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Category Archives: American English
Belated Thoughts on Obama’s Accent
This post is four years late. I admit it. The president’s accent has already been scrutinized ad nauseum, and there have been political controversies about this very topic. But after watching a speech by Obama this morning, and finding his … Continue reading
R-lessness in the American South: RIP?
Whatever happened to non-rhotic Southern accents? For those of you joining us from the everyday world (one where “non-rhotic” isn’t a household word) a non-rhotic accent is one where the “r” is dropped at the end of words or syllables. … Continue reading
The Rise of Creaky Voice
Sometimes when I’m writing a post, I stumble upon something intriguing enough that it makes me change topic mid-stream. Today is one of those days. I was going to look at the differences between General American accents among younger vs. … Continue reading
Twangs vs. Drawls
I would like to discuss a pair of very unscientific words that describe accents or dialects of English: twang and drawl. Both words are associated with the accents of the American South; one often hears of the “Texas twang” or the … Continue reading
The Pin-Pen Merger
I used Ancestry.com for a few months, before it got a bit too expensive. One of the main family branches that I researched were (was?) the Kendricks, a family in Kentucky that has been in that state for several generations. … Continue reading
Posted in American English Tagged American Southern Accents, dialect maps, phonetics, pin-pen merger 34 Comments
“Ayuh”: America’s Oddest “Yes”
Growing up in Southern New England, I heard tell of a near-mythical dialect feature from Maine and other places further north: ayuh. This word is the informal version of “yes” in Maine, and, unusually for semi-archaic dialect words, it has … Continue reading
“Rod” or “Ride?” Glide Deletion in the American South
When my mother was a teenager, she spent a summer in Scotland. Since she was staying as a guest in a family’s home, she shared a telephone with the other residents. In jest, a Scottish friend of hers often answered … Continue reading
“Dude:” Thoughts on an American Word
I am skeptical about claims that American English is “colonizing” the other Englishes. But I will concede one point: the word dude is entirely our doing. Dude, in America, is a word that lies somewhere between British mate and bloke. … Continue reading
The Ebonics Factor: A Quick Addendum
In the previous post, I mentioned the divide between the accents of Detroit and neighboring Windsor, Ontario. There is a complicating factor, however, that I neglected to mention: African American Vernacular English (AAVE, or crudely, “Ebonics“).* AAVE, for those who don’t … Continue reading
Northern Cities Vowel Shift vs. Canadian Accents
As per our recent discussion of Canadian accents, I’d like to delve into a question I often hear: how different is Canadian English from American English? What’s remarkable about Canadian English is not that it’s different from American English, but … Continue reading