Citizendia

North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken English by the inhabitants of various parts of North America. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States North American English can be divided into several regional dialects based on phonological, phonetic, lexical, and some syntactic features. North American English is a collective term used for the varieties of the English language that are spoken in North America, namely in the United States A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Phonetics (from the Greek φωνή ( phonê) "sound" or "voice" is the study of the physical sounds of human speech In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the North American English includes American English, which has several highly-developed and distinct regional varieties, along with the closely related Canadian English, which is more homogeneous. Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. Canadian English ( CanE, en-CA) is the variety of English used in Canada. American English (especially Western dialects) and Canadian English have more in common with each other than with the many varieties of English outside North America. This is a list of varieties of the English language. Dialects are linguistic varieties which differ in Pronunciation, Vocabulary and

The most recent work documenting and studying the phonology of North American English dialects as a whole is the Atlas of North American English by William Labov, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, on which much of the description below is based, following on a tradition of sociolinguistics dating to the 1960s; earlier large-scale American dialectology focused more on lexical variation than on phonology. William Labov (ləˈboʊv born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of Society, including cultural norms expectations and context on the way Language is used

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Defining Regions of North American Speech

Regional dialects in North America are most strongly differentiated along the Eastern seaboard. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of The distinctive speech of important cultural centers like Boston, Massachusetts (see Boston accent); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Charleston, South Carolina; and New Orleans, Louisiana imposed their marks on the surrounding areas. The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə Charleston is a city in Charleston county in the US state of South Carolina. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana The Connecticut River is usually regarded as the southern/western extent of New England speech, while the Potomac River generally divides a group of Northern coastal dialects from the beginning of the Coastal Southern dialect area (distinguished from the Highland Southern or South Midland dialect treated below, although outsiders often mistakenly believe that the speech in these two areas is the same); in between these two rivers several local variations exist, most famous among them the variety that prevails in New York City. The Connecticut River is the largest River in New England, flowing south from the Connecticut Lakes in northern New Hampshire, along the border The Potomac River flows into the Chesapeake Bay, located along the mid- Atlantic coast of the United States. The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans and some non-European Americans who were raised in New York City and The City of New York

Dialects on the East Coast of the continent are most diverse chiefly because the East Coast has been populated by English-speaking people longer than any other region. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of Western speech is much more homogeneous because it was settled by English speakers more recently, and so there has been less time for the West to diversify into a multiplicity of distinctive accents. A reason for the differences between (on the one hand) Eastern and (on the other hand) Midwestern and Western accents is that the East Coast areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. Sound change includes any processes of Language change that affect pronunciation ( phonetic change) or sound system structures ( Phonological change The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea, and so Western and inland speakers did not imitate the changes in speech from England.

African American Vernacular English contains many distinctive forms that are more homogeneous from region to region than the accents of white speakers, but African-American speakers are subject to regional variation also. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular,

Famous speakers of North American English dialects

The sounds of American speech can be identified with a number of public figures: Ted Kennedy speaks with a Boston accent, while Jimmy Carter speaks with a Southern coastal accent. Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy (born February 22 1932 is the senior United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts James Earl "Jimmy" Carter Jr (born October 1 1924 was the thirty-ninth President of the United States, serving from 1977 to 1981 and the recipient of the 2002 Chuck Schumer speaks with a New York accent. Charles Ellis "Chuck" Schumer (born November 23, 1950) is the senior U The North Midland speech is familiar to those who have heard Neil Armstrong and John Glenn, while Bill Clinton, Al Gore and Robert Byrd speak with South Midland accents. Neil Alden Armstrong (born August 5 1930 is a former American Astronaut, Test pilot, University Professor, and United States John Herschel Glenn Jr (born July 18 1921 in Cambridge Ohio) is a former United States Senator who first rose to fame as the first American to Orbit William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton (born William Jefferson Blythe III, August 19 1946 served as the forty-second President of the United States Albert Arnold Gore Jr (born March 31 1948 is an American environmental Activist, author Businessperson, former Politician, and former Robert Carlyle Byrd (born November 20 1917 is the senior United States Senator from West Virginia and a member of the Democratic Party. Comedians Mel Brooks and Ray Romano retain typical New York accents while Jack Black and Pauly Shore have the standard sound of southern California. Mel Brooks (born Melvin Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American director, Writer, Composer, Lyricist Raymond "Ray" Romano (born December 21 1957) is an American Actor, Writer and Stand-up comedian, best known New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Thomas Jack Black Jr (born August 28 1969 is an American Actor, Comedian and Musician. Paul Montgomery "Pauly" Shore (born February 1, 1968) is an American Actor, Performer and Comedian, perhaps California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean.

General American

Main article: General American

General American is a notional accent of American English perceived by Americans to be most "neutral" and free of regional characteristics. General American is an accent of American English within American English General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American A General American accent is not a specific well-defined standardized accent in the way that Received Pronunciation (RP) has historically been the standard, prestigious variant of the English language in England; rather, accents with different features can all be perceived as General American provided they lack certain non-standard features. Received Pronunciation ( RP) is a form of Pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland

One feature that General American is generally agreed to include is rhotic pronunciation, which maintains the coda [ɹ] in words like pearl, car, and court. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented Unlike RP, General American is characterized by the merger of the vowels of words like father and bother, flapping, and the reduction of vowel contrasts before historic /ɹ/. Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a Language maximizing the acoustic distance between its Phonemes presumably to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding "Flapping" redirects here For other uses of the term see Flap. The English language has undergone a number of phonological changes before the historic phoneme /r/. General American also has yod-dropping after alveolar consonants. The phonological history of English consonant clusters is part of the Phonological history of the English language in terms of changes in the Phonology of Consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets

Other phonemic mergers present in some speakers include the cot-caught merger, the pin-pen merger (a conditional merger). Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English The high front Vowels of English have undergone a variety of changes over time which may vary from dialect to dialect The widespread Mary-marry-merry merger and the wine-whine merger are complete in some regions and very common at least in informal and semi-formal varieties of others; however, the most formal varieties tend to be more conservative in preserving these phonemic distinctions. The English language has undergone a number of phonological changes before the historic phoneme /r/. The pronunciation of the digraph ''wh'' in English has varied with time and can still vary today between different regions

One phenomenon apparently unique to American accents is the irregular behavior of words that in RP have /ɒrV/ (where V stands for any vowel). Words of this class include, among others: origin, Florida, horrible, quarrel, warren, borrow, tomorrow, sorry, and sorrow. In General American there is a split: the majority of these words have [-ɔɹ-], but the last four words of the list above have [-ɑɹ-]. In the the New York accent and through New Jersey and Philadelphia, most or all of these words are pronounced as [-ɑɹ-] by many speakers (Shitara 1993). The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans and some non-European Americans who were raised in New York City and In Canadian English, however, all of the words in this class are pronounced [-ɔɹ-].

The Midland

The region of the Midwestern United States west of the Appalachian Mountains begins the broad zone of what is generally called "Midland" speech. The Appalachian Mountains ( often called the Appalachians, are a vast system of mountains in eastern North America. In older and traditional dialectological research, this is divided into two discrete subdivisions: the "North Midland" that begins north of the Ohio River valley area and the "South Midland" dialect area. The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. In more recent work such as the Atlas of North American English, the former is designated simply "Midland" and the latter is reckoned as part of the South. The (North) Midland is arguably the major region whose dialect most closely approximates "General American".

The North Midland and South Midland are both characterized by having a distinctly fronter realization of the /oʊ/ phoneme (as in boat) than many other American accents, particularly those of the North; the phoneme is frequently realized with a central nucleus, approximating [əʊ]. Likewise, /aʊ/ has a fronter nucleus than /aɪ/, approaching [æʊ]. Another feature distinguishing the Midland from the North is that the word on contains the phoneme /ɔ/ (as in caught) rather than /ɑ/ (as in cot). (Obviously this only applies to Midland speakers not subject to the cot-caught merger, on which see below. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English ) For this reason, one of the names for the North-Midland boundary is the "'On' line".

In some areas of the Midland, words like "roof" and "root" (which in many other dialects have the vowel uː) are pronounced with the vowel of "book" and "hoof" ʊ.

A common non-phonological feature of the greater Midland area is so-called positive anymore: it has become possible to use the word anymore with the meaning 'nowadays' in sentences without negative polarity, such as Air travel is inconvenient anymore. In Linguistics a polarity item is an expression which is sensitive to the presence in the same sentence of certain other expressions known as "licensing" (or "anti-licensing"

(North) Midland

The North Midland region stretches from east to west across central and southern Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, Iowa, and northern Missouri, as well as Nebraska and northern Kansas where it begins to blend into the West. Ohio ( is a Midwestern state of the United States. As part of the Great Lakes region, Ohio has long been a cultural and geographical crossroads The Geography of Indiana refers to the US State of Indiana. Regions The state of Indiana is divided into several Cultural regions Central Illinois is a region of the US state of Illinois that consists of the entire central section of the state divided in thirds from north to south The State of Iowa ( is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States of America. Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee Nebraska ( is a state located on the Great Plains of the Midwestern United States and Kansas ( is a Midwestern state in the central region of the United States of America, an area often referred to as the American " Major cities of this dialect area include Columbus, Cincinnati, and Indianapolis. Columbus is the Capital and the largest city of the US state of Ohio. This area is currently undergoing a vowel merger of the "short o" /ɑ/ (as in cot) and 'aw' /ɔ/ (as in caught) phonemes. Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a Language maximizing the acoustic distance between its Phonemes presumably to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding Many speakers show transitional forms of this so-called cot-caught merger, which is complete in approximately half of the rest of North America. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English

The /æ/ phoneme (as in cat) shows most commonly a so-called "continuous" distribution: /æ/ is raised and tensed toward [eə] before nasal consonants and remains low [æ] before voiceless stop consonants, and other allophones of /æ/ occupy a continuum of varying degrees of height between those two extremes. Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme.

South Midland

The South Midland dialect region follows the Ohio River in a generally southwesterly direction, moving across from Kentucky, southern Indiana, and southern Illinois to Missouri, Arkansas, southern Kansas, and Oklahoma, west of the Mississippi river. The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. The Commonwealth of Kentucky ( is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Missouri ( or) is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee Arkansas ( is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to Although historically more closely related to the North Midland speech, this region shows dialectal features that are now more similar to the rest of the South than the Midland, most noticeably the smoothing of the diphthong /ɑɪ/ to [ɑː], and the second person plural pronoun "you-all" or "y'all. " Unlike the coastal South, however, the South Midland has always been a rhotic dialect, pronouncing /r/ wherever it has historically occurred. South Indiana is the northernmost extent of the South Midland region, forming what dialectologists refer to as the "Hoosier Apex" of the South Midland; the accent is locally known there as the "Hoosier Twang". Hoosier (ˈhuːʒɚ is the official Demonym for a resident of the U

The phonology of the South Midland is discussed in greater detail in the section on the South below.

St. Louis and vicinity

St. Louis, Missouri is historically one among several (North) Midland cities, but it has developed some unique features of its own distinguishing it from the rest of the Midland.

Western Pennsylvania

The dialect of Western Pennsylvania is, for many purposes, an eastern extension of the North Midland. Western Pennsylvania consists of the western third of the state of Pennsylvania in the United States. Like the Midland proper, the Western Pennsylvania accent features fronting of /oʊ/ and /aʊ/, as well as positive anymore. The chief distinguishing feature of Western Pennsylvania as a whole is that the cot-caught merger is complete here, whereas it is still in progress in most of the Midland. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English The merger has also spread from Western Pennsylvania into adjacent West Virginia, historically in the South Midland dialect region. West Virginia ( is a state in the Appalachian Upland South, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by

The city of Pittsburgh is considered a dialect of its own often known as Pittsburghese. Pittsburgh English, popularly known as Pittsburghese, is the dialect of American English spoken by many residents of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania This region is additionally characterized by a sound change that is unique in North America: the monopthongization of /aʊ/ to [a:]. This is the source of the stereotypical Pittsburgh pronunciation of downtown as "dahntahn". Pittsburgh also features an unusually low allophone of /ʌ/ (as in cut); it approaches [ɑ] (/ɑ/ itself having moved out of the way and become a rounded vowel in its merger with /ɔ/). In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract

The North

The dialect area of the United States north of Pennsylvania and the Midland is distinguished from the Midland by a collection of linguistic features whose isoglosses all largely coincide, despite not being directly structurally related to each other. An isogloss is the geographical boundary or delineation of a certain linguistic feature e Dialectologists in the first half of the 20th century distinguished the North from the Midland on the basis of a large collection of lexical isoglosses, mostly dealing with differences in agricultural terms that are now largely obsolete (such as the use of ko-day in the north versus sheepie in the Midland to call sheep from the pasture). Despite the obsolescence of these lexical differences, the boundary between the North and Midland is maintained in the same place by phonological and phonetic isoglosses.

The North is also separated from the Midland by the presence of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS), on which see below; although the NCVS is not found in all parts of the North, it is present in the part of the North most closely adjacent to the Midland and thus helps to define the boundary.

Inland North

Main article: Inland Northern American English

The Inland North dialect region was once considered the "standard Midwestern" speech that was the basis for General American in the mid-20th century. The Inland North dialect of American English is spoken in a region that includes the cities along the Erie Canal and south of the Great Lakes, as well as General American is an accent of American English within American English General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American However, it has been recently modified by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, which is the main feature of this dialect region. The Northern cities vowel shift is a Chain shift in the sounds of some Vowels in the Dialect region of American English known as the Today the Inland North proper is regarded as the sub-region of the North where the NCVS predominates.

The Inland North is centered on the area south of the Great Lakes, and consists of two components: to the east, central and western New York State (including Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester, and Buffalo); and to the west, much of Michigan's Lower Peninsula (Detroit, Grand Rapids), Cleveland, Chicago, Gary, and Southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Racine). The Laurentian Great Lakes are a chain of freshwater lakes located in eastern North America, on the Canada–United States border. New York ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States and is the nation's third most populous Syracuse (locally ˈsɛrəkjuːs sometimes ˈsɪrəkjuːs or /ˈsɪərəkjuːs/ by non-natives is a city in Central New York, USA. Binghamton, known as The Parlor City is a City located in the Southern Tier of New York in the United States. Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York State, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Buffalo (ˈbʌfəloʊ is the second largest city in New York State. Michigan ( is a Midwestern state of the United States of America. Cleveland is a City in the US state of Ohio and the County seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state Chicago (ʃɪˈkɑːgoʊ is the largest City by population in the state of Illinois and the American Midwest of the United States. Wisconsin ( or wɪˈskɑnsɨn (French Ouisconsin) is one of the fifty United States of America, located in the north central part of the United States Racine is a city in Racine County, Wisconsin, United States, located beside Lake Michigan at the mouth of the Root River.

These two regions are separated by a region of northwestern Pennsylvania, including the city of Erie, which is not today part of the linguistic Inland North. Although Erie was historically part of the greater Northern dialect region, and is on the southern shore of Lake Erie halfway between Buffalo and Cleveland, it has not undergone the NCVS; instead, as a result of heavy influence from Pittsburgh, the cot-caught merger has taken place in Erie.

This map shows the approximate extent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and thus the approximate area where the Inland North dialect predominates. Note that the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania is excluded.
This map shows the approximate extent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and thus the approximate area where the Inland North dialect predominates. Note that the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania is excluded.

The NCVS is not uniform throughout the Inland North; it is most advanced in Western New York and Michigan, and less developed in Cleveland. At the eastern fringes are areas in which most speakers display NCVS features only in weak forms if at all, including northeastern Pennsylvania and some communities in northern and eastern New York. Northeast Pennsylvania English is the local Dialect of American English spoken in northeastern Pennsylvania, specifically in the Coal Region, Northern Indiana and part of Minnesota show the first stage of the NCVS, tensing of /æ/, without any of the other stages. The State of Indiana ( was the 19th US state admitted into the union Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift

Main article: Northern Cities Vowel Shift

The NCVS is a chain shift involving movements of six vowel phonemes:

  1. The first stage of the shift is the raising, tensing, and diphthongization of /æ/ towards [ɪə]. The Northern cities vowel shift is a Chain shift in the sounds of some Vowels in the Dialect region of American English known as the In the study of Historical linguistics and phonetic change a chain shift is a type of sound shift in which a group of sounds all change at about the same time In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with This results in words like "cat" being pronounced more like "kyat. " This change occurs for the phoneme /æ/ in all contexts, in contrast with other American dialects in which phonetically similar "æ-tensing" occurs only before nasal consonants, or as part of a phonemic split of /æ/ into two phonemes, one tensed and the other still lax. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a Language maximizing the acoustic distance between its Phonemes presumably to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding
  2. The second stage is the fronting of /ɑ/ to [a:]. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In some speakers this fronting is so extreme that their /ɑ/ phoneme can be mistaken for /æ/ by speakers of other dialects; thus for example block approaches the way other dialects pronounce black.
  3. In the third stage, /ɔ/ lowers towards [ɑ], causing stalk to sound more like other dialects' stock. The lowering of the phoneme /ɔ/ is not unique to this region. However, in other regions where such a lowering occurs, it results in the cot-caught merger. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English The merger does not occur in the Inland North because NCVS speakers front the /ɑ/ phoneme to [a], thus maintaining the distinction between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/.
  4. The fourth stage is the backing and sometimes lowering of /ɛ/, toward either [ə] or [æ].
  5. In the fifth stage, /ʌ/ is backed towards [ɔ], so that stuck sounds like stalk in dialects that maintain a [ɔ] sound in the word stalk. In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract In this regard, a sound change occurs in the Inland North that is the reverse of most other American dialects (including the Midland): /ʌ/ is backer than /ɑ/ rather than fronter.
  6. In the sixth stage, /ɪ/ is lowered and backed. However, it is kept distinct from [ɛ] in all contexts, so, the pin-pen merger does not occur. The high front Vowels of English have undergone a variety of changes over time which may vary from dialect to dialect

This shift is in progress across the region, though not necessarily completed. So, any individual speaker may display some of these six shifts without displaying the others. On the whole, though, the shifts occur in the order listed above, so speakers who display advanced forms of the later changes will generally be advanced in the earlier changes as well.

North Central

Main article: North Central American English

The North Central dialect region extends from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan westward across northern Minnesota and North Dakota and into eastern Montana. North Central American English is used to refer to a dialect of American English. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is the northern of the two major land masses that comprise the U Minnesota ( Native Americans demonstrated the name to early settlers North Dakota ( is a state located in the Midwestern and Western regions of the United States of America. Montana ( is a state in the Western United States. One-third of the state in the western part contains numerous mountain ranges (approximately 77 named of the northern Although the Atlas of North American English does not include the North Central region as part of the North proper, it shares all of the features listed above as properties of the North as a whole. The North Central is a linguistically conservative region; it participates in few of the major ongoing sound changes of North American English.

The movie Fargo, which takes place in the North Central region, famously features characters with this accent. Fargo is a 1996 American Film produced directed and written by brothers Ethan and Joel Coen.

Western New England

Western New England, encompassing most of Connecticut, western Massachusetts, and Vermont, has close historical ties to the Inland North: it is from Western New England that the westward migration began that led to the settlement of most upstate New York and the rest of the Inland North. Connecticut ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. Western Massachusetts is a loosely defined geographical region of the U Vermont ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. Upstate New York is the region of New York State north of the core of the New York metropolitan area. The linguistic boundary between Western and Eastern New England has been recognized at least since the 1940s; Western New England differed from Eastern New England then in being rhotic, possessing the Mary-marry-merry merger, and not being subject to the caught-cot merger, among other features. The English language has undergone a number of phonological changes before the historic phoneme /r/. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English Historically, Western New England is distinguished from Eastern New England in that it consists principally of communities settled from the Connecticut and New Haven colonies, rather than the Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth colonies. The Colony of Connecticut was an English colony that became the U The New Haven Colony was an English colonial venture in present-day Connecticut in North America from 1637 to 1662. The Massachusetts Bay Colony (sometimes called the Massachusetts Bay Company, for the institution that founded it was an English settlement on the east coast of North America Plymouth Colony (sometimes New Plymouth or The Old Colony) was an English colonial venture in North America from 1620 until 1691

Today, Western New England shares in the principal linguistic features listed above as characteristic of the North. Connecticut and western Massachusetts in particular show the same general phonological system as the Inland North, and some speakers show a general tendency in the direction of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift—for instance, an /æ/ that is somewhat higher and tenser than average, an /ɑ/ that is fronter than /ʌ/, and so on. The caught-cot merger has taken hold comparatively recently in Vermont, merging to an unrounded vowel [a] (unlike in Eastern New England, where the merged cot-caught vowel is back and rounded). In Connecticut /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ remain distinct, although the merger shows some evidence of being in progress advancing southward from Vermont.

Northeastern dialects

Most of the major cities of the coastal Northeast have distinctive accents that cover smaller regions than the broad "North" and "Midland" categories of the Midwest, reflecting the greater dialect diversity of the Northeast. Northeastern_United_States#The_Northeast_as_a_megalopolis BosWash (also referred to as BoWash, BosNYwash, the Northeast Corridor, the These dialects are not all closely related to each other, but subsets of them share several unusual features, such as non-rhoticity or a split of /æ/ into two separate phonemes. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation

One feature shared by all of them is resistance to the Mary-marry-merry merger. The English language has undergone a number of phonological changes before the historic phoneme /r/. Similarly, these dialects retain a distinction between historical short o and long o before intervocalic /ɹ/, so that, for example, orange, Florida, and horrible have a different stressed vowel than story and chorus.

Eastern New England

Main article: Boston accent

The Eastern New England dialect area encompasses Maine, New Hampshire, and eastern Massachusetts (including Greater Boston). The Boston accent is found not only in the city of Boston Massachusetts itself but also much of eastern Massachusetts History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the The State of Maine ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean New Hampshire ( is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Greater Boston is the area of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts surrounding the city of Boston Massachusetts. The dialect spoken here shares features with the greater North dialect region, including Canadian raising of /aɪ/ and minimal fronting of /aʊ/ and /oʊ/, but it possesses enough distinctive features of its own to distinguish it from the North as a separate dialect system. Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which Diphthongs are "raised" Southern New Hampshire has been reported as retreating from some of the more distinctive features of the Eastern New England dialect region.

This region of the United States historically had more contact with British varieties of English (being nearer to the Atlantic coast) and looked to England as a standard of prestige for their speech. Hence, the Eastern New England dialect has in some respects more similarities with British English than many other dialects of American English have. British English or UK English ( BrE, BE, en-GB) is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the Most famously, Eastern New England accents (with the exception of Martha's Vineyard) are traditionally non-rhotic, although this feature is slowly losing ground. Martha's Vineyard (adjoining the smaller Chappaquiddick Island) is an Island off the US east coast to the south of Cape Cod, both English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented

The Eastern New England accent is seemingly unique in North America for not having undergone the so-called father-bother merger: in other words, the stressed vowel phonemes of father and bother remain distinct as /a:/ and /ɒ:/, so that the two words do not rhyme as they do in most American accents. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English Many Eastern New England speakers also retain a class of words with "broad A"—that is, /a:/ as in father in words that in most accents contain /æ/, such as bath, half, and can't. Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation Broad A is another feature that Eastern New England shares with southern England. Southern English English is a phrase given to describe the different dialects and accents of English English spoken in southern England. On the other hand, unlike dialects of England, the Eastern New England dialect is subject to the cot-caught merger, merging the cot and caught classes to a back rounded vowel, [ɒ:]. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English

As mentioned above, Eastern New England retains the distinction between the vowel phonemes of marry, merry, and Mary. Likewise, many Eastern new England speakers preserve the distinctions between /i:/ and /ɪ/] before intervocalic /ɹ/ (as in nearer and mirror), as well as the distinction between /ʌ/ and /ɝ/ before intervocalic /ɹ/ (as in hurry and furry).

The distinction between the vowels of horse and hoarse is maintained in traditional non-rhotic New England accents as [hɒːs] for horse (with the same vowel as cot and caught) vs. [hoəs] for hoarse. Thus, the horse-hoarse merger does not occur. The English language has undergone a number of phonological changes before the historic phoneme /r/. Like some other east-coast accents as well as AAVE, some accents of eastern New England merge /oɹ/ and /uɹ/, making homophones of pairs like pour/poor, more/moor, tore/tour, cores/Coors etc. African American Vernacular English ( AAVE) – also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular,

Eastern New England has a so-called nasal short-a system. Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation In other words, the /æ/ phoneme has highly distinct allophones before nasal consonants and before other consonants. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the In most environments, /æ/ remains [æ], but before nasal consonants it is tensed and raised to [eə], with no other allophones between the two extremes.

Rhode Island

Rhode Island is traditionally grouped with the Eastern New England dialect region, both by the dialectologists of the mid–20th century and by the Atlas of North American English; it shares Eastern New England's traditional non-rhoticity and nasal short-a system. Rhode Island ( officially named the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, is a state in the New England region of the United States A key linguistic difference between Rhode Island and the rest of the Eastern New England, however, is that Rhode Island is subject to the father-bother merger and not the cot-caught merger. Indeed, Rhode Island shares with New York and Philadelphia an unusually high and back allophone of /ɔ/ (as in caught), even compared to other communities that do not have the cot-caught merger.

In the Atlas of North American English, the city of Providence (the only community in Rhode Island sampled by the Atlas) is also distinguished by having the backest realizations of /u:/, /oʊ/, and /aʊ/ in North America.

New York City

Main article: New York dialect

As in Eastern New England, the accents of New York City and adjoining New Jersey cities are traditionally non-rhotic. The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans and some non-European Americans who were raised in New York City and History See also History of New England New England's earliest inhabitants were Algonquian -speaking Native Americans including the The City of New York New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. But the vowels of cot ([kɑt]) and caught ([kɔːt]) are distinct, and the vowel of cart is backed to ([kɒːt]) instead of fronted as it is in Boston.

The accent is well attested in American movies and television shows, especially ones about American mobsters. Mobsters is a 1991 crime drama detailing the creation of the National Crime Syndicate / The Commission. Bugs Bunny and Groucho Marx both speak with a Brooklyn accent in their films. Clyde Rabbit (uncleMrs Bugs Bunny (wifePapa Bunny (fatherMama Bunny (motherRugs Bunny The accent is often exaggerated, but nevertheless still exists to some degree among Brooklyn natives. A more contemporary version of this can be found on the popular television show The Sopranos, which is set in Essex County, New Jersey. The Sopranos is an American Television drama series created by David Chase. However, it is important to note that the dialect portrayed on this television show does not apply to citizens of the entire state; it is a particular socio-ethnic accent.

Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley

Main article: Philadelphia accent

The accent of Philadelphia and nearby parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, is probably the original ancestor of General American. The Philadelphia dialect is the Dialect of English spoken in Philadelphia; and extending into Philadelphia's suburbs in the Delaware Valley Philadelphia (ˌfɪləˈdɛlfiə The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania ( often colloquially referred to as PA (its abbreviation by natives and Northeasterners is a state located in the Northeastern New Jersey ( is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. Delaware ( is a state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is one of the few coastal accents that is rhotic, and one of the first to merge the historical [oɹ] of hoarse, mourning with the [ɔɹ] of horse, morning. English pronunciation is divided into two main accent groups the rhotic (ˈroʊtɪk and non-rhotic, depending on when the sound typically represented Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a Language maximizing the acoustic distance between its Phonemes presumably to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding It also maintains the cot-caught contrast, unlike New England and western Pennsylvania. Father-bother merger The father-bother merger is a merger of the Early Modern English vowels /ɑː/ and /ɒ/ that occurs in almost all varieties of North American English Nevertheless there are differences between modern Philadelphia speech and General American, some of which will be outlined here.

Baltimore, Maryland

See the separate article on Baltimorese

Southern American English

Main article: Southern American English

Few generalizations can be made about Southern pronunciation as a whole, as there is great variation between regions in the South (see different southern American English dialects for more information) and between older and younger people. Baltimorese (sometimes pseudophonetically written Bawlmerese or Ballimerese) is a Dialect of American English in the Mid-Atlantic United Southern American English is a group of Dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern Southern American English is a group of Dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern Upheavals such as the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and World War II have caused mass migrations throughout the United States. The Dust Bowl, or the dirty thirties, was a period of severe Dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including Southern American English as we know it today began to take its current shape only after the World War II. Some generalizations include:

The South Midland dialect follows the Ohio River in a generally southwesterly direction, moves across Arkansas and Oklahoma west of the Mississippi, and peters out in West Texas. The Ohio River is the largest Tributary by volume of the Mississippi River. Arkansas ( is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Oklahoma ( is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to West Texas is a region in Texas that has more in common geographically with the Southwestern United States than it does with the rest of the state It is a version of the Midland speech that has assimilated some coastal Southern forms, most noticeably the loss of the diphthong [ɑɪ], , which becomes [ɑː], and the second person plural pronoun "you-all" or "y'all. " Unlike Coastal Southern, however, South Midland is a rhotic dialect, pronouncing /r/ wherever it has historically occurred.

South Midlands speech is characterized by:

Southern Drawl

The Southern Drawl, or the diphthongization/triphthongization of the traditional short front vowels as in the words pat, pet, and pit: these develop a glide up from their original starting position to [j], and then in some cases back down to schwa. In Phonetics, a triphthong (from Greek τρίφθογγος, "triphthongos" literally "with three sounds" or "with three A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward In Linguistics, specifically Phonetics and Phonology, schwa can mean the following An unstressed and toneless neutral

Southern vowel shift

Charleston

Charleston has a very distinctive southern accent that encompasses elements of standard British English and American Southern English, with additional French-Huguenot influences. Charleston is a city in Charleston county in the US state of South Carolina. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Huguenots were members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France (or French Calvinists) from the sixteenth to the eighteenth The most distinguishing feature of this accent is the way speakers pronounce the name of the city, to which a standard listener would hear "Chahls-ton", with a silent r. Alone among the various regional Southern dialects, Charlestonian speakers inglide long mid vowels, such as the raising for /ay/ and /aw/. Some attribute these unique features of Charleston's speech to its early settlement by the French Huguenots and Sephardi Jews, both of which played influential parts in Charleston's development and history. Sephardi Jews ( Hebrew: ספרדי, Standard Səfardi Tiberian Səp̄arədî; plural However, given Charleston's high concentration of African-Americans that spoke the Gullah language, the speech patterns were more influenced by the dialect of the Gullah African-American community. The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, which includes both the coastal plain and the

New Orleans

While including such characteristics of the Southern U. S. English as using "y'all" for second person plural, the New Orleans accent is so unlike the rest of the South and so similar to that of New York City that New Orleanians traveling in other parts of the USA are often mistaken for New Yorkers. New Orleans (nʲuːˈɔrliənz nʲuːˈɔrlənz French: La Nouvelle-Orléans) is a major United States port city and the largest city in Louisiana

Many pronunciations are surprisingly similar to that found in New York City and northern New Jersey, presumably arising from a similar mix of immigrants. The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans and some non-European Americans who were raised in New York City and Parallels include the split of the historic short-a class into tense [eə] and lax [æ] versions, as well as pronunciation of cot and caught as [kɑt] and [kɔt]. Trap-bath split The trap-bath split is a vowel split that occurs mainly in southern varieties of English English (including Received Pronunciation The stereotypical New York curl-coil merger of "toity-toid street" (33rd Street) used to be a common New Orleans feature, though it has mostly receded today. The phonological history of the English vowels involves a large number of diachronic sound changes especially involving phonemic splits and mergers

Perhaps the most distinctive New Orleans accent is locally nicknamed "yat", from a traditional greeting "Where y'at" ("Where are you at?", meaning "How are you?"). One of the most detailed phonetic depictions of an extreme "yat" accent of the early 20th century is found in the speech of the character Krazy Kat in the comic strip of the same name by George Herriman. Krazy Kat is a Comic strip created by George Herriman that appeared in U A comic strip is a sequence of drawings that tells a story Currently in the Western world, most comic strips are written and drawn by a Comics artist George Joseph Herriman ( August 22, 1880 &ndash April 25, 1944) was an American Cartoonist, best known for his comic strip While such extreme "yat" accents are no longer so common in the city, they can still be found in parts of Mid-City and the 9th ward, as well as in St. Bernard Parish, just east of New Orleans. The Ninth Ward or 9th Ward is a distinctive region of New Orleans, Louisiana that is located in the easternmost downriver portion of the city St Bernard Parish (Paroisse de Saint-Bernard is a parish located southeast of New Orleans in the U

The novel A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is generally considered the best depiction of New Orleans accents in literature. A Confederacy of Dunces is a Novel written by John Kennedy Toole, published in 1980, 11 years after the author's Suicide. John Kennedy Toole ( December 17, 1937 &ndash March 26, 1969) was an American Novelist from New Orleans Louisiana

Acadiana

English speakers in this specific region of southwest Louisiana (also referred to as Cajun country) have carried over many words and phrases from the colonial French (i. e. Newfoundland, Nova Scotia) due to the eviction and resettlement of early French colonials by the British. A number of people in this area speak a variety of Cajun French, although the number has been declining in recent years. See also [[Cajun]] Cajun French (sometimes called Louisiana Regional French) is one of three varieties or Dialects of the French language

Central and South Florida

The speech used in the urban and coastal areas of Central and South Florida (everything south of and including Orlando) is noticeable for not being a typical southern accent, because a large proportion of the inhabitants are non-natives of the area. In fact, many residents in Orlando, for example, speak with what could be described as a General American accent with a slight southern drawl (to varying degrees). Others may speak with a Northeast accent (specifically New York-New Jersey English) or an accent belonging to that of Spanish speakers (predominantly from Cuba. The New York dialect of the English language is spoken by most European Americans and some non-European Americans who were raised in New York City and The Republic of Cuba (ˈkjuːbə or) consists of the island of Cuba (the largest and second-most populous island of the Greater Antilles) Isla de la ) The accents heard in some parts of this region, especially in older communities such as Aventura, Boca Raton, or West Palm Beach, are that of the typical New Yorker. Aventura is a planned City located in northeastern Miami-Dade County Florida. Boca Raton ("bōkə rə-tōn" is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida incorporated in May 1925 West Palm Beach, also known as West Palm, is the most populous city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. However a mild southern dialect is still predominantly spoken in the rural and inland areas of Central and South Florida.

In Miami, a unique accent, commonly called the "Miami accent", is widely spoken. It developed by second- or third-generation Hispanics whose first language was English. It is very similar to accents in the Northeast, but contains a rhythm and pronunciation heavily influenced by Spanish. However, a Miami accent is not Spanish-accented English, as many Miami residents who are not Hispanic or do not speak Spanish speak with the Miami accent as well. Although many Miami natives will deny that they have an accent, those outside South Florida will identify a unique accent spoken by Miami residents.

Western Dialect

The Western United States is the largest dialect region in the United States, and the one with the fewest distinctive phonological features. The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost These facts can both be attributed to the fact that the West is the region most recently settled by English speakers, and so there has not been sufficient time for the region either to develop highly distinctive innovations or to split into strongly distinct dialectological subregions. There is some evidence, though, that some regions of the West are beginning to diverge from each other linguistically.

California English

Main article: California English

There are several phonological processes which have been identified as being particular to California English. California English is a Dialect of the English language spoken in the U However, these shifts are by no means universal in Californian speech, and any single Californian's speech may have only some of the changes identified below, or even none of them. Arizona, Nevada, and Oregon often demonstrate this Californian shift. California English possesses a new chain vowel shift known as the California vowel shift:

The California vowel shift, based on a diagram at Penelope Eckert's webpage.
The California vowel shift, based on a diagram at Penelope Eckert's webpage. California English is a Dialect of the English language spoken in the U

California English also possesses the following features:

Utah English

Main article: Utah English

Utah English, sometimes humorously referred to as "Utahnics", is a dialect of the English language spoken in the U.S. state of Utah. A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος dialektos) is a variety of a Language that is characteristic of a particular group of English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. Influences are as varied as ancestries of its immigrants, from Scottish to Mexican Spanish. Since the field of Sociolinguistics is relatively new to academia, very little research has been done on the dialect. Sociolinguistics is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of Society, including cultural norms expectations and context on the way Language is used However, a research team at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah has begun a comparative project on the topic. Provo is a city in and the County seat [1] Utah English consists of the following features:

Pacific Northwest English

Main article: Pacific Northwest English

Pacific Northwest English is fairly similar to other areas of the West. Pacific Northwest English is a Dialect of the English language spoken in the Pacific Northwest. It possesses features shared in common with California English and West/Central Canadian English, depending on the region. The accent of Southern Oregon shares several features of California English (such as the California vowel shift) , and Northern Washington has some features similar to West/Central Canadian English such as the Canadian Shift. California English is a Dialect of the English language spoken in the U The Canadian Shift is a linguistic Vowel shift found in Canadian English.

Canadian English

Main article: Canadian English

Canadian English (CanE) is the variety of North American English used in Canada. Canadian English ( CanE, en-CA) is the variety of English used in Canada. The phonetics and phonology for most of Canada are very similar to that of the Western and Midlands regions of the United States. Canada has relatively less dialectal diversity compared to the United States and other English speaking countries.

West/Central Canadian English

Main article: West/Central Canadian English

The most common variety of Canadian English the one spoken in West/Central Canada. The West / Central Canadian English dialect is one of the largest and most homogeneous dialect areas in North America, ranging from Overall, the pronunciation of English in most of Canada, and especially in Central and Western Canada, is very similar to the pronunciation of English found in the Western United States; Canadian raising and the Canadian vowel shift are the most distinctive features. The Western United States &mdashcommonly referred to as the American West or simply the West &mdashtraditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost

Canadian raising

Main article: Canadian raising

A number of Canadians have a distinct feature called "Canadian raising" (Chambers 1973). Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which Diphthongs are "raised" This feature means that the nucleus of the diphthongs /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ are "raised" before voiceless consonants. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with In most varieties of American English pairs such as pouter/powder and rider/writer are pronounced exactly the same. In Canadian English, however, when a diphthong is followed by the voiceless consonants such as /p/ /t/ /k/ /f/ and some others, the starting point of the diphthong raises from an open central vowel to a mid one.

For example, ride is pronounced [raɪd] but with write, because the diphthong is followed by a /t/, the diphthong raises and the word is pronounced [rəɪt]. Most other speakers of American English do not possess these allophonic sounds ([əʊ] and [əɪ]) but the pronunciation is still marked. In Phonetics, an allophone is one of several similar speech sounds ( Phones that belong to the same Phoneme. The Canadian pronunciation of "about the house" may sound like "a boat the hoas" to speakers of dialects without the raising, and in many cases is misheard (or deliberately exaggerated) as "aboot the hoos". Some stand-up and situation comedians, as well as television shows (such as South Park) exaggerate the pronunciation to *"aboot the hoos" for comic effect. South Park is an animated American television comedy series created and written by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for Comedy Central True Canadian raising affects both /aʊ/ and /aɪ/, but a related phenomenon, of much wider distribution throughout the United States, affects only /aɪ/. So, whereas the General American pronunciations of rider and writer are identical ([ɹaɪɾɚ]), those whose dialects include either the full or restricted Canadian raising will pronounce them as [ɹaɪɾɚ] and [ɹəɪɾɚ], respectively. Canadian raising is quite strong in most of Ontario and the Maritimes as well as in the Prairies. It is receding in British Columbia, and many of these speakers do not raise /aɪ/ before voiceless consonants. Younger speakers in the Lower Mainland do not even raise /aʊ/.

Canadian Vowel Shift

Main article: Canadian Shift

The cot-caught merger creates a hole in the short vowel sub-system[2] and triggers a sound change known as the Canadian Shift, mainly found in Ontario, English-speaking Montreal and further west, and led by Ontarians and women; it involves the front lax vowels /æ, ɛ, ɪ/. The Canadian Shift is a linguistic Vowel shift found in Canadian English. The Canadian Shift is a linguistic Vowel shift found in Canadian English. It is also found scattered throughout the Western United States.

The vowels in the words cot and caught merge to [ɒ]. The /æ/ of bat is retracted to [a] (except before nasals). Indeed, /æ/ is lower in this variety than almost all other North American dialects;[3] the retraction of /æ/ was independently observed in Vancouver[4] and is more advanced for Ontarians and women than for people from the Prairies or Atlantic Canada and men. Vancouver (vænˈkuːvɚ is a coastal The Canadian Prairies is a region in western Canada, which may correspond to several different definitions natural or political Atlantic Canada, also known as the Atlantic provinces, is the region of Canada comprising four provinces located on the Atlantic coast: [5] Then, /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ are lowered in the direction of [æ] and [ɛ] and/or retracted; studies actually disagree on the trajectory of the shift. [6]

References

See also

Phonology North American English regional phonology In many ways compared to English English, North American English is conservative in its Phonology. Canadian English ( CanE, en-CA) is the variety of English used in Canada. North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken English by the inhabitants of various parts of North America.
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