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04 Dialects of American English - Part 1
Language in the United States (LIN 200)
Stony Brook University
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Dialects of
American English
--Part 1
Department of Linguistics Stony Brook University LIN 200 Language in the U.
Prepared by: Dr. Paola Cepeda
kids.britannica/students/assembly/view/
There are many dialects of American English.
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Northern English
Midland English
Southern English
This week, we’llstudy the following three dialects of American English:
Note: Even though North Central and Northern are separated on the map, we’ll considerthem both as simply “Northern English”
Next week, we’ll study the following three dialects of American English:
New York English New England English Western English
The North
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Phonological feature Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Affects short vowels as a system, that is, a change in how one vowel sounds affects all the vowels (domino effect).
Some examples:
- Ann sounds like Ian
- bit sounds like bet / but
- bet sounds like bat / but
- but sounds like bought
- busses sounds like bosses
- caught sounds like cot
- talk sounds like tuck
- cot sounds like cat
- block sounds like black
Compare this with the Southern (Vowel) Shift!
Phonological feature Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Additional example: THE “ON” LINE
The Atlas of North American English
Inside the limits of the line: on rhymes with Don and Ron
Outside the limits of the line: on rhymes with dawn and lawn
[ɑ̃n]
[ɔ̃n]
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The Midland
Midland (American) English
- The Midland United States is the area between the very-well defined Northern and Southern states of the country.
- Areas for Midland American English are still in revision by linguists. In this course, we will include cities like Oklahoma City, Omaha, Wichita, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh or Philadelphia.
Most salient linguistic features: Low back merger
Positive anymore
Need + participle
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Lexical feature
####### Positive anymore
Some examples:
- Boy, cars are sure expensive anymore!
- It’s real hard to find a good job anymore!
- I used to watch football, but anymore I watch baseball!
- Anymore John smokes
In these cases, anymore means ‘nowadays’
Grammatical feature
####### Need+ past participle
Some examples:
- The car needs washed.
- Our phones need repaired.
- So much needs said! Other less extended cases:
- The baby likes cuddled.
- The dog wants walked.
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The South
Southern (American) English
- Spoken throughout the Southern states of the country, in particular in the rural areas extending from North Carolina southward to central Florida, and eastward to Oklahoma and New Mexico.
- Sub-varieties of Southern English are Appalachian English and Texan English.
Most salient linguistic features: Southern Shift
Y’all
Multiple modals and negation
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Phonological feature
####### Pin-penmerger
Some words that sound the same:
- pin - pen [pɪ̃n]
- him - hem [hɪ̃m]
- tint - tent [tɪnt]̃
- lint - lent [lɪnt]̃
- hints - hence [hɪnts]̃
- Ben - bin [bɪn]̃ The Atlas of North American English /ɪ/ -/ɛ/ merge before nasals: [m], [n], [ŋ]
This person has a pin - pen merger in his dialect of English
Lexical feature
####### Y’all
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Grammatical features Double modals Multiple Negation
might could , might should , might would ...
A: Can you help me clean the room? B: I might could help you out.
He ain’tnever done no work to speak of.
I can’t hardly make it out.
Ain’tno chicken that can’t get out of no coop.
Compare with Shakespeare’s English: “ I cannot goeno further .”
Always keep in mind
We all speak a dialect
Our speech is always reflecting where we are from and what social group we belong to.
No dialect is better than other
All languages and dialects satisfy the cognitive and communicative needs of their speakers.
Some dialects are prestigious
Some languages or dialects are more socially prestigious than others. This doesn’t mean they’re better.
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04 Dialects of American English - Part 1
Course: Language in the United States (LIN 200)
University: Stony Brook University
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