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American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances is the de facto common language used in government, education and commerce. Since the 20th century, American English has become the most influential form of English worldwide. American English varieties include many patterns of pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar and particularly spelling that are unified nationwide but distinct from other English dialects around the world. Any American or Canadian accent perceived as lacking noticeably local, ethnic or cultural markers is popularly called "General" or "Standard" American, a fairly uniform accent continuum native to certain regions of the U.S. and associated nationally with broadcast mass media and highly educated speech. However, historical and present linguistic evidence does not support the notion of there being one single "mainstream" American accent. The sound of American English continues to evolve, with some local accents disappearing, but several larger regional accents having emerged in the 20th century.


History

The use of English in the United States is a result of
British colonization of the Americas The British colonization of the Americas was the history of establishment of control, settlement, and colonization of the continents of the Americas by England, Scotland and, after 1707, Great Britain. Colonization efforts began in the late ...
. The first wave of English-speaking settlers arrived in North America during the early 17th century, followed by further migrations in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 17th and 18th centuries, dialects from many different regions of England and the British Isles existed in every American colony, allowing a process of extensive dialect mixture and leveling in which English varieties across the colonies became more homogeneous compared with the varieties in Britain. English thus predominated in the colonies even by the end of the 17th century's first immigration of non-English speakers from Western Europe and Africa. Additionally, firsthand descriptions of a fairly uniform American English (particularly in contrast to the diverse regional dialects of British English) became common after the mid-18th century, while at the same time speakers' identification with this new variety increased. Since the 18th century, American English has developed into some new varieties, including regional dialects that retain minor influences from waves of immigrant and enslaved speakers of diverse languages.Hickey, R. (2014). ''Dictionary of varieties of English''. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 25. Some racial and regional variation in American English reflects these groups' geographic settlement, their de jure or de facto segregation, and patterns in their resettlement. This can be seen, for example, in the influence of the Scotch-Irish immigration in
Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, C ...
developing
Appalachian English Appalachian English is American English native to the Appalachian mountain region of the Eastern United States. Historically, the term "Appalachian dialect" refers to a local English variety of southern Appalachia, also known as Smoky Mounta ...
and the Great Migration bringing
African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
to the Great Lakes urban centers.


Phonology

Any phonologically unmarked North American accent is known as " General American" (akin to Received Pronunciation in British English, which has been referred to as "General British"). This section mostly refers to such General American features.


Conservative phonology

Studies on historical usage of English in both the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that spoken American English did not simply deviate away from period British English, but is
conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...
in some ways, preserving certain features contemporary
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly ...
has since lost. Full rhoticity (or R-fulness) is typical of American accents, pronouncing the phoneme (corresponding to the letter ) in all environments, including after vowels, such as in ''pearl'', ''car'' and ''court''. Non-rhotic American accents, those that do not pronounce except before a vowel, such as some Eastern New England,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * ...
, a specific few (often older)
Southern Southern may refer to: Businesses * China Southern Airlines, airline based in Guangzhou, China * Southern Airways, defunct US airline * Southern Air, air cargo transportation company based in Norwalk, Connecticut, US * Southern Airways Express, M ...
, and African American vernacular accents, are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived to sound especially ethnic, regional or "old-fashioned". Rhoticity is common in most American accents, although it is now rare in England because during the 17th-century British colonization nearly all dialects of English were rhotic, and most North American English simply remained that way. The preservation of rhoticity in North America was also supported by continuing waves of rhotic-accented Scotch-Irish immigrants, most intensely during the 18th century (and moderately during the following two centuries) when the Scotch-Irish eventually made up one-seventh of the colonial population. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from Delaware and Pennsylvania throughout the larger Mid-Atlantic region, the inland regions of both the South and North and throughout the West: American dialect areas that were all uninfluenced by upper-class non-rhoticity and that consequently have remained consistently rhotic. The pronunciation of is a postalveolar approximant or
retroflex approximant The voiced retroflex approximant is a type of consonant used in some languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r\`. The IPA symbol is a turned lowercase l ...
, but a unique "bunched tongue" variant of the approximant ''r'' sound is also associated with the United States, perhaps mostly in the Midwest and the South. American accents that have not undergone the ''cot–caught'' merger (the lexical sets and ) have instead retained a – split: a 17th-century distinction in which certain words (labeled as the lexical set) separated away from the set. The split, which has now reversed in most British English, simultaneously shifts this relatively recent set into a merger with the (''caught'') set. Having taken place prior to the unrounding of the ''cot'' vowel, it results in lengthening and perhaps raising, merging the more recently separated vowel into the vowel in the following environments: before many instances of , , and particularly (as in ''Austria, cloth, cost, loss, off, often,'' etc.), a few instances before (as in ''strong, long, wrong''), and variably by region or speaker in ''gone'', ''on'', and certain other words. The standard accent of southern England, Received Pronunciation (RP), has evolved in other ways compared to which General American has remained relatively conservative. Examples include the modern RP features of a '' trap–bath'' split and the fronting of , neither of which is typical of General American accents. Moreover, American dialects do not participate in H-dropping, an innovative feature that now characterizes perhaps a majority of the regional dialects of England.


Innovative phonology

However, General American is more innovative than the dialects of England or elsewhere in the world in a number of its own ways: * Unrounded : The American phenomenon of the vowel (often spelled in words like ''box, don, clock, notch, pot,'' etc.) being produced without rounded lips, like the vowel, allows ''father'' and ''bother'' to rhyme, the two vowels now unified as the single
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 ...
. The ''father–bother'' vowel merger is in a transitional or completed stage in nearly all North American English. Exceptions are in northeastern
New England English New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the " Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features st ...
, such as the
Boston accent A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Mass ...
, as well as variably in some
New York accent The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio, ...
s. * ''Cot–caught'' merger in transition: There is no single American way to pronounce the vowels in words like ''cot'' (the ''ah'' vowel) versus ''caught'' (the ''aw'' vowel), largely because of a merger occurring between the two sounds in some parts of North America, but not others. American speakers with a completed merger pronounce the two historically separate vowels with the same sound (especially in the West, northern New England, West Virginia,
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 ...
, and the Upper Midwest), but other speakers have no trace of a merger at all (especially in the South, the
Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of North America is a binational Canadian– American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin along with the Canadian ...
, southern New England, and the Mid-Atlantic and New York metropolitan areas) and so pronounce each vowel with distinct sounds . Among speakers who distinguish between the two, the vowel of ''cot'' (usually transcribed in American English as ), is often a
central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
or advanced
back The human back, also called the dorsum, is the large posterior area of the human body, rising from the top of the buttocks to the back of the neck. It is the surface of the body opposite from the chest and the abdomen. The vertebral column run ...
, while is pronounced with more rounded lips and/or phonetically higher in the mouth, close to or , but with only slight rounding. Among speakers who do not distinguish between them, thus producing a ''cot–caught'' merger, usually remains a back vowel, , sometimes showing lip rounding as . Therefore, even mainstream Americans vary greatly with this speech feature, with possibilities ranging from a full merger to no merger at all. A transitional stage of the merger is also common in scatterings throughout the United States, most consistently in the American Midlands lying between the historical dialect regions of the North and the South, while younger Americans, in general, tend to be transitioning toward the merger. According to a 2003 dialect survey carried out across the United States, about 61% of participants perceive themselves as keeping the two vowels distinct and 39% do not. A 2009 follow-up survey put the percentages at 58% non-merging speakers and 41% merging. * in special words: The vowel, rather than the one in or (as in Britain), is used in function words and certain other words like ''was, of, from, what, everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody'', and, for many speakers ''because'' and rarely even ''want'', when stressed. * Vowel mergers before intervocalic : The mergers of certain vowels before are typical throughout North America, the only exceptions existing primarily along the East Coast: ** ''Mary–marry–merry'' merger in transition: According to the 2003 dialect survey, nearly 57% of participants from around the country self-identified as merging the sounds (as in the first syllable of ''parish''), (as in the first syllable of ''perish''), and (as in ''pear'' or ''pair''). The merger is already complete everywhere except along some areas of the Atlantic Coast. ** ''Hurry–furry'' merger: The pre- vowels in words like ''hurry'' and ''furry'' are merged in most American accents to . Only 10% of American English speakers acknowledge the distinct ''hurry'' vowel before , according to the same dialect survey aforementioned. ** ''Mirror–nearer'' merger in transition: The pre- vowels in words like ''mirror'' and ''nearer'' are merged or very similar in most American accents. The quality of the historic ''mirror'' vowel in the word ''miracle'' is quite variable. *Americans vary slightly in their pronunciations of R-colored vowels such as those in and , which sometimes monophthongizes towards and or tensing towards and respectively. That causes pronunciations like for ''pair''/''pear'' and for ''peer''/''pier''. Also, is often reduced to , so that ''cure'', ''pure'', and ''mature'' may all end with the sound , thus rhyming with ''blur'' and ''sir''. The word ''sure'' is also part of the rhyming set as it is commonly pronounced . *
Yod-dropping The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters. H-cluster reductions The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
: Dropping of after a consonant is much more extensive than in most of England. In most North American accents, is "dropped" or "deleted" after all alveolar and interdental consonants (everywhere except after /p/, /b/, /f/, /h/, /k/, and /m/) and so ''new, duke, Tuesday, assume'' are pronounced , , , (compare with Standard British , , , ). *
T-glottalization In English phonology, ''t''-glottalization or ''t''-glottalling is a sound change in certain English dialects and accents, particularly in the United Kingdom, that causes the phoneme to be pronounced as the glottal stop in certain positions ...
: is normally pronounced as a glottal stop when both after a vowel or a liquid and before a syllabic or any non-syllabic consonant, as in ''button'' or ''fruitcake'' . In the absolute final position after a vowel or liquid, is also replaced by, or simultaneously articulated with, glottal constriction: thus, ''what'' or ''fruit'' . (This innovation of /t/ glottal stopping may occur in British English as well and variably between vowels.) *
Flapping Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or ''t''-voicing, is a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby ...
: or becomes a flap both after a vowel or and before an unstressed vowel or a syllabic consonant other than , including ''water'' , ''party'' and ''model'' . This results in pairs such as ''ladder/latter, metal/medal,'' and ''coating/coding'' being pronounced the same. Flapping of or before a full stressed vowel is also possible but only if that vowel begins a new word or morpheme, as in ''what is it?'' and twice in ''not at all'' . Other rules apply to flapping to such a complex degree in fact that flapping has been analyzed as being required in certain contexts, prohibited in others, and optional in still others. For instance, flapping is prohibited in words like ''seduce'' , ''retail'' , and ''monotone'' , yet optional in ''impotence'' . *Both intervocalic and may commonly be realized as (a nasalized
alveolar flap The voiced alveolar tap or flap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents a dental, alveolar, or postalveolar tap or flap is . The terms ''tap'' and ''flap ...
) (
flapping Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or ''t''-voicing, is a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby ...
) or simply , making ''winter'' and ''winner'' homophones in fast or informal speech. * L-velarization: England's typical distinction between a "clear L" (i.e. ) and a "dark L" (i.e. ) is much less noticeable in nearly all dialects of American English; it is often altogether absent, with all "L" sounds tending to be "dark," meaning having some degree of velarization, perhaps even as dark as (though in the initial position, perhaps less dark than elsewhere among some speakers). The only notable exceptions to this velarization are in some Spanish-influenced American English varieties (such as East Coast Latino English, which typically shows a clear "L" in syllable onsets) and in older, moribund Southern speech, where "L" is clear in an intervocalic environment between front vowels. * Weak vowel merger: The vowel in unstressed syllables generally merges with and so ''effect'' is pronounced like ''affect'', and ''abbot'' and ''rabbit'' rhyme. The quality of the merged vowel varies considerably based on the environment but is typically more open, like in word-initial or word-final position, but more close, like �~ɨ elsewhere. * Raising of pre-voiceless : Many speakers split the sound based on whether it occurs before a voiceless consonant and so in ''rider'', it is pronounced , but in ''writer'', it is raised to (because is a voiceless consonant while is not). Thus, words like ''bright, hike, price, wipe,'' etc. with a following voiceless consonant (such as ) use a more raised vowel sound compared to ''bride, high, prize, wide'', etc. Because of this sound change, the words ''rider'' and ''writer'' , for instance, remain distinct from one another by virtue of their difference in height (and length) of the diphthong's starting point (unrelated to both the letters ''d'' and ''t'' being pronounced in these words as alveolar flaps ). The sound change also applies across word boundaries, though the position of a word or phrase's stress may prevent the raising from taking place. For instance, a ''high school'' in the sense of "secondary school" is generally pronounced ; however, a ''high school'' in the literal sense of "a tall school" would be pronounced . The sound change began in the
Northern Northern may refer to the following: Geography * North, a point in direction * Northern Europe, the northern part or region of Europe * Northern Highland, a region of Wisconsin, United States * Northern Province, Sri Lanka * Northern Range, a r ...
, New England, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country, and is becoming more common across the nation. *Many speakers in the
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 Up ...
, Upper Midwestern, and Philadelphia dialect areas raise before voiced consonants in certain words as well, particularly , and . Hence, words like ''tiny'', ''spider'', ''cider'', ''tiger'', ''dinosaur'', ''beside'', ''idle'' (but sometimes not ''idol''), and ''fire'' may contain a raised nucleus. The use of , rather than , in such words is unpredictable from the phonetic environment alone, but it may have to do with their acoustic similarity to other words that with before a voiceless consonant, per the traditional Canadian-raising system. Some researchers have argued that there has been a
phonemic split In historical linguistics, phonological change is any sound change that alters the distribution of phonemes in a language. In other words, a language develops a new system of oppositions among its phonemes. Old contrasts may disappear, new on ...
in those dialects, and the distribution of the two sounds is becoming more unpredictable among younger speakers. * Conditioned
/æ/ raising In the sociolinguistics of the English language, raising or short-''a'' raising is a phenomenon by which the "short ''a''" vowel , the vowel (found in such words as ''ash, bath, man, lamp, pal, rag, sack, trap,'' etc.), is pronounced with a ...
(especially before and ): The raising of the or vowel occurs in specific environments that vary widely from region to region but most commonly before and . With most American speakers for whom the phoneme operates under a somewhat-continuous system, has both a tense and a lax
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 '' ...
(with a kind of "continuum" of possible sounds between both extremes, rather than a definitive split). In those accents, is overall realized before
nasal stop 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 majo ...
s as tenser (approximately ), while other environments are laxer (approximately the standard ); for example, note the vowel sound in for ''mass'', but for ''man''). In the following audio clip, the first pronunciation is the tensed one for the word ''camp'', much more common in American English than the second . **In some American accents, however, specifically those from
Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic, and the 30th most populous city in the United States with a population of 585,708 in 2020. Baltimore was ...
, Philadelphia, and New York City, and are indeed entirely-separate (or "split") phonemes, for example, in ''planet'' vs. ''plan it'' . They are called Mid-Atlantic split-''a'' systems. The vowels move in the opposite direction (high and forward) in the mouth compared to the backed Standard British " broad ''a''", but both ''a'' systems are probably related phonologically, if not phonetically since a British-like phenomenon occurs among some older speakers of the eastern New England (Boston) area for whom changes to before alone or when preceded by a homorganic nasal. * "Short ''o''" before ''r'' before a vowel: In typical North American accents (both U.S. and Canada), the historical sequence (a short ''o'' sound followed by ''r'' and then another vowel, as in ''orange'', ''forest'', ''moral'', and ''warrant'') is realized as , thus further merging with the already-merged ( ''horse''–''hoarse'') set. In the U.S., a small number of words (namely, ''tomow, sy, sow, bow,'' and ''mow'') usually contain the sound instead and thus merge with the set (thus, ''sorry'' and ''
sari A sari (sometimes also saree or shari)The name of the garment in various regional languages include: * as, শাৰী, xārī, translit-std=ISO * bn, শাড়ি, śāṛi, translit-std=ISO * gu, સાડી, sāḍī, translit-std ...
'' become homophones, both rhyming with ''starry''). Some mergers found in most varieties of both American and British English include the following: * ''Horse–hoarse'' merger: This merger makes the vowels and before homophones, with homophonous pairs like ''horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning, war/wore,'' etc. homophones. Many older varieties of American English still keep the sets of words distinct, particularly in the extreme Northeast, the South (especially along the Gulf Coast), and the central Midlands, but the merger is evidently spreading and younger Americans rarely show the distinction. * ''Wine–whine'' merger: This produces pairs like ''wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales, wear/where,'' etc. homophones, in most cases eliminating , also transcribed , the voiceless labiovelar fricative. However, scatterings of older speakers who do not merge these pairs still exist nationwide, perhaps most strongly in the South.


Vocabulary

The process of coining new lexical items started as soon as English-speaking British-American colonists began borrowing names for unfamiliar flora, fauna, and topography from the Native American languages. Examples of such names are '' opossum,
raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the common raccoon to distinguish it from other species, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest of the procyonid family, having a body length of , and a body weight of ...
,
squash Squash may refer to: Sports * Squash (sport), the high-speed racquet sport also known as squash racquets * Squash (professional wrestling), an extremely one-sided match in professional wrestling * Squash tennis, a game similar to squash but pla ...
'', '' moose'' (from Algonquian), ''
wigwam A wigwam, wickiup, wetu (Wampanoag), or wiigiwaam (Ojibwe, in syllabics: ) is a semi-permanent domed dwelling formerly used by certain Native American tribes and First Nations people and still used for ceremonial events. The term ''wickiup'' ...
'', and ''
moccasin A moccasin is a shoe, made of deerskin or other soft leather, consisting of a sole (made with leather that has not been "worked") and sides made of one piece of leather, stitched together at the top, and sometimes with a vamp (additional pane ...
''. American English speakers have integrated traditionally non-English terms and expressions into the mainstream cultural lexicon; for instance, ''
en masse Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Engl ...
'', from
French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
; ''
cookie A cookie is a baked or cooked snack or dessert that is typically small, flat and sweet. It usually contains flour, sugar, egg, and some type of oil, fat, or butter. It may include other ingredients such as raisins, oats, chocolate chips, nu ...
'', from Dutch; '' kindergarten'' from
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
, and '' rodeo'' from
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
. Landscape features are often loanwords from French or Spanish, and the word ''
corn Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn (North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. The ...
'', used in England to refer to wheat (or any cereal), came to denote the maize plant, the most important crop in the U.S. Most Mexican Spanish contributions came after the War of 1812, with the opening of the West, like '' ranch'' (now a common house style). Due to Mexican culinary influence, many Spanish words are incorporated in general use when talking about certain popular dishes: cilantro (instead of coriander), queso, tacos, quesadillas, enchiladas, tostadas, fajitas, burritos, and guacamole. These words usually lack an English equivalent and are found in popular restaurants. New forms of dwelling created new terms ''( lot, waterfront)'' and types of homes like '' log cabin,
adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...
'' in the 18th century; ''
apartment An apartment (American English), or flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies part of a building, generally on a single story. There are man ...
, shanty'' in the 19th century; ''project,
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
, townhouse, mobile home'' in the 20th century; and parts thereof ''( driveway, breezeway,
backyard A backyard, or back yard (known in the United Kingdom as a back garden or just garden), is a yard at the back of a house, common in suburban developments in the Western world. In Australia, until the mid-20th century, the back yard of a pro ...
)''. Industry and material innovations from the 19th century onwards provide distinctive new words, phrases, and idioms through
railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a prep ...
ing (see further at
rail terminology Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters * Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ...
) and
transport Transport (in British English), or transportation (in American English), is the intentional movement of humans, animals, and goods from one location to another. Modes of transport include air, land ( rail and road), water, cable, pipelin ...
ation terminology, ranging from types of roads (''dirt roads'', '' freeways'') to infrastructure ''( parking lot,
overpass An overpass (called an overbridge or flyover in the United Kingdom and some other Commonwealth countries) is a bridge, road, railway or similar structure that crosses over another road or railway. An ''overpass'' and ''underpass A t ...
, rest area),'' to automotive terminology often now standard in English internationally. Already existing English words—such as '' store,
shop Shop or shopping refers to: Business and commerce * A casual word for a commercial establishment or for a place of business * Machine shop, a workshop for machining *"In the shop", referring to a car being at an automotive repair shop *A wood ...
, lumber''—underwent shifts in meaning; others remained in the U.S. while changing in Britain. Science, urbanization, and democracy have been important factors in bringing about changes in the written and spoken language of the United States. From the world of business and finance came new terms ('' merger, downsize,
bottom line In business and accounting, net income (also total comprehensive income, net earnings, net profit, bottom line, sales profit, or credit sales) is an entity's income minus cost of goods sold, expenses, depreciation and amortization, interes ...
''), from sports and gambling terminology came, specific jargon aside, common everyday American idioms, including many idioms related to baseball. The names of some American inventions remained largely confined to North America ('' elevator'' in_the_aeronautical_sense.html" ;"title="Elevator (aeronautics)">in the aeronautical sense">Elevator (aeronautics)">in the aeronautical sense '' gasoline'') as did certain automotive terms ('' truck'', ''
trunk Trunk may refer to: Biology * Trunk (anatomy), synonym for torso * Trunk (botany), a tree's central superstructure * Trunk of corpus callosum, in neuroanatomy * Elephant trunk, the proboscis of an elephant Computing * Trunk (software), in rev ...
''). New foreign loanwords came with 19th and early 20th century European immigration to the U.S.; notably, from
Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ve ...
''(
chutzpah Chutzpah () is the quality of audacity, for good or for bad. It derives from the Hebrew word ' (), meaning "insolence", "cheek" or "audacity". Thus the original Yiddish word has a strongly negative connotation but the form which entered English ...
, schmooze, bupkis,
glitch A glitch is a short-lived fault in a system, such as a transient fault that corrects itself, making it difficult to troubleshoot. The term is particularly common in the computing and electronics industries, in circuit bending, as well as among ...
'') and
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...
(''
hamburger A hamburger, or simply burger, is a food consisting of fillings—usually a patty of ground meat, typically beef—placed inside a sliced bun or bread roll. Hamburgers are often served with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, bacon, or c ...
, wiener''). A large number of English colloquialisms from various periods are American in origin; some have lost their American flavor (from '' OK'' and ''cool'' to ''
nerd A nerd is a person seen as overly intellectual, obsessive, introverted or lacking social skills. Such a person may spend inordinate amounts of time on unpopular, little known, or non-mainstream activities, which are generally either highly tech ...
'' and ''
24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty ...
),'' while others have not ''( have a nice day, for sure);'' many are now distinctly old-fashioned ''(swell, groovy).'' Some English words now in general use, such as ''hijacking, disc jockey, boost, bulldoze'' and '' jazz,'' originated as American slang. American English has always shown a marked tendency to use words in different parts of speech and nouns are often used as verbs. Examples of nouns that are now also verbs are ''interview, advocate, vacuum, lobby, pressure, rear-end, transition, feature, profile, hashtag, head, divorce, loan, estimate, X-ray, spearhead, skyrocket, showcase, bad-mouth, vacation, major,'' and many others. Compounds coined in the U.S. are for instance '' foothill, landslide'' (in all senses), '' backdrop, teenager,'' '' brainstorm, bandwagon,
hitchhike Hitchhiking (also known as thumbing, autostop or hitching) is a means of transportation that is gained by asking individuals, usually strangers, for a ride in their car or other vehicle. The ride is usually, but not always, free. Nomads have ...
, smalltime,'' and a huge number of others. Other compound words have been founded based on industrialization and the wave of the automobile: five-passenger car, four-door sedan, two-door sedan, and station-wagon (called an estate car in England). Some are euphemistic ''( human resources, affirmative action,
correctional facility In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and s ...
).'' Many compound nouns have the verb-and-preposition combination: ''stopover, lineup, tryout, spin-off, shootout, holdup, hideout, comeback, makeover,'' and many more. Some prepositional and phrasal verbs are in fact of American origin (''win out, hold up, back up/off/down/out, face up to'' and many others). Noun endings such as ''-ee (retiree), -ery (bakery), -ster (gangster)'' and ''-cian (beautician)'' are also particularly productive in the U.S. Several verbs ending in ''-ize'' are of U.S. origin; for example, ''fetishize, prioritize, burglarize, accessorize, weatherize,'' etc.; and so are some
back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...
s ''(locate, fine-tune, curate, donate, emote, upholster'' and ''enthuse).'' Among syntactical constructions that arose are ''outside of, headed for, meet up with, back of,'' etc. Americanisms formed by alteration of some existing words include notably ''pesky, phony, rambunctious, buddy, sundae, skeeter, sashay'' and ''kitty-corner.'' Adjectives that arose in the U.S. are, for example, ''lengthy, bossy,
cute Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept o ...
'' and ''cutesy, punk'' (in all senses), ''sticky'' (of the weather), ''through'' (as in "finished"), and many colloquial forms such as ''peppy'' or ''wacky''. A number of words and meanings that originated in Middle English or
Early Modern English Early Modern English or Early New English (sometimes abbreviated EModE, EMnE, or ENE) is the stage of the English language from the beginning of the Tudor period to the English Interregnum and Restoration, or from the transition from Middle ...
and that have been in everyday use in the United States have since disappeared in most varieties of British English; some of these have cognates in Lowland Scots. Terms such as ''
fall Autumn, also known as fall in American English and Canadian English, is one of the four temperate seasons on Earth. Outside the tropics, autumn marks the transition from summer to winter, in September (Northern Hemisphere) or March ( Southe ...
'' ("autumn"), '' faucet'' ("tap"), ''
diaper A diaper /ˈdaɪpə(r)/ ( American and Canadian English) or a nappy (Australian English, British English, and Hiberno-English) is a type of underwear that allows the wearer to urinate or defecate without using a toilet, by absorbing or conta ...
'' ("nappy"; itself unused in the U.S.), ''
candy Candy, also called sweets (British English) or lollies (Australian English, New Zealand English), is a confection that features sugar as a principal ingredient. The category, called ''sugar confectionery'', encompasses any sweet confection, i ...
'' ("sweets"), ''
skillet A frying pan, frypan, or skillet is a flat-bottomed pan used for frying, searing, and browning foods. It is typically in diameter with relatively low sides that flare outwards, a long handle, and no lid. Larger pans may have a small grab han ...
'', '' eyeglasses'', and ''
obligate {{wiktionary, obligate As an adjective, obligate means "by necessity" (antonym '' facultative'') and is used mainly in biology in phrases such as: * Obligate aerobe, an organism that cannot survive without oxygen * Obligate anaerobe, an organism tha ...
'' are often regarded as Americanisms. ''Fall'' for example came to denote the season in 16th century England, a contraction of Middle English expressions like "fall of the leaf" and "fall of the year." ''Gotten'' (
past participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...
of ''get'') is often considered to be largely an Americanism. Other words and meanings were brought back to Britain from the U.S., especially in the second half of the 20th century; these include ''hire'' ("to employ"), ''I guess'' (famously criticized by H. W. Fowler), ''
baggage Baggage or luggage consists of bags, cases, and containers which hold a traveler's personal articles while the traveler is in transit. A modern traveler can be expected to have packages containing clothing, toiletries, small possessions, trip ...
'', ''hit'' (a place), and the adverbs ''overly'' and ''presently'' ("currently"). Some of these, for example, ''
monkey wrench The monkey wrench is a type of adjustable wrench, a 19th century American refinement of 18th-century English coach wrenches. It was widely used in the 19th and early 20th century. It is of interest as an antique among tool collectors and is sti ...
'' and ''
wastebasket A waste container, also known as a dustbin, garbage can, and trash can is a type of container that is usually made out of metal or plastic. The words "rubbish", "basket" and "bin" are more common in British English usage; "trash" and "can" a ...
'', originated in 19th century Britain. The adjectives ''mad'' meaning "angry," ''smart'' meaning "intelligent," and ''sick'' meaning "ill" are also more frequent in American (and Irish) English than British English. Linguist
Bert Vaux Bert Vaux (; born November 19, 1968, Houston, Texas) teaches phonology and morphology at the University of Cambridge. Previously, he taught for nine years at Harvard and three years at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Vaux specializes in phon ...
created a survey, completed in 2003, polling English speakers across the United States about their specific everyday word choices, hoping to identify regionalisms. The study found that most Americans prefer the term ''sub'' for a long sandwich, ''soda'' (but ''pop'' in the Great Lakes region and generic ''coke'' in the South) for a sweet and bubbly soft drink, ''you'' or ''you guys'' for the plural of ''you'' (but ''y'all'' in the South), ''
sneakers Sneakers (also called trainers, athletic shoes, tennis shoes, gym shoes, kicks, sport shoes, flats, running shoes, or runners) are shoes primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise, but which are now also widely used fo ...
'' for athletic shoes (but often ''tennis shoes'' outside the Northeast), and '' shopping cart'' for a cart used for carrying supermarket goods.


Differences between American and British English

American English and
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly ...
(BrE) often differ at the levels of phonology, phonetics, vocabulary, and, to a much lesser extent, grammar and orthography. The first large American dictionary, ''An American Dictionary of the English Language'', known as
Webster's Dictionary ''Webster's Dictionary'' is any of the English language dictionaries edited in the early 19th century by American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758–1843), as well as numerous related or unrelated dictionaries that have adopted the Webster's n ...
, was written by
Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...
in 1828, codifying several of these spellings. Differences in grammar are relatively minor, and do not normally affect mutual intelligibility; these include: typically a lack of differentiation between adjectives and adverbs, employing the equivalent adjectives as adverbs ''he ran quick''/''he ran quickly''; different use of some
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a p ...
s; formal (rather than notional) agreement with
collective noun In linguistics, a collective noun is a word referring to a collection of things taken as a whole. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing. For example, the collective noun "group" can be applied to people (" ...
s; different preferences for the past forms of a few verbs (for example, AmE/BrE: ''learned''/''learnt'', ''burned''/''burnt'', ''snuck/sneaked'', ''dove/dived'') although the purportedly "British" forms can occasionally be seen in American English writing as well; different prepositions and adverbs in certain contexts (for example, AmE ''in school,'' BrE ''at school''); and whether or not a definite article is used, in very few cases (AmE ''to the hospital'', BrE ''to hospital''; contrast, however, AmE ''actress Elizabeth Taylor'', BrE ''the actress Elizabeth Taylor''). Often, these differences are a matter of relative preferences rather than absolute rules; and most are not stable since the two varieties are constantly influencing each other, and American English is not a standardized set of dialects. Differences in orthography are also minor. The main differences are that American English usually uses spellings such as ''flavor'' for British ''flavour'', ''fiber'' for ''fibre'', ''defense'' for ''defence'', ''analyze'' for ''analyse'', ''license'' for ''licence'', ''catalog'' for ''catalogue'' and ''traveling'' for ''travelling''.
Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...
popularized such spellings in America, but he did not invent most of them. Rather, "he chose already existing options on such grounds as simplicity, analogy or etymology." Other differences are due to the francophile tastes of the 19th century Victorian era Britain (for example they preferred ''programme'' for ''program'', ''manoeuvre'' for ''maneuver'', ''cheque'' for ''check'', etc.). AmE almost always uses ''-ize'' in words like ''realize''. BrE prefers ''-ise'', but also uses ''-ize'' on occasion (see:
Oxford spelling Oxford spelling (also ''Oxford English Dictionary'' spelling, Oxford style, or Oxford English spelling) is a spelling standard, named after its use by the University of Oxford, that prescribes the use of British spelling in combination with th ...
). There are a few differences in punctuation rules. British English is more tolerant of run-on sentences, called "
comma splice In written English usage, a comma splice or comma fault is the use of a comma to join two independent clauses. For example: The comma splice is sometimes used in literary writing to convey a particular mood of informality. In the United States i ...
s" in American English, and American English requires that periods and commas be placed inside closing quotation marks even in cases in which British rules would place them outside. American English also favors the double quotation mark ("like this") over the single ('as here'). Vocabulary differences vary by region. For example, ''autumn'' is used more commonly in the United Kingdom, whereas ''fall'' is more common in American English. Some other differences include: aerial (United Kingdom) vs. antenna, biscuit (United Kingdom) vs. cookie/cracker, car park (United Kingdom) vs. parking lot, caravan (United Kingdom) vs. trailer, city centre (United Kingdom) vs. downtown, flat (United Kingdom) vs. apartment, fringe (United Kingdom) vs. bangs, and holiday (United Kingdom) vs. vacation. AmE sometimes favors words that are morphologically more complex, whereas BrE uses clipped forms, such as AmE ''transportation'' and BrE ''transport'' or where the British form is a
back-formation In etymology, back-formation is the process or result of creating a new word via inflection, typically by removing or substituting actual or supposed affixes from a lexical item, in a way that expands the number of lexemes associated with the c ...
, such as AmE ''burglarize'' and BrE ''burgle'' (from ''burglar''). However, while individuals usually use one or the other, both forms will be widely understood and mostly used alongside each other within the two systems.


Varieties

While written American English is largely standardized across the country and spoken American English dialects are highly mutually intelligible, there are still several recognizable regional and ethnic accents and lexical distinctions.


Regional accents

The regional sounds of present-day American English are reportedly engaged in a complex phenomenon of "both convergence and divergence": some accents are homogenizing and leveling, while others are diversifying and deviating further away from one another. Having been settled longer than the American West Coast, the East Coast has had more time to develop unique accents, and it currently comprises three or four linguistically significant regions, each of which possesses English varieties both different from each other as well as quite internally diverse: New England, the Mid-Atlantic States (including a
New York accent The sound system of New York City English is popularly known as a New York accent. The New York metropolitan accent is one of the most recognizable accents of the United States, largely due to its popular stereotypes and portrayal in radio, ...
as well as a unique Philadelphia–Baltimore accent), and the South. As of the 20th century, the middle and eastern Great Lakes area, Chicago being the largest city with these speakers, also ushered in certain unique features, including the fronting of the vowel in the mouth toward and tensing of the vowel wholesale to . These sound changes have triggered a series of other
vowel shift A vowel shift is a systematic sound change in the pronunciation of the vowel sounds of a language. The best-known example in the English language is the Great Vowel Shift, which began in the 15th century. The Greek language also underwent a vo ...
s in the same region, known by linguists as the "
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 Up ...
". The Inland North shares with the Eastern New England dialect (including
Boston accent A Boston accent is a local accent of Eastern New England English, native specifically to the city of Boston and its suburbs. Northeastern New England English is classified as traditionally including New Hampshire, Maine, and all of eastern Mass ...
s) a backer tongue positioning of the vowel (to ) and the vowel (to ) in comparison to the rest of the country. Ranging from northern New England across the Great Lakes to Minnesota, another Northern regional marker is the variable fronting of before , for example, appearing four times in the stereotypical Boston shibboleth ''Park the car in Harvard Yard''. Several other phenomena serve to distinguish regional U.S. accents.
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- most p ...
, Pittsburgh, Upper Midwestern, and Western U.S. accents have fully completed a merger of the vowel with the vowel ( and , respectively): a ''cot–caught'' merger, which is rapidly spreading throughout the whole country. However, the South, Inland North, and a Northeastern coastal corridor passing through Rhode Island, New York City, Philadelphia, and Baltimore typically preserve an older ''cot–caught'' distinction. For that Northeastern corridor, the realization of the vowel is particularly
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 ...
, as depicted in humorous spellings, like in ''tawk'' and ''cawfee'' (''talk'' and ''coffee''), which intend to represent it being tense 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 ...
al: . A split of into two separate
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 ...
s, using different ''a'' pronunciations for example in ''gap'' versus ''gas'' , further defines New York City as well as Philadelphia–Baltimore accents. Most Americans preserve all historical sounds, using what is known as a rhotic accent. The only traditional ''r''-dropping (or non-rhoticity) in regional U.S. accents variably appears today in eastern New England, New York City, and some of the former plantation South primarily among older speakers (and, relatedly, some
African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
across the country), though the vowel-consonant cluster found in "bird," "work," "hurt," "learn," etc. usually retains its ''r'' pronunciation, even in these non-rhotic American accents. Non-rhoticity among such speakers is presumed to have arisen from their upper classes' close historical contact with England, imitating London's ''r''-dropping, a feature that has continued to gain prestige throughout England from the late 18th century onwards, but which has conversely lost prestige in the U.S. since at least the early 20th century. Non-rhoticity makes a word like ''car'' sound like ''cah'' or ''source'' like ''sauce''. New York City and Southern accents are the most prominent regional accents of the country, as well as the most stigmatized and socially disfavored. Southern speech, strongest in southern Appalachia and certain areas of Texas, is often identified by Americans as a "country" accent,Hayes, 2013, p. 51. and is defined by the vowel losing its gliding quality: , the initiation event for a complicated Southern vowel shift, including a "
Southern 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 ...
" that makes short front vowels into distinct-sounding gliding vowels. The fronting of the vowels of , , , and tends to also define Southern accents as well as the accents spoken in the " Midland": a vast band of the country that constitutes an intermediate dialect region between the traditional North and South. Western U.S. accents mostly fall under the General American spectrum. Below, ten major American English accents are defined by their particular combinations of certain vowel sounds:


General American

In 2010, William Labov noted that Great Lakes, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and West Coast accents have undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since the mid-nineteenth century onwards, so they "are now more different from each other than they were 50 or 100 years ago", while other accents, like of New York City and Boston, have remained stable in that same time-frame. However, a General American sound system also has some debated degree of influence nationwide, for example, gradually beginning to oust the regional accent in urban areas of the South and at least some in the Inland North. Rather than one particular accent, General American is best defined as an umbrella covering an American accent that does not incorporate features associated with some particular region, ethnicity, or socioeconomic group. Typical General American features include rhoticity, the ''father–bother'' merger, ''Mary–marry–merry'' merger, pre-nasal "short ''a''" tensing, and other particular vowel sounds. General American features are embraced most by Americans who are highly educated or in the most formal contexts, and regional accents with the most General American native features include North Midland, Western New England, and Western accents.


Other varieties

Although no longer region-specific,
African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
, which remains the native variety of most working- and middle-class
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of enslav ...
, has a close relationship to Southern dialects and has greatly influenced everyday speech of many Americans, including hip hop culture. Hispanic and Latino Americans have also developed native-speaker varieties of English. The best-studied Latino Englishes are
Chicano English Chicano English, or Mexican-American English, is a dialect of American English spoken primarily by Mexican Americans (sometimes known as Chicanos), particularly in the Southwestern United States ranging from Texas to California,Newman, Micha ...
, spoken in the West and Midwest, and
New York Latino English The English language as primarily spoken by Hispanic Americans on the East Coast of the United States demonstrates considerable influence from New York City English and African-American Vernacular English, with certain additional features borrow ...
, spoken in the New York metropolitan area. Additionally, ethnic varieties such as Yeshiva English and "
Yinglish Yiddish words used in the English language include both words that have been assimilated into Englishused by both Yiddish and English speakersand many that have not. An English sentence that uses either may be described by some as Yinglish (or H ...
" are spoken by some
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...
s, Cajun Vernacular English by some
Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the U.S. state of Louisiana. While Cajuns are usually described as ...
s in southern Louisiana, and
Pennsylvania Dutch English Pennsylvania Dutch English is a dialect of English that has been influenced by the Pennsylvania Dutch language. It is largely spoken in South Central Pennsylvania, both by people who are monolingual (in English) and bilingual (in Pennsylvania Germ ...
by some Pennsylvania Dutch people.
American Indian English American Indian English or Native American English is a diverse collection of English dialects spoken by many American Indians and Alaska Natives, notwithstanding indigenous languages also spoken in the United States, of which only a few are in d ...
es have been documented among diverse Indian tribes. The island state of Hawaii, though primarily English-speaking, is also home to a creole language known commonly as
Hawaiian Pidgin Hawaiian Pidgin (alternately, Hawaiʻi Creole English or HCE, known locally as Pidgin) is an English-based creole language spoken in Hawaiʻi. An estimated 600,000 residents of Hawaii speak Hawaiian Pidgin natively and 400,000 speak it as a sec ...
, and some Hawaii residents speak English with a Pidgin-influenced accent. American English also gave rise to some dialects outside the country, for example,
Philippine English Philippine English (similar and related to American English) is any variety of English native to the Philippines, including those used by the media and the vast majority of educated Filipinos and English learners in the Philippines from adja ...
, beginning during the
American occupation of the Philippines American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
and subsequently the Insular Government of the Philippine Islands;
Thomasites The Thomasites were a group of 600 American teachers who traveled from the United States to the newly occupied territory of the Philippines on the U.S. Army Transport ''Thomas''. The group included 346 men and 180 women, hailing from 43 differe ...
first established a variation of American English in these islands.


See also

*
American and British English spelling differences Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...
*
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 ...
* Dictionary of American Regional English *
International English International English is the concept of using the English language as a global means of communication similar to an international auxiliary language, and often refers to the movement towards an international standard for the language. Rela ...
*
International Phonetic Alphabet chart for English dialects This chart shows the most common applications of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) to represent English language pronunciations. See Pronunciation respelling for English for phonetic transcriptions used in different dictionaries. *AmE, ...
* International Phonetic Alphabet chart for the English Language *
List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas This is a list of English language words borrowed from indigenous languages of the Americas, either directly or through intermediate European languages such as Spanish or French. It does not cover names of ethnic groups or place names derived f ...
* Phonological history of English *
Regional accents of English Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accent" exists. This ar ...
* Transatlantic accent


Notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* Bailey, Richard W. (2012). ''Speaking American: A History of English in the United States'' 20th–21st-century usage in different cities * * Garner, Bryan A. (2003). ''Garner's Modern American Usage''. New York: Oxford University Press. *


History of American English

* Bailey, Richard W. (2004). "American English: Its origins and history". In E. Finegan & J. R. Rickford (Eds.), ''Language in the USA: Themes for the twenty-first century'' (pp. 3–17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Finegan, Edward. (2006). "English in North America". In R. Hogg & D. Denison (Eds.), ''A history of the English language'' (pp. 384–419). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.


External links


Do You Speak American
PBS special

of the United States, by Bert Vaux ''et al.'', Harvard University.
Linguistic Atlas Projects


at the University of Pennsylvania
Speech Accent Archive

Dictionary of American Regional English

Dialect maps based on pronunciation
{{Authority control Dialects of English North American English Languages attested from the 17th century 17th-century establishments in North America