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Low Back Merger Shift
The Low-Back-Merger Shift is a chain shift of vowel, vowel sounds found in several dialects of North American English, beginning in the last quarter of the 20th century and most significantly involving the low back merger (which collapses together the Low vowel, low-Back vowel, back vowel sounds: , , and in words like , , and respectively) accompanied by the Raising (phonetics), lowering and Fronting (phonetics), backing of each of the front vowel, front-tenseness, lax vowels: , , and (in words like , , and respectively). The back and downward movement of all the front lax vowels was first noted as distinguishing certain California English speakers in 1987, and it was soon known by linguists as the California Vowel Shift. Then, it came to distinguish certain Canadian English speakers in a 1995 study, now known in that variety as the Canadian Shift; today, it helps define Standard Canadian English. The California and Canadian Shifts were initially reported as two separate phe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chain Shift
In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds. The sounds involved in a chain shift can be ordered into a "chain" in such a way that after the change is complete, each phoneme ends up sounding like what the phoneme before it in the chain sounded like ''before'' the change. The changes making up a chain shift, interpreted as rules of phonology, are in what is termed '' counterfeeding order''. A well-known example is the Great Vowel Shift, which was a chain shift that affected all of the long vowels in Middle English. The changes to the front vowels may be summarized as follows: : → → → A drag chain or pull chain is a chain shift in which the phoneme at the "leading" edge of the chain changes first. In the example above, the chain shift would be a pull chain if changed to first, opening ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
