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Intro
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The Northern Cities Chain Shift is a series of innovations in the vowels of the English spoken in the urban centres that surround the American side of the Great Lakes. First described by Labov, Yaeger, & Steiner (1973) and investigated further by Eckert (1989), its linguistic consequence is a new vowel system, characteristic of cities like Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, and Buffalo. Some aspects of it are detectable farther afield, in cities like Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Columbus, and Indianapolis.
The result of the Northern Cities Shift is that each of a series of vowels receives a new place of articulation along the parameters of tongue advancement and height. The low vowels are advanced, while the mid vowels retract, as illustrated in the diagram below.
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Go on to Part 2 (Chain Shifts)
© 2001 The Language Samples Project