In 15th century England, the words "like," "child," "fly" and "pie" were pronounced with a long vowel /i:/ as in the modern word "see." By the time of the mid-16th century as part of the Great Vowel Shift, the pronunciation of this group of words had changed to have a vowel diphthong /əi/ starting with a mid central vowel as in the way Canadians pronounce the word "like" .
Similarly in 15th century England, words on the pattern of "out," "house" and "how" were pronounced with a long vowel /u:/ as in the modern word "food." By the mid-16th century this had changed to /əu/ starting with a central vowel as in the way Canadians pronounce the word "out" now.
In the 17th century as the Great Vowel Shift progressed, the pronunciation of these words shifted in England and the urban parts of the United States to /laik/ and /aut/ starting with an open vowel rather than a mid one.
Canadians by and large continue to use the 16th century pronunciation /ləik/ and /eut/ starting with a mid vowel right up to the present day. Some parts of Ireland and Scotland use a mid vowel in these words, and in the U.S. isolated communities on islands such as Martha's Vineyard continued to have speakers using the older pronunciation on into the 20th century.
In 1942, Martin Joos, a linguist from Wisconsin noted that if he said the word "like" /lə:i:/ with a drawn out vowel sound to people in Toronto, Canada, no one thought that was strange, but if he pronounced it as /laik/ with an open vowel in the American style, people accused him of drawling. He also noted that Canadians pronounced the word "typewriter" as either /təipɹəidəɹ/ or as >/təipɹaidəɹ/. The reason for this was that /əi/ was usually used before voiceless consonants such as "p," "t," "k," "f," "s" "th"/θ/ and "sh"/ʃ/, but "write" is written with a "t" but pronounced as a /d/. The people who say /təipɹəidəɹ/ are using the mid-vowel to indicate the "t" in the spelling not the /d/ sound they actually pronounce.
I think Canadian linguist J.K. Chambers was the first to coin the term "Canadian Raising" in his 1973 article. He notes that usually the diphthong is not raised at the end of a word, but some Canadians say "high school" as /həi sku:l/ keeping the mid vowel, perhaps because of the following "s".
Further Reading
Barber, Charles. 1997. Early Modern English.
Chambers, J. K. 1973. "Canadian Raising". Canadian Journal of Linguistics. 18 (2): 113–135.
Joos, Martin. 1942. "A Phonological Dilemma in Canadian English." Language. April: 141-144.
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