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A large database of speech samples from the Canadian Maritimes was collected, processed, and analyzed with the primary aim of examining vowel-inherent spectral change in vowel formants. The analysis of spontaneous speech presents a number of challenges when compared to citation forms.  For example, surrounding consonants have a large influence on vowel formant frequencies. To overcome this problem, a statistical procedure was developed to estimate onset and coda consonant effects on vowel formant frequencies. Estimates of these vowel-target formant frequencies were then determined after factoring out consonant-context effects. Formant-frequency values were estimated for all stressed vowels in a database of thirty-five hours of recorded speech from 223 speakers. This talk describes the procedure developed for this analysis as well as the results.  In addition, comparisons will be made between citation and spontaneous speech as well as between different dialect areas within the region.