Canadian raising
Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varities of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants (e.g., /t/k/, /f/aI/ (the vowel of "eye") an/ (the vowel of "loud") become / an/, respectively, the / (as in "father") component of the diphthong going from a low vowel to the mid vowel /^/ (as in "up"). A/ sounds similar to / (as in "road), the 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.Despite its name, the phenomenon is not restricted to Canada. The example above deals with th/ diphthong, but, as noted, the / diphthong can be affected as well. So, whereas the General American pronunciations of "rider" and "writer" are identical (/raId@r/), those whose dialects include Canadian raising will pronounce them as /raId@r/ and /r^Id@r/, respectively. It is this raising o/ which can be found in the United States, especially in the Pacific Northwest. Note also that Canadian raising preserves the etymological /t/ in "writer," even though in Canadian English, as in most other versions of North American English, the /t/ has become /d/ or (SAMPA) /4/ between vowels.
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