Vowel Shift is a systematic change in sound in the pronunciation of a vowel sound. These shifts can include palatalization, raising, lowering, backing, and even tensing of a vowel. One of the earlier studied shifts is known as the The Great Vowel Shift and was first described by a Danish linguist and Otto Jespersen (1860-1943). Otto believed that The Great vowel shift consisted of the raising of all long vowel excluding the two high vowels [I] and [u]. Some linguists believe the shift was initiated by the diphthongization of high vowels, while others state that it was from the raising of mid vowels. Another Major Vowel shift that is still in progress is the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS) and is identified typically by the acoustic characteristics and articulatory mechanisms.

There are a lot of factors and influences that result in Vowel Shifts changes in any languages. "Motives for Language, Hickey 2003", shares a few components as to why they may change. "Natural phonological processes, originating in production, perception, and acquisition,result in inherent, functionally controlled variability of speech. ‘Sound change’ takes place when the results of these processes are internalized by language learners as part of their grammatical competence. Internalization as lexical representations or lexicalrules is subject to structure-preservation and other relevant constraints on the lexicalcomponent, and may involve selective grammaticalisation and lexicalization of variants preferred at the optional stage. In consequence, conditions on sound change reflectfunctional factors."(Kiparsky 1988: 389) MLA (Modern Language Assoc.) Hickey, Raymond. Motives for Language Change. Cambridge University Press, 2003. ^[1]

Prior to the Great Vowel Shift, there were other instances of vowels shifting in Early English. The vowel shift created a change in location of vowel production, more prominently with long vowels. Some moved up in the pallet to the top of the mouth while high vowels fell into the middle of the mouth.

One of the better known vowel shifts in Old English is the raising of the long mid-front vowel [e:] to [I:]. This shift is a feature in The Great Vowel Shift but has been contested by many linguists. Examples like spiche 'speech' and sichinde 'seek'.

The Southern American Vowel Shift is characterized as the deviation of vowel pronunciation from that of Standard American English (SAE). It differs from the more popular Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS), wherein the pronunciation of vowels is moving clockwise around the vowel chart. The Southern vowel shift is known by its distinguishing characteristics, its vibrant history, as well as classic stereotypes with which it is associated.

The history of this vowel shift has deep roots that stem all the way back to northern England during the colonization of America. Citizens in this area were lower-class farmers and mostly uneducated. This set them apart from the citizens in London and in trading ports, where business was conducted and prosperity attained. When the citizens from northern England immigrated to America, they settled in the southern states to continue their agricultural enterprises. This separation of people in the northern trading ports from farming families in the south is what created the difference between northern accents and southern accents that are still recognized and stigmatized today. Other factors that have shaped the southern accent include the accumulation and transportation of slaves from Africa and the Caribbean, and the expansion of colonization from the east coast to inland western states. Both of these factors incited population growth, which was a factor that brought in more diversity, which also assisted in the shaping of the southern accent. ^[2] Because all of these factors happened over the course of many decades, the notable southern accent/vowel shift wasn't automatically distinguishable from that of other geographical locations; the population in the south was still very diverse, containing many people from many different countries, many of which didn't speak the same language, much less have the same accent. It wasn't until after The Civil War and into the 20th century that the southern accent began to take shape and distinguish itself from other accents. ^[3]

Not everyone agrees as to where the cutoff line for "The South" begins or ends, but it has generally been accepted that it is more or less from Virginia, down into Florida, and then west until Texas. This entire region mostly exhibits the same features of what is today the southern accent, as well as other distinguishing characteristics. While the accent is definitely still prominent, it has been noticed that it is receding in larger cities. This could be due to the fact that larger cities are those that participate greatly in business, trade, and commerce with associates from other cities. People with southern accents are often negatively stereotyped for many of their inherent qualities, but mostly for exhibiting their accent, which is viewed as making the speaker sound simple-minded or unintelligent. In order to avoid these stereotypes, southerners make a conscious effort to assimilate to Standard American English (SAE). ^[4]

The southern accent and the vowel shift that it contains is recognizable by many features. First and foremost, the aspect that separated the southern vowel shift from the NCVS is defined by Farrington, Kendall, and Fridland in that it "alters the positional relationship between the front tense/lax system." ^[5] It should be taken into account that while SAE has around 14 vowel sounds, the southern dialect has only seven. ^[6] This is due to the monophthongozation and diphthongization--more recognizably known as the drawl--of the standard pronunciation of vowels. Perhaps the most well-known monophthongization of vowels is present in the shift from /ɑɪ/ to /ɑ/. For example, speakers of the southern dialect are prone to pronounce the word "bye" as /bɑ/ as opposed to the SAE pronunciation, /bɑɪ/. Conversely, speakers of southern English commonly perform the diphtongization of vowels that are monophthongs in SAE; where a speaker of SAE would pronounce the word "fit" as /fɪt/, speakers of southern English would pronounce /fijʊʔ/. Another phenomenon for which the southern vowel shift is known is the pen/pin merger. Speakers that reside in the previously defined southern states pronounce both of these words the same utilizing the /ɪ/ vowel, as in the word "pin." Speakers in the northern and western states pronounce "pin" with the /ɪ/ vowel, and the word "pen" with the /ɛ/ vowel. However, the auditory and pronunciation difference between these two words is indistinguishable for speakers of southern English. ^[7]

California Vowel Shift (CVS) has several identifying features. These include the low back vowel mergers of words such as bought and bot, fronting of back vowels /oa/ as in coat and /oo /in nook or look, as well as that which is found in words such as loot or hoot. Another identifying feature of CVS is the raising or backing of the vowel /a/ such as that found in cat, depending on its linguistic environment and whether it is pre-nasal or not. ^[8] Since California is such a large state, and home to millions of people from diverse ethnic origins and backgrounds, California has seen vowel shifts within its own borders, allowing linguists to see phonological differences between Northern, Southern and Bay Area regions of California. While linguists recognize that not all native Californians have shifted their vowels to these placements within their speech acts, it is prevalent enough to recognize the chain shift that is occurring in the largest Western state.

In Northern California, there is a chain vowel shift occurring, Short front vowels that used to be higher are shifting to lower vowel spaces in native Northern California speech acts involving the vowels /I/. /ɛ/ and /æ/. Additionally, Northern California speech acts are centralizing the sound that occurs in words such as boat (/ow/) ^[9]. These shifts in vowel shortening and centralization, while not entirely unique to the region of Northern California natives, does represent the most obvious changes that are occurring within the area in regards to native speech acts.

The region of California that includes the Silicon Valley and the populous cities of San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose utilizes the same speech vowel shifts as their native Northern California neighbors in regards to vowel shortening and centralization of the diphthong in words such as boat or coat. However, this area is uniquely influenced by the acoustic accouterments associated with the gay identity which include fronting of back vowels and merging vowel sounds found in words such as cot and caught. ^[10] Native Bay Area residents tend to have a more intensive vowel shift in regards to the components that comprise CVS. These shifts include changes in voice and intonation.

Due to the increasing migration from multiple Latin American countries, especially from its southern neighbor Mexico, California is influenced in speech patterns and speech acts from this population. Changes in native California speech due to this influence includes yes.no tag questions and the shift from /Iŋ/ to /iŋ/ in California English ^[11]. These changes are most obvious in ares with large Latin American communities.

Preceding unsigned comment added by Jen35n ( talk • contribs) 23:32, 26 February 2020 (UTC)

The Canadian Vowel Shift or Canadian English, is a dialect that many people can distinctively pick out. However, even with mergers like "about" to "aboot" or the sound difference between "caught" and "cot", Canadian English was not easily detectable back then and no one hardly noticed. It wasn't until around 1995 that research has been published when there was a realization that there is a change going on with the Canadians. It seems that there are a variety of sound changes going on with this dialect and as times passes we are able to analyze and distinguish the likes of Canadian English. It can also be seen that there are quite of few similarities between Canadian English and Californian English, however, not much evidence can exactly explain why. Below I will be going through the different characteristics that are projected through the Canadian Vowel Shift, that being the lowering of vowels, Canadian Raising and other well known features.

The Canadian Vowel shift can be described to have a lot of systematic changes, however one of the main ones can be found in the lowering of the /ɪ/,/ɛ/,/æ/. With much investigation in a Montreal community, it can be seen through much observation that age becomes a factor in the production of certain vowels. For example, according to a recent article that I read, it states that there's a relationship in age, where there are differences to be more pronounced for /ɛ/ and for /æ/. Furthermore, this can overall project the idea that in the early stages of the Canadian shift there is a stabilizing in the retraction of the vowel /æ/. The first reported case of vowels /ɪ/,/ɛ/, and /æ/ in Canadian English was involved in a chain shift, which can be described as the lowering of the front lax vowels over time. ^[12]

There is another characteristic found in Canadian English called Canadian Raising. This feature includes the vowel diphthongs onsets of /ay/ and /aw/ raise to mid vowels when they precede voiceless obstruents (the sounds /p/, /t/, /k/, /s/, and /f/). Canadian pronunciation of "about" often sounds like "aboot", pronunciation of /aw/ is articulated with the tongue in a low position, and because it raises to a mid position in Canadian English when the vowel precedes the voiceless obstruents listed above, speakers of other varieties of English will immediately detect the vowel raising, but will sometimes think that the vowel has raised farther than it actually does, all the way to /u/. The raised vowels /aɪ/ typically raises [ɐɪ], while the raised variant of /aʊ/ differs by dialects in Canada, with [ɐʊ~ʌʊ] more common in Western Canada and a fronted variant [ɜʊ~ɛʊ] is mostly heard in Central Canada. ^[13] In any case, the open vowel component of the diphthongs changes to a mid vowel ([ʌ], [ɐ], [ɛ] or [ə]).

There is a theory called the vowel power approach in which Russian underwent a minor vowel shift from common Slavic to what we now know as modern Russian. Whenever Russian further developed into its own some common Slavic vowels were either lost or shifted into /e/ and /o/. Eventually /e/ shifted into /o/ in cases the vowel was not directly in front of a soft consonant in the word. This led to soft consonants coming before a back vowel, which at one time did not occur in common Slavic, but is now commonplace in modern Russian. ^[14]