The Canadian Shift: Still shifting?

Abstract

Previous literature on the Canadian Shift describes this phenomenon as a change in progress in many dialects of Canadian English. However, elements of the shift are not found to be consistent, particularly in the lowering of [ɪ] and [ɛ] and the retraction of [ae]. This paper investigates apparent time data from eight native speakers of Canadian English from the Ottawa area to investigate the nature of the shift in the region, as well as to better understand how the shift is manifested here compared to previous literature. Results presented in this paper, which were collected as part of an ongoing study, show that younger speakers produce only [ɪ] and [ɛ] vowels more retracted than older speakers. These data will later be compared to results of a perception study in order to investigate the relationship between perception and production of a sound change in progress.CÉLESTE PETERKA 2

Phonological mergers have systemic phonetic consequences:palm, trees, and the Low Back Merger Shift

“…They also explicitly linked the LBMS to the LBM as a trigger (see Figure 1a). The LBMS has been reported widely for Canada, from Victoria, British Columbia in the west (Roeder, Onosson, & D'Arcy, 2018) to St. John's, Newfoundland in the east (D'Arcy, 2005), and for every region in between (Boberg, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2019a, 2019b; De Decker, 2002a, 2002b; De Decker & Mackenzie, 1999; Friesner, Kastronic, & Lamontagne, 2021; Hagiwara, 2006; Hoffman, 1999; Hoffman & Walker, 2010; Hollett, 2006; Kettig & Winter, 2017; Labov et al, 2006; Meechan, 1999; Peterka, 2019; Roeder, 2012; Roeder & Gardner, 2013; Roeder & Jarmasz, 2010; Sadlier-Brown & Tamminga, 2008; Smith, 2018; Swan, 2019). The first authors to identify the LBMS pattern in California were Hinton, Moonwoman, Bremner, Luthin, Van Clay, Learner, and Corcoran (1987; see also Luthin, 1987).…”