Dialects of North America

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Dialects of North America

• Based on data from the TELSUR Project, University
  of Pennsylvania

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TELSUR Project, publishing The Atlas of North
American English
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• Dialect Regions North Central, The Inland North,
  The Northeast, The Midland (North and South), The
  South, The West

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Three 20th/21st Century Shifts in American English

• Northern Cities Shift (Inland North)
• Southern Shift (South)
• Low Back Merger (West)

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North Central monophthongizationboat

• Standard American
• bout
• North Central
• bot

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Northern Cities Shift (1)man

• æ ? e ? e?
• mæn
• men
• me?n
• NB This shift (æ before m or n) has happened in
  various regions, not just the Inland North

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Northern Cities Shift (1)Matt

• æ ? e ? e?
• mæt
• met
• me?t
• NB This shift (æ before any consonant) happened
  only in the Inland North

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Northern Cities Shift (2)rock

• ? ? æ
• r?k
• ræk

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Northern Cities Shift (3)bus

• ? ? ?
• b?s
• b?s

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Mergers/Distinctions

• low back merger 50 of country
• hock/hawk
• don/dawn
• cot/caught
• witch/which (2/3 ? very few)
• NB mergers are one way (merger area expands)

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ju ? iu ? u Merger
dew dju ? diu ? du news nju ? niu ?
nu Jew jju ? jiu ? ju NB This merger happens
after d, g, j, c, š, l, n, r,
s, t, w, j, z It does not happen
after b, k, f, h, m, p, v
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Incomplete ju ? iu ? u Merger
I diu I du diu on the grass
13
The du on the grass
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NYC vs. Philly

• cab ham flag
• NYC ki?b hi?m fli?g
• Philly kæb hæm flæg
• Philly 3 extraordinary words
• mad mi?d, bad bi?d, glad gli?d
• Compare sæd, dæd, fæd

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Eastern New England

• ?r ? ? p?k or æ pæk
• ? ? o? Ro?b?tbo?b (to his friends)
• r-dropping ov?
• intrusive r ?idi?r

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NYC vs. Boston

• Boston r-dropping hæd
• NYC no r-dropping h?rd
• old-fashioned NYC accent (Archie Bunker, Bugs
  Bunny)
• (bird) b?rd ? boid
• and vice-versa
• (toilet) toil?t ? t?rl?t

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NYC speech

• Raising of ? to ?? or ?? talk t??k,
  t??k
• Raising of æ to e? or i? mad me?d,
  mi?d
• Lack of merger of front vowels before r
• marry mæri
• merry m?ri
• Mary meri

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The South

• Southern Shift
• monophthongization of ?i to ? or æ
• hide h?id ? h?d, hæd (less in Dallas
  Houston)
• lowering of ei to ?i
• made meid ? m?id (in some areas)
• raising and diphthongization of æ to e?
• bad bæd ? be?d
• tensing of ? to o or ou
• on ?n ? on, oun

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Southern Shift (contd)

• fronting and diphthongization of u to iu
• food fud ? fiud
• raising of ? to o before r
• bar b?r ? bor (in some areas)
• diphthongization of i to ?i or i
• feed fid ? f?id, fid

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The West

• Almost universal low back merger
• of cot/caught, don/dawn, hock/hawk
• to ?
• (applies to about 50 of the country - see map
  next slide)

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Low Back Merger (purple dots)
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Canadian (and Minnesotan) Raising

• ?i ? ?i, ?u ? ?u before p, t, k,
  f, s, ?
• house h?us ? h?us
• knife n?if ? n?if
• (sometimes misheard by southern listeners as a
  monophthong)
• ut ?n abut
• Also found in Minnesota, some Midland areas,
  Marthas Vineyard, South Atlantic US

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Canadian Rounding

• Sorry, I left my oranges and chocolate in the
  forest.
• For more on raising and rounding (with sound
  files), see
• http//www.yorku.ca/twainweb/troberts/raising.html