Audio Quiz - Explanation

Many Pacific Northwest speakers produce the vowel in words like BAG so that this vowel sounds just like the one in BEG. This is part of an on-going language change taking place in the region. Both BAG and BEG words may also be spoken so they sound like the vowel in BAKE. This is what some linguists call “the low-front prevelar merger.”

'Bag'

'Grocery bag'

'Peg'

'Hang down by her back legs from a peg and pretended to be dead.'

In language change, certain words may change ahead of others. As the words below show, sometimes the same speaker may produce words in the same “word class” with different vowels. “Tag” has not yet changed, while “bag” has:

'Tag'

'Bag'

Click Here to read more about sound changes going on in the Pacific Northwest.

Click Here to hear more sound changes in the Pacific Northwest.