“Long” vowels

GOOSE

The main pronunciation of GOOSE, a high, back and long vowel [u:], predominates in the entire Caribbean (with quantity playing no role in SurCs) and in western and northern dialects of AmE (including the urban staging cities of NYC and Philadelphia) but not in Canada, New England and the South. CanE and SAmE have both fronted (e.g. [ʉ(:)]) and diphthongal (e.g. [ʊu/ɪu/ə(:)ʉ]) variants; in NEngE the latter predominate. Both types of variants can be found under certain conditions in PhilE, InlNE, WMwE (with fronting being regularly used there), and NYCE. NfldE has all three variants. With limitations, fronting can be observed in BahE, and diphthongization in ChcE. The fronting of this vowel in the South is a crucial element of the so-called “Southern Shift”.