The Canadian Shift is a chain shift of vowel sounds found primarily in Canadian English, but also possibly in some other dialects (for example, younger Pacific Northwest English). It was first described by Clarke, Elms and Youssef in 1995, based on impressionistic analysis. The shift is structurally identical to the movement of front vowels in the California Shift of California English; whether this a coincidence or not is not yet clear. The shift involves the lowering of the tongue in the front lax vowels /æ/ (the short-a of trap), /ɛ/ (the short-e of dress), and /ɪ/ (the short-i of kit).