Canadian raising, or at least restricted Canadian raising, happens in some parts of the northern U.S. too, like in mine. One of my suitemates senior year was from Arkansas, where they definitely don't have it, and I kept getting confused for about half a second every time I thought she was suddenly introducing horses into discussions we were having about novels.
The distinction for me seems to be your first pair: [rʌIɾər] vs. [raIɾər]. I also have a pretty extreme raising of "high" in compounds beginning with voiceless sounds: "on the [haI] beam" vs. "in [hʌI] school." But an interesting point: the special seat for a baby is a "[hʌI] chair," but a seat for a really tall guy would just be a "[haI] chair" with a pause between the two words.
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krja
(no subject)
Date: 2008-09-02 02:59 pm (UTC)The distinction for me seems to be your first pair: [rʌIɾər] vs. [raIɾər]. I also have a pretty extreme raising of "high" in compounds beginning with voiceless sounds: "on the [haI] beam" vs. "in [hʌI] school." But an interesting point: the special seat for a baby is a "[hʌI] chair," but a seat for a really tall guy would just be a "[haI] chair" with a pause between the two words.