Allan:
Canadian English, in addition to becoming more standardized, is undergoing a vowel shift called the Canadian Shift. This is a chain shift of vowel sounds found primarily in Canadian English and Western American English (notably in California English). What is happening is that Canadian English and California English pronunciations are shifting in the same direction, and in a different direction than the more pronounced Northern Cities vowel shift which is occurring in the Northern US. (Pure North American English is what you hear on TV and national radio - Allan)
This means that Americans from the Northern Cities adjacent to Toronto will think that Canadians sound more like Californians, when in fact their own pronunciation is starting to deviate substantially from both. They don’t realize their own pronunciation is changing, although I have heard a few YouTube videos of past and current pronunciation that make it obvious that this is happening.
Initially, the Canadian Shift and California shift were reported as two separate phenomena, though the Canadian Shift is structurally identical to the California Shift. In the Western U.S., one in four Western speakers exhibits the Canadian Shift, A variety of names have been proposed for the unified, trans-regional chain shift, including Third Dialect Shift.
Due to the Canadian Shift, the short-a and the short-o are shifted in opposite directions to that of the Northern Cities Shift, found across the Canadian border in the Inland Northern U.S. and Western New England, which is causing these dialects to diverge. This becomes very apparent to the Americans in those areas who don’t realize their own pronunciation is changing rather rapidly and they are developing a distinct regional dialect of their own. They think they still speak with a General American accent.
See: Canadian Shift - Wikipedia
See: California English - Wikipedia
See: Inland Northern American English - Wikipedia
The Canadian Raising, which makes out sound like oot and about sound like a boot to many Americans, is not found in California English so it has become a Hollywood stereotype of Canadian English. (Wrong) However, many Canadians do not have the Canadian raising, while some Americans do, and this does tend to confuse people about their respective dialects. Canadian Raising is common in some Eastern American dialects and is found in some dialects in England and Northern Ireland as well. That may be where it originated, among migrants from those areas.
David Moe
