The Wicked Shift of the West: An Investigation on Regional Variations of the Canadian Shift Within BC

Abstract

This paper was originally written for Dr. Heather Bliss’ LING 282W course Writing for Linguistics. The assignment asked students to expand, elaborate, or adapt an earlier assignment from class into a short experimental or argumental paper. This paper uses MLA citation style.

Data sampling in BC English is heavily populated with speakers living in Metro Vancouver and very little from outside of the region. Previous studies found evidence of allophonic variations, such as the degree of pre-velar raising, within provinces outside of major cities. The goal of this paper is to investigate the intensity of the Canadian Shift in the Metro Vancouver region compared to the Okanagan region by measuring the formant values of four speakers: two from the Vancouver region and two from the Okanagan region. A difference in formant values was found, indicating slight variation in the degree of the Canadian Shift between the two regions. This paper provides an idea for the boundaries of Canadian Shift occurrence and insights regarding allophonic homogeneity within BC.