and /ɔː/ are either merged or "close," /æ/ shows retraction of the nuclei (as well as "rising diphthong" behavior—i.e., ingliding with a lower nucleus than the glide), and /ɛ/ as well as /ɪ/ show retraction of the nucleus. (However, the retraction of /ɪ/ was not found among all speakers, and is more mild among the speakers that do show it than the retraction of /ɛ/ among those speakers. Also, the outcome of low back merger-like behavior is more like the California Shift outcome noted above than the rounded variant found in Canada.)
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
vowel shift
Vowel shift
A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language.The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century...
found in Canadian English
Canadian English
Canadian English is the variety of English spoken in Canada. English is the first language, or "mother tongue", of approximately 24 million Canadians , and more than 28 million are fluent in the language...
. It was first described by Clarke, Elms and Youssef in 1995, based on impressionistic analysis.
The shift involves the front lax vowels /æ/ (the short-a of trap), /ɛ/ (the short-e of dress), and /ɪ/ (the short-i of kit).
It is triggered by the cot–caught merger: /ɒ/ (as in cot) and /ɔ/ (as in caught) merge as [ɒ], a low back rounded vowel. As each space opens up, the next vowel along moves into it. Thus, the short a /æ/ retracts from a near-low front position to a low central position, with a quality similar to the vowel heard in Northern England [a]. The retraction of /æ/ was independently observed in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
and is more advanced for Ontarians and women than for people from the Prairies
Canadian Prairies
The Canadian Prairies is a region of Canada, specifically in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions, natural or political. Notably, the Prairie provinces or simply the Prairies comprise the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, as they are largely covered...
or Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada is the region of Canada comprising the four provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec: the three Maritime provinces – New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia – and Newfoundland and Labrador...
and men.
However, scholars disagree on the behaviour of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/:
| /ɪ/ | → | /ʊ/ | |
| ↓ | |||
| /ɛ/ | → | ||
| ↓ | /ʌ/ | ||
| /æ/ | /ɒ/, /ɔ/ | ||
| ↘ | |||
| [a] |
- According to Clarke et al. (1995), who impressionistically studied the speech of a few young Ontarians, /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ tend to lower in the direction of [æ] and [ɛ], respectively: hence, bet and bit tend to sound, respectively, like bat and bet as pronounced by a speaker without the shift.
- Labov et al. (2006), through acoustic analysis of 33 subjects from all over the country, noted a backward and downward movement of /ɛ/ in apparent time in all of Canada except the Atlantic Provinces. No movement of /ɪ/ was detected.
- Boberg (2005) considers the primary movement of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ to be retraction, at least in Montreal. He studied a diverse range of English-speaking Montrealers, and found that younger speakers had a significantly retracted /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ compared with older speakers, but did not find that the vowels were significantly lower. A small group of young people from Ontario were also studied, and there too retraction was most evident. Under this scenario, a similar group of vowels (short front) are retracting in a parallel manner, with /ɛ/ and /ʌ/ approaching each other. Therefore, with Boberg’s results, bet approaches but remains different from but, and bit sounds different, but remains distinct.
- Hagiwara (2006), through acoustic analysis, noted that /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ do not seem to be lowered in WinnipegWinnipegWinnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, although the lowering and retraction of /æ/ has caused a redistribution of backness values for the front lax vowels. - Sadlier-Brown and Tamminga (2008) studied a few speakers from Vancouver and Halifax, Nova Scotia, and found the shift to be active in Halifax as well, although not as advanced as in Vancouver. For these speakers, the movement of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ in apparent time was diagonal, and Halifax had /æ/ diagonal movement too; in Vancouver, however, the retraction of /æ/ was not accompanied by lowering.
Due to the Canadian Shift, the short-a and the short-o are shifted in opposite directions to that of the Northern Cities Shift
Northern cities vowel shift
The Northern cities vowel shift is a chain shift in the sounds of some vowels in the dialect region of American English known as the Inland North.-Geography:...
, found across the border in the Inland Northern U.S.
Inland Northern American English
The Inland North dialect of American English is spoken in a region that includes most of the cities along the Erie Canal and on the U.S. side of Great Lakes region, reaching approximately from Utica, New York to Green Bay, Wisconsin, as well as a corridor extending down across central Illinois from...
, which is causing these two dialects to diverge: the Canadian short-a is very similar in quality to the Inland Northern short-o; for example, the production [maːp] would be recognized as map in Canada, but mop in the Inland North.
Related phenomena in the U.S.
Most U.S. speakers with the cot–caught merger appear not to undergo the Canadian shift in part because typically in the U.S. the merged vowel is less rounded and/or less back and slightly lower than the Canadian vowel, and therefore less room would be left for the retraction of /æ/.In the Western U.S.
Western American English
The west was the last area in the United States to be reached during the gradual westward expansion of English-speaking settlement and its history shows considerable mixing of the linguistic patterns of other regions...
, one in four Western speakers in the Atlas of North American English exhibit the Canadian Shift, as defined quantitatively by Labov et al. based on the formant values for /æ/, /ɒ/, and /ɛ/.
The California Shift in progress in California English
California English
California English is a dialect of the English language spoken in California. California is home to a highly diverse population, which is reflected in the historical and continuing development of California English.-History:English was first spoken on a wide scale in the area now known as...
contains the features of the Canadian Shift; the two phenomena may however be different, since in California the retraction of /æ/ has occurred even though Californian /ɒ/ is more centralized and less rounded than Canadian /ɒ/.
In Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh English
Pittsburgh English, popularly known by outsiders as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many especially older residents of Pittsburgh and parts of surrounding Western Pennsylvania in the United States, a group referred to by locals and others as Yinzers.-Overview:Many of the...
, where cot and caught are merged to a back rounded vowel, the mouth vowel /aʊ/ is traditionally a monophthong [äː] that fills the low central space, thus preventing /æ/ from retracting. Among younger speakers, however, /æ/ begins to move backward as the monophthongization of /aʊ/ declines.
Durian (2008), via instrumental analysis, found evidence of the Canadian Shift in the vowel systems of men born circa 1965 and later in Columbus, Ohio
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...
, a city located within the U.S. Midland. /ʌ/ is undergoing fronting without lowering, while still remaining distinct from the space occupied by /ɛ/. At the same time, historical /ɑː/ (the vowel in "father") is merged with the /ɒ/ class. This allows a "free space" for the retraction of /æ/, a possibility also suggested for Western U.S. dialects being potentially capable of showing the Canadian Shift by Boberg (2005). In Columbus, the Canadian Shift closely resembles the version found by Boberg (2005) in Montreal, where /ɒ/ and /ɔː/ are either merged or "close," /æ/ shows retraction of the nuclei (as well as "rising diphthong" behavior—i.e., ingliding with a lower nucleus than the glide), and /ɛ/ as well as /ɪ/ show retraction of the nucleus. (However, the retraction of /ɪ/ was not found among all speakers, and is more mild among the speakers that do show it than the retraction of /ɛ/ among those speakers. Also, the outcome of low back merger-like behavior is more like the California Shift outcome noted above than the rounded variant found in Canada.)