Canadian English. Introduction Canadian English, for all its speakers, is an under-described variety of English. In popular dialectological literature it is often given little acknowledgement as a distinct and homogeneous variety, save for a paragraph or two dedicated to oddities of Canadian spelling and the fading use of British-sounding lexical items like chesterfield , serviette , and zed . There is a small body of scholarly research that suggests that if there is such a thing as a Canadian English, all its unique characteristics are being lost. In fact, Lilles (2000) goes so far as to claim that there is no such thing as a distinct Canadian English, and argues that the notion of Canadian English is a myth, fabricated to reinforce a fragile Canadian identity. Sutherland (2000) quickly rebuts by pointing out that Canadian English is more than a "network of regionalisms", and that a variety can be distinct by more than its vocabulary.
Table of Contents History Phonetics and Phonology Morphology Homepage. Sound Comparisons. Regional accents of English. American English. English language prevalence in the United States. Darker shades of blue indicate higher concentrations of native English speakers in the corresponding states. American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two-thirds of the world's native speakers of English live in the United States.[1] English is the most widely-spoken language in the United States. English is the common language used by the federal government and is considered the de facto language of the United States due to its widespread use. English has been given official status by 30 of the 50 state governments.[2][3] As an example, under federal law, English is the official language of United States courts in Puerto Rico.[4] The use of English in the United States is a result of British colonization.
Phonology[edit] Compared with English as spoken in England, North American English[5] is more homogeneous. The merger of /ɑ/ and /ɒ/, making father and bother rhyme. New England English. New England English refers to a group of dialects of English spoken in the New England area, especially in speakers born during the early and mid-19th century, prior to the proliferation of the General American accent. The regional dialects are spoken almost exclusively in Maine, Rhode Island, eastern Massachusetts, extreme northeastern Connecticut, eastern Vermont, and parts of New Hampshire.[1] New England English broadly includes the Eastern New England dialect (ENE), the Western New England dialect (WNE), and some sub-dialects within these two regions.
Research by William Labov suggests that these dialects are growing more distinct and diverse from those elsewhere in the United States.[2] Features[edit] Eastern New England speech is historically non-rhotic, while Western New England is historically rhotic. The red areas are those where non-rhotic pronunciation is found among some whites in the United States.
Eastern New England[edit] Rhode Island[edit] Western New England[edit] Boston English. The Boston accent is the regional accent or sub-dialect of New England English spoken in the city of Boston and much of eastern Massachusetts. Sociolinguists had grouped regions to include Rhode Island and eastern Connecticut for completeness; however, the phonological center forming what is considered the Eastern New England dialect region consists primarily of the southern eastern coast region of Maine, assimilating down through southern eastern New Hampshire where it picks up some of its most prominent linguistic characteristics, through eastern coast of northern Massachusetts but then drops off significantly before Cape Cod and the island region.[1][2] The best-known features of the Boston accent are non-rhoticity and broad A. It is most prominent in often traditionally Irish or Italian Boston neighborhoods and surrounding cities and towns.
[citation needed] Phonological characteristics[edit] Non-rhoticity[edit] Vowels[edit] Boston English has a so-called "nasal short-a system". Blinkers. General American. General American in the media[edit] General American, like British Received Pronunciation (RP) and most standard language varieties of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation. However, it has become widely spoken in many American films, TV series, national news, commercial ads, and American radio broadcasts.
[citation needed] The General American accent is most closely related to a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters. It is thought to have evolved from the English spoken by colonials in the Mid-Atlantic states, evolved and moved west. Regional home of General American[edit] It is commonly believed that General American English evolved as a result of an aggregation of rural and suburban Midwestern dialects, though the English of the Upper Midwest can deviate quite dramatically from what would be considered a "regular" American Accent. The area of the United States where the local accent is most similar to General American. Southern American English. Approximate extent of Southern American English, based upon multiple dialect studies.[1][2][3] The merger of pin and pen in Southern American English.
In the purple areas, the merger is complete for most speakers. Note the exclusion of the New Orleans area, Southern Florida, and of Georgia's and South Carolina's "Low Country" area. The purple area in California consists of the Bakersfield and Kern County area, where migrants from the south-central states settled during the Dust Bowl. There is also debate whether or not Austin, Texas is an exclusion. Southern American English, commonly known in the United States as Southern, is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from the southern extremities of Ohio, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as most of West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma, and the eastern extremities of New Mexico.
Phonology[edit] Older SAE[edit] Old Virginia accent. The Old Virginia accent is one that is primarily heard in the Tidewater and Piedmont regions of the Commonwealth of Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. Traces of this dialect and its characteristic drawl can also be heard in adjacent states, including words that are pronounced differently, such as "out" and "house. " Characteristics[edit] Southern and south midland accent characteristics include:[1] "drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]/ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind/oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil/u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday/au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt/e/ > /ei/ in bed, head/e/ > /i/ in pen, tengreasy > greazycarry > totedragged > drugyou > you all, y’all History[edit] The earliest English settlers of the colonies of Virginia and Massachusetts were mainly people from Southern England.
The Boston, Massachusetts, Norfolk, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina areas maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to England. See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] Australian English. English is the primary language spoken throughout Australia. Australian English (AusE, AuE, AusEng, en-AU[1]) is a major variety of the English language and is used throughout Australia. Although English has no official status in the Constitution, Australian English is Australia's de facto official language and is the first language of the majority of the population. Australian English began to diverge from British English after the founding of the colony of New South Wales in 1788 and was recognised as being different from British English by 1820. It arose from the intermingling of early settlers from a great variety of mutually intelligible dialectal regions of the British Isles and quickly developed into a distinct variety of English.[2] History[edit] The earliest form of Australian English was first spoken by the children of the colonists born into the colony of New South Wales.
A large part of the convict body were of Irish origin, 25% of the total convict population. Vowels[edit] Canadian English. West/Central Canadian English. Maritimer English. Canadian Maritime English or Maritimer English is a dialect of English spoken in the Maritime provinces of Canada. Quirks include the removal of pre-consonantal /r/ sounds, and a faster speech tempo. It is heavily influenced by British, Irish English, and Acadian French—especially in northern New Brunswick.
Maritime English shares many similarities with Newfoundland English. Characteristics[edit] An example of typical Maritime English might be the pronunciation of the letter t. Especially among the older generation, /w/ and /hw/ are not merged; that is, the beginning sound of why, white, and which is different from that of witch, with, wear.
Like most varieties of Canadian English, Maritimer English contains a feature known as Canadian raising: Diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants. Although dialects vary from region to region, especially based on the rural/urban divide, there are some other commonalities. Alternatively, one might hear the interrogative "Right? " Newfoundland English. Other names for Newfoundland English[edit] Newfoundland English is often humorously called Newfinese.[6] The term Newfie[7] is also sometimes used though it is sometimes considered pejorative when used by people from outside of Newfoundland. Phonological and grammatical features[edit] Newfoundland is a Rhotic accent like most of North America.In much of Newfoundland, the words fear and fair are homophones.
A similar phenomenon is found in the Norfolk dialect of East Anglia.Newfoundland English often follows the Northern subject rule, a legacy of settlement from South East Ireland which in turn was influenced by Anglo-Irish settlement from Northern England into Ireland.[8]The word bes [biːz] is sometimes used in place of the normally conjugated forms of to be to describe continual actions or states of being, as in that rock usually bes under water instead of that rock is usually under water, but normal conjugation of to be is used in all other cases. Newfoundland English expressions[edit] Received Pronunciation. It is important not to confuse the notion of Received Pronunciation – a standard accent – with the standard variety of the English language used in England that is given names such as "Standard English", "the Queen's English", "Oxford English" or "BBC English".
The study of RP is concerned exclusively with pronunciation, while study of the standard language is also concerned with matters such as grammar, vocabulary and style. History[edit] Received Pronunciation is sometimes known as "Oxford English", as it was traditionally the common speech of Oxford University; the production of dictionaries gave Oxford University prestige in matters of language. The extended versions of the Oxford English Dictionary give Received Pronunciation guidelines for each word. RP is often believed to be based on the Southern accents of England, but it actually has most in common with the Early Modern English dialects of the East Midlands. Alternative names[edit] Usage[edit] In dictionaries[edit] Status[edit] British English. British English (BE, en-UK or en-GB)[1] is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere.[2] The Oxford English Dictionary applies the term to English as "spoken or written in the British Isles; esp[ecially] the forms of English usual in Great Britain", reserving "Hiberno-English" for the "English language as spoken and written in Ireland".[3] Nevertheless, Hiberno-English forms part of the broad British English continuum.
[citation needed] Others, such as the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary, define it as the "English language as it is spoken and written in England. "[4] The European Union basically uses 'British English' as its standard variety of English (including also Irish English).[5] History[edit] English is a West Germanic language that originated from the Anglo-Frisian dialects brought to Britain by Germanic settlers from various parts of what is now northwest Germany and the northern Netherlands.
British English: How to pronounce 'Schedule' Scottish English. In addition to distinct pronunciation, grammar and expressions, Scottish English has distinctive vocabulary, particularly pertaining to Scottish institutions such as the Church of Scotland, local government and the education and legal systems. Background[edit] Scottish English results from language contact between Scots and the Standard English of England after the 17th century. The resulting shifts to English usage by Scots-speakers resulted in many phonological compromises and lexical transfers, often mistaken for mergers by linguists unfamiliar with the history of Scottish English.[11] Furthermore, the process was also influenced by interdialectal forms, hypercorrections and spelling pronunciations.[12] (See the section on phonology below.)
History[edit] A Book of Psalms printed in the reign of James VI and I King James VI of Scotland became King James I of England in 1603. The Act of Union of 1707 amalgamated the Scottish and English Parliaments. Phonology[edit] Scotticisms[edit] IPA Charts. LINGUISTICS :: Index. IPA_chart_(C)2005.pdf (application/pdf Object) Accent Check. Is your job mobility limited by your accent? Do you want to be better understood? Want to gain confidence? SpeechCom has helped thousands of people from many different foreign countries improve their pronunciation and communicate more effectively. They have greater confidence and job mobility as a result. Our instructors are speech experts with more than 20 years of experience in accent reduction.
Our training is customized to your individual needs. Before our training begins, your speech is recorded and analyzed. Most of our clients meet with us weekly or twice weekly -- at their office or ours (in southern California) or on the phone (anywhere). Speech Accent Archive. Quiz - Which American accent do you have? - YouThink.com.
French phonology. An example of these various processes is as follows: Written: On a laissé la fenêtre ouverte.Meaning: "The window has been left open. "In isolation: /ɔ̃ a lɛse la fǝnɛːtʁ uvɛʁt/Together: [ɔ̃.na.lɛ.se.laf.nɛː.tʁu.vɛʁt] Consonants[edit] Where symbols for consonants occur in pairs, the left represents a voiceless consonant and the right represents a voiced consonant.
Distribution of guttural R (e.g. Not usual only in some educated speech usual in educated speech general Phonetic notes: All consonants marked as dental are apical.[1] ^1 In current pronunciation, /ɲ/ is merging with /nj/.[3] ^2 The velar nasal /ŋ/ is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words such as camping, bingo, kung-fu etc.[4] Some speakers who have difficulty with this consonant replace it with [ŋɡ] or [ɲ].[5] ^3 The approximants [j], [ɥ] and [w] correspond to /i/, /y/ and /u/ respectively.
. ^6 The phoneme /x/ is not a native phoneme of French, but occurs in loan words such as jota or khamsin. Geminates[edit] dis-le ! Canadian French. Quebec French. Acadian French.