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chain shift. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
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English
Noun
chain shift (plural chain shifts)
- (linguistics, phonology) A phonological modification of a vowel system in which a change in a particular vowel causes other adjacent vowels to also change in order to avoid vowel mergers.
2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 10:Many non-Antipodeans cannot readily distinguish Australian and New Zealand English, because the phonologies basically overlap with the exception of an upwards chain shift in the front vowels.