Research Paper
North American English Dialects
NORTH AMERICAN ACCENTS OF ENGLISH
Major dialect groups:
General American: Central Eastern
Midland Northern Western
Northeastern:
New York City New England
Southern:
Inland Lower
Canadian:
General Canadian Maritime Newfoundland
G4 Proseminar
Dialectology
http://www.ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/
North American English Dialects
THE SOUTH
• the historical South consists of two main dialectal areas:
– Coastal or Lower Southern (southern east coast, Gulf coast into Texas)
• formed in the time of plantation and ranch agriculture • for close to 300 years enslaved West Africans provide the main labor force
– African American English (also Black English or Ebonics) is based on southern accents, its influence on white southerners’ speech is debated
– Inland/Upper Southern (mountainous back country)
• largely made up of small towns with farming often just above subsistence level
• lots of different dialectal subdivisions depending on authors (Plains Southern, Gulf Southern, Mid Southern, Coastal Southern) overlapping with Midwest GA • some areas in the south have rather different accents:
– – – – Gullah: African Creole around Charleston French-influenced Cajun English around New Orleans Spanish influence in Texas (“Spanglish” also in California, Florida, New York) Southern Florida settled very late by English speakers, thus no southern accent, but GA and lots of Spanish influence
G4 Proseminar
Dialectology
http://www.ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/
North American English Dialects
SOUTHERN ACCENTS - COMMON FEATURES I
• “Southern Drawl”:
– “easy to recognize, but difficult to describe satisfyingly” (Wells) – relatively greater length in stressed accented syllables as compared to unstressed – lots of diphthongizations
• lax vowels
– Southern Breaking: strong Breaking effect for / æ/ esp. in stressed monosyllables: “hill” as [hi ] or even [hij ], “bed” [bej d], “bad” [bæ j d]
• if
NORTH AMERICAN ACCENTS OF ENGLISH
Major dialect groups:
General American: Central Eastern
Midland Northern Western
Northeastern:
New York City New England
Southern:
Inland Lower
Canadian:
General Canadian Maritime Newfoundland
G4 Proseminar
Dialectology
http://www.ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/
North American English Dialects
THE SOUTH
• the historical South consists of two main dialectal areas:
– Coastal or Lower Southern (southern east coast, Gulf coast into Texas)
• formed in the time of plantation and ranch agriculture • for close to 300 years enslaved West Africans provide the main labor force
– African American English (also Black English or Ebonics) is based on southern accents, its influence on white southerners’ speech is debated
– Inland/Upper Southern (mountainous back country)
• largely made up of small towns with farming often just above subsistence level
• lots of different dialectal subdivisions depending on authors (Plains Southern, Gulf Southern, Mid Southern, Coastal Southern) overlapping with Midwest GA • some areas in the south have rather different accents:
– – – – Gullah: African Creole around Charleston French-influenced Cajun English around New Orleans Spanish influence in Texas (“Spanglish” also in California, Florida, New York) Southern Florida settled very late by English speakers, thus no southern accent, but GA and lots of Spanish influence
G4 Proseminar
Dialectology
http://www.ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/~jilka/
North American English Dialects
SOUTHERN ACCENTS - COMMON FEATURES I
• “Southern Drawl”:
– “easy to recognize, but difficult to describe satisfyingly” (Wells) – relatively greater length in stressed accented syllables as compared to unstressed – lots of diphthongizations
• lax vowels
– Southern Breaking: strong Breaking effect for / æ/ esp. in stressed monosyllables: “hill” as [hi ] or even [hij ], “bed” [bej d], “bad” [bæ j d]
• if