North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken
North American English
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
(English of the United States and Canada)—what are commonly known simply as "regional accents". Though studies of regional
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
s can be based on multiple characteristics, often including characteristics that are
phonemic
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
(sound-based, focusing on major word-differentiating patterns and structures in speech),
phonetic
Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...
(sound-based, focusing on any more exact and specific details of speech),
lexical
Lexical may refer to:
Linguistics
* Lexical corpus or lexis, a complete set of all words in a language
* Lexical item, a basic unit of lexicographical classification
* Lexicon, the vocabulary of a person, language, or branch of knowledge
* Lex ...
(vocabulary-based), and
syntactic
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
(grammar-based), this article focuses only on the former two items. North American English includes
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
, which has several highly developed and distinct regional varieties, along with the closely related
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
, which is more homogeneous geographically. American English (especially Western dialects) and Canadian English have more in common with each other than with
varieties of English
Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English.
Overview
Dialects can be defi ...
outside North America.
The most recent work documenting and studying the phonology of North American English dialects as a whole is the 2006 ''
Atlas of North American English'' (ANAE) by
William Labov
William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...
, Sharon Ash, and
Charles Boberg, on which much of the description below is based, following on a tradition of
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...
dating to the 1960s; earlier large-scale American dialectology focused more on lexicology than on phonology.
Overview
Regional
dialect
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...
s in North America are historically the most strongly differentiated along the
Eastern seaboard, due to distinctive speech patterns of urban centers of the American East Coast like
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, and certain Southern cities, all of these accents historically noted by their London-like ''r''-dropping (called
non-rhoticity
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
), a feature gradually receding among younger generations, especially in the South. The
Connecticut River
The Connecticut River is the longest river in the New England region of the United States, flowing roughly southward for through four states. It rises 300 yards (270 m) south of the U.S. border with Quebec, Canada, and discharges at Long Island ...
is now regarded as the southern and western boundary of the
traditional New England accents, today still centered on Boston and much of Eastern New England. The
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...
generally divides a group of Northeastern coastal dialects from an area of older Southeastern coastal dialects. All
older Southern dialects, however, have mostly now receded in favor of a strongly rhotic,
more unified accent group spread throughout the entire Southern United States since the late 1800s and into the early 1900s. In-between the two aforementioned rivers, some other variations exist, most famous among them being
New York City English
New York City English, or Metropolitan New York English, is a regional dialect of American English spoken by many people in New York City and much of its surrounding metropolitan area. It is described by sociolinguist William Labov as the most ...
.
Outside of the Eastern seaboard, all other North American English (both in the U.S. and Canada) has been firmly rhotic (pronouncing all ''r'' sounds), since the very first arrival of English-speaking settlers. Rhoticity is a feature shared today with the English of Ireland, for example, rather than most of the English of England, which has become non-rhotic since the late 1700s. The sound of Western U.S. English, overall, is much more homogeneous than Eastern U.S. English. The interior and western half of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, living farther from the British-influenced Atlantic Coast.
Certain particular vowel sounds are the best defining characteristics of regional North American English including any given speaker's presence, absence, or transitional state of the so-called
''cot''–''caught'' merger.
Northeastern New England,
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, and
Western Pennsylvania accents, as well as all
accents of the Western U.S. have a merger of these and vowels, so that pairs of words like ''mock'' and ''talk'', ''rod'' and ''clawed'', or ''slot'' and ''bought'' rhyme. On the contrary,
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
and
New York metropolitan accents, plus inland accents of the
Northern and
Southern U.S., all strongly resist this merger, keeping the two sounds separate and thus maintaining an extra distinct vowel sound. The rest of the U.S. largely shows a transitional state of the merger, particularly the
Midland dialect region, from Ohio to eastern Kansas.
Another prominent differentiating feature in regional North American English is
fronting of the in words like ''goat'', ''home'', and ''toe'' and in words like ''goose'', ''two'', and ''glue''. This fronting characterizes Midland, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern U.S. accents; these accents also front and raise the vowel (of words like ''house'', ''now'', and ''loud''), making ''yowl'' sound something like ''yeah-wool'' or even ''yale''. Northern U.S. English, however, tends to keep all these vowels more backed. Southern and some Midland U.S. accents are often most quickly recognized by the weakening or deleting of the "glide" sound of the vowel in words like ''thyme'', ''mile'', and ''fine'', making the word ''spy'' sound something like ''spa''.
One phenomenon apparently unique to North American U.S. accents is the irregular behavior of words that in the British English standard,
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
, have (where V stands for any vowel). Words of this class include, among others: ''origin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, borrow, tomorrow, sorry'', and ''sorrow''. In General American there is a split: the majority of these words have (the sound of the word ''or''), but the last four words of the list above have (the sound of the words ''are''). In Canada, all of these words are pronounced as (same as General American but analyzed differently). In the accents of
Greater New York City,
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
the Carolinas
The Carolinas are the U.S. states of North Carolina and South Carolina, considered collectively. They are bordered by Virginia to the north, Tennessee to the west, and Georgia to the southwest. The Atlantic Ocean is to the east.
Combining Nort ...
and
older Southern, most or all of these words are pronounced (Shitara 1993).
Classification of regional accents
Hierarchy of regional accents
The findings and categorizations of the 2006 ''
The Atlas of North American English
''The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change'' (abbreviated ANAE; formerly, the ''Phonological Atlas of North America'') is an overview of the pronunciation patterns ( accents) in all the major regional dia ...
'' (or ''ANAE''), use one well-supported way to hierarchically classify North American English accents at the level of broad geographic regions, sub-regions, etc. The North American regional accent represented by each branch, in addition to each of its own features, also contains all the features of the branch it extends from.
* NORTH AMERICA
**
CANADA
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
WESTERN UNITED STATES
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
= conservative + is fronted +
''cot''–''caught'' merger
***
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
= is fronted before + full
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
***
Standard Canada and
Northwest
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
= conservative before + is
tensed before + Canadian Shift ( ← ← ← )
**** Inland Canada = full Canadian raising
**
GREATER NEW YORK CITY = fronted + conservative and
+ ''cot''–''caught'' distinction + New York split system +
''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' 3-way distinction
***New York City = R-dropping
**
NEW ENGLAND
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
and
NORTH-CENTRAL UNITED STATES = conservative + conservative + conservative
+ ''pin''–''pen'' distinction
***
North
North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography.
Etymology
T ...
= ''cot''–''caught'' distinction + is fronted before
****
Inland North
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
= is often
tensed, encouraging the
Northern Cities Shift
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of Up ...
( ← ← ← ← ← )
***
Eastern New England =
R-dropping + full
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
****
Northeastern New England =
''cot''–''caught'' merger +
''father''–''bother'' distinction + is fronted before
****Rhode Island = ''cot''–''caught'' distinction + conservative before
***
Upper Midwest
The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...
= ''cot''–''caught'' merger + is central before + is
tensed before
****Wisconsin and Minnesota = ''haggle''–''Hegel'' merger
**
SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...
= is fronted + is fronted + is fronted
***Southeastern Super-Region =
''cot''–''caught'' distinction or near-merger + is fronted
****
Mid-Atlantic = Mid-Atlantic split system + ''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' 3-way distinction
****
Midland = can be
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
ized before
resonants
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is manner of articulation, produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voice (phonetics), vo ...
+ variable ''pin''–''pen'' merger
****
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
= is
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
ized, encouraging the Southern Shift ( ← ← ← and
drawl
A drawl is a perceived feature of some varieties of spoken English and generally indicates slower, longer vowel sounds and diphthongs. The drawl is often perceived as a method of speaking more slowly and may be erroneously attributed to laziness ...
ing) + ''pin''–''pen'' merger
*****Inland South = Back Upglide Chain Shift ( ← ← ← )
+
''fill''–''feel'' merger
*** Marginal Southeast = ''cot''–''caught'' merger
****
Western Pennsylvania
Western Pennsylvania is a region in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, covering the western third of the state. Pittsburgh is the region's principal city, with a metropolitan area population of about 2.4 million people, and serves as its economic ...
= ''cot''–''caught'' merger, encouraging the Pittsburgh Chain Shift ( ← ← ) +
''full''–''fool'' merger
*****Pittsburgh = can be monophthongized before and , and in unstressed
function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s
Maps of regional accents
;
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
: The Western dialect, including Californian and New Mexican sub-types (with Pacific Northwest English also, arguably, a sub-type), is defined by:
:* ''Cot''–''caught'' merger to
:* is
:* is
;
North Central
: The North Central ("Upper Midwest") dialect, including an Upper Michigan sub-type, is defined by:
:* ''Cot''–''caught'' merger to
:* is (and may even
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
ize to )
:* is
;
Inland North
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
ern
: The Inland Northern ("Great Lakes") dialect is defined by:
:* No ''cot''–''caught'' merger: the ''cot'' vowel is and ''caught'' vowel is
:* is universally , the triggering event for the
Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
in more advanced sub-types ( ← ← ← ← ← )
:* is
;
Midland
: The Midland dialect is defined by:
:* ''Cot''–''caught'' merger is in transition
:* may be , often only before , , , or
:* is
:* is
;
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
: The Western Pennsylvania dialect, including its advanced Pittsburgh sub-type, is defined by:
:* ''Cot''–''caught'' merger to , the triggering event for the Pittsburgh Chain Shift in the city itself ( ← ← ) but no trace of the Canadian Shift
:* is
:*
''Full''–''fool''–''foal'' merger to
:* Specifically in
Greater Pittsburgh
Greater Pittsburgh is a populous region centered around its largest city and economic hub, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The region encompasses Pittsburgh's urban core county, Allegheny, and six adjacent Pennsylvania counties: Armstrong, Beaver, B ...
, is , particularly before and , and in unstressed
function word
In linguistics, function words (also called functors) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous meaning and express grammatical relationships among other words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. ...
s
;
Southern
: The Southern dialects, including several sub-types, are defined by:
Variable rhoticity (parts of Louisiana are still non-rhotic, even among younger people )
:* No ''cot''–''caught'' merger: the ''cot'' vowel is and ''caught'' vowel is
:* is at least before , , , , or , or word-finally, and potentially elsewhere, the triggering event for the Southern Shift ( ← ← ← )
:* "Southern drawl" may break short
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
s into
gliding vowel
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s: → ; → ; →
:* is , the triggering event for the Back Upglide Shift in more advanced sub-types ( ← ← ← )
:* is
;
Mid-Atlantic
: The Mid-Atlantic ("Delaware Valley") dialect, including Philadelphia and Baltimore sub-types, is defined by:
:* No ''cot''–''caught'' merger: the ''cot'' vowel is and ''caught'' vowel is ; this severe distinction is the triggering event for the Back Vowel Shift before ( ← ← )
:* Unique Mid-Atlantic split system: the ''bad'' vowel is and ''sad'' vowel is
:* is
:* is
:* No
''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' merger
;
NYC
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
: The New York City dialect (with New Orleans English an intermediate sub-type between NYC and Southern) is defined by:
:* No ''cot''–''caught'' merger: the ''cot'' vowel is and ''caught'' vowel is ; this severe distinction is the triggering event for the Back Vowel Shift before ( ← ← )
:*
Non-rhoticity
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
or variable rhoticity
:* Unique New York City split system: the ''bad'' vowel is and ''bat'' vowel is
:* is
:* No ''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' merger
:*
''father''–''bother'' not necessarily merged
;
ENE
Ene or ENE may refer to:
Ene
* Ene (name), a given name and surname
* Ene, a type of hydrocarbon involved in the Ene reaction and the Thiol-ene reaction
* -ene'', a suffix used in the names of certain organic compounds (alkenes)
* Ene, Spanish ...
: Eastern New England dialect, including Maine and Boston sub-types (with Rhode Island English an intermediate sub-type between ENE and NYC), is defined by:
:* ''Cot''–''caught'' merger to (lacking only in Rhode Island)
:*
Non-rhoticity
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
or variable rhoticity
:* is
:* is
:* is
:* Commonly, the starting points of and in a
raised position when before
voiceless consonant
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
s: and , respectively
:* Possibly no ''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' merger
:* No
''father''–''bother'' merger (except in Rhode Island): the ''father'' vowel is and ''bother'' vowel is
All regional Canadian English dialects, unless specifically stated otherwise, are
rhotic, with the
''father''–''bother'' merger,
''cot''–''caught'' merger, and
pre-nasal "short ''a''" tensing. The broadest regional dialects include:
;
Standard Canadian
: The Standard Canadian dialect, including its most advanced Inland Canadian sub-type and others, is defined by:
:*
''Cot''–''caught'' merger to , the triggering event for the Canadian Shift in more advanced sub-types ( ← ← ← )
:* is raised to or even when before
:* Especially in Inland Canadian, beginnings of and in a
raised position when before
voiceless consonant
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
s: and , respectively;
is otherwise ; and approaches
:* is
;
Atlantic Canadian
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the list of regions of Canada, region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces and territories of Canada, provinces located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atla ...
: The Atlantic Canadian ("Maritimer") dialect, including Cape Breton, Lunenburg, and Newfoundland sub-types, is defined by: • ''Cot''–''caught'' merger to , but with no trace of the
Canadian Shift
:* is
:* is
Chart of regional accents
Alternative classifications
Combining information from the phonetic research through interviews of Labov et al. in the ''ANAE'' (2006) and the phonological research through surveys of Vaux (2004), Hedges (2017) performed a
latent class analysis In statistics, a latent class model (LCM) relates a set of observed (usually discrete) multivariate variables to a set of latent variables. It is a type of latent variable model. It is called a latent class model because the latent variable is disc ...
(
cluster analysis
Cluster analysis or clustering is the task of grouping a set of objects in such a way that objects in the same group (called a cluster) are more similar (in some sense) to each other than to those in other groups (clusters). It is a main task of ...
) to generate six clusters, each with American English features that naturally occurred together and each expected to match up with one of these six broad U.S. accent regions: the North, the South, the West, New England, the Midland, and the Mid-Atlantic (including New York City). The results showed that the accent regions/clusters were largely consistent with those outlined in the ''ANAE''.
The defining particular pronunciations of particular words that have more than an 86% likelihood of occurring in a particular cluster are: ''pajamas'' with either the phoneme or the phoneme ; ''coupon'' with either or ; ''Monday'' with either or ; ''Florida'' with either or other possibilities (such as ); ''caramel'' with either two or three syllables; ''handkerchief'' with either or ; ''lawyer'' as either or ; ''poem'' with either one or two syllables; ''route'' with either or ; ''mayonnaise'' with either two or three syllables; and ''been'' with either or other possibilities (such as ). The parenthetical words indicate that the likelihood of their pronunciation occurs overwhelmingly in a particular region (well over 50% likelihood) but does not meet the >86% threshold set by Hedges (2017) for what necessarily defines one of the six regional accents. Blank boxes in the chart indicate regions where neither pronunciation variant particularly dominates over the other; in some of these instances, the data simply may be inconclusive or unclear.
★ Hedges (2017) acknowledges that the two pronunciations marked by this star are discrepancies of her latent class analysis, since they conflict with Vaux (2004)'s surveys. Conversely, the surveys show that is the much more common vowel for ''pajamas'' in the West, and and are in fact both common variants for ''lawyer'' in the Midland.
General American
General American is an umbrella accent of American English perceived by many Americans to be "neutral" and free of regional characteristics. A General American accent is not a specific well-defined
standard English
In an English-speaking country, Standard English (SE) is the variety of English that has undergone substantial regularisation and is associated with formal schooling, language assessment, and official print publications, such as public service a ...
in the way that
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...
(RP) has historically been the standard prestigious variant of the
English language
English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...
in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
; rather, accents with a variety of features can all be perceived by Americans as "General American" so long as they lack certain sociolinguistically salient features: namely, that is, lacking regional features (such as
''R''-dropping, which usually identifies an American speaker as being from the East Coast or South), ethnic features (such as the "clear ''L''" sound, which often identifies speakers as being
Hispanic
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...
), or socioeconomic features (such as
''th''-stopping, which often identifies speakers of a lower-class background).
Canada and Western United States
The English dialect region encompassing the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the Wes ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
is the largest one in North America and also the one with the fewest distinctive phonological features. This can be attributed to the fact that the West is the region most recently settled by English speakers, and so there has not been sufficient time for the region either to develop highly distinctive innovations or to split into strongly distinct dialectological subregions. The main phonological features of the Western U.S. and Canada are a completed
''cot''-''caught'' merger, a backed vowel (like the Northern U.S.), and a fronted vowel (like the Southern U.S.).
Atlantic Canada
The accents of
Atlantic Canada
Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundlan ...
are more
marked
In linguistics and social sciences, markedness is the state of standing out as nontypical or divergent as opposed to regular or common. In a marked–unmarked relation, one term of an opposition is the broader, dominant one. The dominant defau ...
than the accents of the whole rest of English-speaking Canada. English of this region broadly includes fronting before and full
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
, but no
Canadian Shift (the vowel shift documented in Standard Canadian English).
Canada and Pacific Northwest
All of Canada, except the Atlantic Provinces and French-speaking Québec, speaks Standard Canadian English: the relatively uniform variety of North American English native to inland and western Canada, linguistically related to the Pacific Northwest, a region extending from British Columbia south into the Northwestern United States (particularly Washington and Oregon). The vowel is raised and diphthongized to or and as all before and , merging words like ''leg'' and ''lag'' ; ''tang'' is pronounced . The
''cot''–''caught'' merger to creates a hole in the short vowel sub-system and triggers a sound change known as the
Canadian Shift, mainly found in Ontario, English-speaking Montreal, and further west, and led by Ontarians and women; it involves the front lax vowels , , . The of is retracted to (except before nasals, where it is raised and diphthongized to ), then () and () are lowered in the direction of and and/or retracted; the exact trajectory of the shift is still disputed. Increasing numbers of Canadians and Northwestern Americans have a feature called "
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
", in which the nucleus of the
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
s and are more "raised" before
voiceless consonants
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
. Thus for Canadians and Northwestern Americans, word pairs like ''pouter''/''powder'' ( versus ) and ''rider''/''writer'' are pronounced differently.
California, the most populated U.S. state, has been documented as having some notable new subsets of Western U.S. English. Some youthful urban Californians possess a vowel shift partly identical to the
Canadian shift in its backing or lowering of each front vowel one space in the mouth. Before , is raised to , so ''king'' has the same vowel as ''keen'' rather than ''kin''. Before may be identified with the phoneme , so ''rang'' is pronounced with the same vowel as ''ray''. Elsewhere is
lowered in the direction of . is moving towards , so ''put'' sounds more like ''putt''. towards , so ''putt'' can sound slightly similar to ''pet''. The vowel () may be more fronted, i.e. and . The
''pin''–''pen'' merger is complete in
Bakersfield
Bakersfield is a city in Kern County, California, United States. It is the county seat and largest city of Kern County. The city covers about near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley and the Central Valley region. Bakersfield's populat ...
and rural areas of the Central Valley, and speakers in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
either perceive or produce an approximation of this merger.
Greater New York City
As in Eastern
New England
New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
, the accents of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
,
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...
, and adjoining
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
cities are traditionally
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
, while other greater New York area varieties falling under the same sweeping dialect are usually rhotic or variably rhotic. Metropolitan New York shows the back and vowels of the North, but a fronted vowel. The vowels of ''cot'' and ''caught'' are distinct; in fact the New York dialect has perhaps the highest realizations of in North American English, even approaching or . Furthermore, the ''father'' vowel is traditionally kept distinct from either vowel, resulting in a three "lot-palm-father distinction".
The r-colored vowel of ''cart'' is back and often rounded , and not fronted as it famously is in Boston. New York City and its surrounding areas are also known for a complicated
short-''a'' split into lax versus tense , so that words, for example, like ''cast'', ''calf'', and ''cab'' have a different, higher, tenser vowel sound than ''cat'', ''catch'', and ''cap''. The New York accent is well attested in American movies and television shows, often exaggerated, particularly in movies and shows about American
mobsters
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from '' mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization a ...
from the area. Though it is sometimes known as a "Bronx" or "Brooklyn accent", no research has confirmed differences of accent between the city's
boroughs
A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely.
History
In the Middle Ag ...
.
Northern and North-Central United States
One vast super-dialectal area commonly identified by linguists is "the North", usually meaning New England, inland areas of the
Mid-Atlantic states, and the North-Central States. There is no
''cot''–''caught'' merger in the North around the Great Lakes and southern New England, although the merger is in progress in the North-bordering Midland and is completed in northern New England, including as far down the Atlantic coast as Boston. The western portions of the North may also show a transitioning or completing ''cot''-''caught'' merger. The diphthong is , and remains a back vowel, as does and after non-
coronal consonant
Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the bla ...
s (unlike the rest of the country). Indeed, in part of the North (much of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
and
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
), remains back in all environments. Where the Southeast has the single word ''on'', the North has . The
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
of (to ) before
voiceless consonant
In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
s occurs is common in the North, and is becoming more common elsewhere in North America.
North
The traditional and linguistically conservative North (as defined by the ''Atlas of North American English'') includes being often raised or fronted before , or both, as well as a firm resistance to the ''cot''-''caught'' merger (though possibly weakening in dialects reversing the fronting of
). Maintaining these two features, but also developing several new ones, a younger accent of the North is now predominating at its center, around the Great Lakes and away from the Atlantic coast: the Inland North.
Inland North
The Inland North is a dialect region once considered the home of "standard Midwestern" speech that was the basis for
General American
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
in the mid-20th century. However, the Inland North dialect has been modified in the mid-1900s by the
Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
(NCS), which is now the region's main outstanding feature, though it has been observed to be reversing at least in some areas, in particular with regards to raising before non-nasal consonants and fronting.
The Inland North is centered on the area on the U.S. side of the
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...
, most prominently including central and western
New York State
New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...
(including
Syracuse,
Binghamton
Binghamton () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier region near the Pennsylvania border, in a bowl-shaped valley at the conflue ...
,
Rochester
Rochester may refer to:
Places Australia
* Rochester, Victoria
Canada
* Rochester, Alberta
United Kingdom
*Rochester, Kent
** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area
** History of Rochester, Kent
** HM Prison ...
, and
Buffalo), much of
Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
's Lower Peninsula (
Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...
,
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
),
Toledo,
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
,
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
,
Gary, and southeastern
Wisconsin
Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
(
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...
,
Racine
Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditio ...
,
Kenosha
Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenosh ...
), but broken up by the city of
Erie
Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 a ...
, whose accent today is non-Inland Northern and even Midland-like. The NCS itself is not uniform throughout the Inland North; it is most advanced in Western New York and Michigan, and less developed elsewhere. The NCS is a
chain shift
In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds as well. The soun ...
involving movements of six vowel
phoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
s: the raising, tensing, and
diphthong
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
ization of towards in all environments (''cat'' being pronounced more like "kyat"), then the
fronting of to (''cot'' sounding like ''cat''), then the lowering of towards (''caught'' sounding like ''cot'', but without the two merging due to the previous step), then the backing and sometimes lowering of , toward either or , then the backing and rounding of towards , so that (''cut'' sounding like ''caught''), then lastly the lowering and backing of (but without any
''pin''–''pen'' merger).
New England
New England does not form a single unified dialect region, but rather houses as few as four native varieties of English, with some linguists identifying even more. Only Southwestern New England (Connecticut and western Massachusetts) neatly fits under the aforementioned definition of "the North". Otherwise, speakers, namely of Eastern New England, show very unusual other qualities. All of New England has a
nasal short-''a'' system, meaning that the short-''a'' vowel most strongly raises before nasal consonants, as in much of the rest of the country.
Northeastern New England
The local and historical dialect of the coastal portions of New England, sometimes called
Eastern New England English
Eastern New England English, historically known as the Yankee dialect since at least the 19th century, is the traditional regional dialect of Maine, New Hampshire, and the eastern half of Massachusetts. Features of this variety once spanned an eve ...
, now only encompasses Northeastern New England:
Maine
Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...
,
New Hampshire
New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...
(some of whose urban speakers are retreating from this local accent), and eastern
(including
Greater Boston
Greater Boston is the metropolitan region of New England encompassing the municipality of Boston (the capital of the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England) and its surrounding areas. The region forms the northern ar ...
). The accents spoken here share the
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
of as well as often , but they also possess the ''cot''-''caught'' merger, which is not associated with rest of "the North". Most famously, Northern New England accents (with the exception of Northwestern New England, much of southern New Hampshire, and
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the Northeastern United States, located south of Cape Cod in Dukes County, Massachusetts, known for being a popular, affluent summer colony. Martha's Vineyard includes the s ...
) are often
non-rhotic
Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
. Some Northeastern New England accents are unique in North America for having resisted what is known as
''father''–''bother'' merger: in other words, the stressed vowel phonemes of ''father'' and ''bother'' remain distinct as and , so that the two words do not rhyme as they do in most American accents. Many Eastern New England speakers also once had a class of words with "
broad ''a''"—that is, as in ''father'' in words that in most accents contain , such as ''bath'', ''half'', and ''can't'', similar to their pronunciation in London and
southern England
Southern England, or the South of England, also known as the South, is an area of England consisting of its southernmost part, with cultural, economic and political differences from the Midlands and the North. Officially, the area includes G ...
. The distinction between the vowels of ''horse'' and ''hoarse'' is maintained in traditional non-rhotic New England accents as for ''horse'' (with the same vowel as ''cot'' and ''caught'') vs. for hoarse, though the
''horse''–''hoarse'' merger is certainly on the rise in the region today. The phoneme has highly distinct
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ''s ...
s before
nasal consonants
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
. fronting is usual before .
Rhode Island
Rhode Island
Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
, dialectally identified as "Southeastern New England", is sometimes grouped with the Eastern New England dialect region, both by the dialectologists of the mid–20th century and in certain situations by the ''Atlas of North American English''; it shares Eastern New England's traditional non-rhoticity (or "R Dropping"). A key linguistic difference between Rhode Island and the rest of the Eastern New England, however, is that Rhode Island is subject to the ''father''–''bother'' merger and yet neither the ''cot''–''caught'' merger nor fronting before . Indeed, Rhode Island shares with New York and Philadelphia an unusually high and back allophone of (as in ''caught''), even compared to other communities that do not have the ''cot''–''caught'' merger. In the ''Atlas of North American English'', the city of
Providence
Providence often refers to:
* Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion
* Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity
* Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...
(the only Rhode Island community sampled by the ''Atlas'') is also distinguished by having the backest realizations of , , and in North America. Therefore, Rhode Island English aligns in some features more with Boston English and other features more with New York City English.
Western New England
Recognized by research since the 1940s is the linguistic boundary between Eastern and Western New England, the latter settled from the
Connecticut
Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the south. Its cap ...
and
New Haven
New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134,02 ...
colonies, rather than the
Massachusetts Bay
Massachusetts Bay is a bay on the Gulf of Maine that forms part of the central coastline of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Description
The bay extends from Cape Ann on the north to Plymouth Harbor on the south, a distance of about . Its ...
and
Plymouth
Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west.
Plymouth ...
colonies. Western New Englanders settled most of
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
and the Inland North. Dialectological research has revealed some phonological nuances separating a Northwestern and Southwestern New England accent.
Vermont
Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...
, sometimes dialectally identified as "Northwestern New England", has the full
''cot''-''caught'' merger and fronting before of Boston or Maine English, and yet none of the other marked features of Eastern New England, nor much evidence of the NCS, which is more robustly documented, though still variable, in Southwestern New England. Rhoticity predominates in all of Western New England, as does the
''father''–''bother'' merger of the rest of the nation. Southwestern New England merely forms a "less strong" extension of the Inland North dialect region, and it centers on Connecticut and western Massachusetts. It shows the same general phonological system as the Inland North, including variable elements of Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCS)—for instance, an that is somewhat higher and tenser than average, an that is fronter than , and so on. The ''cot''–''caught'' merger is approximated in western Massachusetts but usually still resisted in Connecticut. The "tail" of Connecticut may have some character diffused from New York City English.
North Central
The North Central or Upper Midwest dialect region of the United States extends from the
Upper Peninsula of Michigan
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by t ...
westward across northern
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
and
North Dakota
North Dakota () is a U.S. state in the Upper Midwest, named after the Native Americans in the United States, indigenous Dakota people, Dakota Sioux. North Dakota is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to the north a ...
into the middle of
Montana
Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...
. Although the ''Atlas of North American English'' does not include the North Central region as part of the North proper, it shares all of the features listed above as properties of the North as a whole. The North Central is a linguistically conservative region; it participates in few of the major ongoing sound changes of North American English. Its () and () vowels are frequently even
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
s: and , respectively. The movie ''
Fargo'', which takes place in the North Central region, famously features strong versions of this accent. Unlike most of the rest of the North, the
''cot''–''caught'' merger is prevalent in the North Central region.
Southeastern United States
![Southern dialect levels](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Southern_dialect_levels.jpg)
The 2006 ''
Atlas of North American English'' identifies a "Southeastern super-region", in which all accents of the Southern States, as well as accents all along their regional margins, constitute a vast area of recent linguistic unity in certain respects:
namely, the movement of four vowel sounds (those in the words , , , and ) towards the center or front of the mouth, all of which is notably different from the accents of the Northern United States.
Essentially all of the modern-day Southern dialects, plus dialects marginal to the South (some even in geographically and culturally "Northern" states), are thus considered a subset of this super-region:
[The only notable exceptions of the South being a subset of the "Southeastern super-region" are two Southern metropolitan areas, described as such because they participate in Stage 1 of the Southern Vowel Shift, but lack the other defining Southeastern features: ]Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
and Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...
. the whole
American South
The Southern United States (sometimes Dixie, also referred to as the Southern States, the American South, the Southland, or simply the South) is a geographic and cultural region of the United States of America. It is between the Atlantic Ocean ...
, the southern half of the
Mid- and
South Atlantic regions, and a transitional Midland dialect area between the South and the North, comprising parts of
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
,
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, southeastern
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
,
southern Illinois
Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of the Upland South than the Mi ...
,
southern Indiana
Southern Indiana is a region consisting of the southern third of the state of Indiana.
The region's history and geography has led to a blend of Northern and Southern culture distinct from the remainder of Indiana. It is often considered to be p ...
, and
southern Ohio
Appalachian Ohio is a bioregion and political unit in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Ohio, characterized by the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains and the Appalachian Plateau. The Appalachian Regional Commission defines ...
.
These are the minimal necessary features that identify a speaker from the Southeastern super-region:
*Fronting of and : The
gliding vowel
A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
s (as in ''cow'' or ''ouch'') and (as in ''goat'' or ''bone'') both start considerably forward in the mouth, approximately and , respectively. may even end in a very forward position—something like . However, this fronting does not occur in younger speakers before (as in ''goal'' or ''colt'') or before a
syllable break between two vowels (as in ''going'' or ''poet''), in which remains back in the mouth as .
*Lacking or transitioning ''cot''–''caught'' merger: The historical distinction between the two vowels sounds and , in words like ''caught'' and ''cot'' or ''stalk'' and ''stock'' is mainly preserved.
In much of the South during the 1900s, there was a trend to lower the vowel found in words like ''stalk'' and ''caught'', often with an upglide, so that the most common result today is the gliding vowel . However, the
''cot''–''caught'' merger is becoming increasingly common throughout the United States, thus affecting Southeastern (even some Southern) dialects, towards a merged vowel . In the South, this merger, or a transition towards this merger, is especially documented in central, northern, and (particularly) western Texas.
![Pin-pen](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Pin-pen.svg)
*
''Pin''–''pen'' merger in transition: The vowels and often merge when before
nasal consonants
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
, so that ''pen'' and ''pin'', for instance, or ''hem'' and ''him'', are pronounced the same, as ''pin'' or ''him'', respectively.
The merger is towards the sound . This merger is now firmly completed throughout the Southern dialect region; however, it is not found in some vestigial
varieties of the older South, and other geographically Southern U.S. varieties that have eluded the Southern Vowel Shift, such as the
Yat dialect
New Orleans English is American English native to the city of New Orleans and its metropolitan area. Native English speakers of the region actually speak a number of varieties, including the variety most recently brought in and spreading since the ...
of
or the anomalous dialect of
Savannah, Georgia
Savannah ( ) is the oldest city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia and is the county seat of Chatham County, Georgia, Chatham County. Established in 1733 on the Savannah River, the city of Savannah became the Kingdom of Great Br ...
. The ''pin''–''pen'' merger has also spread beyond the South in recent decades and is now found in isolated parts of the
West
West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sunset, Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic languages, German ...
and the southern
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
as well.
*
Rhoticity: Dropping of
postvocalic
In phonetics and phonology, a postvocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs after a vowel. Examples include the ''n'' in ''stand'' or the ''n'' in ''sun''.
A specially behaving postvocalic consonant in the English language is the postvocalic "r ...
''r'' (and, in some dialects,
intervocalic
In phonetics and phonology, an intervocalic consonant is a consonant that occurs between two vowels. Intervocalic consonants are often associated with lenition, a phonetic process that causes consonants to weaken and eventually disappear entirel ...
''r'') was historically widespread in the South, particularly in former plantation areas. This phenomenon, non-rhoticity, was considered prestigious across the nation before World War II, after which the social perception reversed. Rhoticity (sometimes called ''r''-fulness), in which all or most ''r'' sounds are pronounced, historically found only in the Midland, Appalachia, and some other Southeastern regions, has now become dominant throughout almost the entire Southeastern super-region, as in most American English, and even more so among younger and female white Southerners; major exceptions are among Black or African American Southerners, whose modern
vernacular dialect continues to be mostly non-rhotic as well as most of southern Louisiana, where non-rhotic accents still dominate. The sound quality of the Southeastern ''r'' is the distinctive "bunch-tongued ''r''", produced by strongly constricting the root and/or midsection of the tongue.
Midland
A band of the United States from Pennsylvania west to the
Great Plains
The Great Plains (french: Grandes Plaines), sometimes simply "the Plains", is a broad expanse of flatland in North America. It is located west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, an ...
is what twentieth-century linguists identified as the "Midland" dialect region, though this dialect's same features are now reported in certain other pockets of the country too (for example, some major cities in Texas, all in Central and South Florida, and particular cities that are otherwise Southern). In older and traditional dialectological research, focused on lexicology (vocabulary) rather than phonology (accent), the Midland was divided into two discrete geographical subdivisions: the "North Midland" that begins north of the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
valley area and, south of that, the "South Midland" dialect area. The North Midland region stretches from east-to-west across central and southern
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
,
central Indiana
The geography of Indiana comprises the physical features of the land and relative location of U.S. State of Indiana. Indiana is in the north-central United States and borders on Lake Michigan. Surrounding states are Michigan to the north and nor ...
,
central Illinois
Central Illinois is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois that consists of the entire central third of the state, divided from north to south. Also known as the ''Heart of Illinois'', it is characterized by small towns and mid-sized cities. Agri ...
,
Iowa
Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...
, and northern
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, as well as
Nebraska
Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...
and
Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
where it begins to blend into the West. The South Midland dialect region follows the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
in a generally southwesterly direction, moving across from
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
, southern Indiana, and southern Illinois to southern Missouri,
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
, southeastern Kansas, and
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
, west of the
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...
. The distinction between a "North" versus "South Midland" was discarded in the 2006 ''Atlas of North American English'', in which the former "North Midland" is now simply called "the Midland" (and argued to have a "stronger claim" to a
General American
General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
accent than any other region) and the "South Midland" is considered merely as the upper portion of "the South"; this ANAE reevaluation is primarily on the basis of phonology. The Midland is characterized by having a distinctly fronter realization of the phoneme (as in ''boat'') than many other American accents, particularly those of the North; the phoneme is frequently realized with a central nucleus, approximating . Likewise, has a fronter nucleus than , approaching . Another feature distinguishing the Midland from the North is that the word ''on'' contains the phoneme (as in ''caught'') rather than (as in ''cot''). For this reason, one of the names for the North-Midland boundary is the "''on'' line". However, since the twentieth century, this area is currently undergoing a vowel
merger
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...
of the "short o" (as in ''cot'') and 'aw' (as in ''caught'') phonemes, known as the
''cot''-''caught'' merger. Many speakers show transitional forms of the merger. The phoneme (as in ''cat'') shows most commonly a so-called "
continuous
Continuity or continuous may refer to:
Mathematics
* Continuity (mathematics), the opposing concept to discreteness; common examples include
** Continuous probability distribution or random variable in probability and statistics
** Continuous ...
" distribution: is raised and tensed toward before
nasal consonants
In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
, as in much of the country.
Midland outside the Midland
Atlanta, Georgia has been characterized by a massive movement of non-Southerners into the area during the 1990s, leading the city to becoming hugely inconsistent in terms of dialect.
Currently, is variably
monophthong
A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
ized (as in the Southern U.S.); no complete ''cot''-''caught'' merger is reported; and the
''pin''–''pen'' merger is variable.
Charleston, South Carolina is an area where, today, most speakers have clearly conformed to a Midland regional accent, rather than any Southern accent. Charleston was once home to its own very locally-unique accent that encompassed elements of older British English while resisting Southern regional accent trends, perhaps with additional linguistic influence from
French Huguenot
The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster Be ...
s,
Sephardi Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
, and, due to Charleston's high concentration of African-Americans that spoke the
Gullah
The Gullah () are an African Americans, African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Lowcountry region of the U.S. states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain ...
language, Gullah African Americans. The most distinguishing feature of this now-dying accent is the way speakers pronounce the name of the city, to which a standard listener would hear "Chahlston", with a silent "r". Unlike Southern regional accents, Charlestonian speakers have never exhibited inglide long mid vowels, such as those found in typical Southern and .
Central and South Florida show no evidence of any type of glide deletion, Central Florida shows a ''pin''–''pen'' merger, and South Florida does not. Otherwise, Central and South Florida easily fit under the definition of the Midland dialect, including the ''cot''-''caught'' merger being transitional. In
South Florida
South Florida is the southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the other two are Central Florida and North Florida. South Florida is the southernmost part of th ...
, particularly in and around
Miami-Dade
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
,
Broward, and
Monroe counties, a unique dialect, commonly called the "Miami accent", is widely spoken. The dialect first developed among second- or third-generation
Hispanics
The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad.
The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties former ...
, including Cuban-Americans, whose first language was English. Unlike the older Florida Cracker dialect, "Miami accent" is rhotic and non-rhotic accents, rhotic. It also incorporates a rhythm and pronunciation heavily influenced by Spanish (wherein rhythm is isochrony#syllable timing, syllable-timed).
Mid-Atlantic States
The cities of the Mid-Atlantic States around the Delaware Valley (South Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, northern Delaware, and eastern Maryland) are typically classified together, their speakers most popularly labelled as having a Philadelphia accent or a Baltimore accent. While Labov et al. state that the dialect could potentially be included in the Midland super-region, the dialect is not included in Midland proper as a result of distinct phonological features defining the dialect. The Mid-Atlantic æ-tensing, split of into two separate phonemes, similar to but not exactly the same as New York City English, is one major defining feature of the dialect region, as is a resistance to the
''Mary''–''marry''–''merry'' merger and
''cot''-''caught'' merger (a raising and diphthongizing of the "caught" vowel), and a maintained distinction between historical short ''o'' and long ''o'' before intervocalic , so that, for example, ''orange'', ''Florida'', and ''horrible'' have a different stressed vowel than ''story'' and ''chorus''; all of these features are shared between Mid-Atlantic American and New York City English. Other features include that ''water'' is sometimes pronounced , that is, with the vowel of ''wood''; the single word ''on'' is pronounced not , so that, as in the South and Midland (and unlike New York and the North) it rhymes with ''dawn'' rather than ''don''; the of ''goat'' and ''boat'' is fronted, so it is pronounced , as in the advanced accents of the Midland and South.
Canadian raising
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
occurs for (''price'') but not for (''mouth'').
According to linguist Barbara Johnstone, migration patterns and geography affected the Philadelphia dialect's development, which was especially influenced by immigrants from Northern England, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
South
The Southern United States is often dialectally identified as "The South," as in ANAE. There is still great variation between sub-regions in the South (see Southern American English#Dialects, here for more information) and between older and younger generations. Southern American English as Americans popularly imagine began to take its current shape only after the beginning of the twentieth century. Some generalizations include: the conditional merger of and before nasal consonants, the
''pin''–''pen'' merger; the diphthong becomes monophthongized to ; lax and tense vowels often merge before . The South Midland dialect (now considered the upper portion of the Southern U.S. dialect and often not distinguished phonologically) follows the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
in a generally southwesterly direction, moves across
Arkansas
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
and some of
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
west of the Mississippi river, Mississippi, and peters out in West Texas; it also includes some of North Florida, namely around Jacksonville. It most noticeably has the loss of the diphthong , which becomes . It also shows fronting of initial vowel of to (often lengthened and prolonged) yielding ; nasalization of vowels, esp. diphthongs, before ; raising of to ; ''can't'' → ''cain't'', etc.; fully rhoticity, unlike classical coastal varieties of older Southern American English, now mostly declined. In the Southern Vowel Shift of the early 1900s up to the present, moves to become a high front vowel, and to become a mid front unrounded vowel. In a parallel shift, the and relax and become less front; the back vowels in ''boon'' and in ''code'' shift considerably forward to and , respectively; and, the open back unrounded vowel in ''card'' shifts upward towards as in ''board'', which in turn moves up towards the old location of in ''boon''. This particular shift probably does not occur for speakers with the ''cot''–''caught'' merger. The lowering movement of the Southern Vowel Shift is also accompanied by a raising and "drawling" movement of vowels. The term drawl, Southern drawl has been used to refer to the diphthongization/triphthongization of the traditional short
front vowel
A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
s, as in the words ''pat'', ''pet'', and ''pit''. these develop a glide up from their original starting position to , and then in some cases back down to schwa; thus: → , → , and → .
Inland South and Texas South
The ANAE identifies two important, especially advanced subsets of the South in terms of their leading the Southern Vowel Shift (detailed above): the "Inland South" located in the southern half of Appalachia and the "Texas South," which only covers the north-central region of Texas (Dallas), Odessa, and Lubbock, but not Abilene, El Paso, or southern Texas (which have more Midland-like accents). One Texan distinction from the rest of the South is that all Texan accents have been reported as showing a pure, non-gliding vowel,
and the identified "Texas South" accent, specifically, is at a transitional stage of the ''cot''-''caught'' merger; the "Inland South" accent of Appalachia, however, firmly resists the merger. Pronunciations of the Southern dialect in Texas may also show notable influence derived from an early Spanish-speaking population or from German immigrants.
Marginal Southeast
The following Southeastern super-regional locations fit cleanly into none of the aforementioned subsets of the Southeast, and may even be marginal-at-best members of the super-region itself:
Chesapeake and the Outer Banks (North Carolina) islands are enclaves of a traditional "High Tider, Hoi Toider" dialect, in which is typically backed and rounded. Many other features of phonological (and lexical) note exist here too; for example, Ocracoke, North Carolina shows no ''cot''–''caught'' merger and its monophthongs are diphthongized (up-gliding) before /ʃ/ and /tʃ/ and Smith Island, Maryland shows an that is diphthongized (like the South) and no happy tensing.
New Orleans, Louisiana has been home to a type of accent with parallels to the New York City accent reported for over a century. This variety of New Orleans English has been locally nicknamed "Yat" since at least the 1980s, from a traditional greeting "Where y'at" ("Where are you at?", meaning "How are you?"). The Yat/NYC parallels include the Æ-tensing, split of the historic short-a class into tense and lax versions, as well as pronunciation of ''cot'' and ''caught'' as and . The stereotypical New York coil–curl merger, ''coil''–''curl'' merger of "toity-toid street" (33rd Street) used to be a common New Orleans feature as well, though it has mostly receded today. One of the most detailed phonetic depictions of an extreme "yat" accent of the early 20th century is found in the speech of the character Krazy Kat in the comic strip of the same name by George Herriman. Such extreme accents still be found in parts of Mid-City and the 9th ward, Jefferson Parish, as well as in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans. The novel ''A Confederacy of Dunces'' by John Kennedy Toole often employs the Yat accent.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, according to the ANAE's research, is not quite a member of the Midland dialect region.
Rather, its features seem to be a blend of the Western and Midland dialects. The overview of ANAE's studied features for Oklahoma City speakers include a conservative , conservative , transitional ''cot''-''caught'' merger, and variable ''pin''–''pen'' merger.
Savannah, Georgia once had a local accent that is now "giving way to regional patterns" of the Midland.
According to the ANAE, there is much transition in Savannah, and the following features are reported as inconsistent or highly variable in the city: the Southern phenomenon of being monophthongized, non-rhoticity, fronting, the ''cot''–''caught'' merger, the ''pin''–''pen'' merger, and conservative (which is otherwise rarely if ever reported in either the South or the Midland).
St. Louis, Missouri is historically one among several (North) Midland cities, but it is largely considered by ANAE to classify under blends of
Inland North
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
accents, with the
Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of U ...
(NCS), and Midland accents. The "Midland American English#St. Louis Corridor, St. Louis Corridor" demonstrates this variability in speakers following a line formed by U.S. Route 66 in Illinois (now Interstate 55), going from Chicago southwest to St. Louis. This corridor of speakers cuts right through the center of what is otherwise the firmly-documented Midland region. Older St. Louisans demonstrate a card-cord merger, ''card''-''cord'' merger, so that "I-44" is pronounced like "Interstate 44 in Missouri, I farty-four".
St. Louis resists the ''cot''–''caught'' merger and middle-aged speakers show the most advanced stages of the NCS,
while maintaining many of the other Midland features.
Western Pennsylvania
The dialect of the Western Pennsylvania, western half of Pennsylvania is like the Midland proper in many features, including the fronting of and . The chief distinguishing feature of Western Pennsylvania as a whole is that the
''cot''–''caught'' merger is noticeably complete here, whereas it is still in progress in most of the Midland. The merger has also spread from Western Pennsylvania into adjacent West Virginia, historically in the South Midland dialect region. The city of Pittsburgh shows an especially advanced subset of Western Pennsylvania English, additionally characterized by a sound change that is unique in North America: the monophthongization of to . This is the source of the stereotypical Pittsburgh pronunciation of ''downtown'' as "dahntahn". Pittsburgh also features an unusually vowel height, low allophone of (as in ''cut''); it approaches ( itself having moved out of the way and become a rounded vowel in its merger with ).
See also
*Accent (sociolinguistics)
*
American English
American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
*Boontling
*California English
*
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
*Chicano English
*English in New Mexico
*Hawaiian Pidgin
*Pacific Northwest English
References
Notes
Citations
Bibliography
*
*
* ()
*
*
*
* "Utahnics", segment on ''All Things Considered'', National Public Radio February 16, 1997.
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Stanford.edu: Penny Eckert Blog − "Vowel Shifts in Northern California and the Detroit Suburbs"Voicesus.com: Directory of 129 North American English accents
{{DEFAULTSORT:North American English Regional Phonology
North American English, *
English phonology
American English
Canadian English
English language in Canada