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Among dialects of Portuguese, the variety indigenous to the island of São Miguel exhibits an inventory of vocalic features not found elsewhere in the Lusophone world. The most emblematic characteristics of this dialect are the front round vowels [y] and [ø], which correspond to [u] and [ou/oi] (respectively) of the European standard language. There are also systematic differences in the pronunciation of the tonic vowels, reflexes of a historical chain shift: sete ‘seven’ is often rendered in S. Miguel as [sæt] (Std. [sεt]), avó ‘grandmother’ as [ɐ'vo] (Std. [ɐ'vɔ]), and avô ‘grandfather’ as [ɐ'vu] (Std. [ɐ'vo]). While these characteristic are …