Northern American English

For the generalized variety of English in North America, see North American English.

Northern American English or Northern U.S. English (also, Northern AmE) is a class of historically related American English dialects, spoken by predominantly white Americans,^[1] in much of the Great Lakes region and some of the Northeast region within the United States. The North as a super-dialect region is best documented by the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE) in the greater metropolitan areas of Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, Western and Central New York, Northwestern New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Northern Indiana, Northern Illinois, Northeastern Nebraska, and Eastern South Dakota, plus among certain demographics or areas within Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, and New York's Hudson Valley.^[2] The ANAE describes that the North, at its core, consists of the Inland Northern dialect (in the eastern Great Lakes region) and Southwestern New England dialect.^[3]

Northern American English
Northern U.S. English
Region	Northern United States
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo–Frisian Anglic English North American English American English Northern American English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	nort3316
21st-century research unites the whole grey-brown region of this map as a Northern U.S. super-dialect region. Notice that the Northwest and much of New England are not included.
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

The ANAE argues that, though geographically located in the Northern United States, current-day Northwestern U.S.,^{[nb 1]} New York City, Eastern New England and some Upper Midwestern accents do not fit under the Northern U.S. accent spectrum, or only marginally. Each has one or more phonological characteristics that disqualifies them. Meanwhile, Central and Western Canadian English is presumed to have originated but branched off from Northern U.S. English within the past two or three centuries.^[4][5]

Northern U.S. accents are often distinguished from Southern U.S. accents by retaining /aɪ/ as a diphthong (unlike the South, which commonly monophthongizes this sound) and from Western U.S. and Canadian accents by mostly preserving the distinction between the /ɑ/ and /ɔ/ sounds in words like cot versus caught (except in the transitional dialect region of the Upper Midwest and variably in other Northern areas, especially among younger Americans).^[6]

In the very early 20th century, a generic Northern U.S. accent was the basis for the term "General American", though regional accents have now since developed in some areas of the North.^[7][8]

Phonology

The ANAE defines a Northern linguistic super-region of American English dialects as follows: /oʊ/ (as in goat, toe, show, etc.) and traditionally /u/ (as in goose, too, shoe, etc.) pronounced conservatively far in the back of the mouth, "r-fulness" (or rhoticity), and a common lack of the cot–caught merger, meaning that words like pond and pawned, or bot and bought, are not pronounced identically (with the second of this class of words being pronounced usually farther back in the mouth and with more rounded lips).

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift is a series of sound changes in the North that covers a large area from western New York State west through the U.S. Great Lakes region and areas of the Upper Midwest.^[9]

A phenomenon known as "Canadian raising"—the lifting of the body of the tongue in both /aɪ/ and /aʊ/ before voiceless consonants (therefore, in words, like height, slight, advice, clout, ouch, lout, etc., but not in words like hide, slide, advise, cloud, gouge, loud, etc.)—is common in eastern New England, for example in Boston (and the traditional accent of Martha's Vineyard), as well as in the Upper Midwest. Raising of just /aɪ/ is found throughout the entire North, including in the Great Lakes area,^[10] and elsewhere in New England.^[11] This second, more focused type of raising also appears to be spreading beyond the North, as well as to California English, Philadelphia English, and Western American English dialects overall.^[12]

Phonemic distribution

The following pronunciation variants used more strongly in this region than anywhere else in the country:^[13]

• apricot as /ˈæprəkɑt/ (rather than /ˈeɪprəkɑt/)
• been as /bɛn/ (a homophone with the name Ben)
• crayon as the single-syllable /kræn/ (phonetically [kɹɛən])
• pajamas as /pəˈdʒæməz/ (in addition to /pəˈdʒɑməz/ more widely common around Boston, New York City, and the South)
• handkerchief rhyming with beef
• poem as the single-syllable /poʊm/, rhyming with dome
• root and roof using the FOOT vowel [ʊ] ^ⓘ as a somewhat common alternative to the typical GOOSE vowel [u] ^ⓘ[14]

Declining characteristics

The North has historically been one of the last U.S. regions to maintain the distinction between /ɔr/ and /oʊr/, in which words like horse and hoarse or war and wore, for example, are not homophones;^[15] however, the merger of the two has quickly spread throughout the North. The KIT vowel [ɪ] ^ⓘ was once a common Northern U.S. sound in the word creek, but this has largely given way to the FLEECE vowel [i] ^ⓘ, as in the rest of the country.^[16]

Vocabulary

The North is reported as uniquely or most strongly using certain words:^[13]

• babushka (a woman's headscarf, tied under the chin)^[17]
• bare-naked (synonym for naked)^[18]
• crayfish (a freshwater lobster-like crustacean)
• crust (the end of a bread loaf)
• diagonal or kitty-corner (situated slanted across a street or intersection)
• doing cookies (rare synonym, scattered throughout the North, for doing doughnuts)
• frosting (synonym for icing)
• futz or futz around (/fʌts/; to fool around or waste time)^[19]
• garbage (synonym for trash)^[20]
• on the fritz (out of order, or into a state of disrepair)^[21]
• pit (the seed or stone of a fruit)^[22]
• you guys (the usual plural form of you)
• woodchuck (synonym for groundhog)

Northeastern American English

 

Northeastern American English occurs in the red areas, particularly along the Atlantic coast.

A Northeastern Corridor of the United States follows the Atlantic coast, comprising all the dialects of New England, Greater New York City, and Greater Philadelphia (including adjacent areas of New Jersey), sometimes even classified as extending to Greater Baltimore, Washington D.C., and New York's Hudson Valley. This large region, despite being home to numerous different dialects and accents, constitutes a huge area unified in certain linguistic respects, including particular notable vocabulary and phonemic incidence (that is, basic units of sound that can distinguish certain words).

Phonemic distribution

These phonemic variants in certain words are particularly correlated with the American Northeast (with the more common variants nationwide given in parentheses):^[13]

• cauliflower with the "i" pronounced with the FLEECE vowel /i/ (in addition to the KIT vowel /ɪ/)
• centaur rhyming with four (in addition to the variant rhyming with far)
• miracle as /ˈmɛrəkəl/ or /ˈmirəkəl/ (in addition to /ˈmɪrəkəl/)
• route rhyming with shoot (in addition to shout)
• syrup as /ˈsirəp/ or /ˈsɪrəp/ (in addition to /ˈsɜrəp/)
• tour and tournament with /tɔr/ (like tore)
• vase as /veɪz/ or /vɑz/ (rhyming with stays or spas, in addition to the more General American /veɪs/, rhyming with space)

The Northeast tends to retain a contrastive /ɔ/ vowel (in words like all, caught, flaw, loss, thought, etc.): specifically, this is realized as [ɒ~ɔə]. Northern New England and many younger speakers do not retain this vowel, however.

Vocabulary

Terms common or even usual to the whole Northeast include:^[13]

• brook (synonym for stream)^[23]
• bureau (synonym for chest of drawers or dresser)
• cellar (synonym for basement)
• cruller (a twisted, often stick-like doughnut)
• goose pimples (synonym for goose bumps),
• elastic, hair elastic, or hair thing (synonyms for hair tie)
• papering or TP'ing (synonym for toilet papering)
• rotary (synonym for traffic circle)
• sneakers (any athletic shoes)
• soda (any sweet, carbonated soft drink)
• stoop (small outdoor staircase to a building's front door, particularly in the NYC area)
• sunshower (a sunny rainshower)
• tractor trailer (a semi-trailer truck)

Inland Northern American English

 

Inland North American English appears in all these states, mostly in the areas along the Great Lakes.

Main article: Inland Northern American English

The recent Northern cities vowel shift, beginning only in the twentieth century, now affects much of the North away from the Atlantic coast, occurring specifically at its geographic center: the Great Lakes region. It is therefore a defining feature of the Inland North dialect (most notably spoken in Chicago, Detroit, and western New York State). The vowel shift's generating conditions are also present in some Western New England English;^[24] otherwise, however, this vowel shift is not occurring in the Northeastern United States.

Miscellaneous Northern American English

Main articles: Inland Northern American English, North-Central American English, and Pacific Northwest English

North-Central American or Upper Midwestern English, based around Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and North Dakota, may show some elements of the Northern cities vowel shift and the ANAE classifies it as a transitional dialect between the Inland North, Canada, and the West. Many Upper Midwesterners have a full cot-caught merger, however, which disqualifies this dialect from the ANAE's traditional definition for a "Northern" dialect region in the United States.

Northwestern American English similarly does not qualify under the ANAE definition, instead falling broadly under Western American English, not Northern. Also a transitional dialect, its speakers share major commonalities with Californians and Canadians.

See also

• New England English
• Upper Midwest American English

Notes

1. It is arguable whether or not the Pacific Northwest dialect region falls under the Northern super-dialect region. In American linguistics, "North" typically only refers to the "traditional North": the Northeastern and North Central States, while excluding the Northwestern States.

References

1. Purnell, Thomas; Eric Raimy; and Joseph Salmons (eds.) (2013). Wisconsin talk: Linguistic diversity in the Badger State. University of Wisconsin Press. p. 109.
2. Labov, William; Sharon Ash, Charles Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 134.
3. Labov, William; Sharon Ash, Charles Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 148.
4. "Canadian English". Brinton, Laurel J., and Fee, Marjery, ed. (2005). Ch. 12. in The Cambridge history of the English language. Volume VI: English in North America., Algeo, John, ed., pp. 422–440. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992. ISBN 0-521-26479-0, 978-0-521-26479-2. On p. 422: "It is now generally agreed that Canadian English originated as a variant of northern American English (the speech of New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania)".
5. "Canadian English". McArthur, T., ed. (2005). Concise Oxford companion to the English language, pp. 96–102. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-280637-8. On p. 97: "Because CanE and AmE are so alike, some scholars have argued that in linguistic terms Canadian English is no more or less than a variety of (Northern) American English".
6. Labov, William; Sharon Ash, Charles Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 133.
7. Labov et al., p. 190.
8. "Talking the Tawk", The New Yorker
9. McCarthy, Natalie (2004). THE NORTHERN CITIES SHIFT AND LOCAL IDENTITY IN A SUBURBAN CLEVELAND GROUP (PDF). p. 7.
10. Schneider (2008:81)
11. Schneider (2008:389)
12. A Handbook of Varieties of English, Bernd Kortmann & Edgar W. Schneider, Walter de Gruyter, 2004, p. 359.
13. Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003. The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.
14. Schneider (2008:80)
15. Schneider (2008:81)
16. Schneider (2008:80)
17. "Babushka". Dictionary of American Regional English. 2017.
18. "Bare-naked". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2017. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
19. "Futz". Dictionary of American Regional English. 2017.
20. Grive, Jack; Asnaghi Costanza (2013). "A lexical dialect survey of American English using site-restricted web searches". ADS Annual Meeting, Boston. Ashton University and University of Leuven.
21. "On the fritz". Dictionary of American Regional English. 2017.
22. "Pit". Word Reference. Word Reference. 2017.
23. "Brook" and "Runs". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. 2017. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
24. Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (1997). "Dialects of the United States." A National Map of The Regional Dialects of American English. University of Pennsylvania.

Further reading

• Schneider, Edgar (2008). Varieties of English: The Americas and the Caribbean. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-110-20840-5.