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Western American English (also known as Western U.S. English) is a variety of
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 ...
that largely unites the entire
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 ...
as a single dialect region, including the states of
California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
,
Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
,
Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...
,
Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...
,
New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Tiguex , OfficialLang = None , Languages = English, Spanish ( New Mexican), Navajo, Ker ...
,
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...
, and
Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...
. It also generally encompasses
Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...
,
Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
,
Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...
, and
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 ...
, some of whose speakers are classified additionally under Pacific Northwest English. 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 ...
was the last area in the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
to be reached during the gradual westward expansion of settlement by English speakers and its history shows considerable mixing and
leveling Levelling or leveling (American English; see spelling differences) is a branch of surveying, the object of which is to establish or verify or measure the height of specified points relative to a datum. It is widely used in geodesy and cartogra ...
of the linguistic patterns of other regions. Therefore, since the settlement populations are relatively young when compared with other regions, the
American West 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 ...
continues to be a dialect region in formation. According to the 2006 ''
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 dial ...
'', as a very broad generalization, Western U.S. accents are differentiated from Southern U.S. accents in maintaining as a
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 ...
, from Northern U.S. accents by fronting (the vowel), and from both by most consistently showing the cot–caught merger. The standard Canadian accent also aligns to this definition, though it typically includes certain additional vowel differences.


Phonology and phonetics

The Western regional accent of American English is somewhat variable and not necessarily distinct from "
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 ...
" or from the speech of younger or educated Americans nationwide. Western American English is defined primarily by two phonological features: the cot-caught merger (as distinct from most traditional
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 ra ...
and Southern U.S. English) and the fronting of the ( ) vowel but not the () vowel. This fronting is distinct from most Southern and Mid-Atlantic American English, in which both of those vowels are fronted, as well as from most Northern U.S. English, in which both of these remain backed. Like most Canadian dialects and younger General American, ()
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 remain back and may be either rounded or unrounded due to a
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 ...
between and (), commonly represented as words like ''cot'' and ''caught'', or ''pod'' and ''pawed'', becoming perfect
homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...
s. Linguists believe this may be the cause of, or at least related to, more and more Western speakers in general lowering or retracting the vowel and the vowel in a chain shift most intensely associated with California and led by young women. This shift, too, is documented in mainland Canadian English: the Canadian Shift. Unlike in Canada, however, the raising before voiceless consonants of does not exist in Western American English and of is not as consistent and pronounced. As in General American, the West is entirely rhotic and the
Mary–marry–merry merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
is complete, so that words like ''Mary'', ''marry'', and ''merry'' are all pronounced identically because of the
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 all three of those vowels' sounds when before ''r''. Although it occurs at least occasionally nationwide, T-glottalization at word boundaries, as in "right ankle", is more common in Western dialects, particularly among younger speakers and women. The use of a full (orally released) rather than syllabic pronunciation of in the sequence , in words like "kitten" or "mountain", is a minor but noted variant reported in the West, for example among some Californians and younger, female Utah speakers; thus, ''kitten'' as in addition to more General American ; however, this feature has also been reported elsewhere in the country, like New Jersey.Jones, Jennifer G. (2012). "https://magazine.byu.edu/article/do-utahns-talk-funny/ Do Utahns Talk Funny?]" ''BYU Magazine''. Brigham Young University. Men and teenage girls from Utah are also slightly more likely than average to elide the altogether in these words, and Utahns as a whole are slightly less likely to glottalize the in general. A trend evident particularly in some speakers from the
Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...
, and
Flagstaff, Arizona Flagstaff ( ) is a city in, and the county seat of, Coconino County, Arizona, Coconino County in northern Arizona, in the southwestern United States. In 2019, the city's estimated population was 75,038. Flagstaff's combined metropolitan area has ...
, areas, as well as in some Californian and New Mexican English, is the completion of, or transition towards, a
full–fool merger In the history of English phonology, there have been many diachronic sound changes affecting vowels, especially involving phonemic splits and mergers. A number of these changes are specific to vowels which occur before . Historical diphthongiz ...
. This may be related to scatterings of Western speakers, such as some Utah speakers, generally producing
lax Los Angeles International Airport , commonly referred to as LAX (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles, California and its surrounding metropolitan area. LAX is located in the W ...
pronunciations of the tense
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 before , such as pronouncing "sale" as "sell" or "milk" as "melk" . Southern twang-like monophthongization of has been sporadically reported in the Southwest, for example in some speakers before in southern Arizona and Utah. A significant minority of Western speakers have the
pin–pen merger The close and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of ''i'' and ''e'' type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect. Developments involving long vowels Until Great Vowel Shift Middle English had a lon ...
or a closeness to the merger, especially around
Bakersfield, California 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 ...
, though it is a sound typically associated with Southern American English, which influenced Bakersfield settlers. Another recognizable though nonstandard trait particularly in California and the Pacific Northwest, is
raising Raising may refer to: *Raising (linguistics), a syntactic construction *Raising (phonetics), a sound change *Raising (metalworking), a metalworking technique *Barn raising, a community event to erect the wooden framework for a building *Fundraising ...
the "short ''i''" sound to a "long ''ee''" sound before ''ng'' so that their pronunciation of ''-ing'' with G-dropping, , rhymes with ''bean'' or the traditional British pronunciation of ''been''.


Vocabulary

*''baby buggy'':
baby carriage Various methods of transporting children have been used in different cultures and times. These methods include baby carriages (prams in British English), infant car seats, portable bassinets (carrycots), strollers (pushchairs), slings, backpacks ...
(more common east 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 ...
, mixed in the region between the Mississippi and
Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
, rare east of the Appalachians) *''
bear claw A bear claw is a sweet, yeast-raised pastry, a type of Danish, originating in the United States during the mid-1910's. In Denmark, a bear claw is referred to as ''kamme''.Roufs, Timothy G., and Kathleen Smyth Roufs''Sweet Treats around the Worl ...
'': a large stuffy pastry *''buckaroo'': cowboy **Originating in California, ''buckaroo'' is an
Anglicization Anglicisation is the process by which a place or person becomes influenced by Culture of England, English culture or Culture of the United Kingdom, British culture, or a process of cultural and/or linguistic change in which something non-English ...
of the Mexican Spanish translation of cowboy ''vaquero''; the corresponding term which originated in Texas is "wrangler" or "horse wrangler", itself an Anglicization of the Mexican ''caballerango''. *''chippie'': a woman of loose morals *''coke'' predominates in eastern New Mexico; ''pop'' in the Northwest and Northern Mountain States; and ''soda'' in California and Arizona: sweet carbonated
soft drink A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a drink that usually contains water (often carbonated), a sweetener, and a natural and/or artificial flavoring. The sweetener may be a sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, fruit juice, a su ...
*''firefly'': any insect of the Lampyridae family,Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003
The Harvard Dialect Survey
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.
now widespread nationwide *''
frontage road A frontage road (also known as an access road, outer road, service road, feeder road, or parallel road) is a local road running parallel to a higher-speed, limited-access road. A frontage road is often used to provide access to private drivew ...
'': a service or access road *'' gunnysack'': burlap bag (the latter more common east of the Mississippi) *''
hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...
'': very (adverb), much, or many (adjective); originated in the
San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...
and now used throughout
Northern California Northern California (colloquially known as NorCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. Spanning the state's northernmost 48 counties, its main population centers incl ...
*''mud hen'': the American coot *'' shivaree'': a ''belling'' or ''serenade'' **''Shivaree'' is the more common usage east of the Mississippi and in Kentucky and Tennessee; "belling" is the more common usage in Ohio, while "serenade" is the more common usage in Atlantic states—except New York and Connecticut—and the Appalachians)


Sub-varieties

Several sub-types of the Western dialect appear to be currently in formation, and the West, being an area of especially recent English-speaking settlement, shows relatively low homogeneity and internal consistency. Additionally, most Mexican-American English is spoken within, and arguably falls under the regional dialect of, the Western United States.


Alaska

Currently, there is not enough data on the English of Alaska to either include it within Western American English or assign it its own "separate status". Of two documented speakers in
Anchorage Anchorage () is the largest city in the U.S. state of Alaska by population. With a population of 291,247 in 2020, it contains nearly 40% of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Ma ...
, their cot-caught merger is completed or transitional, is not fronted, is centralized, the placement of is inconsistent, and ''ag'' approaches the sound of ''egg''. Not far from Anchorage, in Alaska's Matanuska-Susitna Valley, is a distinctly Minnesota-like accent due to immigration of Minnesotans to the valley in the 1930s.


California

A noticeable
California Vowel Shift California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. A distinctive vowel shift was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of no ...
has been observed in the English of some California speakers scattered throughout the state, though especially younger and coastal speakers. This shift involves two elements, including that the vowel in words like ''toe'', ''rose'', and ''go'' (though remaining back vowels elsewhere in the Western dialect), and the vowel in words like ''spoon'', ''move'', and ''rude'' are both pronounced farther forward in the mouth than most other English dialects; at the same time, a lowering chain movement of the
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 is occurring (identical to the Canadian Vowel Shift), so that, to listeners of other English dialects, ''sit'' may approach the sound of ''set'', ''set'' may approach ''sat'', and ''sat'' may approach ''sot''. This front-vowel lowering is also reported around
Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...
, the hub of a unique Northwestern variety of American English that demonstrates other similarities with
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 ( ...
.


Hawaii

Studies demonstrate that gender, age, and ability to speak
Hawaiian Creole 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 seco ...
(a language locally called "Pidgin" and spoken by about two-fifths of Hawaii residents) correlate with the recent emergence of different Hawaiian English accents. In a 2013 study of twenty
Oʻahu Oahu () ( Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over two-thirds of the population of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The island of O’ ...
-raised native English speakers, non-Pidgin speakers and males were shown to lower and ; younger speakers of the first group also lowered , and younger participants in general backed .Drager, Katie, M. Joelle Kirtley, James Grama, Sean Simpson (2013). "Language variation and change in Hawai‘i English: KIT, DRESS, and TRAP". ''University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics'', Vol. 19: Iss. 2, Article 6: 42, 48-49. Though this movement of these vowels is superficially similar to the
California Vowel Shift California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. A distinctive vowel shift was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of no ...
, it is not believed to be due to a chain shift, though Hawaii residents do have a cot–caught merger, at least among younger speakers. Unlike most Americans, Hawaii residents may not demonstrate any form of
/æ/ tensing The near-open front unrounded vowel, or near-low front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a lowercase of the ligature. Bot ...
(even before
nasal consonant 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 ...
s, as with most Western Americans).


New Mexico

In New Mexico, the state with the largest Hispanic population by percentage and no Anglo majority population, studies have distinguished the English of English-Spanish bilinguals versus (Anglo) English monolinguals. Research showed the former more likely to participate in monophthongization of and a recently developing Hispanic English
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 vowe ...
. However, this same shift failed to appear in a later study, in which Anglo New Mexicans (and particularly young women) were the ones more likely to engage in an innovative California-like vowel shift, whereas Hispanic speakers raised before nasals significantly less, while pronouncing higher and further back. Many New Mexicans, both Anglo-American and Hispanic, pronounce the cluster in the word ''new''. That is, they don't show
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 ...
after , unlike most Americans. Aside from noting a possible full–fool merger regardless of ethnicity, New Mexican English research has tended to focus on vocabulary: particularly loanwords from
New Mexican Spanish New Mexican Spanish ( es, español neomexicano, novomexicano) refers to a variety of Spanish spoken in the United States in New Mexico and the southern part of the state of Colorado. It includes a Traditional dialect spoken generally by the Hi ...
. The word ''
acequia An acequia () or séquia () is a community-operated watercourse used in Spain and former Spanish colonies in the Americas for irrigation. Particularly in Spain, the Andes, northern Mexico, and the modern-day American Southwest particularly n ...
'' is used for a ditch; ''canales'' for
rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...
and
street gutter A street gutter is a depression that runs parallel to a road and is designed to collect rainwater that flows along the street diverting it into a storm drain. A gutter alleviates water buildup on a street, allows pedestrians to pass without walki ...
s; ''corazón'' for sweetheart, darling, courage, or spirit; ''nana'' for one's grandmother (more widely than elsewhere in the U.S.); and ''vigas'' for
rafter A rafter is one of a series of sloped structural members such as wooden beams that extend from the ridge or hip to the wall plate, downslope perimeter or eave, and that are designed to support the roof shingles, roof deck and its associated ...
s. The New Mexican chile pepper has had such a large cultural impact that it has even been entered into the ''
Congressional Record The ''Congressional Record'' is the official record of the proceedings and debates of the United States Congress, published by the United States Government Publishing Office and issued when Congress is in session. The Congressional Record Inde ...
'' spelled as ''chile'', not ''chili''.


Pacific Northwest

The states of Oregon and Washington show a mixture of features that vary widely among the local speakers themselves. Overall, these features are strongly similar to both Californian as well as
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 ( ...
. Studies are therefore inconclusive about whether this region constitutes a distinct dialect or not.


Utah

The English of Utah shows great variation, though little overall consistency, making it difficult to classify as either a sub-dialect of Western American English or a separate dialect of its own.Lillie, Diane Deford. ''The Utah Dialect Survey''. 1998. Brigham Young University, Master's thesis.Morkel, Wendy McCollum. ''Tracing a Sound Pattern: /ay/-Monophthongization in Utah English.'' 2003. Brigham Young University, Master's Thesis. Members of the LDS Church may use the propredicate "do" or "done", as in the sentence "I would have done", unlike other Americans, suggesting a more recent British influence within the Church. One prominent older, declining feature of Utah English is the
cord-card merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
without a
horse-hoarse merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vowe ...
, particularly along the Wasatch Front, which merges (as in ''far'') and (as in ''for''), while keeping distinct (as in ''four''). Utahns may use slightly distinct vowel placement and vowel space area during articulation, particularly with young, female speakers documented as pronouncing as higher than —the opposite of a typical modern Western accent. Throughout the Mormon corridor beyond Utah, practicing Mormons tend to lag behind regional dialect changes while maintaining characteristic Utah features.


See also

* Hawaiʻi Creole English popularly known as
Pidgin A pidgin , or pidgin language, is a grammatically simplified means of communication that develops between two or more groups of people that do not have a language in common: typically, its vocabulary and grammar are limited and often drawn from s ...
*
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 ...
or Native American English * Chinook Jargon a local
creole language A creole language, or simply creole, is a stable natural language that develops from the simplifying and mixing of different languages into a new one within a fairly brief period of time: often, a pidgin evolved into a full-fledged language. ...
once much more widely spoken *
Boontling Boontling is a jargon or argot spoken only in Boonville, California, Boonville in Northern California of the United States. It was created in the 1890s. Today, it is nearly extinct, and fewer than 100 people still speak it. It has an Internet Ass ...
a local English-based cant spoken in Boonville, California


References

*


External links


California VowelsDr. Eckert's Interview About Northern California Speech
{{Languages of the United States * American English Western United States