Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants (e.g., [p], [t], [k], [s], [f]). For example, IPA /aɪ/ (the vowel of "eye") and /aʊ/ (the vowel of "loud") become [əɪ] and [əʊ], respectively, the /a/ component of the diphthong going from a low vowel to schwa ([ə]). As [əʊ] is an allophone of /oʊ/ (as in "road") in many other dialects, the (mainly Eastern) Canadian pronunciation of "about the house" may sound like "a boat the hoas" to non-Canadians. Some stand-up and situation comedians exaggerate this to "aboot the hoos" for comic effect.

It is important that these exaggerated pronunciations, such as "a boat the hoas", are usually only apparent to people without Canadian raising. They represent an attempt to imperfectly approximate the sounds they hear with sounds available in their own dialects. Because this approximation is imperfect, individuals who do speak with Canadian raising will frequently be baffled by reports that they are saying "a boat".

# posted by Gerry Canavan @ 12:39 AM  |