The Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Speakers That Adopt It

question 54

Multiple Choice

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift and Speakers That Adopt It "The Northern Cities Vowel Shift" is not adopted by all speakers that live in the geographic regions where it is in progress. Studies (1) illustrate that it is mostly European Americans who show evidence of taking on the shift; however, there is little to no research indicating that speakers of African American Vernacular English employ the shift in their speech. Canadians that share proximity to the Great Lakes with speakers that live in the United States also show no evidence of adopting the shift.
This shift, also called "The Northern Cities Shift" (NCS) , is a (2) linguistic phenomenon that occurs in the northern geographic area of the United States known as the Inland North, which includes such cities as Rochester, Buffalo, Detroit, and Chicago. Although prominent among some urban inhabitants of the region, NCS is not considered the standard. (3) Linguists describe one change that occurs in speakers of NCS in which the vowel in milk (4) "shifts" down and back (the tongue is lowered and travels back) from a short "i" to a short "e" that could be represented as melk.
William Labov, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, is one of the largest contributors to research on the subject of the NCS. His theory is that the shift possibly started when speakers from different (5) language varieties were brought together in the early 1800's when the Erie Canal was being constructed. People from the East Coast moved to the Great Lakes region, and their dialects mixed resulting in an ongoing shift. However, not all speakers of the Great Lakes region participate in this linguistic variation.
The word "linguistic", in bold after the (2) in paragraph 2, is closest in meaning to

• A)Relative to geographic region
• B)Relative to language
• C)Relative to African Americans
• D)Relative to shift

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Definitions:

Rotting Garbage

Decomposing organic waste, typically emitting a foul odor and attracting pests.

Temporary Villages

Communities established for a short period, often to support seasonal activities, construction projects, or emergency shelter.

Semiperipheral Countries

Nations in the world-system that are intermediate, neither fully core nor fully peripheral, often characterized by moderate economic development and industrialization.

Core Countries

Nations that dominate global trade and economics, characterized by high levels of industrialization and wealth.