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Category Archives: American English
‘Aunt’ in a New England Accent
Like many New Englanders, I pronounce ‘aunt’ with a broad-a (i.e. the vowel in ‘father’). This is one of several ways the New England accent retains a linguistic connection to its semi-namesake (for most other Americans, ‘aunt’ and ‘ant’ are homophones). … Continue reading
American Ash
It’s time for us to talk about ash. ‘Ash’ refers not to the product of burnt charcoal, but rather the ‘short-a’ vowel symbolized by æ in the International Phonetic Alphabet. In both the British Received Pronunciation and General American dialects of English, this … Continue reading
‘Son’ in African American English
I don’t have time for a lengthy post today, so I’d like to briefly mention a dialect curiosity that has befuddled me for over a decade: the use of the word ‘son’ in African American Vernacular English. The word is … Continue reading
An Amish dialect?
I spent last week in southeastern Pennsylvania, near the heartland of the Amish, an isolated religious group which shuns modern dress and lifestyle. This resulted in the strange experience of spotting teenage girls in a local mall clad in clothing … Continue reading
A Lexical Beef: ‘Boyfriend’ and ‘Girlfriend’
I have been away from this blog for several days, due to a single reason (no pun intended): I got married yesterday. Since my single life has come to an end, I’d like to take a brief pause from discussing … Continue reading
American Dialects: A Red State/Blue State Divide?
In a brief piece in Time this week, famed linguist William Labov suggested that American dialects are getting more distinct rather than less. The article is extremely short, but I was nevertheless intrigued by Labov’s comment on the connection between accents and … Continue reading
That’s the Idear: Intrusive ‘R’
Generations of Americans have puzzled over the British tendency to add ‘r’s where (it seems to us) ‘r’s don’t belong. This can be found in such phrases as “an idear of it,” “pastar and sauce,” and “sawr and conquered.” Termed r insertion (or intrusive r), … Continue reading
20 Years of ADS’ Word of the Year
I went nearly this entire year ignoring an important milestone: 2011 marks the 20th anniversary of the American Dialect Society‘s selection of its “Word of the Year.” The list of words upon which the organization has bestowed the award reveals a … Continue reading
Yod-Dropping in American Accents
Of the many words that distinguish American accents from British, ‘tune‘ serves as a particularly good test. Many British accents insert a small ‘y’ sound before the vowel–resulting in something like ‘tyoon‘–whereas for most Americans, this word is homophonous with … Continue reading
On the Hunt for the New Orleans Yat
Some English dialects are so uncommon that they adopt the mythology of the Loch Ness Monster. One such dialect, unique the city of New Orleans, is locally referred to as Yat. It is renowned not because of how strange it … Continue reading