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Category Archives: American English
New York City: Accent of Champions!
I like to think of myself as good at accents. I say this in all humbleness. Objectively speaking, I’d say my Cockney, Manchester, and Dublin are quite nuanced for an American. I can even do the more obscure accents, like … Continue reading
The Cot-Caught Merger
One of the major distinctions in American English is something called the Cot-Caught Merger. This is exactly what it sounds like: some dialects merge the sounds in words like cot, lot and Tom with the vowel in caught, paw, and … Continue reading
Pahk Yuh Cah: Non-Rhotic in New England
A few years back, I was sitting in a restaurant in my hometown of Willimantic, Connecticut*. A few booths over, a late-middle-aged man was talking to a young woman paying at the counter. Here is my paraphrasing of the conversation: … Continue reading
Dialects and Population Density
Since posting Americans: Intolerant of Regional Dialects? a few days ago, I’ve received a flurry of comments and questions about why Americans are less “accent conscious” than the British. There are many reasons that we don’t recognize the differences between … Continue reading
Why There are Less New York Accents in Movies
I hate how the mainstream media discusses dialects and accents. Journalists routinely fudge basic linguistic terminology, misquote experts, and indulge in all kinds of classist and/or racist assumptions. Case in point is this article Academy Award filmmakers need to make … Continue reading
Is the Southern Accent Leaving the cities?
Immediately upon posting yesterday’s dissection of “y’all,” I came across a recent piece in North Carolina’s Cary News, titled Y’alls’ accent is fading. The article discusses the erosion of the traditional “Southern Accent” in urban areas. This passage sums it … Continue reading
The Remarkable History of “Y’all”
In contemporary New York City, it is common to hear local teenagers use the word “y’all.” A few decades ago, this word would have been confined to speakers of African American Vernacular English (AAVE), who brought the word with them … Continue reading
Posted in American English Tagged American Southern Accents, dialect maps, New York Accent, y'all 53 Comments
Rick Aschmann’s Dialect Map
I have been studying dialects for years, and I have never come across anything as remarkable as Rick Aschmann’s American Dialect Map. For serious linguists, Aschmann’s research might seem wildly unscientific and cavalier. But for a hardcore dialect nerd like … Continue reading
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The Top 10 American Accents done by non-Americans
USA Today ran a piece yesterday listing the top five American accents done by British actors. While I am unfamiliar with the number one actor on the list, Jamie Bamber, I’m glad to see that Hugh Laurie and Idris Elba … Continue reading
Will Twitter Affect Dialects of English?
Image: renjith krishnan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net A few weeks ago, AOL ran a timely article about the connection between Twitter and regional American dialects. The piece begins with some rather obvious points: that people in the American South tweet “y’all” more … Continue reading
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