Canadian Shift

rdf:langString Canadian Shift

rdf:langString The Canadian Shift is a chain shift of vowel sounds found in Canadian English, beginning among speakers in the last quarter of the 20th century and most significantly involving the lowering and backing of the front vowels. This lowering and backing is structurally identical to the California Shift reported in California English and some younger varieties of Western New England English, Western American English, Pacific Northwest English, and Midland American English; whether the similarly structured shifts in these regional dialects have a single unified cause or not is still not entirely clear. The back and downward movement of all the front vowels was first noted in some California speakers in 1987, then in some Canadian speakers in 1995(initially reported as two separate phenomena), and later documented among some speakers in Western and Midland U.S. cities born after 1980, based on impressionistic analysis. Assuming the similar chain shifts found in Canada and various parts of the U.S. are a phenomenon with a single common origin, a variety of names have been proposed for this trans-regional chain shift, including the Third Dialect Shift, Elsewhere Shift, Low Back Merger Shift, and Short Front Vowel Shift.