The low front vowel [æ] tends to be retracted before nasals in western Canada. In a study conducted by Hall (2000), participants from Vancouver produced a central vowel, but participants from Toronto did not.
The following words were produced with vowel retraction by partcipants from Vancouver:
bank
can
ham
hand
jam
lamb
land
man
pan
pants
Vowel retraction of the low front vowel before nasals appears common in Vancouver. The low central vowel is considered less marked than the low front. The phenomenon of vowel retraction in western Canada is an example of language change in progress.
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