Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Varieties
While written American English is (in
general) standardized across the country,
there are several recognizable variations in
the spoken language, both in
pronunciation and in vernacular
vocabulary. The regional sounds of
present-day American English are
reportedly engaged in a complex
phenomenon of "both convergence and
divergence": some accents are
homogenizing and levelling, while others
are diversifying and deviating further away
from one another.[14] In 2010, William
Labov summarized the current state of
regional American accents as follows:[15]
CENTRALPhilade
Rhod
WESTERN
INLAND NORTHERN
MIDLAN
NYC
MID
Islan WPA
ATLAN
Appalachia
Chesap
&
SOUTHE
California New
Mexico &
Baltim
Texas Outer B
New
Orleans
The map above shows the major regional
dialects of American English (in all caps)
plus smaller and more local dialects, as
demarcated primarily by Labov et al.'s The
Atlas of North American English,[16] as well
as the related Telsur Project's regional
maps . Any region may also contain
speakers of a "General American" accent
that resists the marked features of their
region. Furthermore, this map does not
account for speakers of ethnic or cultural
varieties (such as African-American
English, Chicano English, Cajun English,
etc.). All regional American English, unless
specifically stated otherwise, can be
assumed to be rhotic, with the father–
bother merger, Mary–marry–merry merger,
and pre-nasal "short a" tensing.[note 1]
Western
North Central
Inland Northern
Midland
WPA
Southern
Mid-Atlantic
NYC
ENE
New York
New York City English Yes No No[31] No No No
City
Southern U.S. English San Antonio Yes Yes Yes No Mixed Yes
South
Most older Southern speech along the
Eastern seaboard was non-rhotic, though,
today, all local Southern dialects are
strongly rhotic, defined most recognizably
by the /aɪ/ vowel losing its gliding quality
and approaching [aː~äː], the initiating
event for the Southern Vowel Shift, which
includes the famous "Southern drawl" that
makes short front vowels into gliding
vowels.[24]
Midland
West
Other varieties
Phonology
Compared with English as spoken in
England, North American English[34] is
more homogeneous, and any North
American accent that exhibits a majority
of the most common phonological
features is known as "General American."
This section mostly refers to such
widespread or mainstream pronunciation
features that characterize American
English.
Environment Dialect
General
New Canadian, S
American,
York Eastern Northwestern
Consonant Syllable Example Baltimore & Midland
City & New U.S., & Upper A
after /æ/ type words Philadelphia U.S., &
New England Midwestern A
Western
Orleans U.S. Ve
U.S.
arable, arid,
baron,
barrel,
barren,
carry, carrot,
chariot,
charity,
clarity, Gary,
Harry, Larry,
marionette,
maritime,
marry,
marriage,
/r/ Open paragon, [æ] [æ~ɛ(ə)] [ɛ(ə)]
parent,
parish,
parody,
parrot, etc.;
this feature
is
determined
by the
presence or
absence of
the Mary-
marry-merry
merger
/m/, /n/ Closed Alexander, [eə] [æ~eə] [æ~ɛə] [ɛ
answer, ant,
band, can
(the noun),
can't, clam,
dance, ham,
hamburger,
hand, handy,
man, manly,
pants, plan,
planning,
ranch, sand,
slant, tan,
understand,
etc.; in
Philadelphia,
began, ran,
and swam
alone remain
lax
agriculture, [æ] [æ
bag, crag,
drag, flag,
Closed [eə]
magnet, rag,
sag, tag,
tagging, etc.
/ɡ/ [æ] [æ~e]
agate,
agony,
dragon,
Open [æ]
magazine,
ragamuffin,
etc.
Footnotes
1. Nearly all American English speakers pronounce /æŋ/ somewhere between [æŋ] and [eɪŋ], though
speakers specifically favor [eɪŋ].
2. The NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore dialects' rule of tensing /æ/ in certain closed-syllable environ
applies to words inflectionally derived from those closed-syllable /æ/ environments that now have an
æ/. For example, in addition to pass being tense (according to the general rule), so are its open-syllab
passing and passer-by, but not passive.
Vocabulary
The process of coining new lexical items
started as soon as English-speaking
British-American colonists began
borrowing names for unfamiliar flora,
fauna, and topography from the Native
American languages.[55] Examples of such
names are opossum, raccoon, squash,
moose (from Algonquian),[55] wigwam, and
moccasin. The languages of the other
colonizing nations also added to the
American vocabulary; for instance, cookie,
from Dutch; kindergarten from German,[56]
levee from French; and rodeo from
Spanish.[57][58][59][60] Landscape features
are often loanwords from French or
Spanish, and the word corn, used in
England to refer to wheat (or any cereal),
came to denote the maize plant, the most
important crop in the U.S.
Most Mexican Spanish contributions came
after the War of 1812, with the opening of
the West, like ranch (now a common house
style). New forms of dwelling created new
terms (lot, waterfront) and types of homes
like log cabin, adobe in the 18th century;
apartment, shanty in the 19th century;
project, condominium, townhouse, mobile
home in the 20th century; and parts
thereof (driveway, breezeway, backyard).
Industry and material innovations from the
19th century onwards provide distinctive
new words, phrases, and idioms through
railroading (see further at rail terminology)
and transportation terminology, ranging
from types of roads (dirt roads, freeways)
to infrastructure (parking lot, overpass, rest
area), to automotive terminology often
now standard in English internationally.[61]
Already existing English words—such as
store, shop, lumber—underwent shifts in
meaning; others remained in the U.S. while
changing in Britain. From the world of
business and finance came new terms
(merger, downsize, bottom line), from
sports and gambling terminology came,
specific jargon aside, common everyday
American idioms, including many idioms
related to baseball. The names of some
American inventions remained largely
confined to North America (elevator,
gasoline) as did certain automotive terms
(truck, trunk).
See also
Dictionary of American Regional English
List of English words from indigenous
languages of the Americas
IPA chart for English
Regional accents of English speakers
Canadian English
North American English
International English
Received Pronunciation
Transatlantic accent
American and British English spelling
differences
Notes
1. Dialects are considered "rhotic" if they
pronounce the r sound in all historical
environments, without ever "dropping" this
sound. The father–bother merger is the
pronunciation of the unrounded /ɒ/ vowel
variant (as in cot, lot, bother, etc.) the same
as the /ɑː/ vowel (as in spa, haha, Ma),
causing words like con and Kahn and like
sob and Saab to sound identical, with the
vowel usually realized in the back or middle
of the mouth as [ɑ~ä]. Finally, most of the
U.S. participates in a continuous nasal
system of the "short a" vowel (in cat, trap,
bath, etc.), causing /æ/ to be pronounced
with the tongue raised and with a glide
quality (typically sounding like [ɛə])
particularly when before a nasal consonant;
thus, mad is [mæd], but man is more like
[mɛən].
References
1. English (United States) at Ethnologue
(18th ed., 2015)
2. "Unified English Braille (UEB)" . Braille
Authority of North America (BANA). 2
November 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
3. en-US is the language code for U.S.
English, as defined by ISO standards (see
ISO 639-1 and ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) and
Internet standards (see IETF language tag).
4. Plichta, Bartlomiej, and Dennis R.
Preston (2005). "The /ay/s Have It: The
Perception of /ay/ as a North-South
Stereotype in the United States English."
Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 37.1: 107-130.
5. Zentella, A. C. (1982). Spanish and
English in contact in the United States: The
Puerto Rican experience. Word, 33(1-2), 41.
6. Crystal, David (1997). English as a Global
Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 0-521-53032-6.
7. Crawford, James (1 February 2012).
"Language Legislation in the U.S.A" .
languagepolicy.net. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
8. "U.S. English Efforts Lead West Virginia
to Become 32nd State to Recognize English
as Official Language" . us-english.org.
Archived from the original on 1 April 2016.
Retrieved 13 May 2016.
9. "48 U.S. Code § 864 - Appeals, certiorari,
removal of causes, etc.; use of English
language | LII / Legal Information
Institute" . Law.cornell.edu. Retrieved
2015-06-01.
10. Labov, William (2010). The Politics of
Language Change: Dialect Divergence in
America . The University of Virginia Press.
Pre-publication draft. p. 55.
11. Labov, William (2012). Dialect diversity
in America: The politics of language
change. University of Virginia Press. pp. 1-
2.
12. Kretzchmar, William A. (2004),
Kortmann, Bernd; Schneider, Edgar W., eds.,
A Handbook of Varieties of English ,
Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter, p. 262,
ISBN 9783110175325
13. "Do You Speak American: What Lies
Ahead" . PBS. Retrieved 2007-08-15.
14. Labov, William. 2012. Dialect diversity in
America: the politics of language change.
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
15. Labov, William (2010). The Politics of
Language Change: Dialect Divergence in
America . The University of Virginia Press.
Pre-publication draft. p. 53-4.
16. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 148
17. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:141)
18. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:123–4)
19. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:135)
20. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:237)
21. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:271–2)
22. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:130)
23. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:133)
24. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:125)
25. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:127, 254)
26. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:124, 229)
27. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:124)
28. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:137, 141)
29. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:230)
30. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:231)
31. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:107)
32.
https://www.mprnews.org/story/2015/12/1
1/how-to-talk-minnesotan-accents-fargo
33. Cf. Trudgill, p.42.
34. North American English (Trudgill, p. 2)
is a collective term used for the varieties of
the English language that are spoken in
both the United States and Canada.
35. "What Is the Difference between
Theater and Theatre?" . Wisegeek.org.
2015-05-15. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
36. "Early Mainland Residues in Southern
Hiberno-English" . 20.
doi:10.2307/25484343 .
JSTOR 25484343 . Retrieved 29 May 2013.
37. A Handbook of Varieties of English,
Bernd Kortmann & Edgar W. Schneider,
Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 317.
38. Labov, p. 48.
39. Trudgill, pp. 46–47.
40. Wells, John C. (1982). Accents of
English. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. pp. 136–37, 203–6, 234, 245–47,
339–40, 400, 419, 443, 576. ISBN 0-521-
22919-7. “0-521-22919-7 (vol. 1), ISBN 0-
521-24224-X (vol. 2), ISBN 0-521-24225-8
(vol. 3)”
41. Labov et al. (2006), p. 171.
42. Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:61)
43. According to Merriam-Webster
Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.
44. "Want: meaning and definitions" .
Dictionary.infoplease.com. Retrieved
29 May 2013.
45. "want. The American Heritage®
Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth
Edition. 2000" . Bartleby.com. Archived
from the original on 2008-01-09. Retrieved
29 May 2013.
46. "Want – Definition and More from the
Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary" . M-
w.com. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
47. J. C. Wells. Accents of English . 3.
Cambridge University Press. pp. 481–482.
48. Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg,
Charles (2006). The Atlas of North
American English. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter. p. 182. ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
49. Trager, George L. (1940) One Phonemic
Entity Becomes Two: The Case of 'Short A'
in American Speech: 3rd ed. Vol. 15: Duke
UP. 256. Print.
50. Freuhwald, Josef T. (November 11,
2007). "The Spread of Raising: Opacity,
lexicalization, and diffusion" . University of
Pennsylvania. Retrieved September 21,
2016.
51. Grzegorz Dogil, Susanne Maria Reiterer,
and Walter de Gruyter, eds. (2009).
"general+american"+"velarized" Language
Talent and Brain Activity: Trends in Applied
Linguistics . Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
p. 299.
52. Wells (1982:490)
53. Wells, John C. (April 8, 1982). Accents
of English: Vowel 3: Beyond the British
Isles . Cambridge University Press. p. 515.
54. A Handbook of Varieties of English,
Bernd Kortmann & Edgar W. Schneider,
Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 319.
55. Principles of English etymology: The
native element - Walter William Skeat .
Books.google.com. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
56. "You Already Know Some German
Words!" . Retrieved 9 January 2017.
57. " "The history of Mexican folk foodways
of South Texas: Street vendors, o" by Mario
Montano" . Repository.upenn.edu. 1992-01-
01. Retrieved 2015-06-01.
58. What's in a Word?: Etymological Gossip
about Some Interesting English Words -
Robert M. Gorrell . Books.google.com.
Retrieved 2015-06-01.
59. The Pocket Gophers of the United
States - Vernon Bailey . Books.google.com.
Retrieved 2015-06-01.
60. The American Language: A Preliminary
Inquiry Into the Development of English ... -
H. L. Mencken . Books.google.com.
Retrieved 2015-06-01.
61. A few of these are now chiefly found, or
have been more productive, outside the
U.S.; for example, jump, "to drive past a
traffic signal"; block meaning "building", and
center, "central point in a town" or "main
area for a particular activity" (cf. Oxford
English Dictionary).
62. "The Maven's Word of the Day:
gesundheit" . Random House. Retrieved
29 May 2013.
63. Trudgill, Peter (2004). New-Dialect
Formation: The Inevitability of Colonial
Englishes.
64. "Definition of day noun from the Oxford
Advanced Learner's Dictionary" . Oup.com.
Retrieved 29 May 2013.
65. "Definition of sure adjective from the
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary" .
Oup.com. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
66. Trudgill, p. 69.
67. British author George Orwell (in English
People, 1947, cited in OED s.v. lose)
criticized an alleged "American tendency" to
"burden every verb with a preposition that
adds nothing to its meaning (win out, lose
out, face up to, etc.)".
68. Harper, Douglas. "fall" . Online
Etymology Dictionary.
69. A Handbook of Varieties of English,
Bernd Kortmann & Edgar W. Schneider,
Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 115.
70. "angry" . Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary. Archived from the original on 9
March 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
71. "intelligent" . Oxford Advanced
Learner's Dictionary. Archived from the
original on 9 March 2013. Retrieved
29 May 2013.
72. "Definition of ill adjective from the
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary" .
Oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com.
Retrieved 29 May 2013.
73. Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The
Harvard Dialect Survey . Cambridge, MA:
Harvard University Linguistics Department.
74. Katz, Joshua (2013). "Beyond 'Soda,
Pop, or Coke .' North Carolina State
University.
75. Algeo, John (2006). British or American
English?. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press. ISBN 0-521-37993-8.
76. Algeo, John. "The Effects of the
Revolution on Language", in A Companion
to the American Revolution. John Wiley &
Sons, 2008. p.599
77. Peters, Pam (2004). The Cambridge
Guide to English Usage. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-
62181-X, pp. 34 and 511.
78. "Punctuating Around Quotation Marks"
(blog). Style Guide of the American
Psychological Association. 2011. Retrieved
2015-03-21.
79. Jones, Daniel (1991). English
Pronouncing Dictionary. Cambridge
University Press. ISBN 9780521425865.
Bibliography
Labov, William; Sharon Ash; Charles
Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North
American English. Berlin: Mouton de
Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016746-8.
Further reading
Bailey, Richard W. (2012). Speaking
American: A History of English in the
United States 20th-21st century usage in
different cities
Bartlett, John R. (1848). Dictionary of
Americanisms: A Glossary of Words and
Phrases Usually Regarded As Peculiar to
the United States. New York: Bartlett and
Welford.
Garner, Bryan A. (2003). Garner's Modern
American Usage. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Mencken, H. L. (1977) [1921]. The
American Language: An Inquiry into the
Development of English in the United
States (4th ed.). New York: Knopf.
History of American English
Bailey, Richard W. (2004). "American
English: Its origins and history". In E.
Finegan & J. R. Rickford (Eds.),
Language in the USA: Themes for the
twenty-first century (pp. 3–17).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Finegan, Edward. (2006). "English in
North America". In R. Hogg & D. Denison
(Eds.), A history of the English language
(pp. 384–419). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
External links
Look up American English in Wiktionary,
the free dictionary.
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=American_English&oldid=823688037"