This paper presents findings from a speech perception study testing auditory discrimination of dialectal allophonic variants. 148 total English speakers from three North American regions (Canada, the U.S. Great Lakes states, and the U.S. West) were tested on their ability to distinguish between raised and non-raised variants of Canadian Raising diphthongs ([aj]~[ʌj] and [aw]~[ʌw]). Canadian Raising is an allophonic alternation that is characteristic of Canadian English but is also found in some U.S. dialects, especially around the Great Lakes region. Raising features prominently in stereotypes of Canadian English, and thus it was predicted that speakers of dialects with less raising would perform better (U.S. West > U.S. Great Lakes ≥ Canada). Instead, this pattern was approximately reversed; speakers of dialects with more raising were faster and more accurate. This suggests that discrimination of dialectal allophonic variants might be predicted more by dialectal experience/exposure than by dialectal stereotypes.
