The Northern Cities Shift

A radical rotation of the short vowels in the Inland North of the United States, which began in the middle of the 20th century and is the major factor in the increasing differentiation of the vowel systems of the North from the Midland and the South

The Northern Cities Shift

A radical rotation of the short vowels in the Inland North of the United States, which began in the middle of the 20th century and is the major factor in the increasing differentiation of the vowel systems of the North from the Midland and the South

Word Phrase Sentence

1 . ______ _____________ ___________________

2. ______ _____________ ___________________

3. ______ _____________ ___________________

4. ______ _____________ ___________________

The Northern Cities Shift

Word Phrase Sentence

1 . black _____________ living on one block

2. sacks _____________ had to wear socks

3. dusk _____________ behind the desk

4. bosses _____________ buses with the antennas

Misunderstandings from the Northern Cities Shift

The Northern Cities Shift

ED

Æ1UDEQ

The Northern Cities Shift O2 measure: fronting of /o/ beyond 1450 Hz/

Isoglosses defining the progress of the Northern Cities Shift

Isoglosses defining the progress of the Northern Cities Shift

Speakers who show all six elements of the NCS

ANAE Map 11.14: Isoglosses defining the Inland North

The Northern Cities Shift: Mean values of low vowels for 21 dialects.

PI = Pittsburgh WPA = Western Pennsylvania CA = Canada PR = Providence;IS = Inland South M = Midland; N = Inland North.

IN

The Erie Canal

Raised short-a system of Simon Z., 47 [1995], Syracuse NY TS331

Raised /æ/ system of Randall R., 24 [1993], Chicago IL TS67

Nasal short-a system of Tom K., 45 [1996], Middletown CT, TS 476

Nasal short-a system of Natalie M., 43 [1998], Portland ME, TS724

Split short-a system of Nina B., 62 [1996], New York City, TS 495

Short-a systems in the formation of the Inland North

The Northern Cities Shift

head

desk

bosses

busses

block

socks

mat

The Northern Cities Shift

head

desk

bosses

busses

block

socks

mat

The UD measure of the Northern Cities Shift

The ED measure of the Northern Cities Shift

The EQ measure of the Northern Cities Shift,

Figure 11.3. Presence and absence of the Northern Cities Shift as measured by F2(e) - F2(o) [=EOD]

(a) Rita O., 42, Muncie IN TS 225. EOD = 849

(b) Leslie R., 42, Detroit MI TS 125. (c) Sherry K.,35, Rochester NY TS 173. EOD = 230 EOD = -7.

Settlement patterns shown by diffusion of building methods from seaboard nuclei

--Kniffen & Glassie 1966. Fig. 27

The canal era: 1825-50

--A. Wexler. Atlas of Westward Expansion. NY: Facts on File, 1995. p. 64

Extended sample of speech from Sharon K., 35, Rochester, TS 359Sharon K. is an advanced speaker of the Northern Cities Shift. Listen for the raising and fronting of short a in bad, have, that fronting of short o in gotta, job, Xerox, lot

backing of short e in rest, education backing of short u in country

Well. . . I-I--basically we’re just like the rest of the country, but uh-- . . it’s not too bad, y’know, y’gotta have . . education t’get a job in these days. It’s gotten a little tougher that way. Y’know, Xerox , or Xerox here, and IBM, and I guess they’re doin’ pretty good, y’know. Uhm--yeh, everybody I know does. Now I know there’s people. . Y’know most people I know have jobs. Y’know I don’t really know too many people that don’t . .or have-- own their own businesses. Y’know, me and my husband both have our own business--and I see a lot of that, I know a lot of people that have their own business. Y’know, compared to the way it used to be. . . Y’know, you go work for somebody now. . . I think that’s changed a lot.

Sharon K. is an advanced speaker of the Northern Cities Shift. Listenfor the raising and fronting of short a in Catholic, adding, taxes, fact fronting of short /o/ in modeling, lot

backing of short /e/ in send, went, sending fronting of /ay/ in nine

backing of /i/ in tuitionYeah, well I send my kids to private school, but--across the street from me is a Catholic school, y’know I send ‘em there. I went there, in fact I live in the house that I grew up in. We’re re-modeling right now, uh adding on to the family room, and doing the work. We-we like the neighborhood, and we feel very comfortable here. We like all the neighbors, y’know, neighbors I’ve known since I was nine. Bishop Parity behind us, but I don’t know if we’re gonna be sending him there. The tuition could be very expensive. As it is now, we’re paying a lot for public. . .Y’know we pay a lot of--taxes are very high here.

Extended sample of speech from Sharon K., 35, Rochester, TS 359

The progress of the Northern Cities Shift in the Inland North [N=71] by the EOD measure, city size and age

ChicagoDetroitBuffaloKenosha

< 40

40-59

60+

Fig. 12.3. The backing of wedge in the Northern Cities Shift

Map 11.3. The discontinuous character of the Inland North with re-assignment of Erie, PA

NCS Correlations

æe

o

oh

.45 .24

^

.42.35North

Non-North

æe

o

oh

.06 .25

^

.36.15

Regression coefficients of the NCS for the Inland North speakers of the Atlas of North American English [N=68].

F2(æ) F2(o) F1(oh) F2(e) F2(^)Age:* 25 years

24 -18 -25 74

Gender: female

91 -18 14 -48

Education: < 13 yrs

65 -33 -27

red coefficients = favoring the change in progressblue coefficients = disfavoring the change in progress

Source: Eckert 2000

^æ

Gender and social category determination of five elements of the Northern City Shift in a Detroit suburban high school

ANAE notation for the word classes of North American English

kid could

Ked cud

cad cod

keyed

cade coy

hide

suit cooed

code

cowed

cawed

father