Canadian Shift

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The Canadian Shift is a linguistic chain shift, first identified in 1995, found among many anglophone Canadians.

This feature is not found in the Atlantic Provinces, east of Quebec; it is only found in Ontario and farther west. It is triggered by the cot-caught merger. As one vowel enroaches upon the space of another, the adjacent vowel in turn experiences a movement in order to maximize phonemic differentiation. The vowels in the words cot /kɒt/ and caught /kɔt/ merge to [kɔt].

• The /æ/ of bat is retracted to [a]
• The /ɛ/ of bet shifts to [æ]
• The /ɪ/ in bit then shifts to the [ɛ] (as in bet)

[edit] See also

• Northern Cities Vowel Shift
• West/Central Canadian English