Take Our Word For It, the weekly word-origin webzine. Dialect Survey Login. World Wide Words. Online Etymology Dictionary. Do You Speak American . Sea to Shining Sea . American Varieties. Social scientists estimate the number of U.S. dialects range from a basic three - New England, Southern and Western/General America - to 24 or more .
Some researchers go so far as to suggest it's actually impossible to count the number of dialects in the United States because under a loose definition of the term, thousands of cities, towns and groups have their own varieties or dialects. The authors of American English explain it this way: When people ask us what we do for a living, and we reply that we study American English dialects, one of the next questions inevitably is, "how many dialects are there? " This question is surprisingly difficult to answer, despite the fact that researchers have been investigating language variation in America for at least a century. American Dialect Links. Wicked Good Guide to Boston English. The Best of British - The American's guide to speaking British...
The Best of British The American's guide to speaking British. The seven sections on the left contain over 1000 words and expressions that have varied in their usage between the US and the UK. This site started as a simple list to amuse our friends when we moved to the USA for 2 years - believe it or not, to a house in Tossa Lane!!! This list was compiled around 10 years ago and is all based on actual discussions with Americans from many States as we travelled around the USA. Of course, everyone has different experiences and the language seems to vary so much, and has moved on over the last decade.
So don't be surprised if you find yourself nodding at some parts and questioning others - the globalisation of our TV and languages has taken some of the fun out of it. Speech Accent Archive. Voices.