/ai/ vs. /@i/

For me, the words rider and writer are not homophones. Rider is pronounced [r/ ai4@`] while writer is [r/@i4@`] (for those not familiar with X-SAMPA, for writer, you don't open your mouth as much on the dipthong). I have encountered people from Colorado, for example, who use the first for both, and people from Michigan who uses the second for both. I'd like to try an investigation--please respond, letting me know where you are from and answer the following questions (use X-SAMPA to be specific if you know how).

1. Do spider and rider rhyme? Do spider and writer rhyme?

2. Do the words fire and hire rhyme? What about fire and higher?

For the experts in the forum, do you have any insight into the different varieties of /ai/ raising?

I personally am from Minnesota--spider and writer rhyme, but spider and rider do not.

Fire and hire rhyme, but fire higher do not.

Texan here... I pronounce them all the same.

<<For me, the words rider and writer are not homophones. Rider is pronounced [r/ ai4@`] while writer is [r/@i4@`] (for those not familiar with X-SAMPA, for writer, you don't open your mouth as much on the dipthong). I have encountered people from Colorado, for example, who use the first for both, and people from Michigan who uses the second for both. I'd like to try an investigation--please respond, letting me know where you are from and answer the following questions (use X-SAMPA to be specific if you know how).

1. Do spider and rider rhyme? Do spider and writer rhyme?

2. Do the words fire and hire rhyme? What about fire and higher?

For the experts in the forum, do you have any insight into the different varieties of /ai/ raising?

I personally am from Minnesota--spider and writer rhyme, but spider and rider do not.

Fire and hire rhyme, but fire higher do not.>>

This is called Canadian raising, which occurs in Canada, the Upper Midwest and also can occur in New England. Lazar, Travis and Josh Lalonde all have this feature in their speech.

I'm from central Massachusetts, and I do have Canadian Raising for both /aI/ and /aU/, but for me it's very strictly allophonic, only occurring before voiceless obstruent phonemes (or clusers ending in a voiceless obstruent phoneme). Thus for me:

1. Spider ["spaI4@`] and rider ["r\aI4@`] rhyme, but spider ["spaI4@`] and writer ["r\6I4@`] do not.

2. Fire ["faI@`] and hire ["haI@`] rhyme, as do fire ["faI@`] and higher ["haI@`]. I interpret all of those words as bisyllabic.

I also have Canadian Raising for /aU/, with the raised allophone being [EU]. Raising of both diphthongs is common in Massachusetts, although nobody here raises the vowel in "fire". (Raising of the "fire" vowel is very common in the Great Lakes area, though.)

So when I say that my Canadian Raising is strictly allophonic, I mean that it adheres to the traditional phonemic distribution that existed before flapping: "spider" and "writer" don't rhyme, because they have recoverable /t/ and /d/ phonemes, respectively; but "spider" and "rider" rhyme, beacuse they both have recoverable /d/ phonemes.

One peculiarity of my Canadian Raising is that I raise vowels before [nt]: so I have: bound ["baUnd], count ["k_hEUnt], and find ["faInd], pint ["p_h6Int]. From what I've heard, I don't think this is so common in the Great Lakes area or Canada.

Fortunately we have regular posters from both Wisconsin and Canada, so they'll be able to provide additional insights.

Actually, now that I think about it, I think there are some people in Massachusetts who raise the vowel in "fire" - and it's even possible to do it non-rhotically, with something like ["f6I@] - but I think it's more common in the Boston area than here in the central part of the state.

<<My accent and that of most Canadians, raises only before phonemically voiceless consonants and those derived from them (housing, southern are both raised, but I can't think of any examples with /aI/ right now).>>

In my speech I don't even have a derivation rule like that: I use the raised vowel in house ["hEUs], but not in housing ["haUzIN].

I didn't refer to this as Canadian raising, because I don't think I raise the /aU/ at all.

I believe that in Minnesota, pint is commonly raised, Lazar.

<<I didn't refer to this as Canadian raising, because I don't think I raise the /aU/ at all.

I believe that in Minnesota, pint is commonly raised, Lazar.>>

Yeah, Canadian raising of /aU/ is less common than Canadian raising of /aI/.

What about "knives" from "knife"? Is it pronounce [naIvz] or [n6Ivz] in Canadian raising?

Well, there are many different variations of Canadian Raising. I have knife ["n6If], knives ["naIvz], but I don't know how Josh and Travis treat this.

Another aspect of Canadian Raising that I seldom read about, but which I think is actually quite common, is the raising of /Ar/. I raise /Ar/ in the same conditions that I raise the other diphthongs, so for example I have: lard ["lA@`d], part ["p_hVr\t].

And one other thing: Canadian Raising, as a rule, doesn't cross word boundaries for me, but there's one exception: "high school", which I pronounce as ["h6I %sku:5]. I've read that a lot of other people have this too.

Interesting--I guess I raise both lard and part (not sure which vowel I use--the differences seem pretty subtle to me).

>>For me, the words rider and writer are not homophones. Rider is pronounced [r/ ai4@`] while writer is [r/@i4@`] (for those not familiar with X-SAMPA, for writer, you don't open your mouth as much on the dipthong). I have encountered people from Colorado, for example, who use the first for both, and people from Michigan who uses the second for both. I'd like to try an investigation--please respond, letting me know where you are from and answer the following questions (use X-SAMPA to be specific if you know how).

1. Do spider and rider rhyme? Do spider and writer rhyme?<<

None of these rhyme here, as they are:

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

>>2. Do the words fire and hire rhyme? What about fire and higher?<<

"Fire" and "hire" rhyme here, while "fire" and "higher" don't:

"fire" ["f@:IR=:]
"hire" ["h@:IR=:]
"higher" ["ha:IR=:]

>>For the experts in the forum, do you have any insight into the different varieties of /ai/ raising?<<

There are several different things that fall under the name "Canadian Raising" and not everyone with Canadian Raising have them all.

First, there is classical Canadian Raising that is conditioned by the fortis-lenis values of following obstruents. Even then, they may differ in whether intervening sonorants block the raising effect of fortis obstruents, as with how Lazar can have raising with intervening /n/ and I myself can have any intervening sonorant such as /l/, while Lalonde does not have raising with intervening sonorants. And note that I am including the raising of historical /Ar/ before fortis obstruents, which is extremely common in northern English dialects in the US.

Second, there is raising directly before /r/. This is also extremely common in northern English dialects in the US, even though I am not sure how widespread this really is in Canada.

Third, there is remote raising before /r/, which explains cases of raising such as those in words like "spider" and "tiger"; note that this is restricted to individual morphemes and does not cross morpheme boundaries. Note that /@r/ in the following syllable is the most common case of this, but there are other cases of this in my dialect of this as well conditioned by things like /ir/ as well (and I have observed cases where /r/ in a following onset can cause it, even though I do not remember them at the moment). Note that many people have this for words like "spider" and "tiger" in the northern US but may not necessarily have this to its full conclusion. For instance, I myself do not have this in some words that "should" have it, such as "miser" ["ma:IzR=:], "visor" ["va:IzR=:], and "fiber" ["faI:bR=:]. This means that one may potentially argue for the phonemicity of Canadian Raising here, even though one may also dismiss such as being a result of a sound change in progress.

Fourth, the dialect here has some other cases of raising. This seems to be relatively limited, and is primarily before /d/ followed by either /@l/ or /o/ somewhere in the same morpheme. For instance, I have raising in "idle" ["@:I4M:], "Idaho" ["@:I4@:ho:], "bridle" ["bR@:I4M:], and "Midol" ["m@:I4M:]. I really am not sure how widespread this is, as I have just observed this in dialects in southern Wisconsin, and I have not seen this mentioned anywhere in any literature.

>>Well, there are many different variations of Canadian Raising. I have knife ["n6If], knives ["naIvz], but I don't know how Josh and Travis treat this.<<

I have "knife" ["n@If] and "knives" ["na:Ifs]. Canadian Raising here is not like in some dialects in Canada in that it is not a fixed part of individual stems even though there is places where one can argue for its phonemicity in my dialect.

>>Another aspect of Canadian Raising that I seldom read about, but which I think is actually quite common, is the raising of /Ar/. I raise /Ar/ in the same conditions that I raise the other diphthongs, so for example I have: lard ["lA@`d], part ["p_hVr\t].<<

I have such here as well, even though the NCVS makes such a bit more interesting. /a/ is normally backed to [A] before /r/ here, but when such raising occurs it is realized as [V]. It is not the default realization of /a/ which is being raised by rather its allophone before /r/ here.

>>And one other thing: Canadian Raising, as a rule, doesn't cross word boundaries for me, but there's one exception: "high school", which I pronounce as ["h6I %sku:5]. I've read that a lot of other people have this too. <<

Such is the case here, and this seems to apply to very many dialects in the northern US in general as well.

Thanks Travis. Perhaps if there is no literature on the topic about the great variety in raising (the reason I posted here was because I couldn't find much information), an expert such as yourself could create some?

1) Sometimes. Sometimes not. Almost everyone around here has inconsitent Canadian raising. Sometimes I pronounce spider as [sp@Idr\=]; other times [spaIdr\=]. Same thing for "writer": sometimes it's [r\aIdr\=], other times [r\@Idr\=]. "Rider" however never has raising. I just asked my sister to pronounce all three, and she definitely had raising on the first 2 but not on the second. However, when I asked her if the vowels sounded the same or different, she said all three had the same vowel.

2) I haven't noticed many with raising of /aIr\=/. Fire, hire, and higher all all [haIr\=].

Sometimes I raise the /aI/ in "high school". While I may slightly raise the the /aU/ in /haUs/, housing is always /haUzIN/ -> [haUzin].