Raising of /ɑ:r/ (the START set)

Canadian pronunciation of words in the START set commonly involves a non-low nucleus, especially as a result of nuclear shortening before voiceless consonants. As with Canadian Raising, the relative advancement of the raised nucleus is a regional indicator. A striking feature of Atlantic Canadian speech (the Maritimes and Newfoundland) is a nucleus that approaches the front region of the vowel space, accompanied by strong rhoticity, ranging from [зɹ] to [ɐɹ]. Western Canadian speech has a much more retracted articulation with a longer non-rhotic portion, approaching a mid-back quality, [ɵɹ] (though there is no tendency toward a merger with NORTH/FORCE). Articulation of START in Ontario is in a position midway between the Atlantic and Western values.