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 [æ]. 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.