This study provides the first wide-scale, apparent time, instrumental descriptionof the Canadian Shift in mainstream Toronto English. In contrast with someprevious findings, the Toronto data suggest that for the last 70 years or morethe shift has not affected the high front lax vowel (i). We observe that themovement of the nonhigh front lax vowels (ε) and (æ) involves bothlowering and retraction in Toronto English, although retraction is the primarydirection of more recent change and the shift appears to be slowing down. Ourfindings also suggest that continued retraction of the vowel resulting from thelow back merger is involved in the final stage of the shift. We do not findevidence of a chain shift but instead propose that a parallel shift is occurringand make reference to Vowel Dispersion Theory in our discussion.
