Distribution of Canadian Raising

Hey Josh Lalonde: I'd like to know more about the details of Canadian Raising in your speech (and among Canadians in general).

- Do you have raising in words like "fire", "hire"? (And if so, do you also have it in "higher"?) And do you have it in "tower"?

- Do you have raising when there's an intervening [n], as in "ounce", "count", "pint", "mountain"?

- Do you have a raised allophone of /Ar/ in words like "park", "cart", "hearth"?

Oh, and about the phonetic quality: You've said that your raised version of /aU/ is [EU]. Would you say that [EU] or [VU] is more common among Canadians?

No, none of those words have raising for me. My pattern, and I think the standard one across Canada, is to have raising only directly before voiceless consonants, and in words derived from that situation, like 'southern' [sEUD3`n] from [sEUT] or 'housing' [hEUzIN] from [hEUs]. Note that this is for phonemically voiceless consonants, so [4] from underlying /t/, though voiced, creates raising, like 'writer' [r\@I4@`], which is clearly different from 'rider' [r\aI4@`].
I don't have a raised /Ar/ either; I've never heard of it in Canadian English. A fronted /Ar/ is very common though. It occurs throughout the Atlantic Provinces (Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), and also in the Ottawa Valley, though not much in the city of Ottawa itself. My father is from a town called Renfrew outside of Ottawa, in the Valley, and he occasionally has this fronted /Ar/ [ar\], but not very often; I have it even less often. I think it's more of a stylistic alternation than a regular allophone.
Words like 'fire', 'hire', etc. are interesting though, because I have a process similar to the smoothing that occurs for some RP speakers. These words, as well as words like 'tower' are often pronounced with [a@`] in casual speech. 'Tire' and 'tower' can both therefore be [ta@`]. I don't think I've ever heard 'higher' like this though, since it is etymologically high+er so [haI.j@`]. It's interesting that r-breaking seems to have been reversed with smoothing: if I pronounce it with the full diphtong, I have two syllables [taI.j@`],[taU.w@`] but if I pronounce it with smoothing, I have only one.

Interesting. I actually have Canadian Raising - I think it's pretty common here in Massachusetts. Here's how it occurs in my speech:

- It occurs before any unvoiced consonants, and it never occurs before voiced consonants (except for the [n] issue). So I have it in:

night ["n6It]
ice ["6Is]
house ["hEUs]
south ["sEUT]

But not in:

housing ["haUzIN]
tiger ["t_haIg@`]
spider ["spaId@`]

I distinguish between underlying /t/, /d/ like you do:

writer ["r\6I4@`]
rider ["r\aI4@`]

- I do have it when there's an intervening [n]:

ounce ["EUns]
pint ["p_h6Int]
mountain ["mEUn?n=]

- I don't have it before /r/.

hire ["haI@`]
higher ["haI@`]
tower ["t_haU@`]

- And I do have a raised allophone of /Ar/:

park ["p_hVr\k]
hearth ["hVr\T]

Typo: "spider" should be ["spaI4@`].

<<Oh, and about the phonetic quality: You've said that your raised version of /aU/ is [EU]. Would you say that [EU] or [VU] is more common among Canadians?>>

I think [EU] is more common; I can't say that I remember hearing [VU] actually. Though, of course I've never done a survey of Canadian English. I did work at a surveying company for a while though, so I got to speak to people from all across the country.

<<- And I do have a raised allophone of /Ar/:

park ["p_hVr\k]
hearth ["hVr\T]>>

This would sound to me more like a form of /3`/. Do you know what the geographic extent of this form is?

I myself find it interesting that you guys have [EU] as your raised version of /aU/, as around here, if /aU/ is really raised at all, it is more directly raised (and not fronted) as [6U] or more extremely as [VU] in very informal speech.

And on that note, I just have to give my versions of the above (my apologies, but I intentionally based it off of Lazar's post for the sake of comparison)...

- It occurs before any unvoiced obstruent, including with sonorants between the vowel and said unvoiced obstruents. So I have it in:

"night" : ["n@I?]
"ice" : ["@Is]
"house" : ["h6Us]
"south" : ["s6UT]
"ounce" : ["6U~ns]
"pint" : ["p_h@I~?]
"mountain" : ["m6U~?n=]

- I also have it in cases of /@r/ being present after /aI/ or /aU/ within the same morpheme (or sometimes *immediately* after it):

"tiger" : ["t_h@:IgR=]
"spider" : ["sp@:I4R=]

- But not in:

"housing" : ["ha:UzI~:N]

- I distinguish between underlying /t/, /d/ like you do:

"writer" : ["R@I4R=]
"rider" : ["Ra:I4R=]

- I do have it immediately before /r/ (but not immediately following /@r/).

"hire" : ["h@IR=]
"higher" : ["haIR=]
"tower" : ["t_haUR=]

- And I do have a raised allophone of /ar/:

"park" : ["p_hVRk]
"hearth" : ["hVRT]

- As well as a simply backed one in other cases:

"par" : ["p_hA:R]
"hard" : ["hA:Rd]

Okay, I've got another question for Josh and Travis. Do you have Canadian raising in "high school"? I pronounce it ["h6I %sku5], and I've read about other people (at least in the Northeast US) having raising there. This is the only instance of raising in my speech that crosses word boundaries - any other instances of "high" would be ["haI] for me.

I also have Canadian Raising in "high school", pronouncing it ["h@I%sku:U]. Likewise, that is the only real instance of Canadian Raising that I can think of offhand which crosses word boundaries. My guess at the reason for such is that such has effectively merged into a single word underlyingly even though it is still written as two words.

No, I don't have my raised /aI/ in 'high school'. It's ["haI%sku.o] for me.

<<Okay, I've got another question for Josh and Travis. Do you have Canadian raising in "high school"? I pronounce it ["h6I %sku5], and I've read about other people (at least in the Northeast US) having raising there. This is the only instance of raising in my speech that crosses word boundaries - any other instances of "high" would be ["haI] for me.>>

Interesting. So how would you pronounce the name of a hypothetical high school called "Blackwood High"? Would you pronounce it [bl{kwUd haI] or [bl{kwUd h6I]?

I would pronounce that as ["bl{kwUd "haI]. For me, the raising only occurs in the phrase "high school" itself, not when "High" is used to refer to a high school.

I would pronounce "Blackwood High" as ["bL\E{kwU:d"ha:I], and likewise the raising only occurs in the phrase "high school" for me as well.