North American English

North American English
Region Northern America (United States, Canada)
Dialects American English, Canadian English
Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 –
IETF en-021

North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada.[2] Because of their related histories and cultures[3] and the similarities between the pronunciation, vocabulary, and accent of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken dialects are often grouped together under a single category.[4][5] Due to historical and cultural factors, Canadian English and American English retain numerous distinctions from each other, with the differences being most noticeable in the two languages' written forms. Canadian spellings are primarily based on British usage as a result of Canada's longer-standing connections with the United Kingdom. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, with British spellings being favored in more formal settings and in Canadian print media.[6] Spellings in American English have been highly influenced by lexicographers like Noah Webster, who sought to create a standardized form of English that was independent of British English.[7] Despite these differences, the dialects of both Canada and the United States are similar. The United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots.[8]

Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States (for example, the terms diaper and gasoline are widely used instead of nappy and petrol). Although many English speakers from outside North America regard such terms as distinct Americanisms, they are often just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media.[9] The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially as spoken in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island where significant pockets of British culture still remain.

There are a considerable number of different accents within the regions of both the United States and Canada, originally deriving from the accents prevalent in different English, Scottish and Irish regions of the British Isles and corresponding to settlement patterns of these peoples in the colonies. These were developed and built upon as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, brought new accents and dialects to new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged and assimilated with the population. It is claimed that despite the centuries of linguistic changes there is still a resemblance between the English East Anglia accents which would have been used by early English settlers in New England (including the Pilgrims), and modern Northeastern United States accents.[10] Similarly, the accents of Newfoundland have some similarities to the accents of Scotland and Ireland.

Major dialects

This map shows English dialect regions of North America, as defined by Labov et al.'s The Atlas of North American English.[4] Undesignated regions (in white, orange, and green) represent areas with characteristics that are inconsistent from speaker to speaker, or poorly studied due to being in a state of transition. Some undesignated areas fall under the classification of "General American," an umbrella variety widely spoken throughout the United States, regardless of location.

The following numerical list, corresponding to the map, accounts only for major dialect areas of modern North America that can be identified by geographic location; therefore, it does not represent speakers of non-geographically based (ethnic, social, etc.) varieties, such as General American, African-American English, Chicano English, etc.

  1. Standard Canadian English
  2. Western American English
  3. North-Central American ("Upper Midwest") English
  4. Inland Northern American English
  5. Midland American English
  6. Southern American English
    a. Texan English
    b. Inland Southern American ("Appalachian") English
  7. Western Pennsylvania ("Pittsburgh") English
  8. Mid-Atlantic American ("Philadelphia" and "Baltimore") English
  9. New York City English
  10. Southwestern New England English
  11. Southeastern New England ("Rhode Island") English
  12. Northwestern New England ("Vermont") English
  13. Northeastern New England ("Boston" and "Maine") English
  14. Atlantic Canadian English

Below, twelve major North American dialects are defined by particular accent characteristics. (Unmentioned below, Standard Canadian English is differentiated from Western U.S. English primarily by the Canadian Vowel Shift):

DialectMost populous
urban center		/aʊ/ fronting/oʊ/ fronting/uː/ fronting/ɑːr/ fronting/æ/ split systemcot–caught mergerpin–pen merger
African Americanmaybenonononotransitionalyes [11]
Atlantic CanadianHalifaxsomewhatnoyesyesnoyesno
Inland Northern AmericanChicagonononovariablenonono
Mid-Atlantic AmericanPhiladelphiayesyesyesnoyesnono
Midland AmericanIndianapolisyesyesyesnonotransitionaltransitional
New York CityNew York Cityyes[12]no[12]no[12]noyesnono
Northern New EnglandBostonnononoyesnoyesno
North-Central AmericanMinneapolisnononononoyesno
Southern AmericanHoustonyesyesyesnonotransitionalyes[13]
Standard Canadian and
Western American		Los Angelesnonoyesnonoyesno
Western PennsylvaniaPittsburghyesyesyesnonoyestransitional

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Unified English Braille (UEB)". Braille Authority of North America (BANA). 2 November 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2017.
  2. ↑ Glossary of Grammatical and Rhetorical Terms
  3. ↑ Chambers, J.K. (1998). "Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making". The Canadian Oxford Dictionary (2nd ed.). p. xi.
  4. 1 2 Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006)
  5. ↑ Trudgill, Peter & Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th. London: Arnold. ISBN 0-340-80834-9 .
  6. ↑ Patti Tasko. (2004). The Canadian Press Stylebook: A Guide for Writers and Editors, 13th. Toronto: The Canadian Press. ISBN 0-920009-32-8, p. 308.
  7. ↑ "Noah Webster's Spelling Reform," (2011) Merriam-Webster Online
  8. ↑ M.H. Scargill. (1957). "Sources of Canadian English", The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 56.4, pp. 610-614.
  9. ↑ John Woitkowitz (2012). "Arctic Sovereignty and the Cold War: Asymmetry, Interdependence, and Ambiguity". Retrieved 2012-03-13.
  10. ↑ Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America, David Hackett Fischer, 1989.
  11. ↑ Labov (1972), p. 19.
  12. 1 2 3 Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 166
  13. ↑ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 137

Bibliography

  • Chambers, J.K. (1998). "Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making," in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., p. xi.
  • Clark, Joe (2008). Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours: How to Feel Good About Canadian English (e-book). ISBN 978-0-9809525-0-6.
  • Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (2006), The Atlas of North American English, Berlin: Mouton-de Gruyter, ISBN 3-11-016746-8
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