Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Encyclopedia : N : NO : NOR : Northern Cities Vowel Shift
In this shift, the vowels in the words ket, cut, caught, cot, and cat have shifted from IPA [ɛ], [ʌ], [ɔ], [ɑ], [æ] toward [ə], [ɔ], [ɑ], [a], [ɪə], and, in addition, the vowel in kit (IPA [ɪ]) becomes more mid-centralized. Like most chain shifts, it is not complete in all areas at the same time: some but not all aspects of the shift can be found further afield. For example, the backing of /ɛ/ is found as far south as St. Louis and as far west as Cedar Rapids, and the diphthongization of /æ/ before oral consonants is found in parts of Minnesota (St. James, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Brainerd). Accents in which /ʌ/ is more retracted than /ɑ/ (whether by backing of /ʌ/, fronting of /ɑ/, or both) are encountered as far east as Providence, as far south as St. Louis, as far north as Bemidji, and as far west as Aberdeen (Labov et al. 204).
The trigger of this is the diphthongization of /æ/ into /ɪə/ (æ-tensing), a change identified as early as the 1960s. Then, /ɑ/ is pulled forward toward [a], occupying a position very close to the position of former /æ/, and in some very advanced speakers an identical position. The third stage is another pull, namely the lowering of /ɔ/ toward [ɑ]. The fourth stage is the backing of /ɛ/, a phonetic shift seen in some other accents, although less markedly and in fewer contexts; this is a push stage, because former /ɛ/ and fronted /æ/ sound similar, especially when /æ/ is not fully raised to [ɪə] but only to [eə]. The fifth stage is the backing of /ʌ/, pulled by /ɔ/ and at the same time pushed by /ɛ/. Finally, /ɪ/ is lowered and backed, although it is still distinct from /ɛ/ in all contexts. The shift is in progress throughout the Great Lakes cities, so some speakers might only have, for instance, the first two stages only, but none have, say, only the last stage.
The shift is found in white speakers and those who identify themselves with the region in which the vowel shift is occurring. Speakers of African American Vernacular English show little to no evidence of adopting the Northern Cities Shift. The shift has also not been adopted by Canadian speakers, despite the geographic proximity of millions of Canadians living near the U.S. border in the Great Lakes region and along the St. Lawrence. Because of this, a Canadian living in Ontario along the U.S. border is likely to sound more like a speaker thousands of miles away in California than an American speaker who resides just across the border.[[Citing sources citation needed]]
External links
- [Northern Cities Shift]
- [A National Map of The Regional Dialects of American English]
- [PBS resource from the show "Do you Speak American?"]
- [Detroit Area Vowels (bottom part of page)] Sound files at Penelope Eckert's website
- [NPR interview with Professor William Labov about the shift]
References
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