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North American English

Set of varieties of English language

Field	Value
name	North American English
altname	North American English
nativename	English
states	United States, Canada
region	Northern America
ethnicity	Northern Americans (Americans, Canadians)
dialects	American English, Canadian English and their subdivisions
familycolor	Indo-European
fam2	Germanic
fam3	West Germanic
fam4	North Sea Germanic
fam5	Anglo-Frisian
fam6	Anglic
fam7	English
ancestor	Proto-Indo-European
ancestor2	Proto-Germanic
ancestor3	Proto-West Germanic
ancestor4	Proto-English
ancestor5	Old English
ancestor6	Middle English
ancestor7	Early Modern English
ancestor8	Modern English
script	Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille
isoexception	dialect
glotto	nort3314
glottorefname	North American English
ietf	en-021

Unified English Braille

North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of U.S. English and Canadian English, linguists often group the two together. Canadian English generally is tolerant of both British and American spellings; however, certain words always take British spellings (e.g., cheque rather than check) and others American spellings (e.g., tire rather than tyre).

Dialects of English spoken by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution (1775–1783) have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. 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 those terms as distinct Americanisms, they are just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. 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. In North America, different English dialects of immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland, and other regions of the British Isles mixed together in the 17th and 18th centuries. These were developed, built upon, and blended together as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, developed new dialects in new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged with and assimilated to the greater American dialect mixture that solidified by the mid-18th century.

Dialects

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American English

Main article: American English

General American

Ethnic American English

African-American English
- African-American Vernacular English
American Indian English
Cajun English
Chicano English
Miami Latino English
New York Latino English
Pennsylvania Dutch English
Yeshiva English

Regional American English

Midland American English
New York City English
Northern American English
- Inland Northern American ("Great Lakes") English
- New England English
  - Eastern New England English
    - Boston English
    - Maine English
  - Western New England English
- North-Central American ("Upper Midwest") English
Philadelphia English
- Baltimore English
Southern American English
- Appalachian English
- High Tider English
- New Orleans English
- Older Southern American English
- Texan English
Western American English
- California English
- Pacific Northwest English
Western Pennsylvania ("Pittsburgh") English

Canadian English

Main article: Canadian English

Aboriginal Canadian English
Atlantic Canadian English
- Lunenburg English
- Newfoundland English
Ottawa Valley English
Pacific Northwest English
Quebec English
Standard Canadian English

Table of accents

Below, several major North American English accents are defined by particular characteristics:

Accent name		Most populous city	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong
fronting	Cot–caught merger	Pin–pen merger	/æ/ raising system	Labov	Ash	Boberg	2006	p=146}}	Accent name	Most populous city	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong
fronting	Cot–caught merger	Pin–pen merger	/æ/ raising system	Other defining criteria
African-American								pre-nasal	African-American Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-fronting
Atlantic Canadian	Halifax							various	Canadian raising
General American								pre-nasal
Inland Northern U.S.	Chicago							general	Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Midland U.S.	Indianapolis							pre-nasal
New Orleans	New Orleans							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Non-rhoticity / Th-stopping / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable horse-hoarse distinction / Canadian Raising / L-vocalization
New York City	New York City							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-stopping / Variable Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
North-Central (Upper Midwestern) U.S.	Fargo							pre-nasal & pre-velar
Northeastern New England	Boston							pre-nasal	Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
Philadelphia	Philadelphia							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / L-vocalization / Northeastern /-ɒr-/ / Merry–Murray merger
Rhode Island	Providence							pre-nasal	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
Southern U.S.	San Antonio							pre-nasal	Southern drawl / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable wine-whine distinction
Standard Canadian	Toronto							pre-nasal & pre-velar	Canadian raising / Low Back Merger Shift
Western U.S.	Los Angeles							pre-nasal	Low Back Merger Shift
Western Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh							pre-nasal	glide weakening / L-vocalization

Phonology

Main article: General American English

A majority of North American English (for example, in contrast to British English) includes phonological features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (full pronunciation of all sounds), conditioned T-glottalization (with satin pronounced , not ), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as ), L-velarization (with filling pronounced , not ), as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before (so that, Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising of pre-voiceless (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride), the weak vowel merger (with affected and effected often pronounced the same), at least one of the vowel mergers (the – merger is completed among virtually all Americans and the – merger among nearly half, while both are completed among virtually all Canadians), and yod-dropping (with tuesday pronounced , not ). The last item is more advanced in American English than Canadian English.

References

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). .
{{citation |author-link=William Labov

References

. (2 November 2016). ["Unified English Braille (UEB)"](http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb.html).
Chambers, J.K.. (1998). "The Canadian Oxford Dictionary".
{{Harvcoltxt. Labov. Ash. Boberg. 2006
Trudgill, Peter & Jean Hannah. (2002). ''International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English'', 4th. London: Arnold. {{ISBN. 0-340-80834-9.
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.
Patti Tasko. (2006). ''The Canadian Press Stylebook: A Guide for Writers and Editors,'' 14th. Toronto: The Canadian Press. {{ISBN. 0-920009-38-7, p. 312.
M.H. Scargill. (1957). "Sources of Canadian English", ''The Journal of English and Germanic Philology,'' 56.4, pp. 610–614.
John Woitkowitz. (2012). "Arctic Sovereignty and the Cold War: Asymmetry, Interdependence, and Ambiguity".
Longmore, Paul K. (2007). "'Good English without Idiom or Tone': The Colonial Origins of American Speech". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. MIT. 37 (4): 513–542.
{{Harvcoltxt. Labov. Ash. Boberg. 2006
{{Harvcoltxt. Labov. Ash. Boberg. 2006

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