The Role of Social Factors in the Canadian Vowel Shift: Evidence From Toronto

Hoffman, Michol F.

doi:10.1215/00031283-2010-007

Cited by 61 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…In general, studies showed either subtle, specific, context‐limited differences or none at all. For example, Hoffman and Walker () and Hoffman () concluded that there are no ‘stable’ ethnolinguistic varieties in Chinese and Italian English speaking communities in Toronto, based on the fact that the lower rates of Canadian Vowel Shift participation and t/d deletion found in older Cantonese and Italian Torontonians compared to the British group did not persist for the younger generations. Baxter and Peters () did find differences in t/d deletion between second‐generation Black Torontonians compared to the second‐generation groups of Hoffman and Walker's study (), but only in certain phonological environments.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English

Wong

Babel

2017

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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Studies of ethnolinguistic variation typically begin by describing the speech production variables used to index social groups. In this study, we begin with indexical recognition – the perceptual identification of speakers’ self‐identified ethnic groups – to determine whether speakers produce ethnolinguistic variation and whether listeners are sensitive to it. Speech samples were recorded from thirty individuals from Metro Vancouver who self‐identified as Chinese, East Indian, or White Canadian. These utterances were used in a perception task where listeners categorized speakers’ ethnicities. Listeners’ social networks were labeled according to the ethnic group with which they reported spending the most time. Analyses indicate that while speakers vary in their productive expression of ethnolinguistic variation, listeners are consistent in their labeling choices. Listener accuracy was higher for voices from the listeners’ reported social group and White voices. These results suggest that familiarity with ethnic groups through social networks and mainstream culture influences indexical recognition.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual identification of talker ethnicity in Vancouver English

Wong

Babel

2017

Journal of Sociolinguistics

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“…Most previous research has focused on the character of the Canadian Shift in a particular city or town (e.g. Boberg 2005; Hagiwara 2006; Roeder and Jarmasz 2010; Hoffman 2010). Since comparative analysis between studies is hindered by variation in factors such as elicitation materials, method of data collection, recording equipment, and normalization algorithms, such research provides little concrete evidence of whether and how the shift is changing and moving geolinguistically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Canadian Shift in two Ontario cities

Roeder¹

2012

World Englishes

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The Canadian Shift, a change-in-progress that is affecting the lax vowel subsystem of Canadian English, has been found to be active in a number of cities across Canada. Very little is known about the geolinguistic history and spread of the shift, however. Combining apparent time data from Thunder Bay, Ontario, with a comparison of lax vowel pronunciation in the speech of young people from both Thunder Bay and Toronto, the current study presents evidence against the hypothesis that the Canadian Shift has spread to Thunder Bay by way of a gravity model of diffusion. Although not identical, the vowel configurations are quite similar in the speech of young people from the two cities, and the apparent time findings suggest that the shift in Thunder Bay has not lagged behind the shift in Toronto. Results support the proposal that the English of Thunder Bay and Toronto share a common source and that the low back vowel merger, the pre-cursor for the shift, was brought westward with the settlers to Thunder Bay in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Subsequently, the Canadian Shift occurred simultaneously in both areas. Evidence of more urban features in the pronunciation of several Thunder Bay teenagers also raises questions about the future impact of mobility on the local dialect.

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“…Raising of /ae/ before g The variation in the phonetic realization of /ae/, sometimes called 'short a' (Boberg, 2008) in Canada is somewhat complicated. On the one hand, /ae/ is widely reported as lowering and retracting towards /a/, as part of the widelystudied Canadian shift (Clarke et al, 1995;Esling and Warkentyne, 1993;Hagiwara, 2006;Hoffman, 2010;Roeder, 2012;Roeder and Jarmasz, 2010;Sadlier-Brown and Tamminga, 2008), which is argued to be in reaction to the merger of the lower back vowels /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, a characteristic of most varieties of Canadian English (Clarke et al, 1995;Labov et al, 2006). On the other hand, /ae/ is reported to be raised before velars and nasals, with ae-raising before nasals most characteristic of Ontario, and ae-raising before velars most characteristic of the Prairie provinces (Boberg, 2008).…”

Section: English In the Canadian Prairiesmentioning

confidence: 99%