[æ]→[ʌ]Certainty: 4/5Commonality: 3/5

Near-open front unrounded vowel to Open-mid back unrounded vowel

The shift from the near-open front vowel [æ] to the back/central unrounded vowel [ʌ] (the caret or 'strut' vowel) is a process of backing and lowering. It is a key component of modern dialectal vowel shifts in North America.

Phonetic Effects

Backing, Lowering, Chain Shift

Language Examples

California English Germanic

black [æ]→[blɑk] / [blʌk]— As part of the California Vowel Shift, the TRAP vowel retracts toward the LOT/STRUT space in non-nasal environments.

that [ðæt]→[ðʌt]— Retraction of TRAP vowel toward STRUT in casual speech.

Related Transformations

Reverse

More Backing Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [a] → [ã] — Assimilatory Nasalization [a] → [∅] — Elision [a] → [ʔ] — Glottalization [a] → [ə] — Vowel Reduction

Sources & References

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