Mergers before /r/

A conditioned merger of several vowels before intervocalic /r/ also characterizes Canadian English from coast to coast (with one important exception beyond the usual case of Newfoundland) and unites it with other North American varieties, in this case all of those dialects that were not affected by the vocalization of /r/. In Canada, /eɪ/ , /ε/ and /æ/ are all merged before intervocalic /r/ at approximately [ε], a lower-mid to upper-mid front quality, so that Mary, merry and marry all sound like a slightly lengthened version of merry. This was first noted by Gregg (1957: 82) in Vancouver, though he suggests it was a change in progress when he collected his data. Apart from some variability in Newfoundland, the important exception to this pattern is Montreal, where /æ/ remains distinct from the other two vowels before /r/: carry does not rhyme with berry, but berry rhymes with dairy.

In addition to this merger of front vowels, most Canadians have lost the distinction between several pairs of mid and back vowels before /r/. Like most standard varieties of English, Canadian English does not distinguish /ɔ:/ and /oʊ/ in this environment (for and four, horse and hoarse), and as in the Midwestern and Western U.S., /Λ/ and /ə/ (hurry and her) are also not distinct, both having the sound of [ə] , or simply of a syllabic [ɹ]. A noteworthy feature of Canadian English, which might be expected from the general merger of /ɒ/ and /ɔ:/ , is that the merger of these vowels before /r/ is virtually complete, and does not exclude the residue of unmerged forms that is found in phonologically similar American dialects. In Canada, even the common words borrow, sorry, and tomorrow usually have the vowels of bore, sore, and more, whereas in most American speech they retain a low, unrounded articulation similar to that of the /ar/ class, even where less common words like forest, historical, and orange have merged with four, store, and oar. The Canadian pronunciation of sorry with a lower-mid-back vowel is particularly striking to many American ears.