North American English regional phonology is the study of variations in the pronunciation of spoken English by the inhabitants of various parts of North America (United States and Canada). North American English can be divided into several regional dialects based on phonological, phonetic, lexical, and some syntactic features. North American English includes American English, which has several highly developed and distinct regional varieties, along with the closely related Canadian English, which is more homogeneous. American English (especially Western dialects) and Canadian English have more in common with each other than with the many varieties of English outside North America.
The most recent work documenting and studying the phonology of North American English dialects as a whole is the Atlas of North American English by William Labov, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, on which much of the description below is based, following on a tradition of sociolinguistics dating to the 1960s; earlier large-scale American dialectology focused more on lexical variation than on phonology.
Read more about North American English Regional Phonology: Defining Regions of North American Speech, General American, The Midland, The North, Northeastern Dialects, Southern American English, Western Dialect, Canadian English
Famous quotes containing the words north, american and/or english:
“I am fearful when I see people substituting fear for reason.”
—Edmund H. North (1911–1990)
“To the American People:MChristmas is not a time or a season but a state of mind. To cherish peace and good will, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. If we think on these things, there will be born in us a Savior and over us will shine a star sending its gleam of hope to the world.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)
“The English did not come to America from a mere love of adventure, nor to truck with or convert the savages, nor to hold offices under the crown, as the French to a great extent did, but to live in earnest and with freedom.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)