On saying /aw/ in Victoria

• Main Author: Davison, John
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto 1987
• Subjects: Canadian raising; Canadian English; /aw/; fronting; middle-class; Victoria; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://twpl.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/twpl/article/view/6407

The degree of homogeneity in Canadian English is remarkable given distances which, in most parts of the world, would span several language (and even language family) boundaries. The process known as Canadian Raising, for example, is common to middle-class English speakers in all urban centres outside Quebec and Newfoundland (see Chambers, 1973). Given such distances, it would seem natural for processes of language change to create numerous regional differences -- and indeed there are differences to be found but they are primarily of a lexical sort. It would seem a good deal less natural for a phonological change to occur throughout the entire dialect area thereby maintaining the homogeneity of the dialect. Nonetheless, Chambers and Hardwick (1986) show that a change in progress in Toronto is also occurring in Vancouver.