North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns

Recent Additions

What’s New

Sections

Help me complete this map!

Record your own voice!

Print the map!

View the Layers!

(12-Aug.-2014)

Special Interest and Historical Articles

Individual Words
(27-June-2013)

 

The Map

1. Click on the map to enlarge it, selecting either the U. S. or Canada.

2. Click again to zoom in more.

3. Click on a state or province to listen to audio or video samples for each location.

(Full instructions)

$Mapping1 1

Western dialects:

7. North Central

8. The West

Dialects that start from the eastern seaboard:

1. Canada

2. Northern New England

3. The North

4. Greater New York City

5. The Midland

6. The South

 

 

Most Common Second and Third Languages by State in the U.S.

                The following page is interesting, and was pointed out to me by several people, although it really has no direct correlation to the data presented here: gizmodo.com/the-most-common-languages-spoken-in-the-u-s-state-by-1575719698. Adj. 4-Oct.-2017

 

Web-Based Survey now completed

                A group of linguists had been gathering data on North American English dialects using a web-based survey. They asked for our help, and some of you helped with this survey. This survey is now closed, with 3903 total responses in December 2012. You can see some preliminary results at: pantheon.yale.edu/~clb3/NorthAmericanDialects.

                However, I find that some of their samples definitely do not represent the local dialect! 26-Dec.-2012

 

This is just a hobby of mine, that I thought might be interesting to a lot of people. Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins. I collect dialects. - Rick Aschmann. (Page last updated: May 2, 2018.

Please continue to be patient! I had worked through well over half of the e-mails I had received since the huge jump in popularity of this site over the 2010 Christmas break, due to a number of web forums about it, but suddenly it has happened again, with two more huge surges recently, one since late April, 2013, and one the result of this article on May 9, making me doubt if there is any way I can ever keep up! 15-May-2013

Thanks to all of you who have written expressing appreciation for the page! I don’t promise to respond to every e-mail, but I am still trying to answer all those who sent in a sample or other information, or even a complaint. Unfortunately, my life is always very busy, and I can only dedicate a small portion of my time to this, so I have trouble even keeping up with current correspondence about this page. Worse yet, from time to time this page gets posted to another popular blog, and I get a new surge of e-mail, so I have doubts of ever being able to answer it all. But I’ll keep working at it! 12-Aug.-2014

 

There are 8 major English dialect areas in North America, listed below the map at left. These are shown in blue, each with its number, on the map and in the Dialect Description Chart below, and are also outlined with blue lines on the map. The first 6 of these begin at the eastern seaboard and proceed west, reflecting western settlement patterns.

The many subdialects are shown in red on the map and in the chart, and are outlined with red lines on the map. All of these are listed in the margins of the map as well.

(If after looking at the map it is still not clear what the dialect boundaries are, check out the new Simplified Map.) Adj. 13-Aug.-2010

In the Dialect Description Chart additional features not shown on the map are provided for distinguishing the dialects.

 

Recent additions

 

• I did quite a bit of cosmetic adjustment to place name positioning and other things to make the map more readable. New! 5-Oct.-2017

• I adjusted the name of the Mat-Su Valley dialect in Alaska from Mat-Su Valley to Mat-Su Valley (North Central) to better clarify its status, as an Island of North Central in Alaska. New! 4-Oct.-2017

• Because native French speakers do not typically have the Canadian raising, I have now explicitly shown the pink Canadian-raising line as excluding the French-speaking area in Canada. (Earlier I had simply not shown it in this area, but the result was confusing even to me, so I put it in.) I also adjusted a few lines running across Hudson Bay. Adj. 4-Oct.-2017

• I adjusted the main map to match the New Orleans inset in its southeast corner and added St. Bernard Parish, reflecting the fact that apparently all of St. Bernard Parish has the same dialect. New! 13-Sep.-2017

• I have now finished reducing the size of the dots for cities and towns, except for the larger population centers, to reduce the clutter on the map. I have now completed this for all U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

• Oops! At some point I accidentally changed the color of the El Paso dialect from white to pink. It is now fixed. New! 13-Sep.-2017

• I made a number of cosmetic adjustments to the dialect descriptions and lines on the right side of the map (in the Atlantic Ocean), none of which affect the content of the map. New! 13-Sep.-2017

• Following the suggestion of contributor Ethan Faryna, who said that the hatch pattern for the cot-caught merger cluttered the map more than any other feature, I have greatly simplified it, tripling the distance between the hatch lines. He suggested that I eliminate the hatching altogether, but since it occupies most of the map, and is a fundamental structural feature for the dialects of North America, I preferred to just simplify it. He also said that where multiple lines converge and follow each other, all the lines get a bit thick and cover up the map. I have moved some of these lines mostly under neighboring ones. (However, when only two thick lines come together, or where one is on one side of a blue or red dialect boundary and the other is on the other side, I have left them as is.) Thanks, Ethan! Hopefully this will help make the map clearer! New! 21-Oct.-2016

• I have now been able to define more clearly the New Orleans dialect situation, thanks to samples sent in by contributors (though I still have others to process). This required me to increase the size of the map at the bottom, but this also allowed me to rearrange some other things so that the map is not so cramped. New! 11-Mar.-2016

• I recently made several adjustments to the lines through northern Montana, realizing that I had not analyzed correctly several samples, being influenced by how the ANAE drew the lines for Great Falls, which I think now were in error. 12-Aug.-2014

• Oops! I recently realized that I had failed to extend the yellow long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting line through Maine and into Canada, even though this is clearly indicated on Map 20.2 in ANAE chapter 20. I have now done this, and have even gone further: I have extended two of the long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting lines all the way up into part of Nunavut, as well as the bout-bite line, though I need more data to continue extending them north. In the process I have now finally added some samples from Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. 25-Sep.-2013

• Every U.S. state and Canadian province now has at least one sample, so they are all now clickable! I have also changed the color scheme slightly. 25-Sep.-2013

• Continuing survey: I only discovered in 2011 that many if not most Americans pronounce the “l” in words like “calm” and other words ending in “-alm”, which surprised me very much, since I don’t. Some also pronounce the “l” in “folk”, and even a few may pronounce the “l” in “talk”. See The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk” for more details. I would love to know if you do or do not pronounce the “l” in such words, and where you grew up! Yes, I know many of you have sent in data, and I am still trying to get it all compiled. One thing that has discouraged me is that so far no very discernible pattern is emerging! 8-Dec.-2014

• I made a major adjustment to the southern part of San Francisco Bay, straightening out a number of the lines. 18-July-2013

• Contributor Joshua Katz recently sent in a link for a Dialect Survey of Individual Words, which is a completely separate study, but very interesting. 27-June-2013

• I fixed the Small-Scale Dialect Map so that when you click on it, it actually goes to the right section of the full-scale map! New! 24-Dec.-2012

• I added the Sō kŏŏd wē rīt ŧħə wā wē spēk? section. New! 21-Dec.-2012

• I have added a new subdialect in the North Central dialect area, the Iron Ranges, Minnesota dialect. This had been suggested by others in the past, but I was not able to properly evaluate it until I received several very helpful samples from contributor Adam Jarvi. New! 25-Mar.-2011

• The curl-coil merger has not completely died out! I have recently found a couple of samples of living people that retain it. New! 3-Mar.-2011

• Oops! I have completed reevaluated Ohio as far as the pin-pen line is concerned! Because of Cincinnati and Dayton (which clearly have “pin”≠“pen”), and because I made the invalid assumption that Gavin Veris from Chillicothe, who also has “pin”≠“pen”, represented the local “white” dialect, I assumed that the pin-pen line ran below Cincinnati and Chillicothe, so I failed to listen carefully to the samples for Urbana and for Yellow Springs, not noticing that they had “pin”=“pen”. It was only when I was watching a documentary in which all of the people interviewed were from Chillicothe that I realized my mistake, and listened again to the samples for Urbana and for Yellow Springs. Since then I have found samples for Columbus and for Washington Court House which are also clearly “pin”=“pen”. The good thing is that the shape of the pin-pen line through the Midland now makes a lot more sense: How likely was it that the pin-pen line would take two deep bends across the Midlands? Now it only takes one: the Saint Louis corridor is well established, but the “Cincinnati corridor” was not. Instead, Cincinnati turns out to be a linguistic island, which matches the conclusions of the ANAE, Dayton having apparently been included in its sphere, and Portsmouth, home of Roy Rogers, which was already clearly identified as “pin”=“pen”, is no longer an island. 21-Dec.-2010

• I have made the cot-caught line a visible light-blue line now, rather than simply allowing the hatching to indicate where it would be. I also adjusted the map colors slightly. 16-Nov.-2010

• Finally! Now all of the maps are fully clickable, including the Full-Scale map. (The only states and provinces that are still not clickable are those for which there are no samples yet.) 4-Nov.-2010

 

What’s New? All additions or changes within the last few months are marked with  New!  and the date, or with  Adj.  (for “Adjusted”.) To see this new information, simply search for these words.

 

Web Forums: There are several web forums or blogs that refer to my map. The most recent ones that I know of are: 12-Dec.-2011

this one, set up on December 5, 2011, primarily for German speakers 12-Dec.-2011

this one, set up on November 15, 2011

 

There are several much older ones, which are mostly no longer active: 28-Nov.-2011

this one, set up on December 31, 2010

this one (specifically for actors and dialect coaches), set up on December 31, 2010

this one, set up on January 1, 2011

this one, set up on December 30, 2010

this one, set up on December 27, 2010.

this one, set up on June 7, 2010

this one, set up on November, 2009.

 

Map Format

                I have made a number of adjustments to the map format based on comments and suggestions from people who write in. However, the main complaint, that the map is too complicated and confusing, I can’t really fix: the subject is complicated, and I am well aware that I have tried to include too many features. However, if people have ideas on how to make the map or web page less confusing, I am all ears! 8-May-2013

                One thing that may help is that you can now view the file in layers. 16-Sep.-2014

 

Dialect Survey of Individual Words
(27-June-2013)

                Many of you have written in to ask, “What about such-and-such a word? What is its distribution across North America?” And my answer has always been, “That’s not what this map is about, it’s about sound patterns affecting many words at once, it’s about phonemic patterns.” Not that I’m not interested, I am, it’s just that there is no place for this sort of information on my map. (The only such word that does appear on the map is the “on” line.) 17-Dec.-2015

                However, finally someone has done just what many of you have wanted, they have mapped the distribution of lots of these individual words, as well as some grammatical constructions, and you can enjoy browsing through them here. If you don’t want to struggle through the whole list, a selection of some of the most interesting with whimsical comments can be found here. 21-Aug.-2013

                The link for this site was sent in by Joshua Katz. Thanks! Also, Joshua has redone the maps to make a lot of them more readable, as for example his map of words for carbonated beverage. (Oops, these links seem to be obsolete. He still has this page, but most of the links on it do not work, though the one for the poster does, and this does have the carbonated beverage map and a few others. The last link in the previous paragraph shows several more, though some of the links don’t work there either.) 17-Dec.-2015

                Sadly, they still don’t have some of the ones I’m interested in, like “greasy/greazy”, which has a north-south distribution similar to “on”! Does anyone know of a map of this? 11-Nov.-2015
                I have found a description of the line at the American Heritage Dictionary entry for greasy (copied from the Dictionary of American Regional English), which simply shows that it largely follows the “on” line (or perhaps runs slightly to the south of it), except of course that it continues across areas with the cot-caught merger, such as Allegheny Midland or the West, where the “on” line is undefined, and the description specifically states that the “greazy” region includes all of New Mexico. 17-Dec.-2015
                This site says that the use of “greazy” extends as far as southern California, and specifically says that “about 1/5 of all So. Cal. residents, but half of rural Riversiders, used greazy rather than greasy.” 17-Dec.-2015
                Based on the comment in the AHD entry, I suspect that the subscription-only Dictionary of American Regional English has a map of this, but since I presently live in South America I can’t go to a library and check it out. 11-Nov.-2015

Guide to the Sounds of North American English

How Many Vowels are there in American English?

How Many Consonants are there?

The Stress Pattern of English, and How it Messes with the Pronunciation

R-Coloring 8-July-2013
          R’s Between Vowels: To Color or Not to Color 8-July-2013

          The horse-hoarse Merger and the card-cord Merger 11-Mar.-2016

Writing the Way We Speak

          Sō kŏŏd wē rīt ŧħə wā wē spēk, yōōzĭng dĭkshənârē sĭmbəlz? 19-June-2013

          Soh kuud wee riyt thə way wee speek, yoozing just playn letərz? 19-June-2013

          Key to the Spelling Systems 21-Aug.-2013

How I Use the IPA (and how I don’t)

John Wells’s Lexical Sets

Rick Aschmann’s Lexical Sets

 

Special Interest and Historical Articles:

The Cot-Caught Merger

Did the cot-caught merger come from Scotland?

The Father-Bother Distinction

The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk”

Inland and Lowland Southern and their relationship to the extent of slavery before the Civil War 17-Apr.-2013
          What’s the Difference between Inland Southern and Lowland Southern?
          My Theory of the Settlement of the American South
          Southern Areas Settled after the Civil War
          Possible Southern Class Distinction?
          My Theory about the Original Area of Inland Southern

Classical Southern and African American Vernacular English (AAVE)
          [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in some Classical Southern dialects 23-Sep.-2015

The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives

          Other Areas with the Pin-Pen Merger 16-Jul.-2016

New York City and Its Offspring

New Orleans

Where do they speak without an accent? Or where do they speak “General American”?

Do some geographic features coincide with dialect boundaries or areas?

Do state or provincial borders coincide with dialect boundaries?

Which states are the most linguistically complex?

The Unique Position of Nebraska

The U.S. - Canada Border and the “Badge of Identity”

 

About Me

 

Print the Map!

Several people have asked if I intend to make posters of this map. I do not! I’m not going to get into marketing my hobby!

However, I wanted a poster myself, so I figured out how to print it out in pieces and tape it together. You can do the same. It will print out on 9 pieces of standard letter size paper (81/2 x 11 inches), and you will then need to trim the inner margins with scissors or a paper cutter, and then tape the pieces together. I ended up with a nice poster, and you can too.

Click here to open the printable PDF file.

After you have opened it, you can print it directly to your printer.

I don’t promise to update this PDF each time I update the map, but I’ll try to update it fairly frequently. This PDF was last updated on: May 2, 2018.

 

If you want to use the original file to print a full-sized poster or for other purposes, or if I haven’t updated the PDF for a while, right click here to download it. 16-Sep.-2014

 

View the Layers!

If you want to see the layered file that the map is based on, click here. This will allow you to see individual features without the clutter of the other features. 12-Aug.-2014

This map was created using the Paint.NET program, and can probably only be displayed using that program. I still have not learned a simple way to display these layers on the screen and still have clickable maps as I now have. If anyone can tell me how I can do that, I would be grateful! 12-Aug.-2014

A description of each layer and suggestions can be found here.

 

Small-Scale Dialect Map

The small map below is the same as the Full-Scale Dialect Map that follows, but shows the entire width of the map (on most monitors). 24-Aug.-2010

Click on any part of this map to move to the equivalent part of the Full-Scale Dialect Map. (For now this only moves to the far left or the far right of the Full-Scale Dialect Map, so unfortunately it doesn’t work well for the middle portions, and you will just have to scroll over.) 24-Aug.-2010

$Mapping2 $$width=1000 height=909$$



 

Full-Scale Dialect Map

Instructions

For many of the cities or towns on this map, you can listen to an audio or video sample of speech of a native (more specifically, someone who was raised there, though not necessarily born there, and whose dialect clearly represents that place). All of the cities or towns with a green center have such an audio or video sample that can be listened to (and a few of the ones with pink centers do also). I will continue adding new audio and video samples, so check back from time to time. So far there are over 900 samples listed, more and more of which are from contributors! Thanks! 1-Sep.-2014

The cities and towns with a large dot are those which are larger or more important in each state or province. New! 13-Sep.-2017

Use the scroll bars to move around on this map, or, even simpler, start at the tiny map above and click the country (U.S. or Canada) that you want to look at. This will take you to the Small-Scale Dialect Map. Click again to zoom in further on your location. (For now this only moves to the far left or the far right of the Full-Scale Dialect Map, so unfortunately it doesn’t work well for the middle portions, and you will just have to scroll over.) 24-Aug.-2010

The entire map is clickable, taking you to the list of samples for that state or province. Only those locations with green centers, and a few with pink centers, have a sample so far. There will be a few areas of the oceans and the legends that are not clickable, but all of the states and provinces now are. Place the mouse over a particular state or province to see its name. (The map guides, showing the meaning of all the colors, are on the top right and bottom left of the map.) 25-Sep.-2013

 

Help! For many places I haven’t found an audio sample yet. If you know of an audio or video sample on the Internet that features a speaker who was raised in a particular place, and whose dialect clearly represents that place, please let me know, whether that place is currently listed or not! Although many of the people in these samples are prominent people, I actually prefer ordinary local people, but anyone at all will do, as long as their pronunciation represents the local dialect. (The ones I especially need, and cannot find, are those with an orange-yellow center.) Also, if you think that one of the audio examples does not truly represent the local dialect, please let me know in the same way. (Oh, but please keep the samples clean. I have a policy of not using a sample if it uses a word you can’t say on TV in the U.S.!) I will normally list your name as the contributor, to make this more of a community project, unless you’d rather I didn’t, in which case I will use initials. However, I will not publish anyone’s e-mail address. 10-May-2011

Numbered Locations: A number of states (17 so far) now have so many locations mapped that there was no longer room for all the names, so I was forced to go to a numbering system for such areas, since the scale of the map is already big enough! I put the key to the numbers off the east coast of Canada. The area with the most numbers is much of Kentucky and Tennessee and neighboring areas, which are about as thoroughly mapped as they possibly can be, thanks in part to enthusiastic contributor Eli K. in 2010. That’s the kind of help needed to really fill out this map! Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

 

 

$Mapping3 $$width=2717 height=2470$$

 

 

 

Data from the Atlas of North American English (ANAE)

I am grateful to the Atlas of North American English (ANAE) by William Labov, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, for a good part of the data on which this map was based. Specifically, much of the information on the map above and in the Dialect Description Chart below was obtained from ANAE chapter 11 (a draft version available on the Internet), as well as from many other chapters of the same work, with a few ideas from a much older version of the same: ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html. (The Table of Contents of the draft version of the atlas can be seen at: www.ling.upenn.edu/phonoatlas/ANAE_ToC.pdf, but this does not link directly to the chapters. Links to each chapter are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23.) 11-Nov.-2015

However, the names of a number of the dialects are my own, and I have made many adjustments to their borders (especially Inland and Lowland South, West Midland, and Allegheny Midland). Also, a lot of the data is from my own research and analysis. - Rick Aschmann

I discovered in late 2011 that much or all of the audio data upon which the atlas was based is now available on the Internet, on this website (select North American English Dialects). (Replaced bad link.) I will be adding samples from this site as I have time, marked as “ANAE info and audio”. 26-Jan.-2013

 

Map Notes

The following notes refer to numbers on the map, and show the corresponding section of the ANAE:

1: Pin-pen merger: See Map 9.5 in ANAE chapter 9 and www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/maps/Map3.html. This is the only feature in which I find myself in significant disagreement with the ANAE: I have found that the pin-pen merger area is much larger than they show, especially in the west.[1] (See The Pin-Pen Merger, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives below.) 6-Aug.-2011

2: Long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting: See Map 20.2 in ANAE chapter 20. 2: The boundary between central-back and central-front (the yellow dots) was used by the ANAE to define the boundary between North and Midland, but this line then extends into the West. The deep dip that it takes southwards in Utah and Nevada would seem to indicate settlement of these areas by Northerners, probably represented by the Mormon settlement. Thus this dip corresponds to a large degree to the “Mormon Corridor”. Many of these settlers were originally from the Palmyra, New York, area and from Kirtland, Ohio. Another northern contribution may have been the early northeastern organized crime influence in Las Vegas. Now I’m not saying that people in these areas sound like northeasterners: they don’t, they sound like westerners, with this one feature being dragged south because of this origin. 20-Jan.-2010

3: R-dropping: See Map 7.1 in ANAE chapter 7. R-droppers are also called non-rhotic English speakers, though I find this term rather obscure and academic, and prefer not to use it on a site like this, which is not for academics. There are two types of r-droppers, which I call Systematic R-droppers and Simple R-droppers. 11-May-2015

Systematic R-droppers are found in the northeastern U. S., in much of England, and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, India, much of the Caribbean, and other places. Systematic R-droppers have linking and intrusive r’s. John F. Kennedy is an excellent example of a Systematic r-dropper. In a speech he gave prior to being elected, he says “The hungry children I sawr in West Vaginia.” This quote has one intrusive r, and one dropped r, both highlighted in red. In another speech during the Cuban missile crisis he says, starting at 4:55: “...Soviet foreign minista Gromyko told me in my office that he was instructed to make it cleah once again, as he said his govament had already done, Soviet assistance to Cubar, and I quote, ...”, which again has one intrusive r, and three dropped r’s, again highlighted in red. 11-May-2015

Simple R-droppers are found in parts of the Lowland South. As a general rule, they do not have linking and intrusive r’s. All of the areas in the South marked as r-droppers on my map are Simple R-dropper areas, though New Orleans shows some tendency to retain final r’s before a vowel, though not enough to make it systematic. (It turns out that Hawai’i Creole English is also of this type.) 11-Mar.-2016

Numerous examples of both kinds of r-droppers are given in the audio samples below. This pattern is receding, so occasionally only much older speakers retain the r-dropping in a given location. These are surrounded on the map by a dotted green circle, and in the chart below will be indicated with the phrase “Older r-dropper”. 3-Apr.-2010

4: Canadian and Tidewater raising: See Map 15.5 in ANAE chapter 15, noting only the info for the /ou/ [aʊ] vowel (which he writes /aw/), not the /ī/ [aɪ] vowel (which he writes /ay/). The ANAE does not show this information on any map for the Tidewater South, so I have gleaned the info from various sources, including stray comments in ANAE. This is also found in one, and apparently only one, of the New Orleans subdialects, St. Bernard Parish, which is far away from either Canada or the Tidewater South! Why this should be the case is a mystery. Adj. 16-Sep.-2017

5: Bite-bout line: See Map 14.1 in ANAE chapter 14.

6: “On” line: See Map 14.2 in ANAE chapter 14. This is the only lexical item included in this analysis, but it seems to correlate with the phonological data, and as the ANAE points out, largely follows the North-Midland boundary. Why it turns north at its western end in the Dakotas and does some contortions is unclear. (The ANAE did not have Mitchell, SD or Ashley, ND, which are the surprises. I had earlier thought Mitchell was north of the line, but actually it is south of it.) Miles City, Montana, an outlier of Western North, is also below the line. In San Francisco the pattern seems to be reversed, with the “Don” group possibly representing a later influx of some type. 17-Dec.-2015

 

Dialect Description Chart
(17-Aug.-2015)

 

vowel

of “lot”

/ŏ/ [a]

fronted

almost

as much

as vowel

of “let”

/ĕ/ [ɛ]

vowel

of “cot”

/ŏ/ [a]

more

fronted

than

vowel

of “cut”

/ŭ/ [ʌ]

vowel

of “too”

/ōō/ [ᵿʉ]

much

more

fronted

than

vowel

of “toe”

/ō/ [o(ʊ)]

Vowel

of “far”

/är/ [aɹ]

fronted

Vowel

of

“caught”

/ô/ [oə]

strongly

raised

hoarse

=

horse”,

mourning

=

morning”,

four

=

for

Unique

Features

Chapter

and

map in

ANAE

Chapter and map in ANAE

14.8

14.8

10.24,

20.2

10.34

10.31

8.2

7. North Central

 

yes

Like Western North, but “cot”=“caught”.

14

Iron Range, Minnesota *

 

yes

Subtle differences from the rest of the North Central, particularly /ŧħ/ [ð] becomes /d/ [d].

Mat-Su Valley, Alaska *

yes

 

yes

Strongly like North Central, but with some admixture from the main Alaska dialect. (See Sarah Palin.)

8. West

yes

 

yes

Vowel of “too” significantly more fronted than vowel of “toe”, “cot”=“caught”.

20

Alaska

yes

 

yes

Same as West (ANAE chapter 11 says there are significant differences, but does not make clear what they are.)

(11, 20)

Silver City, NM

yes

 

yes

Same as West, but “cot”≠“caught”.

1. Canada (main area)

yes

very little

 

yes

Same as West, plus Canadian vowel shift, vowel of “cat” central, raising of “bite”, “bout”, Canadian raising. Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

15

Atlantic Provinces

mixed?

yes

 

yes

Vowel of “far” fronted (but not “father”). Canadian raising only partial. Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

15

Irish Newfoundland

yes

yes

 

yes

Like the Atlantic Provinces, but with a strong Irish component.

2. Northern New England

                Eastern New England (ENE)

yes

 

no

“far” & “father” fronted to [a], systematic r-dropping, “cot”=“caught”, “father” [a] & “bother” [ɒə] don’t rhyme.

16

NW New England

very little

very little

yes

 

yes

Vowel of “far” fronted (but not “father”), “cot”=“caught”.

16, (14)

3. The North

mixed

mixed

mostly

 

almost all

Back vowels strongly backed, defined as the “cot”≠“caught” area north of the line of yellow dots, except for the St. Louis Corridor.[2]

14

Western North

mixed

mixed

mostly

 

yes

Least distinctive dialect of the North, some sections areGeneral American”.

14

Inland North

yes

yes

mostly

 

almost all

Northern Cities Shift: /ă/ in “bat” strongly raised to [eə], most short vowels shifted.

14

St. Louis Corridor

yes

yes

Mixed

 

mixed

Northern Cities Shift: /ă/ in “bat” strongly raised to [eə], most short vowels shifted, but many other vowels like Midland.

19, 14

Indiana North[3]

no

no

yes

Very similar to Western North, but separated from it geographically[4].

14

Eastern North

yes

yes

very little

mixed

yes

Mostly like Western North, but some similarities to Greater New York City.

14, 16

Albany

yes

yes

very little

yes

yes

Many vowels like Greater New York City, but no r-dropping.

Providence

yes

 

no

/ă/ in “cat” central [a], systematic r-dropping, “cart”=“cot”, which is not seen anywhere else in the world!

14

4. Greater New York City (GNYC)

yes

yes

Various unusual vowels, systematic r-dropping, “bad” [eə] & “had” [æ] don’t rhyme, and “father” [ɑə] & “bother” [a] don’t rhyme for many speakers. For more details, see New York City and Its Offspring. 11-Mar.-2016

17

The Hamptons

 

yes

A lot like Greater New York City, but more research needed!

Downtown New Orleans

 

no?

More like Greater New York City than anything else, although “bad” & “had” probably rhyme, and “on” rhymes with “Dawn”. For more details, see New Orleans. 11-Mar.-2016

18

5. The Midland

 

almost all

In many ways is intermediate between Northern and Southern[5].

19

Central Midland

 

almost all

Least distinctive dialect in the U.S., many sections are “General American

Canton, Ohio

 

yes

“bat” strongly raised, “on” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”

11, (14)

Cincinnati, Ohio

 

yes

Many vowels are pronounced like Greater New York City, “pin”≠“pen”, unlike the surrounding area[6].

19, 11

West Midland *

 

yes

“cot”=“caught”, unlike most of Midland.

(19)

Allegheny Midland[7]

 

yes

“cot”=“caught”, unlike most of Midland.

19

Pittsburgh

 

yes

Pittsburgh vowel shift: “out” is pronounced [ˈat], with no diphthong, the way a Bostonian says “art”.

19

Oklahoma City * [8]

 

yes

Like the parts of the Central Midland south of the pin-pen line.

19

East Midland *

yes

yes

Like the Central Midland, with influences from Atlantic Midland.

17

Atlantic Midland[9]

yes

yes

“bad” does not rhyme with “had”, like Greater New York City, but otherwise like East Midland.

17

North Florida

 

yes

Like Central Midland, “pin”=“pen”.

11, 18

South Florida

 

yes

Like Central Midland, “pin”≠“pen”.

11

El Paso

 

yes

“cot”≠“caught” like Central Midland, “pin”=“pen”.

11

Galveston *

 

yes

Very similar to East Midland, or even to Atlantic Midland, except that “bad” rhymes with “had”

San Francisco Bay

yes

yes

Very similar to East Midland, or even to Atlantic Midland, except that “bad” rhymes with “had”

(11)

6. The South

 

mixed

Partial to full Southern shift: vowels of “ride” and “buy” have no diphthong: long /ī/ is [a]. In almost entire area “pin”=“pen”, except as noted below or on map.

18

Lowland South

 

mixed

Partial Southern shift: long /ī/ vowels of “ride” and “buy” have [a], with no diphthong, but “right” is [aɪ].

Classical Southern

 

mixed

Outlined in dark green rather than red, a catch-all for all R-dropping dialects in the South, includes or cuts across some of the dialects below.

7

The Tidewater

 

mixed

Outlined in pink rather than red, a catch-all for those parts of the coastal southeast that have the Tidewater raising, as explained on the map. It actually includes two areas that lack the Southern shift, Down East & Outer Banks, and Charleston. Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

Note 4

Savannah

 

yes

R-dropping, “pin”≠“pen”.

18

Cajun English[10]

 

yes

East is R-dropping, west apparently not, “pin”=“pen”, French influence, th > t,d.

New Orleans, Mid City

 

yes

See the New Orleans inset on the map and the New Orleans section below. Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

18

New Orleans, Irish Channel

 

yes

See the New Orleans inset on the map and the New Orleans section below. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

18

New Orleans, St. Bernard Parish

 

yes

See the New Orleans inset on the map and the New Orleans section below. Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

18

New Orleans, Peripheral

 

yes

See the New Orleans inset on the map and the New Orleans section below. Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

18

Inland South

 

almost all

Full Southern shift: vowels of “ride”, “buy”, and “right” all have [a], with no diphthong.

18

Anomalous peripheral areas in the southeast that resisted the Southern shift:

 

Charleston

 

yes

No Southern shift, R-dropping, vowels of “bait” and “boat” are not diphthongs, but simple [e] and [o].

11, 18

Down East & Outer Banks *

 

 

 

 

 

yes

No Southern shift, long /ī/ [ɒɪ] vowel often almost like /oi/ [ɔɪ], “pin”=“pen”[11].

(18, 11)

Chesapeake Islands *

 

 

 

 

 

yes

No Southern shift, long /ī/ [ɒɪ] vowel less like /oi/ [ɔɪ] than Down East & Outer Banks, “pin”≠“pen”.

 

 

* Those dialects marked with an asterisk are not in the Atlas of North American English (ANAE).

 

Colors:

Transitional areas within main dialects

Distinctive or innovative features of a given dialect

Transitional areas outside main dialects

Intermediate or partial features

 

Other Sources

I have added and adjusted a lot of the information on the map based on the following audio and non-audio data. - Rick Aschmann

Regional non-audio data

Location

Source

English, French, and indigenous mother-tongue areas of Canada

atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/population.html#language 25-Sep.-2013

French mother-tongue areas of Maine

Wikipedia, www.francomaine.org/English/Carto/carto.htm

Indigenous languages

ethnologue.com/region/NAM 9-Sep.-2013

the eastern boundary of Inland North

ling.upenn.edu/~dinkin/GapHandout.pdf

Greater New York City

ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Papers/TD.pdf

Eastern boundary between Eastern New England and Providence

ling.upenn.edu/~johnson4/pwpl_draft.pdf 30-Mar.-2010

Multiple-region audio samples found on the Internet

Location

Source

Comment

Samples from al­most all U. S. states and a few from Canada

International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA) (or new clickable map: www.dialectsarchive.com/globalmap)

This site has been completely redone, perhaps in 2013, and is vastly improved, since it now provides a lot more information about the speakers, including place of birth and sometimes a list of places where they have lived, plus a lot of other information!

                However, I still find that many of the samples do not represent well the bedrock pronunciation of the area, but instead represent those who have tried to sound less “local”. Also, locations are often limited (though I see that more have been added recently), and often only urban locations are given.

                Even so, in many cases the data is useful, and I have used it in the sound samples below, especially when clearer indications are given of “nativeness”, and now that more information has been provided, I will probably add more. If anyone finds any of these that I have left out and shouldn’t have, please let me know!

                (Because this site changed its entire structure, none of the old links worked anymore, and I have redone them all. The original site was web.ku.edu/~idea or web.ku.edu/~idea.) 8-Nov.-2013

Samples only from north-central U. S.

csumc.wisc.edu/AmericanLanguages/english/eng_us.htm

Again, it is not always clear if the speakers are natives of the area in which they were interviewed, or if they represent well the local dialect. However, it includes rural speakers, which can help fill in holes. Used occasionally. If anyone finds any of these that I have left out and shouldn’t have, please let me know! 11-Mar.-2016

 

Guide to the Sounds of North American English

In many places on this web page the pronunciation of a name or other word will be given after it. These pronunciation guides will have two forms: a phonemic guide between slashes / /, based on the Traditional Dictionary Pronunciation System (TDPS) that is found in many dictionaries, especially American ones[12], and a phonetic guide (providing the phonetic details) between square brackets [ ], based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). (Thanks, Maria Mikkonen![13]) 26-Aug.-2013

The advantage of the phonemic guide is that it allows different dialects to use the same pronunciation key and get the right result for each dialect. For this guide I have mostly followed the TDPS system used in the American Heritage Dictionary[14], rather than the one used by Merriam-Webster or others, since it is more complete and applies to more dialects. 31-Aug.-2015

However, I have included the phonetic guide as well, partly to give a more precise phonetic pronunciation of local variants, and partly because many have complained that they prefer the IPA or are familiar only with it. (This guide includes allophonic variation such as aspiration on voiceless consonants, which is conditioned by stress and word position. However, it would be impractical to represent all the fine detail, such as the rounding that many English consonants have, or the differences between “clear l[l] and “dark l[ɫ].) 18-July-2013

 

In the phonemic guide I have followed the American Heritage Dictionary system (a more complete analysis can be found on this Wikipedia page) to the letter, except for a few minor adjustments in the vowel system[15] and one in the consonant system (/ŧħ/ instead of /th/), and the following differences: 11-Mar.-2016

1.       I write the syllable with primary stress using bold and underline, and syllables with secondary stress with just bold, rather than using an apostrophe after it like the AHD. In other words, I show the pronunciation of “underneath” as /ŭndərnēth/, whereas the AHD does it as /ŭn'dər-nēth'/. 31-Aug.-2015

2. I do not separate syllables with a hyphen except when absolutely necessary, as in “cartridge” /kärtrij/ versus “cartwright” /kärt-rīt/, or “mission” /mĭshən/ versus “mishap” /mĭs-hăp/; although technically in these two cases the underlining of the primary-stressed syllable gives enough information, even so the hyphens help to clarify.

3.  I show the pronunciation of words like “needle” and “sudden” as /nēdəl/ and /sǔdən/, rather than treating them as having syllabic /l/ or /n/, which they clearly have phonetically: [ˈniɾl̩, ˈsʌdn̩]. 2-Jan.-2012

 

The ANAE does not use either the TDPS or the IPA, but instead uses a completely different transcription system, described in ANAE chapter 2. This system is phonemic, like the TDPS.[16] 31-Aug.-2015

 

How Many Vowels are there in American English?

No, the answer is not: “Five: a, e, i, o u.” Granted, in traditional English spelling those are the vowel letters, yes, but I’m talking about our spoken language: How many significant vowel sounds are there? Well, if you consult any popular American English dictionary, and study the Pronunciation Key, there will be a long list of vowels. In the Pronunciation Key to the American Heritage Dictionary, 19 different vowel symbols are listed (not counting the ones only used in foreign words)! However, some of these are special vowels that only occur before the /r/ sound, which are “colored” by the /r/, so these can be separated out as special cases. And one of these vowels, /ə/, only occurs in weak syllables (completely unstressed syllables), never in stressed syllables, so it also can be separated out as a special case. This leaves us with 15 Ordinary Vowels that can occur in stressed syllables. Very few North American English speakers have all of these vowels: Many have 14 (lacking the /ä/ vowel), and many have only 13 (lacking both /ä/ and /ô/). Greater New York City has 16 Ordinary Stressed Vowels, the 15 in the American Heritage list plus one that is not usually listed in dictionary pronunciation guides, found in the word “bad”, which it makes sense to spell /â/, since in this dialect it is the same as the r-colored vowel that occurs before /r/ in words like “bearing”! This vowel also occurs in the Atlantic Midland dialect. (I had initially spelled this vowel as /ăə/, but there is no need to use additional symbols when this is not necessary.) 31-Aug.-2015

These 16 vowels are listed below in the second column, with sample words shown in the first column. Those with a breve ˘ over them, /ă,ĕ,ĭ,ŏ,ŭ,ŏŏ/, are those vowels that historically were short vowels in English (and still are in British English), while those with a macron ˉ over them, /ā,ē,ī,ō,ōō/, are those vowels that historically were long vowels in English (and still are in British English). In American English these vowels are no longer phonetically long or short, though the “short” ones tend to be phonetically lax, and the “long” ones tense. As a general rule the short/lax ones do not occur at the end of a word or syllable, only before a consonant; this rule has no exceptions in British English, though it does seem to have a few in American English. (The remaining Ordinary Stressed Vowels /ä/, /â/ (in Greater New York City and Atlantic Midland), /ô/, /oi/, and /ou/ fit in more with the long/tense group in terms of their pronunciation, history, and distribution.) (See also the section How I Use the IPA (and how I don’t) for more discussion about this.) 10-Nov.-2015

The remaining columns show what happens to vowels before final r, showing the “R-colored” vowels used in most of North America, and showing the Southern System in the final column, representing the system used in much of the South, which does not have “R-colored” vowels.

(I have included the IPA equivalents of these vowels in brackets [ ] as well. However, keep in mind that the actual pronunciation of a given phonemic vowel may vary greatly from region to region. For example, the /ŏ/ vowel is pronounced as [a], an open front unrounded vowel, in much of the Inland North, but is pronounced as [ɔ], an open-mid back rounded vowel, in England. A whole gamut of vowel sounds in between these two occurs somewhere in North America: in much of Canada and in some other “cot”=“caught” areas the pronunciation is [ɒ], whereas most others use [ɑ] or [a] or something in between. Many other vowels have similar variants. The most distinctive Southern pronunciation is shown in a separate column. However, keep in mind that I have not listed all possible variants for any region.) 3-July-2010

If anyone finds that any of the symbols in the chart do not display properly on their web browsers, please let me know. Most of them are standard Unicode characters.

On Android phones and tablets: up until Android version 4.3 in 2013, in the standard Android browser and in Chrome the symbols /ȯ/, one of the R-colored vowels below, and uppercase /Ə/, used in the phonemic respelling section, did not display correctly. And up until version 5 they still hadn’t fixed a few of the IPA characters, like [ᵿ], which I use to show the Southern pronunciation of the vowel in “boot”, nor had they fixed other font problems, like for Ancient Greek, leaving me frustrated with my Android phone for a long time! However, now in version 5 they finally seem to have fixed all of these issues. However, if you have an older version of Android the solution is simple: just use the Firefox browser, which displays these characters properly in spite of Android. 31-Aug.-2015

 

Ordinary Stressed Vowels

 

“R-colored” Stressed Vowels

                Final                Wells                (sample words)

phonemic

IPA

 

 

IPA

South ††

 

keepers

droppers

Southern System

beat        bee                fleece                 feel

ē

[i]

 

 

[ɪi]

 

fear, pier,
peer, near

îr

[ɪɹ]

[ɪə]

intermediate
between /ē/ and /ĭ/

/ēər/ [ɪiə(ɹ)], rhymes with “skier”

bit                           kit                fill

ĭ

[ɪ]

 

 

[iə]

 

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bait         bay                face                 fail

ā

[eɪ/e]

 

 

[ɛɪ]

 

fair, bear,
care, square,
pair, hair

âr

[eɹ]

[eə]

(British

[ɛə])

For most speakers
intermediate between
/ā/ and /ĕ/,
but [eə(ɹ)] in GNYC,
Atlantic Midland,
and E. New England

/ăr/ [æɹ/æə]: “hairy”=“Harry” /hărĭ/ [ˈhæɹɪ]

which rhyme with “marry” /mărĭ/ [ˈmæɹɪ],

but “merry” /mĕrĭ/ [ˈmeɹɪ] and

“Mary” /rĭ/ [ˈmɛɪɹɪ] are different.

bet                          dress                fell

ĕ

[ɛ]

 

 

[e]

 

bat                          trap                had

ă

[æ]

 

[æ(ɪə)]

 

                                                bad                man

â

[eə]

(GNYC,

Atlantic Midland)

 

 

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                ah                palm                father                Bach’s

ä

[a/ɑə]

(E. New England

[a], GNYC [ɑə])

 

 

far, farther,
heart, start

är

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

[a/ɑ/ɑə]

Nearly everyone has this![17]

/är/ [ɑɹ/ɑə(ɹ)/ɒɹ] for many speakers,

/ôr/ [ɔə(ɹ)] for others

cot                          lot                bother                box
                                                doll, yacht, watch

ŏ

[a/ɑ/ɒ/ɒəENE]

 

[ɑ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

caught    awe                thought                                balks
                paw                                fall, cough, talk

ô

[ɒ/ɔ/oə/ɒəENE]

(Eastern U.S.

See map.)

[ɒʊ]

 

for, horse,
morning, north

ôr **

[ɔɹ]

[ɒəENE]

See ANAE map 8.2

/är/ [ɑɹ/ɑə(ɹ)/ɒɹ] for many speakers,

/ôr/ [ɔə(ɹ)] for others

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

boat        toe                goat                foal

ō

[o(ʊ)]

 

 

[əʊ]

 

four, hoarse,
mourning, force

ȯr **

[oɹ]

[oə]

For most speakers,
intermediate between
/ô/ and /ō/

/ôər/ [ɒʊə(ɹ)], rhymes with “rawer”

/ȯr/ [oə(ɹ)] in much of New Orleans

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

cut                          strut                rush, love, rough

ŭ

[ʌ]

 

 

[ə]

 

fur, urge, nurse,
term, firm,
word, heard

ûr

[ɝ]

[ɝ/ɜ/ɜɪ]

Varies.

/ûr/ [ɝ] or /ŭr/ [ʌɹ] or /ŏŏy/ [ɜɪ]

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

foot                        foot                full, took, put, bush

ŏŏ *

[ʊ]

 

 

[ʏ]

 

poor, tour

cure, pure

ŏŏr

(yŏŏr)

[ʊɹ],

etc.

([jʊɹ])

[ʊə],

etc.

([jʊə])

Many lack this,
using /ōōər/, /ȯr/,
or /ûr/ instead

/ōōər/ [ᵿʉə(ɹ)],

“poor” often /ər/ [ˈpʰɒʊə(ɹ)]

boot        true                goose                fool, spook
                through

ōō *

[u]

 

 

[ᵿʉ]

 

(cute)      cue                                beauty
                you

(yōō)

[ju]

 

 

[ɪʊ]

 

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bite         by                price

ī

[aɪ/ɑɪ]

 

 

[a/aɛ/aɪ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bout        now                mouth

ou

[æʊ/aʊ/ɑʊ]

 

 

[æə]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hoyt       boy                choice                noise

oi

[ɔɪ]

 

 

[ɒʊɛ/ɔɛ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vowel that Only Occurs in Weak (Completely Unstressed) Syllables

 

“R-colored” Vowel that Only Occurs in Weak (Completely Unstressed) Syllables

about, item, civil, gallop, circus

ə

[ə]

 

 

[ə]

 

butter, motor, solar

ər

[ɚ]

[ə]

 

Same

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Other Vowels that Can Occur in Weak (Completely Unstressed) Syllables

 

 

permit (noun), colic, impose

ĭ

[ɪ]

 

 

[ɪ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

funny, linear

ē (ĭ) ºº

[i] ([ɪ])

 

 

[i/ɪ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

situate, fruition, issue

ōō º

[u/ʊ]

 

 

[u/ʊ/əw/ə]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

billowing, pillow, potato

ō º

[o/ʊ]

 

 

[o/ʊ/əw/ə]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(17-Dec.-2015)

Black: The black vowels are those which all Americans have as distinct vowels.

 

Red: The red vowels are those which many but not all Americans have, as distinguished from the other vowels. I decided to make /ŏ/ the default vowel of the /ä/ŏ/ô/ group for all but Eastern New England, since for those who make the distinction it is by far the most common. In other words, for those who say all three the same, only /ŏ/ will be used in the phonemic spelling. However, in Eastern New England it makes more sense to make the default vowel /ô/, because of the way it interacts with a following dropped r; e.g. “wad” and “ward” are pronounced the same in Eastern New England, but nowhere else in the world! They both come out [ˈwɒəd], which phonemically would be /wôd/ or perhaps /wô(r)d/. 17-Dec.-2015

Green: The green vowels are those which a small minority of Americans have, as distinguished from the other vowels, in particular regions or dialects.

 

†† The pronunciation given here shows the most distinctive Southern pronunciation, specifically those areas which have experienced both Stage 2 and Stage 3 of the Southern Shift, as shown on Map 18.6 in ANAE chapter 18. Stage 2 covers most of the South, whereas Stage 3 only covers much of Alabama and parts of neighboring states. These stages are independent of and cut across the boundary between Inland Southern and Lowland Southern. 8-July-2013

 

* These two sounds are actually spelled as // and // instead of /ŏŏ/ and /ōō/ in the AHD and most other dictionary pronunciation systems, but since there is not a practical way to display such a combination in Unicode, I have followed the example of this web site (part of reference.com, though they do not now use the AHD pronunciation system), and this Wikipedia page, which is one of the most complete treatments of the system. (Technically there is a way to do // and // in Unicode, as contributor Brian Ewins showed me[18], but I have tried them in various browsers, and they will not display consistently.) 11-Mar.-2016

 

** Actually, some speakers have /ôr/ instead of /ȯr/, but all speakers have one or the other! See The horse-hoarse Merger and the card-cord merger. 17-Dec.-2015

 

The /yōō/ sound is not a single sound, but is simply /y/ followed by /ōō/.[19] Thus, there really is no “long /ū/” vowel. Similarly, /yŏŏr/ is simply /y/ followed by /ŏŏr/.

 

ºº This vowel is often pronounced as /ĭ/ [ɪ] by Southern Americans and Britishers. 8-Feb.-2013

 

º According to Merriam-Webster, these two vowels are actually pronounced the same, and are more properly represented as a neutral weak diphthong /əw/. They may be right for many speakers, and are probably right for me in many cases, but no other dictionary that I have found agrees with them. They are probably right for most Southerners, and possibly for most Britishers. 8-Feb.-2013

 

[ENE] Pronunciations marked with this are only found in Eastern New England. 17-Dec.-2015

 

How Many Consonants are there?
(1-Aug.-2012)

The answer to this one is a bit less complicated, but again the answer is not based on the traditional English alphabet. Most English speakers have 24. (The /hw/ [ʍ] sound, which is usually spelled “wh” in English, is really just a combination of /h/ followed by /w/, and was originally spelled this way in Old English. Most English speakers no longer have this sound, though I and many other older speakers do in many parts of North America, and in certain regions, particularly the South, nearly all speakers do.) 8-July-2013

The AHD uses /th/, in italics, for the voiced “th” sound, as in “this” (which is different from the voiceless “th” sound, as in “thin”), and for a long time I did the same on this page, but I am now using /ŧħ/ for this sound, for several reasons, one of which is that using a formatting feature like italics limits the places this writing system can be used, and anyway I would prefer to keep italics for their usual purpose. 31-Aug.-2015

Note that the letters c, q, and x are not listed. This is because they are simply different ways of spelling sounds already listed: /k/ or /s/, /kw/, and /ks/ or /gz/. I show the comparison below:

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

 

 

Dictionary symbol

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

th

ŧħ

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

IPA

b

tʃ*

d

f

ɡ

h

k*

l

m

n

ŋ

p*

ɹ

s

ʃ

t*

θ

ð

v

w

j

z

ʒ

 

(ʍ)

 

 

church”,

“nature”

 

 

 

 

judge”

 

 

 

 

“sing”,

“singer”,

“finger”

 

 

 

shush”,

“nation”

 

thin”,

“bath

this”,

“bathe”

 

 

 

 

“pleasure”,

“vision”,

genre”,

“rouge”

 

(“which”,

whale”)

*These often have an aspirated allophone, e.g. [kʰ], which I have represented in the phonetic guide for many names, though not in the phonemic guide.

(31-Aug.-2015)

 

The Stress Pattern of English, and How it Messes with the Pronunciation
(8-Feb.-2013)

American English (and most other varieties of English) has three levels of stress on each syllable of a word, primary stress, secondary stress, or no stress. Only one syllable in the word can have primary stress, and this is the syllable that is pronounced with the greatest intensity or loudness. The other syllables can have either secondary stress or no stress. An example is the word “counterrevolutionary”, pronounced /kountərrĕvəlōōshənârē/ [ˌkʰaʊɾ̃ɚˌɹɛvəˈluʃəˌneɹi]. This word has 8 syllables, divided with hyphens as /koun-tər-rĕv-ə-lōō-shə-nâr-ē/ [ˌkʰaʊ-ɾ̃ɚ-ˌɹɛv-ə-ˈlu-ʃə-ˌneɹ-i]. It has one syllable with primary stress, /lōō/ [ˈlu], marked with bold and underline in the dictionary spelling and with [ˈ] before it in the IPA. It has three syllables with secondary stress, syllables 1, 3, and 7, marked with bold in the dictionary spelling and with [ˌ] before them in the IPA, and four with no stress, syllables 2, 4, 6, and 8. As is true with many words in English, especially long ones, every other syllable is weak (unstressed). 10-Aug.-2013

In stressed syllables (whether primary or secondary) all of the Stressed Vowels in the chart above can occur, but in completely unstressed syllables (weak syllables) in English a phenomenon called vowel weakening or neutralization occurs. As a result, most of the vowels in these syllables are weakened or neutralized to the vowel /ə/, and the rest of the vowels are weakened or neutralized to a very small group, listed under “Other Vowels that Can Occur in Weak (Completely Unstressed) Syllables” above. This vowel weakening is a characteristic of English in particular (though it does occur in other languages as well), but it does not occur at all in some languages, like Spanish, which makes it especially hard for English speakers to speak good Spanish or vice versa, since they are each always subconsciously trying to apply their own pattern to the other language. 22-Mar.-2013

We can see this weakening process in action in many groups of words in English. For example, “melody”, “melodious”, and “melodic” are spelled as if they should have the same vowel sounds, but in fact they do not, being /mĕlədē/ [ˈmɛlədi], /mədēəs/ [məˈloʊdiəs], and /məlŏdĭk/ [məˈlɑdɪk]. The vowel in the second syllable has three pronunciations, two stressed and one unstressed (weak), and the vowel in the first syllable has two. Spanish has equivalents of these three words, “melodía, melodioso, melódico”, but unlike English, the vowels are pronounced exactly as they are spelled in IPA, with no changes at all in the vowel quality, even though the stress falls on a different syllable in each word. 22-Mar.-2013

So, just to see if you’ve got the idea, take the word “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious”, invented for the Walt Disney movie Mary Poppins. How many syllables does it have? Which syllables are completely unstressed (weak)? Which syllable has the primary stress? The answers can be found in the endnote.[20] 22-Mar.-2013

 

R-coloring
(8-July-2013)

In the vowel section above, we saw that there are a limited number of vowel sounds that can come before /r/ at the end of a word, or when the /r/ comes before another consonant, and that these are usually “colored” by the /r/, that is, they are changed so that they don’t really match any of the ordinary vowels. (These vowels are also known as “r-controlled vowels”.[21]) Some speakers have as few as 5 of these r-colored vowels in stressed syllables, others have 6 or 7, and this variation is found in both North America and Great Britain. 11-Mar.-2016

What about words like “hire” or “sour”? Aren’t these additional vowels that can come before /r/? At first glance it might seem so, but in fact, in most if not all English dialects, these words actually rhyme with words like “higher” and “power”, meaning that they are actually two-syllable words pronounced /ər/ [ˈhaɪɚ] and /souər/ [ˈsaʊɚ], so no new vowel before /r/ occurs.

For r-droppers the /r/ itself is usually dropped, but the vowel still remains unique, in most cases different from the ordinary vowels.

 

Vowels Before /r/ in One-syllable Words[22]

 

r-colored vowels →

îr

âr

är

ôr

ȯr

 

ûr

 

ŏŏr

(yŏŏr)

word final:

fear

jeer

beard

fierce

fair

mare

there

their

far

card

barn

heart

for

war

cord

horse

four

bore

cored

hoarse

her

were

heard

fern

fir

bird

first

dirt

fur

curd

burn

purse

poor

tour

boor

lure

(cure)

(pure)

(demure)

Scottish pronunciation, not r-colored →

ēr

ār

ăr

ôr

ōr

ĕr

ĭr

ŭr

ōōr

(yōōr)

(original system)

[iɾ]

[eɾ]

[aɾ]

[ɔɾ]

[oɾ]

[ɛɾ]

[ɪɾ]

[ʌɾ]

[ʉɾ]

[jʉɾ]

(11-Mar.-2016)

 

Originally these r’s were not colored, but were just like all the other vowels, and at least one dialect retains this old system, Scottish English, which does not color these vowels at all, pronouncing them instead very much the way they are spelled. This system can be seen at the bottom of the table above. 11-Mar.-2016

Thus in Scotland “bird” has a vowel close to that of “beard” for many Americans, whereas “beard” has the same vowel as “beet”! (I have shown all of the /r/s in the Scottish pronunciation in the preceding chart as [ɾ], an alveolar flap, though the [ɹ] used in North America is also common in Scotland.) 11-Mar.-2016

 

The following chart shows how this system works in a selection of dialects, both in and outside of North America. Those items in dark red have a one-syllable r-colored vowel. Those items in orange have a two-syllable r-colored vowel sequence (these do not actually add any new distinct vowels to the system). Those items in blue are not r-colored in the indicated dialect, but are r-colored by many Americans. In each column the number and nature of the one-syllable r-colored vowels is given at the top of the column. As always on this page, if you know for sure that I have the pronunciation of one of these words wrong, please let me know. 11-Mar.-2016

 

 

Standard British:

6 r-colored vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/

(Older and regional has

7, like Eastern

New England.)

Greater New

York City:

6 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/

Eastern New

England:

7 r-colored vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ȯr,ûr,ŏŏr/[23]

Scottish:

No r‑colored

vowels

Older Southern:[24]

No distinct one‑syllable

r‑colored vowels

except sometimes /ûr/

New Orleans

My pattern,

General American:

6 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/[25]

My wife,

West Midland:

5 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr/ [25]

fear, jeer, beard, fierce

/fîr/ [ˈfɪə][26]

/fîr/ [ˈfɪə] [26]

/fîr/ [ˈfɪə] [26]

/fēr/ [ˈfiɾ]

/ə(r)/ [ˈfɪiə(ɹ)]

/fîr/ [ˈfɪə] [26]

/fîrər/ [ˈfɪɹɚ]

/fîrər/ [ˈfɪɹɚ]

fair, mare, there, their

/fâr/ [ˈfɛə]

/fâr/ [ˈfeə]

/fâr/ [ˈfeə]

/fār/ [ˈfeɾ]

/făr/ [ˈfæɪ] or [ˈfæə]

/fâr/ [ˈfeə]

/fâr/ [ˈfeɹ]

/fâr/ [ˈfeɹ]

far, card, barn, heart

/fär/ [ˈfɑː]

/fär/ [ˈfɑə]

/fär/ [ˈfa]

/făr/ [ˈfaɾ]

/fôr/ [ˈfɒɹ] or // [ˈfɒʊ]

/fôr/ [ˈfɔə]

/fär/ [ˈfɑɹ]

/fär/ [ˈfɑɹ]

for, war, cord, horse

/fôr/ [ˈfoː]

/fôr/ [ˈfoə]

/fôr/ [ˈfɒə]

/fôr/ [ˈfɔɾ]

/fôr/ [ˈfɒɹ] or // [ˈfɒʊ]

/fôr/ [ˈfɔə]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoɹ]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoɹ]

four, bore, cored, hoarse

/fôr/ [ˈfoː]

(or /fȯr/ [ˈfoə])

/fôr/ [ˈfoə]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoə]

/fōr/ [ˈfoɾ]

/ə/ [ˈfɒʊə(ɹ)]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoə]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoɹ]

/fȯr/ [ˈfoɹ]

her, were, heard, fern

/hûr/ [ˈhɜː]

/hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

/hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

/hĕr/ [ˈhɛɾ]

/hŭr/ [ˈhʌɹ] or /hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

/hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

/hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

/hûr/ [ˈhɝ]

fir, bird, first, dirt

/fûr/ [ˈfɜː]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fĭr/ [ˈfɪɾ]

/fŭr/ [ˈfʌɹ] or /fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

fur, curd, burn, purse

/fûr/ [ˈfɜː]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fŭr/ [ˈfʌɾ]

/fŭr/ [ˈfʌɹ] or /fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

/fûr/ [ˈfɝ]

poor

/pŏŏr/ [ˈpʰʊə]

/pŏŏr/ [ˈpʰʊə]

/pŏŏr/ [ˈpʰʊə]

/pōōr/ [ˈpʰʉɾ]

/ə(r)/ [ˈpʰɒʊə(ɹ)]

/pŏŏr/ [ˈpʰʊə]??

/pŏŏr/ [ˈpʰʊɹ]

/pȯr/ [ˈpʰoɹ]

tour, lure

/tŏŏr/ [ˈtʰʊə]

/tŏŏr/ [ˈtʰʊə]

/tŏŏr/ [ˈtʰʊə]

/tōōr/ [ˈtʰʉɾ]

/tōōə(r)/ [ˈtʰᵿʉə(ɹ)]

/tŏŏr/ [ˈtʰʊə]

/tŏŏr/ [ˈtʰʊɹ]

/tōōər/ [ˈtʰuɚ]

(cure), (pure), (demure)

/kyŏŏr/ [ˈkʰjʊə]

/kyŏŏr/ [ˈkʰjʊə]

/kyŏŏr/ [ˈkʰjʊə]

/kyōōr/ [ˈkʰyʉɾ]

/kyōōə(r)/ [ˈkʰjᵿʉə(ɹ)]

/kyŏŏr/ [ˈkʰjʊə]

/kyŏŏr/ [ˈkʰjʊɹ]

/kyōōər/ [ˈkʰjuɚ]

fire, tire

/ər/ [ˈfaɪə]

/ər/ [ˈfɑɪə]

/ər/ [ˈfaɪə]

/r/ [ˈfʌɪɾ]??

/r/ [ˈfaɹ] or /ər/ [ˈfaɪə]

/ər/ [ˈfaɪə]

/ər/ [ˈfaɪɚ]

/ər/ [ˈfaɪɚ]

sour, hour

/souər/ [ˈsaʊə]

/souər/ [ˈsaʊə]

/souər/ [ˈsaʊə]

/sour/ [ˈsʌʊɾ]

/souər/ [ˈsæʊə(ɹ)]

/souər/ [ˈsæʊə]

/souər/ [ˈsæʊɚ]

/souər/ [ˈsæʊɚ]

(11-Mar.-2016)

 

See The horse-hoarse Merger and the card-cord Merger. 11-Mar.-2016

 

R’s Between Vowels: To Color or Not to Color
(8-July-2013)

Okay, but what about r’s in the middle of words, with a vowel on both sides? Are the vowels before the /r/ still limited to these few r-colored vowels in the dialects that color their r’s? Well, no, certainly not, we can have words like “rerun”, “payroll”, and “prorate”. In other words, vowels that commonly occur at the end of a word, especially the historically long vowels, can freely occur before an /r/ in the middle of a word, when there is a clear syllable break before the r. 17-Dec.-2015

But what about the historically short vowels like /ă,ĕ,ĭ,ŏ,ŭ/? Surprisingly, these do occur in many dialects, especially in Britain but also in parts of eastern North America, but most Americans replace them with the r-colored vowels. Thus, the word “marry” is pronounced /mărē/ [ˈmæɹi] by Britishers and by many speakers in the Eastern U.S., From Maine to the South (and apparently also in Montreal), and most of these speakers would pronounce the words “marry”, “merry”, and “Mary” with three different vowels, but most Americans pronounce all three of these exactly the same, as /mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]. This feature of allowing /ă,ĕ,ĭ,ŏ,ŭ/ to occur before /r/ in the middle of a word (but not at the end) is one of the features that makes speakers from the east coast sound different from other Americans, even in the case of radio and television personalities who have otherwise modified their speech to General American. So how many vowels can come before an r followed by another vowel? It varies hugely from one dialect to the next! 17-Dec.-2015

The following chart shows a lot of these variations, though there are certainly others. Those items in black are not r-colored in any dialect. Those items in dark red have a one-syllable r-colored vowel. Those items in orange have a two-syllable r-colored vowel sequence (these do not actually add any new distinct vowels to the system). Those items in blue are not r-colored in the indicated dialect, but are r-colored by many Americans. In each column the number and nature of the one-syllable r-colored vowels is given at the top of the column. This does not count “tiring”, in which the r-coloring is two syllables, not one. As always on this page, if you know for sure that I have the pronunciation of one of these words wrong, please let me know. 21-Aug.-2013

 

 

Standard British:

6 r-colored vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/

(Older and regional has

7, like Eastern

New England.)

Greater New

York City:

6 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/

Eastern New

England:

7 r-colored vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ȯr,ûr,ŏŏr/ [23]

Scottish:

No r‑colored

vowels

 

Older Southern: [24]

No distinct one‑syllable

r‑colored vowels

except sometimes /ûr/

 

My pattern,

General American:

6 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr,ŏŏr/ [25]

My wife,

West Midland:

5 r-colored

vowels:

/îr,âr,är,ôr,ûr/ [25]

Rerun

/rŭn/ [ˈɹiːˌɹʌn]

/rŭn/ [ˈɹiˌɹʌn]

/rŭn/ [ˈɹiˌɹʌn]

/rŭn/ [ˈɾiˌɾʌn]

 

/rŭn/ [ˈɹɪiˌɹʌn]

 

/rŭn/ [ˈɹiˌɹʌn]

/rŭn/ [ˈɹiˌɹʌn]

hero, zero, Nero

/hîrō/ [ˈhɪəɹəʊ]

/hîrō/ [ˈhɪəɹoʊ]

/hîrō/ [ˈhɪəɹoʊ]

// [ˈhiˌɾo]

 

// [ˈhɪiˌɹəʊ]

 

/hîrō/ [ˈhɪɹoʊ]

/hērō/ [ˈhiɹoʊ]

hearer, weary, nearing

/hîrə/ [ˈhɪəɹə]

/hîrə/ [ˈhɪəɹə]

/hîrə/ [ˈhɪəɹə]

/hērər/ [ˈhiɾəɾ]

 

/hērə(r)/ [ˈhɪiɹə(ɹ)]

 

/hîrər/ [ˈhɪɹɚ]

/hîrər/ [ˈhɪɹɚ]

mirror, miracle, pirouette

/mĭrə/ [ˈmɪɹə]

/mĭrə/ [ˈmɪɹə]

/mĭrə/ [ˈmɪɹə]

/mĭrər/ [ˈmɪɾəɾ]

 

/mĭrə/ [ˈmiəɹə]

 

/mîrər/ [ˈmɪɹɚ]

/mîrər/ [ˈmɪɹɚ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

payroll

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeɪˌɹəʊl]

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeɪˌɹoʊl]

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeɪˌɹoʊl]

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeˌɾol]

 

/rōl/ [ˈpʰɛɪˌɹəʊl]

 

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeɪˌɹoʊl]

/rōl/ [ˈpʰeɪˌɹoʊl]

Mary, vary, Sarah, pharaoh

/mârĭ/ [ˈmɛəɹɪ]

/mârē/ [ˈmeəɹi]

/mârē/ [ˈmeəɹi]

/rĭ/ [ˈmeɾɪ]

 

/rĭ/ [ˈmɛɪɹɪ]

 

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

scary, hairy, parent, caring

/skârĭ/ [ˈskɛəɹɪ]

/skârē/ [ˈskeəɹi]

/skârē/ [ˈskeəɹi]

/skārĭ/ [ˈskeɾɪ]

 

/skărĭ/ [ˈskæɹɪ]

 

/skârē/ [ˈskeɹi]

/skârē/ [ˈskeɹi]

merry, very, heritage

/mĕrĭ/ [ˈmeɹɪ]

/mĕrē/ [ˈmɛɹi]

/mĕrē/ [ˈmɛɹi]

/mĕrĭ/ [ˈmɛɾɪ]

 

/mĕrĭ/ [ˈmeɹɪ]

 

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

marry, Harry, narrow, parish

/mărĭ/ [ˈmæɹɪ]

/mărē/ [ˈmæɹi]

/mărē/ [ˈmæɹi]

/mărĭ/ [ˈmaɾɪ]

 

/mărĭ/ [ˈmæɹɪ]

 

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

/mârē/ [ˈmeɹi]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

starry, sparring

/stärĭ/ [ˈstɑːɹɪ]

/stärē/ [ˈstɑəɹi]

/stärē/ [ˈstaɹi]

/stărĭ/ [ˈstaɾɪ]

 

/stärĭ/ [ˈstɑɹɪ]

 

/stärē/ [ˈstɑɹi]

/stärē/ [ˈstɑɹi]

sorry, borrow

/sŏrĭ/ [ˈsɔɹɪ]

/sŏrē/ [ˈsaɹi]

/sôrē/ [ˈsɒəɹi]

/sŏrĭ/ [ˈsɔɾɪ]

 

/särĭ/ [ˈsɑɹɪ]

 

/särē/ [ˈsɑɹi]

/särē/ [ˈsɑɹi]

foreign, coral, horrible, Florida

/fŏrĭn/ [ˈfɔɹɪn]

/fŏrən/ [ˈfaɹən]

/fôrən/ [ˈfɒəɹən]

/fŏrən/ [ˈfɔɾən]

 

/färən/ [ˈfɑɹən]

 

/fȯrən/ [ˈfoɹən]

/fȯrən/ [ˈfoɹən]

drawing, sawing[27]

/drôrĭng/ [ˈdɹoːɹɪŋ]

/drôrĭng/ [ˈdɹoəɹɪŋ]

/drôrĭng/ [ˈdɹɒəɹɪŋ]

 

 

 

 

 

 

boring, choral, story, glory

/bôrĭng/ [ˈboːɹɪŋ]

(or /bȯrĭng/ [ˈboəɹɪŋ])

/bôrĭng/ [ˈboəɹɪŋ]

/bȯrĭng/ [ˈboəɹɪŋ]

/bōrĭng/ [ˈboɾɪŋ]

 

/bôrēng/ [ˈbɒʊɹiŋ]

 

/bȯrĭng/ [ˈboɹɪŋ]

/bȯrĭng/ [ˈboɹɪŋ]

prorate

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹəʊˌɹeɪt]

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹoʊˌɹeɪt]

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹoʊˌɹeɪt]

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɾoˌɾet]

 

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹəʊˌɹɛɪt]

 

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹoʊˌɹeɪt]

/prōrāt/ [ˈpʰɹoʊˌɹeɪt]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hurry, worry, courage, nourish

/hŭrĭ/ [ˈhʌɹɪ]

/hŭrē/ [ˈhʌɹi]

/hŭrē/ [ˈhʌɹi]

/hŭrĭ/ [ˈhʌɾɪ]

 

/hŭrĭ/ [ˈhʌɹɪ] or /hûrĭ/ [ˈhɝɪ]

 

/hûrē/ [ˈhɝi]

/hûrē/ [ˈhɝi]

furry, blurry, whirring

/fûrĭ/ [ˈfɜːɹɪ]

/fûrē/ [ˈfɝi]

/fûrē/ [ˈfɝi]

/fŭrĭ/ [ˈfʌɾɪ]

 

/fŭrĭ/ [ˈfʌɹɪ] or /fûrĭ/ [ˈfɝɪ]

 

/fûrē/ [ˈfɝi]

/fûrē/ [ˈfɝi]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

touring, curing

/tŏŏrĭng/ [ˈtʰʊəɹɪŋ]

/tŏŏrĭng/ [ˈtʰʊəɹɪŋ]

/tŏŏrĭng/ [ˈtʰʊəɹɪŋ]

/tōōrĭng/ [ˈtʰʉɾɪŋ]

 

/tōōrēng/ [ˈtʰᵿʉɹɪŋ]

 

/tŏŏrĭng/ [ˈtʰʊɹɪŋ]

/tōōərĭng/ [ˈtʰuəɹɪŋ]

Blu-ray

/blōō/ [ˈbluːˌɹeɪ]

/blōō/ [ˈbluˌɹeɪ]

/blōō/ [ˈbluˌɹeɪ]

/blōō/ [ˈblʉˌɾe]

 

/blōō/ [ˈblᵿʉˌɹɛɪ]

 

/blōō/ [ˈbluˌɹeɪ]

/blōō/ [ˈbluˌɹeɪ]

eurhythmics

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjuːˈɹɪðmɪks]

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjuˈɹɪðmɪks]

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjuˈɹɪðmɪks]

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjʉˈɾɪðmɪks]

 

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjᵿʉˈɹiəðmɪks]

 

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjuˈɹɪðmɪks]

/yōōrĭŧħmĭks/

        [ˌjuˈɹɪðmɪks]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

tiring

/ərĭng/ [ˈtʰaɪɚɪŋ]

/ərĭng/ [ˈtʰɑɪɚɪŋ]

/ərĭng/ [ˈtʰaɪɚɪŋ]

/rĭng/ [ˈtʰʌɪɾɪŋ]??

 

/rēng/ [ˈtʰaɹiŋ]

 

/ərĭng/ [ˈtʰaɪɚɪŋ]

/ərĭng/ [ˈtʰaɪɚɪŋ]

pirate, gyrate, siren

/ərĭt/ [ˈpʰaɪɚɪt][28]

/rət/ [ˈpʰɑɪɹət]

/rət/ [ˈpʰaɪɹət]

/rĭt/ [ˈpʰʌɪɾɪt]

 

/rĭt/ [ˈpʰaɹɪt]

 

/rət/ [ˈpʰaɪɹət]

/rət/ [ˈpʰaɪɹət]

tie-rack

/răk/ [ˈtʰaɪˌɹæk]

/răk/ [ˈtʰɑɪˌɹæk]

/răk/ [ˈtʰaɪˌɹæk]

/răk/ [ˈtʰʌɪˌɾæk]

 

/răk/ [ˈtʰaˌɹæɪk]

 

/răk/ [ˈtʰaɪˌɹæk]

/răk/ [ˈtʰaɪˌɹæk]

cowrie

/kourĭ/ [ˈkʰaʊɹɪ]

/kourē/ [ˈkʰaʊɹi]

/kourē/ [ˈkʰɑʊɹi]

/kourĭ/ [ˈkʰʌʊɾɪ]

 

/kourĭ/ [ˈkʰæʊɹɪ]

 

/kourē/ [ˈkʰaʊɹi]

/kourē/ [ˈkʰaʊɹi]

Moira

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɹə]

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɹə]

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɹə]

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɾə]

 

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɛɹə]

 

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɹə]

/moirə/ [ˈmɔɪɹə]

(11-Mar.-2016)

See The horse-hoarse Merger and the card-cord Merger. 11-Mar.-2016

 

As you can see, the first three columns have an almost identical system, differing only in a few minor details. The same is true of the last two columns. Southern and Scottish stand entirely on their own, and in fact have more similarities with each other than they have with any of the others. 17-Dec.-2015

 

The horse-hoarse Merger and the card-cord Merger
(11-Mar.-2016)

As was seen in the R-Coloring section above, originally in English the sets of words in each row of the chart on the right were all pronounced differently, with distinct vowel sounds before the “r”.

A very limited number of speakers, both in and outside of North America, still maintain this three-way distinction.

However, most speakers of English, both in and outside of North America, have merged the pronunciations of the second and third columns. This is called the horse-hoarse merger. However, in quite a variety of dialects, again both in and outside of North America, this merger did not take place, and these word pairs are still distinguished. This is explained in great detail in this Wikipedia article in the horse-hoarse merger section, as well as on ANAE map 8.2 and in the information describing it.

On the other hand, a small percentage of speakers, apparently only found in parts of the United States, have merged the pronunciations of the first and second columns. This is called the card-cord merger. However, in quite a variety of dialects, again both in and outside of North America, this merger did not take place, and these word pairs are still distinguished. This is explained in some detail in this Wikipedia article in the card-cord merger section, as well as in ANAE chapter 8 on pages 52 and 53, though in both cases there is no map, and the description is incomplete. 30-Sep.-2016

For most of those who still make this three-way distinction, the vowel sound used is that shown at the top of the column in each case. However, for those who have one or the other of the mergers, the situation is somewhat complicated, and North American speakers and most others fall into five groups, as shown in the chart below.

 

/är/

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

/ôr/

[ɔɹ]

/ȯr/

[oɹ]

 

far

for

four

 

are

or

oar

 

card

cord

cored

 

barn

born

borne

 

farce

horse

hoarse

 

darning

morning

mourning

 

farmer

former

 

 

merger

far

for

four

Diagnosis and Description

Where

“cot”=“caught”?

horse-

hoarse

/är/

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

/ȯr/

[oɹ]

1) You fall into this group if the second and third columns in the chart at upper right are pronounced the same, but the vowel before the r is not the same as the vowel sound in “caught” or “lawn” or “saw”.

Most speakers in North America and England (but not Scotland or Ireland), except as specified below.

can be same

or different

merger

/är/

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

/ôr/

[ɔɹ]

2) You fall into this group if the second and third columns in the chart at upper right are pronounced the same, and the vowel before the r is the same vowel sound as in “caught” or “lawn” or “saw”.

Includes Greater New York City, Atlantic Midland, probably some surrounding areas, and perhaps parts of South.

“cot”=“caught”

no

merger

/är/

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

/ôr/

[ɔɹ]

/ȯr/

[oɹ]

3) You fall into this group if all three columns in the chart at upper right are pronounced differently.

The only area I am certain about in North America is Eastern New England. In the British Isles it occurs in Scotland and Ireland, and formerly and perhaps currently in parts of England, though much of England is now group 1. Possibly other parts of the U.S., but see group 4. If you have the three-way distinction, and you grew up in some other parts of the U.S., I would love to know that!

can be same

or different

card-

cord

/är/

[aɹ/ɑɹ/ɒɹ]

/ȯr/

[oɹ]

4) You fall into this group if the first and second columns in the chart at upper right are pronounced the same, but the vowel before the r is not the same as the vowel sound in “caught” or “lawn” or “saw”.

ANAE map 8.2 only shows areas that do not have the horse-hoarse merger, but the discussion on pages 52 and 53 suggests that many of these same areas have the card-cord merger, and I know of other areas that have this merger that are not mentioned in either of my sources mentioned above. In particular, I know for a fact that the merger occurs around Birmingham, Alabama,[29] and the New Orleans samples show that it occurs there also. I suspect that it covers all of the areas on ANAE map 8.2 except New England, plus Salt Lake City.

can be same

or different

merger

/ôr/

[ɔə(ɹ)]

/ȯr/

[oə(ɹ)]

5) You fall into this group if the first and second columns in the chart at upper right are pronounced the same, and the vowel before the r is the same vowel sound as in “caught” or “lawn” or “saw”.

Probably only in the South. Many New Orleans dialects, probably other r-dropping dialects in the South, though probably not most r-keeping dialects in the South.

“cot”=“caught”

both

mergers?

?

It is very unlikely that there is sixth group in which all three columns are pronounced the same, since this would tend to reduce too many distinctions. In this Wikipedia article in the card-cord merger section this idea is stated as a fact: “Dialects with the card–cord merger don’t have the horse–hoarse merger,” though no evidence is set forth. 30-Sep.-2016

If you have both mergers, or know of areas that do, please let me know!

?

For some Southerners “four” may rhyme with “rawer”, in which case “four” would be /ər/ [ˈfɒʊɚ], and they would not actually have the /ȯr/ [oɹ] vowel (however, I need to test this further, since initial testing with some Alabamians did not show this to be true).

 

Writing the Way We Speak

In the phonemic texts below, the dialect provided is my own, without any of the blue vowels in the table in R’s Between Vowels: To Color or Not to Color. In the phonemic texts below, any vowels that would be one of these blue vowels for one of the first two columns above (British or GNYC) is marked in dark red. 17-Dec.-2015

 

Sō kŏŏd wē rīt ŧħə wā wē spēk, yōōzĭng dĭkshənârē sĭmbəlz?
(1-July-2013)

Wē sûrtənlē kŏŏd, ăz ī ăm dōōĭng nou! Ĭn kənĕktəd tĕkst ŧħâr ĭz nō nēd tōō ĭndəkāt hwĭch sĭləbəl ĭz strĕst, sĭns ŧħĭs wĭl yōōzhəlē bē ŏbvēəs. Ăz yōō kən sē, Ĭngglĭsh hăz ə lŏt əv soundz, bət ĕvrē wŭn əv ŧħəm ĭz nēdəd!

 

Soh kuud wee riyt thə way wee speek, yoozing just playn letərz?
(1-July-2013)

Wee surrtənlee kuud, az iy am dooing now! In kənektəd tekst thair iz noh need too indəkayt hwich siləbəl iz strest, sinss this wil yoozhəlee bee obveeəs. Az yoo kən see, Ingglish haz ə lot əv sowndz, bət evree wun əv thəm iz needəd!

Ĭt wŏŏd shûr bē ēzēər tə rīt līk ŧħĭs ĭf ŧħâr wûrnt sō mĕnē spĕshəl kârəktərz! Fȯrchənətlē ŧħâr ĭz ə wĕbsīt ŧħət prəvīdz ə kēbȯrd fər är pûrpəsəz, ăz yōō wĭl sē ĭf yōō klĭk ĭn ŧħə bŏks bəlō ănd trī tīpĭng.

Ăz ŧħə kēbȯrd chärt shōz, shȯrt voulz är prəsēdəd bī ə *, ănd lông voulz bī ə -. Tə gĕt “ə” yōō tīp “=e”, ănd tə gĕt “ŧħ” yōō tīp “-t-h”. Tə pŏŏt ə ˆ ōvər ə voul, sĭmplē tīp “^” bəfȯr ĭt, ănd tə pŏŏt ə ¨ ōvər ə voul, tīp “:” bəfȯr ĭt.

Ĭf ĭt jŭst sēmz tōō kŭmbərsəm tōō ăd ĕvrē sĭnggəl wŭn əv ŧħēz märks, yōō kŏŏd ăkshəlē lēv ôf ŧħə brĕv märks ( ˘ ) ŏn ŧħə shȯrt voulz, ăz sŭm dĭkshənârēz dōō!

(Akshəlee, thair iz wun letər thət iy am yoozing thət izənt ə playn letər, thə letər “ə”, hwich iz ə speshəl kairəktər, bət thats not too haard tə kopee intə yər tekst. Thee ohnlee thhing not in theez chaarts thət iy səjest yoo doo iz tə riyt thə fiynəl “s” sownd az “ss” in sum kaysəz tə keep peepəl frəm thhingking its a “z” sownd. Thair aar sevrəl igzampəlz əv this in theez pairəgrafs.)

Sŭm əv yōō mā thĭngk “Ī sûrtənlē dōnt sā sŭm əv ŧħōz wûrdz ŧħə wā dŭz!” Əv kȯrs yōō dōnt: ŧħâr wĭl bē lŏts əv vârēāshən, ăz ŧħĭs wĕb pāj ănd măp shō! Nō prŏbləm, yōō spĕl thĭngz ŧħə wā yōō sā ŧħəm, ănd īl spēl ŧħəm ŧħə wā ī sā ŧħəm!

Ŧħē ōnlē bĭg prŏbləm mĕnē əv yōō wĭl ĭkspîrēəns wĭl bē ŧħē ĭntərfîrəns əv ŧħə stăndərd spĕlĭng, ŧħō sĭmplē lûrnĭng ôl əv ŧħə spĕlĭngz wĭl ôlsō tāk səm tīm.

Sum əv yoo may thhingk “Iy surrtənlee dohnt say sum əv thohz wurrdz thə way hee duz!” Əv koarss yoo dohnt: thair wil bee lots əv vaireeayshən, az this web payj and map shoh! Noh probləm, yoo spel thhingz thə way yoo say thəm, and iyl speel thəm thə way iy say thəm!

Thee ohnlee big probləm menee əv yoo wil ikspihreeənss wil bee thee intərfihrənss əv thə standərd speling, thoh simplee lurrning awl əv thə spelingz wil awlsoh tayk səm tiym.

Nou plēz ŭndərstănd mē, īm nŏt səjĕstĭng ŧħət wē chānj ŧħĕ spĕlĭng əv Ĭngglĭsh. Mĕnē hăv prəpŏĕzd ŧħĭs thrōō ŧħə yîrz, bŭt ĭn ĕnē kāss ĭt ānt gənə hăpən, ănd wē rĭlē wŏŏdənt wŏnt ĭt tōō, sĭnss ĭt wŏŏd māk ôl ŧħē Ĭngglĭsh bŏŏks ĭn ŧħə wûrld ŏbsəlēt. Bŭt ĭts fŭn tə mĕs əround wĭŧħ!

Ănd ĭf Ĭngglĭsh wûr ən ŭnrĭtən lănggwĭj, līk sō mĕnē thouzəndz əv lănggwĭjəz spōkən əround ŧħə wûrld tədā, ŧħĕn ŧħĭs ĭz ŧħə kīnd əv spĕlĭng sĭstəm ŧħət wŏŏd bē nēdəd tə rīt ĭt, wŭn ĭn whĭch ēch sound ĭz ôlwāz spĕld ŧħə sām wā. Ŧħə rēzən Ĭngglĭsh ĭz nŏt spĕld ĭn ə kənsĭstənt wā ĭz bəkŭz ĭt hăz ə lông hĭstərē, ănd hăz bärōd ə lŏt əv wûrdz frəm ŭŧħər lănggwĭjəz, wĭŧħout əjŭstĭng ŧħâr spĕlĭngz!

Now pleez undərstand mee, iym not səjesting thət wee chaynj the speling əv Ingglish. Menee hav prəpoezd this thhroo thə yihrz, but in enee kayss it aynt gənə hapən, and wee rilee wuudənt wont it too, sinss it wuud mayk awl thee Ingglish buuks in thə wurrld obsəleet. But its fun tə mes ərownd with!

And if Ingglish wurr ən unritən langgwij, liyk soh menee thhowzəndz əv langgwijəz spohkən ərownd thə wurrld təday, then this iz thə kiynd əv speling sistəm thət wuud bee needəd tə riyt it, wun in which eech sownd iz awlwayz speld thə saym way. Thə reezən Ingglish iz not speld in ə kənsistənt way iz bəkuz it haz ə lawng histəree, and haz baarohd ə lot əv wurrdz frəm uthər langgwijəz, withowt əjusting thair spelingz!

 

Iym surrtənlee not thə furrst tə triy it. It turrnz owt thət menee ətempts tə reespel Ingglish fəneemiklee yoozing just thə twunteesiks letərz uv thə standərd alfəbet (withh ə vairee fyoo ədishənz liyk “ə”) hav bin triyd and yoozd, biy dikshənaireez, nooz ayjənseez, and uthər oargənəzayshənz. Ə laarj numbər əv theez aar listəd on this web siyt. Miy sistəm izənt igzaktlee liyk enee əv thəm, but iz kwiyt simələr too ə lot əv thəm, ispeshəlee tə thə koləmz laybəld Wikipedia²”, “MECD”, “WPRK”, “BBC”, and “POD”.

Iy yooz a few spelingz thət aarnt fownd eneehwair in thə kəmpairətiv chaart, in pərtikyələr “iy”, “oar”, “urr”, “uur”, “th”, and “thh”[30], bəkuz iy thhingk thay aar simplee eezeeər tə reed thən thee awlturrnətivz səjestəd. (Iy akshəlee kiynd əv liykt “igh” for /ī/, but in akshooəl yoosəj it looks klunkee.)

(11-Mar.-2016)

 

Click in the box below and try typing, using either of the spelling systems explained above: 1-July-2013

(Move the pop-up keyboard around if it gets in your way. You can also resize the box.) 11-Jan.-2013

$[Pop-up box]$

This text entry tool (KeymanWeb) is provided by Tavultesoft (www.tavultesoft.com). You can type any of these characters or any of over 1,000 languages in any Windows application with Keyman Desktop and any web page with KeymanWeb. Visit www.tavultesoft.com/eurolatin/ for more details.

 

Key to the Spelling Systems
21-Aug.-2013

The following chart compares the two spelling systems. As explained in How Many Vowels are there in American English?, the black vowels are ones all speakers have, many other have the red ones, and a few also have the green ones. (For more details see How Many Vowels are there in American English?.) 8-July-2013

 

Vowels:

Dictionary symbols:

ē

ĭ

ā

ĕ

ă

â

ä

ŏ

ô

ō

ŭ

ŏŏ

ōō

(yōō)

ī

ou

oi

 

ə

 

îr

âr

är

ôr

ȯr

ûr

ŏŏr

(yŏŏr)

ər

Plain letters:

ee

i

ay

e

a

ae

aa

o*

aw

oh

u

uu

oo

(yoo)

iy

ow

oy

 

ə

 

ihr

air

aar

awr

oar

urr

uur

(yuur)

ər

Traditional:

beat

bit

bait

bet

bat

bad

father

cot

caught

boat

cut

foot

boot

(cute)

bite

bout

boy

 

item

 

fear

fair

far

for

four

fur

poor

(cure)

sinner

(31-Aug.-2015)

Dictionary symbols:

*For those speakers who have this vowel {o} but not {aa}, in other words for those who rhyme “father” with “bother” (most North Americans), at the end of a word this vowel must be spelled as {aa} instead of {o}. It should also be spelled {aa} before {h}. Thus “aha” would be spelled {aahaa} rather than {oho}, “ah” would be spelled {aa} rather than {o}, and “la” would be spelled {laa} rather than {lo}. To be consistent we really should spell them all as {aa} rather than {o}, but that would make for far too many cases of {aa}, and this would really end up looking different from our traditional spelling. Since {o} is far more common than {aa} in those dialects that have them both, doing it this way will reduce difficulties for all concerned. 21-Aug.-2013

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Consonants:

Dictionary symbols:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

th

ŧħ

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

Plain letters:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

thh

th

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

Traditional:

 

church,

nature

 

 

 

 

judge

 

 

 

 

sing,

singer,

finger

 

 

 

shush,

nation

 

thin,

bath

this,

bathe

 

 

 

 

pleasure,

vision,

genre,

rouge

 

(which,

whale)

(31-Aug.-2015)

 

You may notice in the above phonemic writing samples that I write several very common words in more than one way. I do this because I pronounce them more than one way, according to some fairly clear rules, and so do most English speakers. All of these are what linguists call function words rather than content words. 14-Jan.-2013

The simplest group of these is shown in the chart below. The unstressed form always has the weak vowel /ə/, whereas the stressed form can have various vowels. This is not an exhaustive list, though such words are quite a small group. 19-June-2013

 

 

 

 

Dictionary Symbols

 

 

Plain Letters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standard

Spelling

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress

with

special

emphasis

Examples

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress

with

special

emphasis

Examples

Comments

“some”

səm

sŭm

Ī sē səm fōōd. Ī wŏnt sŭm!

səm

sum

Iy see səm food. Iy wont sum!

 

“but”

bət

bŭt

Də yōō hăv hăsh? Ī dōnt nō, bət īl chĕk…

Wou, wē sēm tə hăv nŭthĭng bŭt hăsh!

bət

but

Də yoo hav hash? Iy dohnt noh, bət iyl chek…

Wow, wee seem tə hav nuthhing but hash!

 

“can”

kən

kăn

Kən yōō dōō ĭt? Yĕs, ī kăn!

kən

kan

Kən yoo doo it? Yes, iy kan!

 

“that”

ŧħət

ŧħăt

Ī nō ŧħət ŧħăt ĭz trōō.

thət

that

Iy noh thət that iz troo.

In this case, these two words actually have different meanings!

“them”

ŧħəm

ŧħĕm

Ī tōld ŧħəm tə kŭm. Hōō? Ŧħĕm!

thəm

them

Iy tohld thəm tə kum. Hoo? Them!

The first is often simply /əm/sometimes spelled «’em».

“for”

fər

fȯr/fôr

Ī wŏnt tē fər tōō. Hwŭt fȯr?

fər

foar/fawr

Iy wont tee fər too. Hwut foar?

 

“of”

əv

ŭv

Wŭn əv ŧħəm ĭz ə thēf. Hwŭt ŭv ĭt?

əv

uv

Wun əv thəm iz ə thheef. Hwut uv it?

The emphatic one is usually /ŏv/ in British and Southern American.

“from”

frəm

frŭm

Hwârz shē frŭm? Shēz frəm Nəbrăskə.

frəm

frum

Hwairz shee frum? Sheez frəm Nəbraskə.

The emphatic one is usually /frŏm/ in British and Southern American.

(8-Nov.-2013)

 

A second group of these words has a special pattern when unstressed (weak), depending on whether the following word starts with a vowel or a consonant. In one case the traditional spelling represents this pattern, that of “a” before a consonant, and “an” before a vowel. But at least two other words have a similar pattern, but because the standard spelling does not represent it, we are usually unaware of it. These are listed in the following chart. Examples of most are found in the sample above, or in the footnotes. The following list is probably complete. 22-Mar.-2013

 

 

Dictionary

Symbols

 

Plain

Letters

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Standard

Spelling

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress,

before

consonant

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress,

before

vowel

with

special

emphasis

 

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress,

before

consonant

usual

pronun-

ciation,

without

stress,

before

vowel

with

special

emphasis

Comments

“the”

ŧħə

ŧħē

ŧħē *

thə

thee

thee *

For most Britishers and many Southern Americans the second one would usually be /ŧħĭ/. I assume that the third one will generally be /ŧħē/ in British English. However, in the preface to A. A. Milne’s Winnie the Pooh he says “Winnie ther Pooh”, where “ther” would rhyme with “fur”, but only the way an r-dropper would say it, with no actual r-sound! Britishers, please let me know which would be normal for you. Compare also the Bill Murray line quoted in the previous footnote, and consider how an r-dropping Britisher would be likely to say it. 9-July-2013

“to”

tōō

tōō

too

too

The third case would be like when a taxi driver says, “Where to?” The words “do” and “you” also sometimes follow this pattern, though not as consistently as “to”. Compounds ending in “to” also work like “to”, e.g. “into”, “onto”.

“a”

ə

 

ā *

ə

 

ay *

 

“an”

 

ən

ăn

 

ən

an

 

(19-June-2013)

* Like when Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day says, “I’m a god. I’m not the God./Īm ā gŏd. Īm nŏt ŧħē Gŏd./ (Iym ay god. Iym not thee God.)

 

How I Use the IPA (and how I don’t) 2-Feb.-2011

When I show the pronunciation of a place, I try to always show how someone from that place would actually pronounce it. However, occasionally even the natives can’t agree. For instance, many Chicagoans say /shĭ/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒˌɡo] or even /shĭgə/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒɡə], but there are also many who say /shĭ/ [ʃɪˈkʰaˌɡo], and the latter group may be growing. (I had originally had the impression that the former group was larger, but contributor and native Chicagoan Richard R. says that they are about evenly matched. He says, ‘I suspect that this is a North Side versus South Side and/or West Side thing, as my Cubs fan friends tend to say “ah”, but my Sox fan friends (and Richard Daley) say “aw”. FWIW, I grew up in the western suburbs saying “ah”.’) Keep in mind that all of these speakers definitely have “cot”≠“caught”. I have always called it /shĭ/ [ʃɪˈkʰɑˌɡoʊ], with a couple of slight vowel differences, since I don’t have an Inland North accent! 18-July-2013

 

I have noticed that many people who use the IPA to show the pronunciation of place names on Wikipedia do several things that I have chosen not to do.

For one thing, they often write both [ə] and [ɨ] in showing the pronunciation of the weak vowel /ə/ in American English. Now this is not incorrect, since for me the word “sofa” /fə/ would usually be phonetically [ˈsoʊfə], whereas the word “broken” /brōkən/ would be phonetically [ˈbɹoʊkɨn]. However, it should be understood that this is a phonetic difference, not a phonemic one, so that the difference is incidental rather than significant. And in actual practice I find I have a lot of variation: for instance, “sofa bed” /fə bĕd/ would usually come out [ˈsoʊfɨˌbɛd], and “sofas” /fəz/ could come out [ˈsoʊfəz] or [ˈsoʊfɨz] depending on how deliberately I am speaking, or its position in the sentence. And I find that others have the same problem: in the Appalachian Mountains article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌæpəˈleɪʃɨn/ or /ˌæpəˈlætʃɨn/”; for me the vowels shown as [ə] and [ɨ] in these pronunciations are exactly the same for me, probably both [ɨ]. So for strictly practical purposes I am writing both [ə] and [ɨ] as [ə]. 18-July-2013

Another thing I find people doing is using British phonetic transcription to show the pronunciation of American place names. For instance, in the Lafayette, Indiana article the pronunciation is given as “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/”. Now, in British English there truly are phonetically long and short vowels: “beat” is phonetically [ˈbiːt], where the vowel [iː] is phonetically long, whereas “bit” is phonetically [ˈbɪt], where the vowel [ɪ] is phonetically short. However, in nearly all North American English dialects, this is not the case: both “beat” [ˈbit] and “bit” [ˈbɪt] have vowels which are phonetically the same length, in spite of the fact that the first has what is traditionally called a “long e”, while the second has what is traditionally called a “short i”. Scottish English is like American English in this respect. And it turns out that the “/ˌlɑːfiːˈɛt/” pronunciation given in the Wikipedia article is wrong for both British and American English: in British it would usually be [ˌlɑːfɪˈɛt] or [ˌlɑːfiˈɛt], the [ɪ] or [i] being short because it is unstressed (weak), whereas in American English (at least in West Lafayette, Indiana) it would be [ˌlɑfiˈɛt], phonemically /lŏfēĕt/. 18-July-2013

 

John Wells’s Lexical Sets

Words in pink in the chart in the How Many Vowels are there in American English? section above are from John Wells’s Standard Lexical Sets. Note that he has a sample word for each of the 15 Ordinary Stressed Vowels and the 7 “R-colored” Stressed Vowels in the American Heritage Dictionary’s list, but not for the more localized /â/ vowel found in “bad” in GNYC and Atlantic Midland. I have included all of the words in John Wells’s list except for the following two words, which we could call Skew Words, since they have different vowels in different regions: 18-July-2013

 

Skew Word

Most Americans

 

Southern England

 

bath

/băth/ [ˈbæθ]

 

/bäth/ [ˈbɑ:θ]

(Also Eastern New England [ˈbaθ].)

cloth

/klôth/ [ˈkʰlɒθ]

(for those who distinguish cot, caught)

/klŏth/ [ˈkʰlɔθ]

(Also possibly Greater New York City??, other places in northeast??)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Compare the above with:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

math

/măth/ [ˈmæθ]

 

/măth/ [ˈmæθ]

 

Goth

/gŏth/ [ˈɡaθ/ɡɑθ/ɡɒθ]

 

/gŏth/ [ˈɡɔθ]

 

1-Oct.-2010

This skewing of the /ŏ/ and /ô/ vowels between the British and American systems is typically seen only before the consonant phonemes /f/, /th/, and /g/ ([f], [θ], and [ɡ]), as can be seen in the chart of Other Examples in The Cot-Caught Merger article, comparing the blue items with those in the preceding column. 10-Aug.-2013

Rick Aschmann’s Lexical Sets

However, it seems to me that John Wells’s list above was not well selected to show contrasts in a similar environment. Instead, I would draw your attention to all of the words in blue below, all of which end in /t/, and most of which begin with /b/, and also to the words in dark red, which similarly show contrasts in other environments. Thus, my lexical sets would be the following: 1-Oct.-2010

 

Main set:

beat, bit, bait, bet, bat, cot, caught, boat, cut, foot, boot, bite, bout, Hoyt

This list lacks only two of the Ordinary Stressed Vowels, /â/ as in “bad” (GNYC and Mid Atlantic) and /ä/ as in “father” (GNYC and ENE), which do not occur in native words before /t/ (except where an /r/ has been dropped, as in “part” /pät/ (ENE [ˈpʰat], GNYC [ˈpʰɑət]). These two vowels are also lacking in most North American English dialects. I could have used “quoits” in place of “Hoyt”, which is a surname, but I suspect that many more people are familiar with Hoyt than with quoits! 18-July-2013

R‑Colored set:

fear, fair, far, for, four, poor, tour, fur

 

For determining how many R-colored vowels a speaker has. (No one has more than 7, though I have listed 8 here. Those who have /ŏŏr/ usually say /tŏŏr, pŏŏr/, but others often do not rhyme these words, many saying them as /tōōər, pȯr/ [ˈtʰuɚ, ˈpʰoɹ].) 9-July-2013

Skew sets:

bath, math; Goth, cloth

 

For checking for what I call “skewing”.

Other sets:

had, bad; father, bother; Bach’s, box, balks

For determining if various pairs of Ordinary Stressed Vowels are distinguished by a given speaker.

 

Record Your Own Voice! 26-Mar.-2011

If you want to help me complete this map, or even to provide more sound samples for locations that already have them, there is an easy way: record your own voice and post it on YouTube. Nora Young, host of the program Spark on CBC radio, and a native of Toronto, Ontario, has done a sample recording of her own voice, and has set up a YouTube page where others can do the same.

She did this after interviewing me on her program in March of 2011, where I explained the need for more samples of this kind. To listen to the interview, go to www.cbc.ca/spark/2011/03/spark-142-march-27-30-2011, then scroll down till you see “YouTube Dialects Map”, or search for “YouTube Dialects Map” or “Rick Aschmann”. The interview can be heard by clicking the link below the paragraph.

If you grew up in one particular place in Canada or the U.S., then I would very much like a sample from you. In particular, if you lived in one town for most of your childhood, in particular between the ages of 5 and 15, and speak like people from that place, then you should be a great sample. (That is, unless you tried to consciously change your accent after that: I know a gal who moved from the South to the Midland before her senior year of high school, and she was subjected to so much ridicule that she completely changed her way of speaking.) And obviously, if you moved around a lot throughout your childhood, then you won’t really work for my map.

You can do just a simple recording, like Nora did, as short or as long as you like, just telling a bit about yourself and where you grew up. Or, if you want to be quite thorough about it, or just don’t know what to say, I have prepared a version of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (slightly expanded to include certain key words) that you can read. This way if I need to check a particular word to nail down the dialect of your hometown I will be able to. Either way, please be sure to say where you grew up, and if only for part of your childhood, from what age to what age.

All of your clips sent in like this will be labeled “(Self-recording for this site. Thanks!)” in the table below, so that will make them easy to find. 30-Mar.-2011

Note to Canadians: Nora points out that Canadians are currently underrepresented on the map. So, this is your chance to change that! Send in your samples!

 

Audio Samples of Local Dialects

Here you can hear audio samples of different local dialects. These are all found on the Internet:

 

As far as possible these have been restricted to people who were raised in the location, and in many cases have lived there nearly all their lives, and have presumably retained the local dialect, except where indicated. (For most of these people, their birthplace and life history can be found on en.wikipedia.org, or at the links provided.) Items in pink are doubtful as to whether they represent accurately the dialect indicated, or, in the case of the rejected samples at the bottom of the chart, definitely do not represent their local dialect. 1-July-2010

DISCLAIMER: I do not necessarily agree with all of the people speaking here: I have simply selected them as good examples of their dialect! Nor does the fact that many of them are politicians indicate that I particularly like politicians: The fact is that politicians tend to retain their local dialect more than other public professions (actors, artists), to maintain their identity with the locals. Also, they talk in public a lot, so the data is readily available. Country singers and southern gospel singers also tend to be reliable,[31] and I like them better than politicians. Somewhat surprisingly to me, NASCAR racers seem to be very reliable, also: even though they travel a lot for the races, they tend to raise their families in their old home town, from generation to generation, and don’t care in the least how they talk! 4-Aug.-2010

You may also notice that I prefer older people to younger people. This is simply because there has been a lot more dialect mixing among the younger generation than in previous generations.

As mentioned above, the pronunciation of some of the names is given after the name. If anyone thinks I have the pronunciation of a place wrong, please let me know! 3-July-2010

Some of these links may not be current. Please let me know about any bad links. - Rick Aschmann

 

 

Person(s)

Location

State or Province

Source

1            

Unnamed woman, tornado survivor

Albertville

Alabama

YouTube video Extremely pure example of Inland Southern! 19-Mar.-2012

2            

Bobby Edwards, country singer

Anniston

Alabama

YouTube video (Clearly Lowland, occasional “northern” long /ī/ [aɪ] vowels) 16-Mar.-2010

3            

White male, student, born 1988

Auburn

Alabama

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

4            

Eric Bennett, southern gospel singer

Battleground

Alabama

YouTube video (clip at 1:16), YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video (more info). He is completely consistent when he speaks, every single /ī/ vowel is [a], but occasionally he comes out with [aɪ] when he sings, though I only hear it on the last clip. What an amazing bass voice! 16-Sep.-2014

5            

U.S. representative Spencer Bachus

Birmingham

Alabama

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) 31-Dec.-2011

6            

Bobby Bowden, football coach

Birmingham

Alabama

YouTube video

7            

U.S. senator Richard Shelby

Birmingham

Alabama

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

8            

White male, student, born 1980

Brewton

Alabama

IDEA audio (source) This speaker does not drop r’s, suggesting that the younger generation no longer speaks Classical Southern. However, I visited Brewton in February of 2012, and spent quite a bit of time with an older gentleman who was born and raised there, and who does speak Classical Southern, and talked briefly with others who also do, making it clear that this is part of the Classical Southern area with older r-droppers. 15-Sep.-2014

9            

Governor Robert Bentley

Columbiana

Alabama

YouTube video 11-July-2011

10         

Governor George Wallace

Clio

Alabama

YouTube video Classical Southern! 8-Dec.-2014

11         

Charlie Hodge, Elvis associate

Decatur

Alabama

YouTube video 30-Jan.-2010

12         

William Bradford Huie, journalist & writer

Decatur (Hartselle)

Alabama

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) 12-Dec.-2011

13         

Governor Jim Folsom, Sr.

Elba

Alabama

audio links 30-Jan.-2010

14         

White male, student, born 1981

Elberta

Alabama

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

15         

Chris Yeager, high school football coach

Fairview

Alabama

YouTube video (more info) Inland Southern. 4-Nov.-2015

16         

Sam Phillips, record producer

Florence

Alabama

YouTube video 30-Jan.-2010

17         

Ron Sparks, Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries

Fort Payne

Alabama

YouTube video

18         

Randy Owen, country singer

Fort Payne

Alabama

YouTube video I could obviously have picked any of 100 other songs, but besides being a cool song this one clearly demonstrates his Inland Southern, also heard in this interview: YouTube video (His clip starts at 3:10.) 12-July-2011

19         

Steve Grissom, NASCAR driver

Gadsden

Alabama

YouTube video (clip at 9:30) (more info) 19-Mar.-2012

20         

Sonny James Loden, country singer

Hackleburg

Alabama

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

21         

City council meeting

Hamilton

Alabama

YouTube video All speakers clearly Inland North! 7-Nov.-2009

22         

Charlie Louvin, country singer

Henagar

Alabama

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

23         

Jimmy Means, NASCAR driver

Huntsville

Alabama

YouTube video Born and raised in Huntsville, and clearly speaks Inland Southern, whereas Bud Cramer in the next sample was also born and raised here, but speaks Lowland Southern. This suggests that the difference depends on the Possible Southern Class Distinction? (I had previously doubted if Jimmy Means really was raised here, but I have seen various web sites that make it clear that he was.) 4-Nov.-2015

24         

U.S. representative Bud Cramer

Huntsville

Alabama

YouTube video

25         

Butch Foster, salesman at the Carl Cannon auto dealership

Jasper

Alabama

YouTube video 19-Mar.-2012

26         

Larry, salesman at the Carl Cannon auto dealership

Jasper

Alabama

YouTube video 19-Mar.-2012

27         

White female, born and raised in Lanett

Lanett

Alabama

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

28         

Eugene Walter, writer

Mobile

Alabama

YouTube video 7-Dec.-2009

29         

Robert Lightfoot, Marshall Space Flight Center director

Montevallo

Alabama

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

30         

Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Jr.

Montgomery

Alabama

YouTube video

31         

Robby Franklin, tornado survivor

Odenville

Alabama

YouTube video Short, but clearly Inland. 19-Mar.-2012

32         

Steve Patton, football coach

Oneonta

Alabama

audio (more info)

33         

Tammy Wynette, country singer

Redbay

Alabama

YouTube video (Replaced bad link, after contributor Ben Moore advised me that it was bad. Thanks!) This is an early interview, and is quite consistently Inland Southern, e.g. “pipe” at 2:28, “like” at 2:33 and 3:20. This interview is much later: YouTube video, and is much more Lowland Southern. It is not too surprising that she might adjust in later life, given that she grew up right on the border. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

34         

Charlie Louvin, country singer

Section

Alabama

YouTube video

35         

Jay Barker, football player

Trussville

Alabama

YouTube video

36         

William Christenberry, artist

Tuscaloosa

Alabama

YouTube video (Classical Southern, occasional “northern” long /ī/ [aɪ] vowels) 16-Mar.-2010

37         

Jodie Farnetti, football coach’s daughter

West Blocton

Alabama

Info & video (more info) She is clearly Inland, and the second link makes it clear that she was born and raised here. However, see the next two clips for discussion of this unique place. 4-Nov.-2015

38         

Various high school football players

West Blocton

Alabama

YouTube video All white speakers clearly speak Inland Southern, though the blacks speak Lowland, as expected. (Coach Chris Yeager is apparently not from here, but instead is from Fairview in Cullman County, see his entry above.) See the next clip for a full discussion. 4-Nov.-2015

39         

Various veterans and officials

West Blocton

Alabama

YouTube video Unlike the previous two clips, all of these speakers, both white and (as expected) black speak Lowland Southern. So what gives? Is there a social class difference among the whites? (See Possible Southern Class Distinction.) I don’t see it: why would veterans be higher class than football coaches and players? It doesn’t make sense. However, it is clear that there are significant numbers of both Inland and Lowland white speakers in this small town, with all of the blacks speaking Lowland. Perhaps one part of the puzzle is that the town was settled well after the Civil War as a coal-mining community (see Southern Areas Settled after the Civil War), but this factor doesn’t help much either, since all of the other examples of this speak only Lowland! It will have to remain a mystery for now. 4-Nov.-2015

40         

Winton Blount, politician

Union Springs

Alabama

YouTube video 16-Mar.-2010

41         

U.S. senator Mark Begich

Anchorage

Alaska

YouTube video

42         

John Binkley, politician

Fairbanks

Alaska

YouTube video

43         

Jake Metcalfe, politician

Juneau

Alaska

YouTube video

44         

Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, V.P. candidate

Wasilla

Alaska

YouTube video (Starts speech at 4:43.) (Replaced dead link.) Sarah Palin talks like she’s from (northern) Minnesota! The original link, now dead, was sent in by Annie Wang (thanks!), but this search link shows the vast amount of discussion on this subject. On another web site it says she talks like she’s from Fargo, North Dakota (actually, like the people in the movie Fargo, actually filmed in Minnesota)! In fact, it turns out that the area of Alaska around Wasilla and Palmer is much more like the North Central dialect than it is like other Alaska dialects. [32]

                On the web site above linguist James Crippen describes this dialect as Mat-Su Valley English, after the Matanuska-Susitna Valley where it is spoken. James Crippen has now kindly provided me with information that allows me to set its borders fairly accurately. He says that it probably extends no further west than Willow, no farther northeast than Sutton, and is probably dying out in much of the area anyway, because of a continued influx of people from other parts of Alaska.

                So why do they talk like this? Because this area was almost entirely settled during the Great Depression by people from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan as part of a federal project. Historical info can be found in this Wikipedia article, and on this page sent in by contributor Susan Alexander. Thanks! 23-Apr.-2011

45         

Wayne Salmans, realtor

Wasilla

Alaska

YouTube video Another good example of the original Mat-Su Valley English. 4-Mar.-2011

46         

Ralph Klein, provincial premier

Calgary

Alberta

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

47         

Diane Sandbrand, contributor

Consort /kŏnsərt/ [ˈkʰɒnsɚt]

Alberta

YouTube video (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) (Clip originally posted here 30-Apr.-2011. Corrected spelling of last name (sorry!) and added pronunciation of town 2015.) 29-Aug.-2015

48         

Andy Devine, actor

Kingman

Arizona

YouTube video (Chubby guy with odd voice. Also plays Friar Tuck on Disney’s Robin Hood.) 1-Sep.-2009

49         

Carlos Nakai, Native American flutist

Flagstaff

Arizona

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

50         

U.S. representative Ann Kirkpatrick

McNary

Arizona

YouTube video 1-Sep.-2009

51         

Joan Ganz Cooney, Sesame Street creator

Phoenix

Arizona

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

52         

Transportation Sec. Mary Peters

Phoenix

Arizona

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

53         

Karen Womack Vold, rodeo trick rider

Phoenix

Arizona

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) 30-Apr.-2011

54         

U.S. senator Dennis DeConcini

Tucson

Arizona

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

55         

Rex Allen, western actor

Willcox

Arizona

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

56         

Ernest Tsosie, Navajo comedian

Window Rock

Arizona

YouTube video (more info) 26-Sep.-2009

57         

Caroline Alfaro, massage student

Yuma

Arizona

YouTube video 23-Sep.-2010

58         

Larry Ward, pastor and singer

Conway

Arkansas

I Bowed on My Knees and Cried Holy: YouTube video, My Chains Are Gone: YouTube video - (more info). 12-May-2015

59         

Pamela Nacke, contributor

Damascus

Arkansas

Audio (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) Pamela clearly speaks Inland Southern (a more western variety), as expected, though she seems to be most consistent in her long /ī/ [a] vowels in the reading of the Goldilocks story. 23-July-2011

60         

White male, born 1980

DeVall’s Bluff

Arkansas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

61         

Johnny Cash, country singer

Dyess

Arkansas

YouTube video (Fixed wrong link.) This interview shows Johnny with his native dialect, which is hard to catch, since in both his songs and his interviews he often seems to suppress it. It is clearly Lowland. This song probably shows it best, though even here it is not as southern as the interview: YouTube video. 1-May-2012

62         

Bear Bryant, football coach

Fordyce

Arkansas

YouTube video

63         

Tracy Lawrence, country singer

Foreman

Arkansas

YouTube video Thoroughly Inland except for the word “lifer”, which he pronounces the Lowland way, not surprising considering how close to the border he is! 16-Jan.-2012

64         

State senator Kim Hendren

Gravette /grăvĭt/ [ˈɡɹævɪt]

Arkansas

YouTube video (Pronunciation found here.) 14-Jan.-2013

65         

U.S. senator Blanche Lincoln

Helena

Arkansas

YouTube video 23-June-2010

66         

U.S. president Bill Clinton

Hot Springs

Arkansas

YouTube video 13-May-2009

67         

Houston Nutt, college football coach[33]

Little Rock

Arkansas

YouTube video

68         

Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner [33]

Little Rock

Arkansas

YouTube video

69         

White female, born 1947, medical technician[34]

Little Rock

Arkansas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

70         

State representative Lane Jean

Magnolia

Arkansas

YouTube video 24-Sep.-2015

71         

Ben Coulter, country singer

Montrose

Arkansas

YouTube video 24-Sep.-2015

72         

White male, born 1982, student

Palestine

Arkansas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

73         

Levon Helm, singer and musician

Turkey Scratch

Arkansas

YouTube video 27-Nov.-2012

74         

Ben Rutledge, Olympic rower

Cranbrook

British Columbia

YouTube video

75         

Ian Tyson, singer-songwriter

Duncan

British Columbia

YouTube video 6-Sep.-2011

76         

Jay Hill, M.P.

Fort St. John

British Columbia

YouTube video 6-Dec.-2010

77         

Nilesh Patel /nĭlĕshtĕl/ [nɪˈlɛʃ pʰəˈtʰɛl], filmmaker

Prince George

British Columbia

YouTube video 24-Jan.-2011

78         

Cam Clayton, student

Sechelt /shĕlt/ [ˈsiˌʃɛlt]

British Columbia

YouTube video (Oops, video seems to have been removed.) (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) 29-Aug.-2015

79         

Michael Bublé /bōōblā/ [ˈbuˌbleɪ], big band singer, actor

Vancouver

British Columbia

YouTube video 24-Jan.-2011

80         

Carey Price, pro hockey player

Anahim Lake

British Columbia

YouTube video, (more info)

81         

Lori McCreary, movie producer

Antioch

California

YouTube video 30-Apr.-2011

82         

Caitlin Flanagan, author

Berkeley

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 1-Nov.-2010

83         

Alex Skolnick, guitarist

Berkeley

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 1-Nov.-2010

84         

37 year-old male, native Los Angelino, “half white and half American Indian”. Surfer.

Canoga Park

California

IDEA audio (source) (Sent in by M.M. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2013

85         

Dave Brubeck, jazz musician

Concord

California

YouTube video (His clip starts at 5:40.) (more info) “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”. 14-Mar.-2012

86         

Lincoln Lageson, film and television producer

Crockett

California

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) “cot”≠“caught”, but they are very close, as might be expected on the very edge of the dialect area, and “on” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”, though you have to listen very close to be sure! 30-Apr.-2011

87         

Don Hertzfeldt, short animated film maker

Fremont

California

YouTube video 23-June-2009

88         

U.S. representative Jim Costa

Fresno

California

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

89         

Chuck Poochigian, judge

Fresno

California

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

90         

Jack Del Rio, pro football coach

Hayward

California

video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”. 23-June-2009

91         

Conor Chinn, pro soccer player

La Jolla /lə hoiə/ [lə ˈhɔɪə]

California

YouTube video 11-July-2011

92         

David Strathairn, actor

Larkspur

California

YouTube video (more info) 15-Sep.-2014

93         

Various

Livermore

California

audio links

94         

U.S. representative Jack Kemp

Los Angeles

California

YouTube video (Clip starts at 1:39.) According to contributor M.M., Kemp “would be labeled as standard American/neutral accent by Californians themselves”. Contributor Shulamit Widawsky also does not consider him a representative sample. Even so, he clearly has “cot”=“caught”, and retains certain other distinctive California features. 3-June-2011

95         

John MacArthur, pastor

Los Angeles (various close suburbs)

California

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) (more info) 16-Jan.-2012

96         

Kari Byron, Mythbusters host

Los Gatos /lŏs gătəs/ [ˌlɒs ˈɡæɾəs][35]

California

YouTube video (more info)

97         

Sarah Austin, alternative media

Mill Valley

California

YouTube video 23-June-2009

98         

White female, twenties, born 1981, student. Dialect typical of age group.

Mission Viejo

California

IDEA audio (source) (Sent in by M.M. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2013

99         

Kenny Roberts, Sr., motorcycle racer

Modesto

California

YouTube video (more info) 25-Sep.-2010

100     

Nick Lazzarini, dancer

Mountain View

California

YouTube video. 18-July-2013

101     

Frank Chin, writer

Oakland

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”. “Cutting edge”: that is, peculiar and slightly crude. 2-3 minutes are enough! 23-June-2009

102     

U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese

Oakland

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 13-June-2009

103     

“Crash Holly” (Mike Lockwood), “pro” wrestler

Pacifica

California

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

104     

William Shockley, physicist & inventor

Palo Alto

California

YouTube video. 18-July-2013

105     

Bill Martin, weatherman

Paradise

California

YouTube video (more info) (Suggested by Noah Zimmerman. Thanks!) 10-Mar.-2011

106     

Clint Eastwood, actor

Piedmont

California

YouTube video (Replaced clip.) “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 31-Dec.-2011

107     

Ashley Parker Angel, pop singer

Redding

California

YouTube video 25-Oct.-2010

108     

Jeff Sutherland, Jeff’s Star Talk

Richmond

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”. (more info, replaced bad link.) 10-May-2011

109     

Lynn Anderson, country singer & equestrian

Sacramento (Fair Oaks)

California

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) 22-Apr.-2011

110     

Suzanne Somers, actress

San Bruno

California

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

111     

Rex Walheim, astronaut

San Carlos

California

YouTube video 23-June-2009

112     

Dana Carvey, comedian

San Carlos

California

YouTube video 23-June-2009

113     

Cathy Scott, author

San Diego

California

YouTube video “pin”≠“pen”, but “any”, “many”, etc. are pronounced “inny”. 26-Sep.-2009

114     

Jolene Blalock, actress

San Diego

California

YouTube video “pin”≠“pen”. Replaced bad link. 4-Mar.-2011

115     

Jerry Brown, attorney general, etc.

San Francisco

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”.

116     

Pat Brown, governor

San Francisco

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”.

117     

U.S. senator Dianne Feinstein

San Francisco

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, not “Don”.

118     

Benjamin Bratt, actor

San Francisco

California

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 28-Sep.-2009

119     

Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder

San Francisco

California

YouTube video (more info) Oops! I seem to have been wrong about Steve Jobs! He lived in San Francisco until he was five, and only then moved to Mountain View, but he seems to have retained the cot/caught distinction from S.F., because it is not actually found in the Mountain View area, as Nick Lazzarini and William Shockley show. “On” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 18-July-2013

120     

U.S. Transp. Sec. Norman Mineta

San José

California

YouTube video 13-June-2009

121     

Alicia Silverstone, actress

San Mateo

California

YouTube video “cot”≠“caught”, “on” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”, but not clear when she moved from San Francisco! 25-Sep.-2010

122     

Merv Griffin, television host

San Mateo

California

YouTube video “cot”≠“caught”, “on” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”.13-June-2009

123     

Brad Lewis, movie producer

San Mateo

California

YouTube video, video Oops! Thought had “cot”=“caught”, but “cot”≠“caught”, “on” rhymes with “Don”, not “Dawn”. 25-Sep.-2010

124     

Heather Fargo, former mayor of Sacramento

Stockton

California

YouTube video 25-Oct.-2010

125     

Ed Rollins, campaign consultant

Vallejo

California

YouTube video 23-June-2009

126     

Eric Willett /wǐlĕt/ [wɪˈlɛt], snowboarder

Breckenridge

Colorado

YouTube video (more info) 21-Dec.-2010

127     

Rich “Goose” Gossage, pitcher

Colorado Springs

Colorado

YouTube video

128     

Ace Young, singer

Denver

Colorado

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

129     

U.S. representative Tom Tancredo

Denver

Colorado

YouTube video

130     

State representative Randy Fischer

Fort Collins

Colorado

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

131     

U.S. representative Scott McInnis

Glenwood Springs

Colorado

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

132     

Dalton Trumbo, film director

Grand Junction

Colorado

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

133     

Rebecca Dussault, extreme athlete

Gunnison

Colorado

YouTube video 7-Dec.-2009

134     

Colleen Piatt, grocery store owner

Hasty

Colorado

video & info (Sent in by Kirk Sniff. Thanks!) She is definitely a native, according to contributor Kirk Sniff. He is not sure about Ralph Hogue, and Ralph’s pronunciation suggests that he might be from somewhere more south and east, since he has more secondary features of Inland Southern, though not technically Inland Southern based on his long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels. 21-Sep.-2011

135     

State senator Kenneth Kester

Cañon City /kănyən sĭtē/ [ˈkʰænjən ˈsɪɾi]

Colorado

YouTube video Oops! I had listed him as being from Lamar, but this web site gives the straight scoop! 21-Sep.-2011

136     

Scott Elarton, pro baseball player

Lamar

Colorado

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

137     

Kory Sperry, pro football player

Pueblo /pwĕblō/ [ˈpʰwɛbloʊ]

Colorado

YouTube video 21-Sep.-2011

138     

Drew Dix, Medal of Honor winner

Pueblo

Colorado

video & info Oops! For some reason I had listed him as having “pin”≠“pen”, but in listening again I find that he has “pin”=“pen”, just like the other samples from the Pueblo area! 21-Sep.-2011

139     

State representative Wes McKinley

Walsh

Colorado

YouTube video

140     

State representative Andrew Roraback

Goshen

Connecticut

YouTube video (more info) (Sent in by Darren Farrington. Thanks!) 24-Jan.-2011

141     

State representative Joe Courtney

Hartford

Connecticut

YouTube video (clip at 2:51) 3-Apr.-2010

142     

Katharine Hepburn, actress

Hartford

Connecticut

Older r-dropper: YouTube video Drops r’s beautifully, but clearly local, not Mid-Atlantic, since she follows the Providence pattern, with “cart”=“cot”. 3-Apr.-2010

143     

Ken Sullivan, Director of utilities

Jewett City

Connecticut

YouTube video Clearly drops r’s, though only partially. 3-Apr.-2010

144     

Governor Ruth Ann Minner

Milford

Delaware

YouTube video

145     

Kevin Mench, pro baseball player

Newark

Delaware

YouTube video 19-Feb.-2011

146     

Barbara Delledonne, concerned citizen

Wilmington

Delaware

YouTube video (Sent in by Joseph DeSebasco. Thanks!) 14-Apr.-2011

147     

State representative Nick Manolakos

Wilmington

Delaware

YouTube video (Sent in by Joseph DeSebasco. Thanks!) 14-Apr.-2011

148     

City council member Kevin Kelley

Wilmington

Delaware

YouTube video (Sent in by Joseph DeSebasco. Thanks!) 14-Apr.-2011

149     

U.S. senator John Warner

Washington

District of Columbia

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) 15-Sep.-2014

150     

Mayor John Land

Apopka

Florida

video & info (Older speaker retaining Lowland Southern, although younger ones have apparently completely lost it! He doesn’t speak Classical, since he doesn’t drop r’s.) 15-Sep.-2014

151     

Linda Williams, president, Desoto County Chamber of Commerce

Arcadia

Florida

YouTube video (First clip starts at 0:32, but reappears throughout.) (Older speaker retaining Lowland Southern. It is unclear how the younger ones who grew up there speak, since most of the other speakers show signs of being transplants! 8-Aug.-2014

152     

Howard Melton, Arcadia historian

Arcadia

Florida

YouTube video (First clip starts at 1:01, but reappears throughout.) (Older speaker retaining Lowland Southern. It is unclear how the younger ones who grew up there speak, since most of the other speakers show signs of being transplants! 8-Aug.-2014

153     

Buck Showalter, pro baseball manager

Century

Florida

YouTube video (His first clip is 6:00-13:30.) 31-Aug.-2013

154     

The Bellamy Brothers, country singers

Darby

Florida

YouTube video (Older speakers retaining Lowland Southern, although younger ones may have completely lost it!) 23-Sep.-2015

155     

Gregg Allman, rock singer

Daytona Beach

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

156     

Bill France, Jr., NASCAR executive

Daytona Beach

Florida

YouTube video (His clip is at 1:38.) (Replaced dead link.) 10-Feb.-2011

157     

Jonathan Cohn, author & journalist

Fort Lauderdale

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

158     

Tom Petty, rock singer

Gainesville

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

159     

Marty Raybon, country singer

Jacksonville

Florida

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

160     

Donnie Van Zant, country singer

Jacksonville

Florida

YouTube video (more info) 30-Jan.-2010

161     

Lee Ann Womack, country singer

Jacksonville

Florida

YouTube video. 6-Sep.-2013

162     

State rep. Leonard Bembry

Jasper

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

163     

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Lakeland

Florida

YouTube video This pulls the pin-pen line down very close to Tampa, but Tampa is still clearly below it, as the samples show. 9-Sep.-2013

164     

Danny Lipford, TV handyman

Marianna

Florida

YouTube video 5-July-2010

165     

Michael Wynne, USAF Secretary

Melbourne

Florida

YouTube video 24-Oct.-2009

U.S. senator Bill Nelson [36]

Melbourne

Florida

YouTube video 23-June-2010

166     

Roy Sekoff, Internet journalist

Miami

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

167     

Judge Alex Ferrer, TV judge

Miami

Florida

YouTube video (His clip really starts at 1:45) 20-Mar.-2012

168     

Ron Dermer, Israeli politician

Miami Beach

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

169     

Lauren Brooke, “pro” wrestling interviewer

Orlando

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

170     

Wilma Burgess, country singer

Orlando

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

171     

Clint Daniels, country singer

Panama City

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

172     

David Eckstein, pro baseball player

Sanford

Florida

YouTube video

173     

Emilie Richards, author

St. Petersburg

Florida

video & info 23-July-2009

174     

Mayor Bill Foster

St. Petersburg

Florida

YouTube video, YouTube video Tampa and St. Petersburg basically constitute one metropolitan area, so it is surprising that in St. Pete “on” rhymes with “Don”, whereas in Tampa “on” rhymes with “Dawn”. I just thought I would verify this by finding more examples, and the new examples confirm it. 31-Aug.-2013

175     

Lynne Koplitz, comedienne

Sarasota

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

176     

Will Kirby, TV doctor

Tallahassee

Florida

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

177     

U.S. representative Kathy Castor

Tampa

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

178     

Mayor Pam Iorio

Tampa

Florida

YouTube video Tampa and St. Petersburg basically constitute one metropolitan area, so it is surprising that in St. Pete “on” rhymes with “Don”, whereas in Tampa “on” rhymes with “Dawn”. I just thought I would verify this by finding more examples, and the new examples confirm it. 31-Aug.-2013

179     

Kyle Minor, author

West Palm Beach

Florida

YouTube video 23-July-2009

180     

Jerry Reed, country singer

Atlanta

Georgia

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although most younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) 5-Nov.-2015

181     

Bobby Jones, early pro golfer

Atlanta

Georgia

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although most younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) 5-Nov.-2015

182     

Art Williams, billionaire

Cairo /rō/ [ˈkʰeɪˌɹoʊ]

Georgia

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) (Speech starts at 2:50) more info 9-Mar.-2012

183     

Lari Goss, southern gospel singer

Cartersville

Georgia

YouTube video (more info) 31-Aug.-2013

184     

Mallory Hope, country singer

Cohutta /kəhŭtə/ [kʰəˈhʌɾə]

Georgia

YouTube video Inland! 1-Nov.-2011

185     

Zac Brown, country singer

Cumming

Georgia

YouTube video 23-July-2011

186     

Bill Elliott, NASCAR driver

Dawsonville

Georgia

YouTube video

187     

Josh & Dana Shields, southern gospel singers

Flintstone

Georgia

audio (source) 30-Sep.-2010

188     

Clifton H. Johnson, historian

Griffin

Georgia

YouTube video (clip starts at 4:10) (more info) Classical Southern! 13-June-2015

189     

Luke Bryan, country singer

Leesburg

Georgia

YouTube video 23-July-2011

190     

The Marksmen Quartet, southern gospel singers

Murrayville

Georgia

YouTube video, audio & info In the first video the lead (second from left) is Earle Wheeler, and he at least is definitely from Murrayville and speaks Inland Southern. The group has changed a lot, though Earle is still in it, though he is looking pretty elderly. 24-Sep.-2015

191     

Lewis Grizzard, humor columnist

Newnan (Moreland)

Georgia

YouTube video An excellent example of Classical Southern. 20-Mar.-2012

192     

Col. Joe Jackson, Air Force pilot

Newnan

Georgia

YouTube video His speech is rather variable; it tends to sound more Classical Southern towards the end. 20-Mar.-2012

193     

Alan Jackson, country singer

Newnan

Georgia

YouTube video He is clearly Lowland Southern, with no apparent r-dropping in spite of being on the edge of the Classical Southern region. YouTube video In this song he sings consistent Lowland Southern, with no apparent r-dropping. YouTube video In this song he mixes Inland and Lowland; it seems to me that the only word he drops the r in is “southern”. 13-June-2015

194     

U.S. president Jimmy Carter

Plains

Georgia

YouTube video Classical Southern! 23-Sep.-2015

195     

U.S. First Lady Rosalynn Carter

Plains

Georgia

YouTube video Classical Southern! 23-Sep.-2015

196     

Sonny Seiler, famous dog owner

Savannah

Georgia

YouTube video Classical Southern with special Savannah features! 23-Sep.-2015

197     

Cross Ties Band, bluegrass singers

Waco

Georgia

YouTube video, YouTube video (more info) Clearly Inland Southern. Not to be confused with the Virginia Cross Ties, who are from Coeburn, Virginia. (I have yet to find a good clear video of them.) At least one web site confuses the two, attaching “Virginia” to the Georgia group: Video; the Inland Southern is particularly noticeable in the introduction. New! 29-Sep.-2017

198     

Hinton Mitchem, Alabama state senator

Watkinsville

Georgia

YouTube video (more info) 7-Dec.-2009

199     

U.S. senator Mike Crapo

Idaho Falls

Idaho

YouTube video

200     

Dale Harwood, saddle maker

Soda Springs

Idaho

YouTube video (more info) 30-Nov.-2010

201     

State Sen. Gary Gorby

Anna

Illinois

YouTube video 22-July-2009

202     

Buddy Ebsen, actor

Belleville

Illinois

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

203     

Tommy Johnagin, comedian

Benton

Illinois

YouTube video 8-Jan.-2011

204     

Bill Grammer, Country Singer

Benton

Illinois

YouTube video 8-Jan.-2011

205     

Various residents

Brookport

Illinois

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 16-Feb.-2010

206     

Shawn Watson, football coach

Carbondale

Illinois

YouTube video

207     

Alison Krauss, country singer

Champaign

Illinois

YouTube video 12-Nov.-2010

208     

Richard M. Daley, mayor

Chicago /shĭgə/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒɡə] or /shĭ/ [ʃɪˈkʰɒˌɡo], minority /shĭ/ [ʃɪˈkʰaˌɡo]

Illinois

YouTube video (See How I Use the IPA for a discussion of the pronunciation of this city.) 10-Feb.-2011

209     

George Gobel, comedian

Chicago

Illinois

YouTube video 1-Jan.-2010

210     

Dick Van Dyke, actor

Danville

Illinois

YouTube video Replaced dead video link! 11-Jan.-2011

211     

James Loewen, sociologist

Decatur

Illinois

YouTube video 12-Nov.-2010

212     

U.S. president Ronald Reagan

Dixon

Illinois

YouTube video (more info) 19-Oct.-2010

213     

Jimmy Kite, NASCAR driver

Effingham

Illinois

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

214     

Matt Hughes, mixed martial artist

Hillsboro

Illinois

YouTube video Role model: “I want my kids to look at me and do as I do, say as I say.” 11-Jan.-2011

215     

Jerry Barber, pro golfer

Jacksonville

Illinois

YouTube video :34-1:12 11-Jan.-2011

216     

Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood

Peoria

Illinois

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

217     

D. A. Weibring, golfer

Quincy

Illinois

YouTube video

218     

John Spring, mayor of Quincy, IL

Rock Island

Illinois

MSNBC video, NPR audio (Sent in by Y.I. Thanks!) 24-June-2010

219     

Mayor Timothy Davlin

Springfield

Illinois

YouTube video 9-Jan.-2010

220     

Jack Benny, comedian & actor

Waukegan

Illinois

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2013

221     

Bob Woodward, reporter & author

Wheaton

Illinois

video & info (scroll down to video) 9-May-2011

222     

Alan Baumler, author

Wheaton

Illinois

YouTube video (Speech starts at 2:25) (Sent in by Alan Baumler. Thanks!) 16-Dec.-2011

223     

Bill Gaither, southern gospel singer

Alexandria

Indiana

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) 8-May-2013

224     

Sharon McShurley, mayor of Muncie

Anderson

Indiana

YouTube video, YouTube video (Second clip sent in by Brad King. Thanks!) Her secondary Southern features are less obvious than those of Bill Gaither or Dennis Tyler, but they are certainly there! 9-May-2013

225     

Orville Redenbacher, popcorn producer

Brazil

Indiana

YouTube video (Kinda short, but “pin”=“pen”!) 1-Mar.-2010

226     

Max Starkey, believer

Bunker Hill

Indiana

YouTube video (His clip starts at 4:07). He sounds about halfway between Crystal Gayle (Wabash) and the towns to the south. 8-Dec.-2014

227     

Jamie Hyneman, Mythbuster

Columbus

Indiana

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

228     

Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel

Evansville

Indiana

YouTube video 20-Jan.-2010

229     

Mayor Tom Henry

Fort Wayne

Indiana

YouTube video 16-Feb.-2010

230     

Larry Bird, pro basketball player

French Lick

Indiana

YouTube video Southern Indiana speaks Lowland Southern! I had heard this for a long time, and have been looking for samples, and finally found one. Believe it or not, Larry Bird’s nickname is “The hick from French Lick”! 4-Sep.-2012

231     

Gary Nabhan, ethnobotanist

Gary

Indiana

YouTube video 15-Dec.-2010

232     

Don Williams, astronaut

Green Hill

Indiana

YouTube video (His clips: 17:55-19:15 and 20:15-21:38) This seems to be the top left corner of the “pin”=“pen” area! 2-Feb.-2011

233     

U.S. senator Richard Lugar

Indianapolis

Indiana

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

234     

Dennis Tyler, mayor

Muncie

Indiana

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video (Clips sent in by Brad King. Thanks!) (more info) It is amazing how many secondary features of Southern this speaker has, and how different he sounds from the Greenville, Ohio speaker. Bill Gaither from Alexandria sounds almost exactly the same. 9-May-2013

235     

State representative Jackie Walorski

South Bend

Indiana

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

236     

Mayor Joe Yochum

Vincennes

Indiana

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2013

237     

Crystal Gayle, country singer

Wabash

Indiana

YouTube video She definitely has “pin”=“pen”, which is unexpected, being so close to Fort Wayne. A contributor from Wabash has written to me to say that people there sound Southern, and he may be referring to “pin”=“pen” and the fact that her long /ō/ [oʊ] vowel is slightly more fronted than Fort Wayne. In any case, this pushes the pin-pen line quite a bit farther north! 8-Dec.-2014

238     

Ralph Braun, wheelchair accessible vehicle producer

Winamac

Indiana

YouTube video General American, rare in Indiana! 1-Jan.-2015

239     

Brad Nelson, pro baseball player

Algona

Iowa

YouTube video 11-Mar.-2016

240     

Sam Kooiker /kwākər/ [ˈkʰweɪkɚ], mayor of Rapid City, South Dakota

Boyden

Iowa

YouTube video (His clip starts at 0:30.) (more info). 9-Mar.-2013

241     

Dean Schwartz, ceramic artist

Cedar Rapids

Iowa

YouTube video Both his /ou/ [aʊ] vowel and his /ō/ [oʊ] vowel are so far back that I initially thought that Cedar Rapids was above the bite-bout line and above the pink dots, even though the ANAE had put it below those lines, but on listening again I realize that they are just barely below them! 21-Dec.-2010

242     

Donna Reed, actress

Dennison

Iowa

YouTube video 24-Jan.-2011

243     

Pamela Gorman, politician

Des Moines

Iowa

YouTube video 1-Nov.-2010

244     

Dayton Duncan, producer

Indianola

Iowa

YouTube video 1-Nov.-2010

245     

Dr. William Lane Craig, theologian

Keokuk

Iowa

YouTube video

246     

B. J. Hermsen

Masonville

Iowa

YouTube video 11-Mar.-2016

247     

Phil Vischer, co-creator of VeggieTales

Muscatine /mǔstēn/ [ˌmʌskəˈtʰin]

Iowa

YouTube video 21-Dec.-2010

248     

Mike Johanns, Nebraska governor

Osage

Iowa

YouTube video 28-Oct.-2011

249     

Mayor Dale Uehling

Ottumwa tǔmwə/ [əˈtʰʌmwə]

Iowa

video & info (Sent in by Kevin McMillin. Thanks!) 2-Feb.-2011

250     

Carol Morris, Miss Universe 1956

Ottumwa

Iowa

YouTube video

251     

Everly Brothers, rock singers

Shenandoah

Iowa

YouTube video When these guys sing, they use a clear Inland Southern accent (e.g. YouTube video), but when they speak, as in the interview above, it’s clearly Iowa. The one southernism they have is that “pin”=“pen”, but this is also from this part of Iowa, as seen by the following sample. 12-July-2011

252     

Charlie Haden, musician

Shenandoah

Iowa

YouTube video. 12-July-2011

253     

U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower

Abilene

Kansas

YouTube video I found this better clip of him, and realized that he has “cot”≠“caught”! His brother (below) does too. Even so, I would like to find other samples from Abilene to confirm this, since it makes the lines twist quite a lot! 18-Nov.-2011

254     

Milton Eisenhower, university president, War Relocation Authority director

Abilene

Kansas

YouTube video. 18-Nov.-2011

255     

Mark Schultz, contemporary Christian singer/songwriter

Colby

Kansas

YouTube video 6-Jan.-2012

256     

Archbishop Charles Chaput /shəpōō/ [ʃəˈpʰu]

Concordia

Kansas

YouTube video I had not listened as clearly as I should have, and thought that “cot”=“caught”, but it does not, thereby providing a bridge to Hays and Plainville! 18-Sep.-2010

257     

David A. R. White, actor, producer

Dodge City

Kansas

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) 6-Jan.-2012

258     

Chuck Reed, mayor of San Jose, CA

Garden City

Kansas

YouTube video

259     

Victor Ortiz, boxer

Garden City

Kansas

YouTube video

260     

John L. Allen, Jr., Journalist

Hays

Kansas

YouTube video 18-Sep.-2010

261     

Various locals

Hugoton /hyōōgətən/? [ˈhjuɡətən]?

Kansas

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 3-Dec.-2009

262     

Billy Drago, actor

Hugoton

Kansas

YouTube video 3-Dec.-2009

263     

Scott Heim, novelist

Hutchinson

Kansas

YouTube video

264     

Ed Asner, actor

Kansas City

Kansas

YouTube video

265     

Wantha Davis, jockey

Liberal

Kansas

YouTube video (Her clip starts at 3:40) (more info) She’s back! For a long time this web site was offline, and the video was unavailable, but both are now available again! This is very good, because she is one of only two samples for Liberal, which is the only clear case of Inland Southern in Kansas. 27-Oct.-2011

266     

Kasey Hayes, bull rider

Liberal

Kansas

YouTube video Slightly inconsistent on his long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels, but clearly Inland South. (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 24-Jan.-2011

267     

Caucasian male

Oskaloosa

Kansas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

268     

Darren Bousman, film director

Overland Park

Kansas

YouTube video

269     

U.S. representative Jerry Moran

Plainville

Kansas

YouTube video 18-Sep.-2010

270     

Marlin Fitzwater, former White House press sec.

Salina

Kansas

YouTube video

271     

Mitch Holthus, football announcer

Smith Center

Kansas

YouTube video I replaced the video I had with this one which is much better, and realized that “cot”≠“caught” for him. This opens up the narrow bridge to Hays and Plainville, which makes more sense. 15-Nov.-2011

272     

Martina McBride, country singer

Sharon

Kansas

YouTube video Replaced bad link. 31-May-2011

273     

Andy McKee, guitarist

Topeka

Kansas

YouTube video

274     

U.S. senator Pat Roberts

Topeka

Kansas

YouTube video 6-Jan.-2012

275     

Jason Crabb, southern gospel singer

Beaver Dam

Kentucky

YouTube video 11-July-2009

276     

Jimmy Wolford, singer songwriter, descendant of the feudin’ McCoys

Belfry

Kentucky

YouTube video (First clip starts at 1:00, but reappears throughout.) 30-Apr.-2010

277     

County schools personnel

Benton

Kentucky

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) Oops! This video has been removed. In any case, I now suspect that Benton is very much a mixed area (which should not be surprising seeing the complexity of the map in that area), since I had a conversation with a native, and she definitely spoke Lowland Southern. 27-Oct.-2011

278     

Jason Lambert, web entrepreneur

Bowling Green (Scottsville)

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) 11-July-2009

279     

David Williams, Kentucky Senate president

Burkesville

Kentucky

YouTube video 11-July-2009

280     

Loretta Lynn, country singer

Butcher Holler (officially Hollow)

Kentucky

YouTube video, YouTube video, I have finally decided that for Loretta, “cot”≠“caught”. The problem is that she is inconsistent: In both an early and a recent version of “Coal Miner’s Daughter”, she always says /dŏtər/ [ˈdɑɾɚ], using exactly the same vowel sound as in “lot” later on in the song, never /dôtər/ [ˈdɒʊɾɚ], the typical Southern pronunciation. This was what made me think that she had “cot”=“caught”, along with the fact that she grew up very close to the “cot”=“caught” area. However, even in this song she uses /ô/ [ɒʊ] in the word “all”, but /ŏ/ [ɑ] in the word “holler”, both before /l/, so she clearly has the phoneme contrast. Similarly, in this early version of “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)”, the word “ought” is clearly /ŏt/ [ˈɑt], not /ôt/ [ˈɒʊt], but in the same song there are clear cases of /ô/ [ɒʊ] in “’cause” and “caught”. 26-July-2012

281     

Gatewood Galbraith, politician

Carlisle

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) 22-Aug.-2009

282     

A whole slew of people at a political rally

Columbus

Kentucky

dead link: YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) (Oops, this video has now been removed! Anyone have another one from Columbus?) Hard to evaluate, but several who say they are definitely locals are clearly Inland Southern, including the guy from between Bardwell and Berkley, the lady standing with her husband, and the man with his wife and two babies. 25-Nov.-2009

283     

John Michael Montgomery, country singer

Danville

Kentucky

YouTube video, YouTube video 13-May-2009

284     

Billy Ray Cyrus, country singer

Flatwoods

Kentucky

YouTube video This is a key sample: Clearly Lowland, though occasional words sound Inland. “cot”≠“caught”. (more info) 30-May-2011

285     

Brice Long, country singer

Hopkinsville

Kentucky

YouTube video 20-Jan.-2010

286     

Gerald Crabb, southern gospel singer

Horse Branch

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) The pattern of Inland and Lowland Southern in Kentucky is so peculiar, and seems to be getting more so! 25-Apr.-2013

287     

Ernie Brown Jr., turtle man

Lebanon

Kentucky

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 16-Feb.-2010

288     

Lardo Moron”, bluegrass artist

Lexington (Loradale)

Kentucky

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) Lowland Southern, but with occasional lapses into Inland on a few words, like “right”. Compare these with the Little Rock samples. 26-Nov.-2009

289     

Burley Moron”, bluegrass artist

Lexington (Nicholasville)

Kentucky

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) Like the previous, but with a few more Inland lapses, which we would expect, since he’s from slightly closer to the dialect line. 26-Nov.-2009

290     

Brian Littrell, pop singer

Lexington

Kentucky

YouTube video 22-Aug.-2009

291     

Silas House, author

Lily

Kentucky

video & info (Sent in by Amanda Warren. Thanks!) 9-May-2011

292     

U.S. senator Mitch McConnell

Louisville

Kentucky

YouTube video

293     

white male, born 1933, retired farmer

Marion

Kentucky

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

294     

Kevin Skinner, America’s Got Talent winner

Mayfield

Kentucky

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 26-Nov.-2009

295     

Heather French Henry, Miss America 2000

Maysville

Kentucky

YouTube video 7-Dec.-2009

296     

Tim Farmer, TV outdoorsman

Maysville

Kentucky

YouTube video “cot”≠“caught”, personally confirmed by Tim, thanks! I had thought he sounded more like “cot”=“caught”. (more info) 30-May-2011

297     

Kevin Denney, country singer

Monticello

Kentucky

YouTube video 1-June-2009

298     

Dottie Rambo, southern gospel singer

Morganfield

Kentucky

YouTube video 11-July-2009

299     

W. Earl Brown, actor, singer

Murray

Kentucky

YouTube video (No need to listen to all of it!) 11-July-2009

300     

Darrell Waltrip, NASCAR driver

Owensboro

Kentucky

YouTube video 12-June-2010

301     

U.S. senator Wendell Ford

Owensboro

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) 11-July-2009

302     

Bobby Green, NASCAR driver

Owensboro

Kentucky

YouTube video (clip starts at 3:30) 31-Dec.-2011

303     

U.S. senator and former governor Julian Carroll

Paducah

Kentucky

YouTube video

304     

Dr. Herbert Anderson, M.D.

Paducah

Kentucky

audio link & info 9-May-2009

305     

Ron Hagan, flood fighter

Paducah

Kentucky

YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:18.) (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 11-Jan.-2011

306     

Patty Loveless, country singer

Pikeville

Kentucky

YouTube video 20-Jan.-2010

307     

Joe Isaacs, bluegrass musician

Pikeville (Big Hill)

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) 9-Sep.-2010

308     

Merle Travis, country singer

Rosewood

Kentucky

YouTube video 18-Oct.-2010

309     

Bill Monroe, Bluegrass singer

Rosine

Kentucky

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

310     

Adam Crowe, web entrepreneur

Russellville

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) 11-July-2009

311     

Tim Elkins, dairy producer

Smiths Grove

Kentucky

YouTube video 18-Dec.-2010

312     

Heidi Douglas Greer, bluegrass gospel singer

Stearns

Kentucky

YouTube video (more info) New! 13-Sep.-2017

313     

Joseph Boudreaux, alligator hunter

Abbeville

Louisiana

YouTube video Cajun English! 23-June-2010

314     

Anne Patout, long-time resident of Jeanerette

Alexandria

Louisiana

YouTube video (Sent in by Janet Schexnayder. Thanks!) Janet said, “My mother just told me that Ann Patout was born Ann Bolner, and her family was from the Alexandria, Louisiana, area, so her speech would not be typical of Jeanerette or New Iberia. Alexandria is not a Cajun area and was settled by Scots Irish and other English-speaking descendants from Virginia, South Carolina, Mississippi, etc.” Based on this, and the fact that she is quite distinct from the Jeanerette clip below, I am listing her for Alexandria, even though I’m not sure where she was born or lived her early years. She is clearly an older speaker who speaks Classical, as is the clip from Marksville below, which moves the Classical line north. Young people in Alexandria, including my son-in-law, do not drop r’s. New! 2-May-2018

315     

Larry Bankston, attorney

Baton Rouge

Louisiana

YouTube video Standard Lowland Southern. Can find no evidence of Classical Southern (r dropping) in Baton Rouge. New! 2-May-2018

316     

Lifelong resident, shrimper

Belle Chasse

Louisiana

YouTube video Clearly Cajun English, showing that the New Orleans dialects are pretty much limited to the city itself or to St. Bernard Parish! Adj. 2-May-2018

317     

James Carville, political commentator

Carville

Louisiana

YouTube video (Oops, I had accidentally put the wrong clip in here, one of Jimmy Martin from Tennessee, as contributors Marc Sketchler, Daniel Veals, and Janet Schexnayder pointed out to me. Thanks! I know I had a great clip from James Carville, but I have no record of what it was. No sweat, he’s a political commentator, there’s a million more out there. I just had to pick another one!)

                The town was named after his grandfather. Excellent example of Cajun English, though not quite as strong as some of the others. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

318     

Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock singer

Ferriday

Louisiana

YouTube video 30-Jan.-2010

319     

Narrator, name not given

Galliano

Louisiana

YouTube video (Sent in by Marc Sketchler. Thanks!) According to Marc Sketchler, this is a good sample from this area. However, I notice that he is a bit inconsistent: he doesn’t always drop his r’s or have the Southern pronunciation of the long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowel. But clearly Cajun! New! 13-Sep.-2017

320     

Mayor David Camardelle

Grand Isle

Louisiana

YouTube video 12-June-2010

321     

Janet Schexnayder’s father

Jeanerette /jĭnrĕt/ [ˈdʒɪnˌɹɛt] Adj. 2-May-2018

Louisiana

YouTube video (Sent in by Janet Schexnayder. Thanks!) There are three speakers on this clip, Janet, her father, and the guy who says “holy crap” near the end. The only one of interest is Janet’s father, who is first heard at 0:10, though his best clip is toward the end. He is clearly Cajun. Adj. 2-May-2018

322     

Lynne Spears, mother of Britney Spears

Kentwood

Louisiana

YouTube video 9-Jan.-2010

323     

Lenis Guillot /lĭnĭs ŏt/ [ˈlɪnɪs ˈɡiˌɑt], witness

Lafayette /lăfēĕt/ [ˌlæfiˈɛt]

Louisiana

YouTube video Cajun English! 14-Feb.-2011

324     

Charles Addison Riddle III, state representative, parish district attorney

Marksville

Louisiana

YouTube video Classical, not Cajun. New! 2-May-2018

325     

Deborah Chauvin, profession unknown

New Orleans (Ninth Ward)

Louisiana

I have arranged this and the following New Orleans speakers in a graduated sequence ranging from almost pure Greater New York City to pure Lowland Southern. No two of them are at exactly the same point in the sequence! Originally I had listed the ones I am now calling “Peripheral New Orleans” as “Classical Southern”, but I realized that they had some distinctive New Orleans features, and needed to have their own category. The dialect names are simply my tentative divisions of New Orleans based on these samples:

New Orleans Downtown dialect: YouTube video (Her clip is at the beginning of this video.) Not Southern at all, as shown by her pronunciation of “ninth” and “Bywater”, and sounds very much like Greater New York City, though impossible to tell in this short clip whether “had” rhymes with “bad” (though the Mehrvigne sample below suggests that it does), whether “father” rhymes with “bother” (though the other New Orleans samples make it almost certain that this is not true), or whether “pin”=“pen” (though the other Central New Orleans samples make it almost certain that that this is not true, as shown on the map). However, clearly “on” rhymes with “Dawn”, which is not like GNYC. 11-Mar.-2016

326     

“dem two beautiful girls” (self-description)

New Orleans (Irish Channel)

Louisiana

New Orleans Irish Channel dialect: YouTube video (Their clip starts at 5:25, and finishes the video.) They sound very much like Greater New York City, hardly Southern at all, but they are Lowland Southern as far as their long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] is concerned. Clearly “pin”≠“pen”! Favorite quotes: “When I want to talk proper, I will”, “Look at dem two beautiful girls, if dey’d shut deir mouts dey’d be great”. 17-Dec.-2015

327     

Mehrvigne

New Orleans (Arabi /ărəbē/ [ˈæɹəbi])

Louisiana

St. Bernard Parish dialect: YouTube video (Sent in by Todd Meredith. Thanks!), YouTube video She also sounds very much like Greater New York City, hardly Southern at all, but is Lowland Southern as far as her long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] is concerned. Clearly “pin”≠“pen”! However, in fact there are quite a few other differences from New York City, which match many other Southern dialects.

                For example, unlike New York City, but like many other Southerners, she clearly has the card-cord merger, thus the contrast between /ä(r)/ and /ô(r)/ has disappeared, both being pronounced [ɔə]! However, because she is also a strong r-dropper, this leads to some unusual losses of contrast: for her “cart”=“caught” and “park” rhymes with “hawk” and “walk”. Mehrvigne confirmed all this for me (see the texting below the clip), and gave the sample sentence, “Ah cawt the cawt as it was rollin dow’na pawk sidewawk.” (“I caught the cart as it was rolling down the park sidewalk.”) However, she just as clearly does not have the horse-hoarse merger, which we would expect from someone with the card-cord merger: in the first clip at 5:36 she says “story” as [ˈstoəɹi] (/stȯrē/), but at 5:42 she says “for ’im” as [ˈfɔəɹɪm] (/fôrĭm/), and in the second clip at 2:45 she clearly says, “Let’s start [ˈstɔət] again, let’s be more [ˈmoə] careful.” This also matches all of the other New Orleans samples.

                She also texted me: “Bad, had, lad, mad: They all have the same a vowel sound,” which shows that in this also New Orleans is not like GNYC!

                One way in which the St. Bernard Parish dialect is unlike all of the other New Orleans dialects is that it has the Tidewater raising, as pointed out by contributor Todd Meredith! This is unexpected, since the only other place this is found in the United States is on the eastern seaboard. It is also unexpected that it would only apply to the St. Bernard Parish dialect and not to any other New Orleans dialect. Ah, well, this project never ceases to surprise!

                As stated in the r-dropping discussion, the r-dropping areas in the South are all mainly simple r-droppers, not systematic r-droppers. However, she shows some tendency to retain final r’s before a vowel, though not enough to make her systematic. 11-Mar.-2016

328     

Brittany George, college student

New Orleans (Chalmette /shălmĕt/ [ˌʃælˈmɛt])

Louisiana

St. Bernard Parish dialect: YouTube video Essentially the same as the previous, though perhaps not as consistent, in that she pronounces more r’s than a consistent r-dropper would. Clearly also has Tidewater raising like the previous. 11-Mar.-2016

329     

aeruffino

New Orleans (French Quarter)

Louisiana

New Orleans Mid City dialect: YouTube video, YouTube video. 11-Mar.-2016

330     

Mayor Mitch Landrieu

New Orleans (Broadmoor)

Louisiana

New Orleans Mid City dialect: YouTube video, YouTube video Clearly Lowland Southern, but with many GNYC features, “pin”≠“pen”, and he pronounces “father” as [ˈfɒəðə], but pronounces “Thompson” as [ˈtʰɑmpsən], again just like GNYC! Thus he evidently has the father-bother distinction, as do some other New Orleans samples, and it is likely that all of the others do also. He also has [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in “anniversary” (1:23) and some other words, which is both a GNYC and a Southern feature). 11-Mar.-2016

331     

Billy Delle, radio host

New Orleans (Gentilly)

Louisiana

Peripheral New Orleans dialect: YouTube video He is the narrator. (He kindly let me know that he grew up in Gentilly. Thanks!) (Clips: 0:58-1:15, 4:12-4:35, 5:46-5:56) Clearly a part of Classical Southern as a general category, with “pin”=“pen”, but /ô/ = [oə], like GNYC, and with more other GNYC features than Harry Connick. (End credits: YouTube video, his clip is at 0:43.) (more info) 17-Dec.-2015

332     

Harry Connick, Jr., jazz composer & singer

New Orleans (Lakewood)

Louisiana

Peripheral New Orleans dialect: YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) (He speaks first at 1:52) Clearly a part of Classical Southern as a general category, with “pin”=“pen”, but /ô/ = [oə], like GNYC. However, he does not drop all of his r’s that do not precede vowels.

                One anonymous contributor from New Orleans said, “I would say that Harry Connick Jr. sounds more like New Orleans black than New Orleans white (probably from hanging around all those jazz musicians growing up!), so you really should not use him as a representative of the white New Orleans accents.” I would say this is certainly true, but only partly: he still has lots in common with the other white speakers listed here. 17-Dec.-2015

333     

Roger Villere, Republican Party State Chairman

New Orleans (Metairie /mĕtərē/ [ˈmɛɾɚi])

Louisiana

Peripheral New Orleans dialect: YouTube video Essentially the same as Harry Connick. (Sent in by Ben Trawick-Smith. Thanks!) 17-Dec.-2015

334     

Older gentleman, upper class

New Orleans (Garden District)

Louisiana

Classical Southern dialect: YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:40 and again at 2:35.) Older r-dropper: Clearly the most classic of Classical Southern, “pin”=“pen”, with no GNYC features at all (except for [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in some words, which is also a Southern feature); /ô/ = [ɒʊ], like most southerners. My favorite quote: “I just don’t think people from the Garden District have any accent.” 17-Dec.-2015

335     

Man sitting on park bench, described by the transcript as an “Upper-class man”

New Orleans (Uptown, possibly Audubon Blvd.)

Louisiana

Classical Southern dialect: YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:57.) Much younger than the previous speaker, and so lacks the [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] feature, but clearly Classical Southern, though he seems to try to suppress this occasionally, pronouncing a few final r’s and pronouncing a few of his long /ī/ vowels that would be expected to be [a] as [aɪ]. He has no GNYC features at all; /ô/ = [ɒʊ], like most southerners. His analysis of New Orleans is very helpful. Contributor Charles Meeks says, “The guy sitting on the bench in the park is Uptown for sure. Hard to pin point the exact park, but I suspect it’s Audubon Blvd.”, though this does not mean that that is necessarily his home neighborhood, so I have made this only a tentative identification, with a pink dot, though I am treating the Uptown identification as definite. 17-Dec.-2015

336     

Jimmie Davis, country singer & governor

Quitman

Louisiana

YouTube video 23-July-2011

337     

Brooks Blanche, agriculturalist

Saint Joseph

Louisiana

YouTube video (Sent in by Brooks Blanche. Thanks!) 17-Apr.-2013

338     

Kix Brooks, country singer

Shreveport

Louisiana

YouTube video 31-May-2011

339     

Tim McGraw, country singer

Start

Louisiana

YouTube video 8-Dec.-2014

340     

Tim Sample, humorist

Boothbay Harbor

Maine

YouTube video (Sent in by Ken Homer. Thanks!) 4-Mar.-2011

341     

U.S. senator Susan Collins

Caribou

Maine

YouTube video (Her clip starts at 1:28.) In listening to this clip again, I am impressed by how different her sound system is from the coastal Maine accents, including the guy who gives the prayer at the beginning. She clearly uses the same vowel in “father” (4:05) as in words like “bronze”, and this vowel is low and central, whereas her /är/ [aɹ] is strongly fronted. Her long /ō/ [oʊ] vowel is more fronted than Ellis Paul’s, so I have run the yellow long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting line between Fort Kent and Caribou. 28-Aug.-2013

342     

Ellis Paul, folk singer

Fort Kent

Maine

YouTube video 8-June-2009

343     

Jeremy Van Dyne, lobsterman

Matinicus Island

Maine

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

344     

Ed Muskie, politician

Rumford

Maine

YouTube video 2-June-2009

345     

Michael Merchant, “Out of the Wild” volunteer, bigfoot proponent

Tenants Harbor

Maine

YouTube video (Replaced link: the original link sent in by Kathy Villarreal in 2011, private link: YouTube video, is no longer available to the public.) Speculation about bigfoot using drugs? Whatever…

                He only drops about half of his droppable r’s (the ones not preceding a vowel), but otherwise he has a typical Eastern New England accent. (dead link: more info) The previous site, now dead, had said that he was from Hampden (right next to Bangor /bănggôr/ [ˈbæŋˌɡɒə]), but Kathy informed me that he actually grew up in Tenants Harbor before high school. 17-Dec.-2015

346     

Ty Babb, lobster fisherman

Tenants Harbor

Maine

YouTube video (Sent in by Jill Miller. Thanks!) He is very similar to the previous. Apparently r’s are creeping into the dialect here! 6-Jan.-2012

347     

Mayor Sam Katz /kāts/ [ˈkʰets]

Winnipeg

Manitoba

YouTube video. 25-Sep.-2013

348     

Judy Marsales /märsālz/ [ˌmɑɹˈseɪlz], businessperson and politician

Winnipeg

Manitoba

YouTube video Her dialect sounds a bit more Toronto than Winnipeg, as distinct from Mayor Katz and the others in his interview, as far as the fronting of the /ou/ [ɑʊ] and /ō/ [o(ʊ)] vowels. 25-Sep.-2013

349     

U.S. senator Barbara Mikulski

Baltimore

Maryland

YouTube video 19-Feb.-2011

350     

Various politicians[37]

Baltimore

Maryland

YouTube video

351     

State senate president Mike Miller

Clinton

Maryland

YouTube video (Older speaker retaining Lowland Southern, although younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) 11-Jan.-2011

352     

Chris Rice, Christian singer

Clinton

Maryland

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

353     

Frank Nethken, politician

Cumberland

Maryland

YouTube video Interesting character! This is also the northernmost example of Southern! 4-Nov.-2010

354     

Alex Coblentz, contributor

Frederick

Maryland

YouTube video (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) Pretty solid East Midland, though I was at first in some doubt about whether “pin”=“pen”, but I believe he does distinguish! 16-Dec.-2011

355     

Chris Shank, state House Minority Whip

Hagerstown

Maryland

YouTube video

356     

Jeannie Haddaway-Riccio, state Delegate

Neavitt

Maryland

YouTube video

357     

Frank Perdue, chicken producer

Salisbury

Maryland

YouTube video (Sent in by Bryan Gadow. Thanks!), YouTube video The second link is his very first commercial, and his Southern accent is quite evident. However, it is too short to show any Tidewater raising. The second link a number of other early commercials, but already it is clear that his handlers have eradicated much of his Southern accent, or at least have almost completely eliminated the pronunciation of long /ī/ as [a] (though he still slips up occasionally, as at 1:03, 2:00, 2:04). However, the Tidewater raising is apparent, as at 3:01).

                I had another old link where both the Southern accent and the Tidewater raising were prominent, but it is now dead: dead link: YouTube video (His clip was at 2:30-3:00 if anyone can track it down). Adj. 2-May-2018

358     

Various residents

Smith Island

Maryland

YouTube video, YouTube video 9-Sep.-2010

359     

Mary Ada Marshall, cake maker

Smith Island

Maryland

YouTube video 9-Sep.-2010

360     

Cathy Lanier, Washington, D.C. Police Chief

Tuxedo

Maryland

YouTube video. 23-Sep.-2013

361     

Thomas Menino, mayor

Boston (Hyde Park)

Massachusetts

YouTube video Excellent example! 25-Apr.-2013

362     

Unnamed city counselor

Boston (Medford)

Massachusetts

YouTube video (Sent in by Bryant Garrigus. Thanks!) This is a much better sample of a Boston accent than JFK or Powers below. 2-Apr.-2011

363     

Alyssa McBride, contributor

Boston (Chelsea)

Massachusetts

Audio (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) Alyssa is consistent as a systematic r-dropper more than 95% of the time. 28-Nov.-2011

364     

U.S. president John Fitzgerald Kennedy

Boston (Brookline)

Massachusetts

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video (Replaced dead link for second video.) He only lived in Boston until the age of ten, and then spent most of the remainder of his youth outside the state (see Wikipedia), and as a result, though he does have a very definite systematic r-dropper dialect, he is not really a good example of a Boston accent, as contributor Bryant Garrigus has pointed out, especially in his pronunciation of the /ä/ vowel in words like “father” and “park”, which he pronounces more like Greater New York City, though some of his other vowels are closer to Boston. 2-Apr.-2011

365     

Dave Powers, JFK special assistant

Boston (Charlestown)

Massachusetts

YouTube video (more info) Powers, on the other hand, lived his entire youth in Charlestown, but even so, his pronunciation of the /ä/ vowel in words like “father” and “park” is more like JFK than it is Boston, as contributor Bryant Garrigus has pointed out. 2-Apr.-2011

366     

Rick Starbard /stärbərd/ [ˈstabəd], school committee candidate

Boston (Lynn)

Massachusetts

info and video (His first clip starts at 12:10, with more throughout the video.) (Sent in by Shirley Tessler. Thanks!) 25-Mar.-2011

367     

Walter Brennan, actor

Boston (Lynn)

Massachusetts

YouTube video (His clip starts at 5:45.)

                Originally I had posted this YouTube video as a sample for Walter Brennan. However, contributor Shirley Tessler wrote: “I looked at the YouTube video of Walter Brennan that you provide as an example of a Lynn Massachusetts dialect. Lynn is my home town. Although Mr. Brennan was born in Lynn, he is speaking as an actor in that YouTube video in a dialect of an unschooled farmer from Texas (or similar location very far from Lynn Mass). I suggest that you no longer point to the Walter Brennan video, since it is not a true example of a Lynn dialect.”

                My initial reaction on her comments was, “No way! He sounds very Eastern New England to me!” That’s because the vowels he uses in words like “farm” [a] and “on” [ɒə] are so ENE as to be unmistakable. No place else in the world are those vowels pronounced precisely that way! Anyone from outside of ENE who knows accents would immediately know he is ENE. 17-Aug.-2015

                In fact, after I started this map, I thought, “Now who was that old actor whose accent I remember so vividly from when I was a kid? He was clearly ENE. Let’s see... He played in ‘The Tycoon’, I remember.” And that’s how I found him. However, I didn’t initially find a clip from ‘The Tycoon’, but posted the second clip instead.

                However, in listening again to that clip, I realized that Shirley was partly right: in that clip he is trying to do some kind of western farmer accent, but he is doing a very bad job of it: his ENE features keep bleeding through. Even so, certain words, like “about”, do not have ENE vowels at all.

                I eventually found the first clip, which is from ‘The Tycoon’, and shows a more accurate accent. But check out the clip of Rick Starbard above, for an even better sample for Lynn. 25-Mar.-2011

368     

Captain Richard Phillips

Boston (Winchester)

Massachusetts

YouTube video. 11-Mar.-2016

369     

Peter Marciano, youngest brother of pro boxer Rocky Marciano

Brockton

Massachusetts

YouTube video He seems to keep a few more “droppable r’s” than Rocky, but otherwise his accent is pure Eastern New England. I had found a nice clip of Rocky himself, but it has been removed, and I can’t find any others! 7-Apr.-2011

370     

State senator Gary LeBeau

Easthampton

Massachusetts

YouTube video 30-Nov.-2009

371     

Emeril Lagasse, celebrity cook

Fall River

Massachusetts

YouTube video 24-Oct.-2009

372     

Gary Kitmacher, spacecraft designer

Pittsfield

Massachusetts

YouTube video (He talks for the first six minutes of the clip.) (more info) Linguist and Pittsfield native R. Locke wrote in to say that Gary Kitmacher really is representative of Pittsfield, and that James Ruberto is not. He also sent in the Turk Wendell clip below. I am glad, since Ruberto’s accent had really messed up my map! Pittsfield is now firmly back in the Northwestern New England area. 20-Apr.-2011

373     

Turk Wendell, pro baseball player

Pittsfield

Massachusetts

YouTube video (Sent in by R. Locke. Thanks!) 20-Apr.-2011

374     

June Foray, voice actress for animated films

Springfield

Massachusetts

YouTube video (Her clip starts at 0:57.) 30-Mar.-2012

375     

Dr. Timothy Leary, LSD advocate

Springfield

Massachusetts

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 7-Apr.-2011

376     

Abbie Hoffmann, radical activist

Worcester

Massachusetts

YouTube video

377     

Verne Troyer, actor

Centreville

Michigan

YouTube video 16-Feb.-2010

378     

Dan Severn, “pro” wrestler

Coldwater

Michigan

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 16-Sep.-2014

379     

Nancy Skinner, politician

Detroit

Michigan

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

380     

Josiah Middaugh, extreme athlete

East Jordan

Michigan

YouTube video ( more info) 7-Dec.-2009

381     

State senator Tom Casperson

Escanaba

Michigan

YouTube video 29-Dec.-2010

382     

U.S. president Gerald Ford

Grand Rapids

Michigan

YouTube video 23-June-2010

383     

Coach Tom Izzo

Iron Mountain

Michigan

YouTube video

384     

Jason Babin, pro football player

Kalamazoo

Michigan

YouTube video 16-Feb.-2010

385     

Larry Page, Google co-founder

(East) Lansing

Michigan

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2010

386     

Cathy Guisewite, cartoonist of Cathy

Midland

Michigan

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

387     

Harry Morgan, actor

Muskegon

Michigan

YouTube video. 11-Mar.-2016

388     

Jake Cinninger, musician

Niles

Michigan

YouTube video 16-Feb.-2010

389     

Joe Marutiak, OPEIU union member

Owosso

Michigan

YouTube video (Sent in by Dave Marutiak. Thanks!) 11-Jan.-2011

390     

Terry O’Quinn, actor

Sault Ste. Marie

Michigan

YouTube video (Replaced bad link) 11-Mar.-2016

391     

Rob Capriccioso, American Indian journalist

Sault Ste. Marie

Michigan

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

392     

Paul Colson, George Risser, Celeste Colson, Adam Rasmussen, Amy Dietzler

Angle Inlet

Minnesota

audio & transcript These folks talk like Minnesota, not Canada! 29-Dec.-2010

393     

Joseph Jagunich, miner’s son

Buhl

Minnesota

audio & info (Sent in by Adam Jarvi. Thanks!) 25-Mar.-2011

394     

Mayor Don Ness

Duluth

Minnesota

YouTube video 1-May-2010

395     

Mildred Opacich, miner’s wife

Duluth

Minnesota

audio & info (Sent in by Adam Jarvi. Thanks!) Though apparently born and raised in Duluth, she seems to have a strong Iron Range dialect, or else this is simply the accent she learned from her immigrant parents. 16-May-2012

396     

Anthony Vidmar, miner’s son

Ely /ēlē/ [ˈili]

Minnesota

audio & info (Sent in by Adam Jarvi. Thanks!) 25-Mar.-2011

397     

Josephine Scander, miner’s daughter

Hibbing

Minnesota

audio & info, audio & info (Sent in by Adam Jarvi. Thanks!) 25-Mar.-2011

398     

Tammy Faye (Bakker /bākər/ [ˈbeɪkɚ]) Messner, controversial Christian television personality

International Falls

Minnesota

YouTube video 29-Dec.-2010

399     

Chris Sukalski /səkôlskē/ [səˈkʰɒlski], dairy producer

Le Roy /roi/ [ˈliˌɹɔɪ]

Minnesota

YouTube video 13-Jan.-2011

400     

Jesse Ventura, politician & “pro” wrestler

Minneapolis

Minnesota

YouTube video (Suggested by Y.I. Thanks!) Also YouTube video (replaced bad link), being interviewed by Dennis Miller: talk about two extremely distinct accents! And points of view! Clearly has “cot”≠“caught”. 17-Dec.-2015

401     

Brandon Paulson, Greco-Roman wrestler

Minneapolis (Coon Rapids)

Minnesota

YouTube videocot”=“caught”. The Twin Cities seem to be unique in that the cot-caught line seems to run right through the middle of it. I have personally interviewed two different married couples, both born and raised in the Twin Cities, of whom one has “cot”=“caught” and the other has “cot”≠“caught”. The line does not seem to be well-defined through the city, simply that the city has a mix, but it also seems true that the northernmost suburbs have cot”=“caught”! 30-Sep.-2016

402     

Brian Burke, Toronto Maple Leafs manager

Minneapolis (Edina)

Minnesota

YouTube video “cot”≠“caught”, but the difference is minimal. This is not unusual for the Western North. 16-Mar.-2010

403     

U.S. senator Amy Klobuchar /klōshär/ [ˈkʰloʊbəˌʃɑɹ]

Minneapolis (Plymouth)

Minnesota

YouTube video (Sent in by Annie Wang. Thanks!) Clearly has “cot”≠“caught”. 17-Dec.-2015

404     

Will Steger, arctic explorer

Minneapolis (Richfield)

Minnesota

YouTube video (more info) Fairly clearly has “cot”=“caught”. 30-Sep.-2016

405     

Tony Snyder, state trooper, and many others

Princeton

Minnesota

YouTube video (Clip starts at 1:05.) Warning: gory details of wicked murder and allusions to infidelity! This almost exceeds my family-friendly policy, though because the focus is on catching the bad guys through forensic analysis I think it is okay. (If any fans of this page strongly disagree, I would be glad to hear from you.) All local speakers have “pin”=“pen”, which confirms an interview I had previously had with a native. 30-Sep.-2016

406     

Mayor Dave Kleis

St. Cloud

Minnesota

YouTube video Clearly has “cot”=“caught”, as expected, since it is north of Minneapolis-St. Paul! 17-Dec.-2015

407     

Governor Tim Pawlenty /pəlĕntē/ [pʰəˈlɛɾ̃i]

St. Paul

Minnesota

YouTube video (Sent in by Annie Wang. Thanks!), YouTube video Clearly has “cot”≠“caught”, clearly noticeable in the second clip. 17-Dec.-2015

408     

“The Lovelace Family”, southern gospel singers

Burnsville

Mississippi

YouTube video 12-June-2010

409     

Don Wildmon, founder, American Family Association

Dumas

Mississippi

audio (If anyone has a better audio or video link for Mr. Wildmon, please let me know.) 30-Jan.-2010

410     

Shelby Foote, historian

Greenville

Mississippi

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) Amazing historian, and his accent is so perfectly Classical Southern! However, I had accidentally marked him as being from Greenville, Alabama instead of Greenville, Mississippi. The latter is a bit more surprising, since it is outside of the general Classical Southern area. 1-Sep.-2014

411     

U.S. senator Trent Lott

Grenada /grənādə/ [ɡɹəˈneɪdə]

Mississippi

YouTube video (According to the following, Trent Lott moved to Pascagoula in his early teens, but I am assuming that his accent was already set by then: more info) 19-Feb.-2011

412     

The Unity Four, southern gospel singers

Iuka /īyōōkə/ [ˌaˈjukə]

Mississippi

YouTube video (more info) 17-Dec.-2015

413     

Tommy Hamill, kidnap victim

Macon

Mississippi

YouTube video (more info) I don’t quite know what to do with this guy. He seems to be mostly Lowland, but has a few words that are clearly Inland, like “might,” “wife,” “life.”) According to my settlement theory, Noxubee County should be a Lowland area, since it had a high percentage of slaves before the Civil War. 23-Sep.-2015

414     

Jimmie Rodgers, country singer

Meridian

Mississippi

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 7-Apr.-2011

415     

Estus Pirkle, preacher, filmmaker

New Albany

Mississippi

YouTube video 30-Jan.-2010

416     

JoJo Billingsley, singer

Senatobia

Mississippi

YouTube video (more info) 30-Jan.-2010

417     

Tornado victims

Smithville

Mississippi

YouTube video The first two are clearly Inland, the last one seems to be trying not to sound Southern. 10-May-2011

418     

Dr. Brett Hildenbrand, dentist

Tupelo /tōōpəlō/ [ˈtʰupəˌloʊ]

Mississippi

YouTube video (more info) (Sent in by Y.I. Thanks!) 1-July-2010

419     

Dr. Harry Rayburn, dentist

Tupelo

Mississippi

YouTube video (more info) (Sent in by Y.I. Thanks!) 1-July-2010

420     

Heather, patient, and husband Ron

Cape Girardeau

Missouri

YouTube video (Sent in by Brett Harkey. Thanks!) (Oops, bad link, as contributor David Harbaugh informed me. He’s going to try to find a replacement.) Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

421     

State senator Matt Bartle

Columbia

Missouri

YouTube video

422     

U.S. senator Bill Bradley

Crystal City

Missouri

YouTube video

423     

Conrad Burns, U.S. senator from Montana

Gallatin

Missouri

YouTube video (Clip starts at 3:49.) 8-Aug.-2014

424     

Children of Mike Reed

Houston

Missouri

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 16-Feb.-2010

425     

Governor Matt Blunt

Jefferson City

Missouri

YouTube video

426     

Trent Tomlinson, country singer

Kennett

Missouri

YouTube video

427     

Rhonda Vincent, bluegrass singer

Kirksville

Missouri

YouTube video As usual, her Central Midland dialect is demonstrated by the interview, not the songs, which are often Inland Southern, appropriate to bluegrass. 3-Mar.-2011

428     

Various residents, mainly old timers

Linn Creek

Missouri

YouTube video (Sent in by Ben Foster. Thanks!) 16-Jan.-2012

429     

Ferlin Husky, country singer

Park Hills

Missouri

YouTube video Clearly Inland Southern! 31-Dec.-2011

430     

Fire Chief Bob Fredwell

Poplar Bluff

Missouri

YouTube video This gentleman is clearly Inland, but I can’t determine if he is actually a native. 8-Apr.-2013

431     

Pastor Paul White

Poplar Bluff

Missouri

Google video (This is a bad link, since all of his earlier sermons were intentionally removed. His later stuff no longer demonstrates what I had written here, so he no longer serves as a good sample of this location.) (Sermon starts around 13:00. His long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels are fairly mixed, suggesting that he has tried to adjust his speech to some degree, but many are clearly Southern, and a few words are clearly Inland. In any case, this town is on the border, so some mixing may not be surprising. His other vowels are thoroughly Southern, so I am fairly confident that he grew up speaking Inland Southern. Another indication is that the more excited he gets, the more Southern he sounds.) 8-Apr.-2013

432     

Robin Carnahan, politician

Rolla

Missouri

YouTube video

433     

George Morris, enjoys life

Sikeston

Missouri

YouTube video (Sent in by a contributor. Thanks!) 7-Nov.-2009

434     

U.S. representative Roy Blunt

Springfield

Missouri

YouTube video

435     

Dick M., age 44, furniture maker

Springfield

Missouri

ANAE info and audio This is the sample provided in the ANAE to show that Springfield, Missouri is Lowland Southern, which seems quite unlikely for its location. This sample is clearly not Inland Southern, since multiple cases of the long /ī/ [aɪ] vowel occur before voiceless consonants, and only one word, “times” shows the Lowland Southern pronunciation, and this has the long /ī/ [a] vowel before a nasal consonant, which is the one place it is often heard in otherwise Midland accents according to the ANAE Ch. 18, p. 243. Therefore I do not think that this sample demonstrates Southern at all. 16-Jan.-2012

436     

4 former sheriff’s deputies

Stockton

Missouri

YouTube video (Sent in by Blake Bond. Thanks!) Wonderful! This pushes the Inland South boundary north. Wikipedia says that Stockton is known as “Where the South Begins”, and the dialect confirms this. (Of the four deputies, the last two are clearly Inland, the second is clearly Southern, though he doesn’t happen to use any diagnostic words for Inland, and the first is a bit ambivalent, though clearly Southern on some words.) 25-Sep.-2015

437     

Kay Barnes, mayor of Kansas City

St. Joseph

Missouri

YouTube video

438     

Joe Buck, sports commentator

St. Louis

Missouri

YouTube video

439     

John Goodman, actor

St. Louis

Missouri

YouTube video

440     

Bob Kuban, drummer

St. Louis

Missouri

YouTube video

441     

Dr. Jan Garavaglia, “Dr. G: Medical Examiner”

St. Louis

Missouri

YouTube video (more info) 11-Jan.-2011

442     

Bob and Ron Coble, farmers

Strafford

Missouri

YouTube video These folks sound quite Southern, with many secondary features of Southern, until you listen closely to their long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels, which are actually not southern. (Sent in by Ben Foster. Thanks!) 16-Jan.-2012

443     

Jan Howard, country singer[38]

West Plains

Missouri

YouTube video

444     

U.S. senator Jon Tester

Big Sandy

Montana

YouTube video (Clip starts at 7:56.), YouTube video (Various clips.) 8-Aug.-2014

445     

John Bohlinger, lieutenant governor

Billings

Montana

YouTube video

446     

John Walsh, lieutenant governor

Butte

Montana

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2013

447     

Wylie Gustafson, western singer/songwriter/yodeler

Conrad

Montana

YouTube video, YouTube video (more info) 19-Oct.-2010

448     

George Horse Capture, Indian activist and museum curator

Fort Belknap Agency

Montana

YouTube video Clearly Western, based on his long /ōō/ [u] vowel, and clearly above the bite-bout line, unlike Havre, “pin”=“pen”. 8-Aug.-2014

449     

Dave Dickenson, football player

Great Falls

Montana

YouTube video I recently listened again to this clip, and realized that it should be southwest of the bite-bout line, even though this disagrees with the ANAE. The ANAE’s sample for Great Falls appears to me to be inconclusive on this feature. 12-Aug.-2014

450     

Pastor Ron Ellis

Havre

Montana

audio 8-Aug.-2014

451     

U.S. senator Max Baucus

Helena

Montana

YouTube video

452     

Casey Anderson, Expedition Wild host

(East) Helena

Montana

YouTube video (more info) 11-July-2011

453     

Eugene Peterson, author of The Message

Kalispell

Montana

YouTube video 5-Oct.-2010

454     

Maurice Hilleman, microbiologist[39], [40]

Miles City

Montana

YouTube video (more info)

455     

George Winston, pianist [40]

Miles City

Montana

YouTube video

456     

Dixie Nelson, Chamber of commerce

Alliance

Nebraska

YouTube video (Facebook) Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

457     

Dennis Rose, saddle maker

Arthur

Nebraska

audio (source) Cannot tell from clip whether “pin”=“pen”. 24-Aug.-2010

458     

Jim Girardin, Arrow Seed Co.

Broken Bow

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) 7-Aug.-2009

459     

Lon Milo DuQuette, occultist

Columbus

Nebraska

YouTube video (really, really weird ideas) 12-Aug.-2009

460     

Barry Kriha, TV reporter

Gibbon

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) 7-Aug.-2009

461     

Howard Parker, cowboy poet

Gordon

Nebraska

audio (source) 24-Aug.-2010

462     

Walter Schmitt, farmer

Gresham

Nebraska

video & info (source) (Sent in by Kirk Sniff. Thanks!) 7-Nov.-2011

463     

Herbert Heine, farmer

Thayer

Nebraska

video & info (source) 6-Sep.-2013

464     

Jay Keasling, chemical engineer

Harvard

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info)

465     

Herman Goertzen, farmer

Henderson

Nebraska

video & info (source) (Sent in by Kirk Sniff. Thanks!) Amazing! The Grand Island wedge extends even farther south and east! 7-Nov.-2011

466     

Barrett Ruud, football player

Lincoln

Nebraska

YouTube video

467     

Joba Chamberlain, baseball player

Lincoln

Nebraska

YouTube video

468     

Ben Nelson, senator and governor

McCook

Nebraska

YouTube video

469     

John DeCamp, Politician

Neligh /lē/ [ˈnili]

Nebraska

YouTube video 12-Aug.-2009

470     

Johnny Carson, entertainer

Norfolk /nȯrfȯrk/ [ˈnoɹˌfoɹk][41]

Nebraska

YouTube video 23-Aug.-2010

471     

Marg Helgenberger, actress

North Bend

Nebraska

YouTube video

472     

Dr. Don Rose, disk jockey

North Platte

Nebraska

YouTube video

473     

Ryan Schultz, mixed martial arts fighter

North Platte

Nebraska

YouTube video 21-Sep.-2011

474     

Ben Holscher, mixed martial arts fighter

Ogallala

Nebraska

YouTube video 21-Sep.-2011

475     

Henry Fonda, famous actor

Omaha /ōməhô/ [ˈoʊməˌhɒ]

Nebraska

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

476     

Warren Buffett, billionaire

Omaha

Nebraska

YouTube video

477     

Mayor Susan Wiedeman

Gering

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) I had originally listed her as from “Scottsbluff (Gering)”, but that was before I made the dots smaller. I had observed that she had “pin”=“pen”, so I assumed this applied to Scottsbluff also. However, I recently met a gentleman from Scottsbluff, and he assured me that he had “pin”≠“pen”. I listened to him say them, and though they are very close, they are indeed different. So evidently the line runs between Scottsbluff and Gering. Thus Scottsbluff is like Torrington, Wyoming, and unlike Alliance, which makes the pin-pen line twist a bit more around Scottsbluff and Alliance, but a little less around Torrington, so it comes out about even. Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

478     

Tom Osborne, football coach, etc.

St. Paul

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) Tom Osborne grew up entirely in Hastings, Nebraska except for four years in St. Paul, from the ages of 5 to 8. However, he talks like St. Paul, not like Hastings, as I have confirmed by interviewing two natives of Hastings, who definitely have “pin”=“pen” and “cot”=“caught”. Like the sample from Ashley, ND, this shows that a phonemic system can be set before the age of 10, and never change after that. 17-Jan.-2012

479     

Wayne Connell, artisan

Tryon /trīən/ [ˈtʰɹaɪən]

Nebraska

video (source) (Video file seems to be damaged, though previously it was playable. Hopefully it will be fixed in the future.) I need to re-check the video to see whether “pin”=“pen”: I had thought no, but I have recently interviewed a Tryon native, and evidently “pin”=“pen”. 24-Aug.-2010

480     

Doug Bereuter /rītər/ [ˈbiˌɹaɪɾɚ], president of the Asia Foundation

Utica

Nebraska

YouTube video (His clip is 10:10-15:08.) 7-Nov.-2011

481     

Various natives

Valentine

Nebraska

YouTube video I finally found a video for Valentine, which allows me to assign it clearly to the West Midland dialect! I wasn’t sure about that, since it lies very close to the boundaries of The West and Western North, and I wasn’t sure which of the three it belonged to. However, the fact that it lies on the north edge of the Nebraska Sandhills seems to be the determining factor! Clearly “cot”=“caught”, “pin”≠“pen”, and it’s below the bite-bout line. (Not all of the speakers are natives, but the first one clearly is, and probably the second one also.) 11-Mar.-2016

482     

Sam Crawford, pro baseball player

Wahoo /hōō/ [ˈwɒˌhu]

Nebraska

YouTube video (Clip starts at 1:00.) 26-Aug.-2010

483     

Darryl Zanuck, movie producer

Wahoo

Nebraska

YouTube video (He pronounces it /hōō/ [ˌwɒˈhu], but he is probably just being funny. My wife, a native Nebraskan, assures me that Sam Crawford’s pronunciation is the correct one.) 26-Aug.-2010

484     

Elroy Hoffman, farmer

York

Nebraska

video & info (source) (Sent in by Kirk Sniff. Thanks!) Amazing! The Grand Island wedge extends even farther south and east! 7-Nov.-2011

485     

Harvey Pickrel, farmer

York

Nebraska

video & info (source) (Sent in by Kirk Sniff. Thanks!) This guy is from south of York, whereas the previous guy may be from north of York, and this guy’s /ō/ [oʊ] vowels are noticeably more fronted, indicating that the blue line runs between them! However, he has “pin”≠“pen”, showing that that line runs a tiny bit more south! 7-Nov.-2011

486     

U.S. representative Dean Heller

Carson City

Nevada

YouTube video 25-Oct.-2010

487     

Andre Agassi, pro tennis player

Las Vegas

Nevada

YouTube video (Suggested by native Las Vegan contributor Jim Hoffman. Thanks!) 5-Mar.-2011

488     

Governor Jim Gibbons

Reno

Nevada

YouTube video 25-Oct.-2010

489     

U.S. senator Harry Reid

Searchlight

Nevada

YouTube video (Suggested by native Las Vegan contributor Jim Hoffman. Thanks!) 5-Mar.-2011

490     

Wallace McCain, businessman

Florenceville

New Brunswick

downloadable video (Extremely large file!) (Sent in by Lucy May. Thanks!) 10-Jan.-2012

491     

Marilyn Curtin, city councilor, and unknown newswoman

Fredericton

New Brunswick

YouTube video (Sent in by Lucy May. Thanks!) 10-Jan.-2012

492     

Matt Stairs, pro hockey player

Saint John

New Brunswick

YouTube video 13-July-2009

493     

Donald Sutherland, actor

Saint John

New Brunswick

YouTube video Contributor Lucy May says that he is not a good example of the local dialect, and has contributed various others. Thanks! 10-Jan.-2012

494     

Don Sweeney, pro hockey manager

St. Stephen

New Brunswick

video (His clip 0:20-0:50) (Sent in by Lucy May. Thanks!) 10-Jan.-2012

495     

Michael Durant, U.S. Army pilot

Berlin

New Hampshire

video (Found video again!) Clip starts at 0:45. 24-Aug.-2010

496     

Doris “Granny D” Haddock, activist, walked across America

Laconia

New Hampshire

YouTube video 1-June-2009

497     

Joe McQuaid, newspaper publisher

Manchester

New Hampshire

YouTube video 2-June-2009

498     

Captain David Ferland, policeman

Portsmouth

New Hampshire

YouTube video (His clips 0:55-1:06, 1:34-1:45) (Sent in by Ben Katz. Thanks! Ben said, “As I’m sure many people do for their hometowns, I thought I’d submit this clip, as I think it gives a better representation of the Seacoast, NH accent, as opposed to the samples you currently have which includes Boston to the South, and Manchester and Laconia inland. The clip features a number of local citizens, but personally, I thought the best example was [the policeman].”) 3-June-2011

499     

Margaret Pickering, resident

Portsmouth

New Hampshire

YouTube video (Her clip 0:07-0:41) (Sent in by Ben Katz. Thanks!) 3-June-2011

500     

Danny DeVito, actor

Asbury Park

New Jersey

YouTube video

501     

Tommy DeVito, pop singer - classic working class, slightly modified! **

Belleville

New Jersey

YouTube video (more info) The curl-coil merger is not dead! This guy clearly says /woyk/ [ˈwɜɪk] instead of /wûrk/ [ˈwɝk] for “work”, and uses [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in several other words also, and most of his th’s become d or t. This is quite different from his fellow band member Frankie Valli, who is modern middle class. 3-Mar.-2011

502     

Dick Vitale, basketball sportscaster - modern middle class **

East Rutherford

New Jersey

YouTube video 25-Apr.-2013

503     

State senator Michael Doherty

Glen Ridge

New Jersey

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

504     

Sammi Giancano, on cast of Jersey Shore reality show

Hazlet

New Jersey

YouTube video Nice distinctive “bad” /bâd/ [ˈbeəd], plenty of cases of both /â/ [eə] and /ă/ [æ], pronounced quite distinctly! So these two distinct vowels are alive and well, even among young people. The following clip is clearer: YouTube video 8-July-2013

505     

Governor Chris Christie

Livingston

New Jersey

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

506     

Frankie Valli, pop singer - modern middle class **

Newark

New Jersey

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

507     

Lou Costello, actor & comedian - classic working class

Paterson /pătərsən/ [ˈpʰæɾɚsən]

New Jersey

YouTube video Contributor Jane McMullen set me straight on this one: “Your sample [for] Lou Costello is terribly wrong. It is not a New York accent. Lou was born and raised in Paterson, NJ. He sounds just like my father (born 7 years later), also born & raised there, and all my relatives. The class is correct, classic working class, children of recent Italian immigrants. And it’s classic Paterson.”

                Sigh! I find that I sometimes focus on certain prominent features, and those features make me ignore other features, which are more important. I had listed Lou Costello as being from New York City, even though I knew he was born in Paterson. I failed to realize that he was also raised there. But what really led me astray was that he has nearly all of the secondary features of the classic working class of Greater New York City: /ŧħ/ [ð] becomes /d/ [d], and “first” is /foyst/ [ˈfɜɪst] instead of /fûrst/ [ˈfɝst]. I had not realized that the latter was historically found in a few places outside of the Greater New York City dialect area, so I assumed that he had grown up in New York City. However, he actually lacks the primary defining features of GNYC: he drops very few r’s, and he does not have the bad-had split, as seen in many of the words in the clip above, and in the pronunciation of “bad” at the end of this clip: YouTube video. Instead, he actually has the Eastern North pattern for these words. Thanks for keeping me straight, Jane! 27-Oct.-2011

508     

Rodeo performer

Woodstown

New Jersey

video & info (His clips start at 0:15 and 4:18.) (Sent in by Claudio Salvucci. Thanks!) I knew the south Jersey accent was different, but this is almost southern! He also seems to have a bit of /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d]. This cannot be simply a variant of what I am calling “East Midland”, but I need more data to know how to classify it! 17-May-2013

509     

Alan Hale, astronomer

Alamogordo

New Mexico

audio (source)

510     

U.S. senator Pete Domenici

Albuquerque

New Mexico

YouTube video

511     

Various, presumably locals

Artesia

New Mexico

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 3-Dec.-2009

512     

Sam Etcheverry, football coach

Carlsbad

New Mexico

YouTube video (more info)

513     

U.S. representative Harry Teague

Hobbs

New Mexico

YouTube video

514     

Baxter Black, cowboy poet

Las Cruces

New Mexico

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

515     

Ed Foreman, politician, speaker

Portales

New Mexico

YouTube video

516     

Cody Willard, Fox Business anchor

Ruidoso

New Mexico

YouTube video 26-Aug.-2009

517     

Conrad Hilton, hotel tycoon

San Antonio

New Mexico

YouTube video This video clarifies that “pin”≠“pen” for him, whereas the following did not: YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

518     

James Junes, Navajo comedian

Shiprock

New Mexico

YouTube video (more info) 26-Sep.-2009

519     

Harrison Schmitt, astronaut

Silver City

New Mexico

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

520     

Abel Cullum, mixed martial arts

Tucumcari

New Mexico

YouTube video 13-July-2009

521     

Mayor Jerry Jennings

Albany

New York

YouTube video (Sent in by Derek Hachey. Thanks!) Longer sample: YouTube video 11-Feb.-2011

522     

Rod Serling, TV producer & narrator

Binghamton

New York

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2013

523     

Judge Frank Easterbrook

Buffalo

New York

YouTube video 7-Aug.-2009

524     

William P. Rogers, Sec. of State under Nixon

Canton

New York

YouTube video

525     

Stewart Vorpahl /vôrpəl/ [ˈvoəpəl], “Bonacker” fisherman

East Hampton (Amagansett)

New York

YouTube video (clip starts at 25:00) (Sent in by Alex Van Boer. Thanks!) This is the true native (working class) dialect of “The Hamptons”, not really those that follow, as the explanation that follows shows. It is quite similar to Greater New York City, and has the same 16 vowels as GNYC, including pronouncing the “aw” or /ô/ vowel (see The Cot-Caught Merger) as [oə], but unlike GNYC there is no working-class tendency to change th’s to d or t, and several of the vowels have a slight hint of New England. 3-Mar.-2011

526     

Mary Gardiner, gourmet produce seller

East Hampton

New York

The east end of Long Island, often called “The Hamptons”, is unusual in that it has been a rich people’s playground for generations. That’s why I was glad to find the previous clip, which shows the dialect of ordinary people, rather than the rich and famous.

                All three of the following samples of rich and famous people from East Hampton have quite distinct accents, although they also have certain things in common, in particular their pronunciation of the “aw” or /ô/ vowel (see The Cot-Caught Merger), which is [oə] like Greater New York City.

                YouTube video (more info) This lady’s ancestors have lived in the East Hampton area since the mid 1600’s, and she grew up there, unlike so many rich kids from the area who were sent off to boarding school. Her accent is fairly close to the “benchmark” Bonacker pronunciation above.

                One particular difference among the three speakers is that Mary Gardiner pronounces almost all her r’s, David Carmichael drops a few, and Jackie Kennedy is a consistent Systematic R-dropper. They all do it a little, confirming that the original Hamptons pattern is r-dropping.

                I had thought for a while that “on” rhymed with “Dawn” in this dialect, based on Mary Gardiner, but it doesn’t actually. She (and Stewart Vorpahl) almost seems to rhyme it with “barn”, if the r is dropped, something a few GNYC speakers may also do. 3-Mar.-2011

527     

David Carmichael, pastry chef

East Hampton

New York

YouTube video, YouTube video (clip starts at 1:45) 30-Nov.-2009

528     

First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy

East Hampton

New York

YouTube video, YouTube video She definitely has a New York accent, quite distinct from her husband’s Boston accent. She shares some features with the other East Hampton speakers (See my comments above), but at the same time has a “higher class” accent, especially noticeable in her short /ă/ vowel, though she certainly does not have a Mid-Atlantic accent. 3-Mar.-2011

529     

Reverend Rob Schenck

Grand Island

New York

YouTube video 7-Aug.-2009

530     

Steve Levy, Suffolk County Executive - modern working class? **

Holbrook

New York

YouTube video (clip 6:05-10:35) (Sent in by Alex Van Boer. Thanks!) 3-Mar.-2011

531     

Various residents

Mayville

New York

YouTube video The mayor and most of the others on this clip are clearly Inland North and north of (or inside) the bite-bout line. The only speaker who is clearly not is Mort Flexer, near the end, who is clearly Eastern New England. 27-Dec.-2010

532     

Dr. Amy Gutmann, University of Pennsylvania President

Monroe

New York

YouTube video 23-May-2011

533     

Dick Clark, world’s oldest teenager (actually, talk show host, etc.)

Mount Vernon

New York

YouTube video In spite of all his years in show biz, he still retains his native accent to an amazing degree. Not that it’s all that different from General American to start with, but his “aw” or /ô/ vowel (see The Cot-Caught Merger) is frequently a clear [oə]. 23-Apr.-2011

534     

Caucasian female, 39, administrative assistant

Mount Vernon

New York

IDEA audio (source) The IDEA website has now clarified that she was born and raised there. 8-Nov.-2013

535     

Don McClean, rock singer

New Rochelle

New York

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2010

536     

Jimmy Durante, actor & comedian - classic working class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

537     

Bugs Bunny, cartoon character - classic working class ** (not bad, Mel!)[42]

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

538     

9-11 firefighters - modern working class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

539     

Steve Schirripa, actor - modern working class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video, YouTube video Amazingly strong and consistent, including intrusive rs as in sawr a ghost, surprising for an actor. The second clip shows an unexpected side of this actor. It also may have a case of the curl-coil merger, on the word first at 0:22, which is surprising, since this feature has largely died out. 30-Sep.-2016

540     

Bennett Cerf, publisher and personality - classic middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

541     

Humphrey Bogart, actor - classic middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video (Even though Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall both appear in this clip, and are both from GNYC, and were even married to each other, he is a whole generation earlier than her, and retains the curl-coil merger, whereas she does not.) 3-Mar.-2011

542     

Rocky Graziano, boxer - classic middle class? **

New York City

New York

YouTube video Based on his background, I would have expected him to be working class, but he doesn’t seem to pronounce any of his th’s as t’s or d’s. 3-Mar.-2011

543     

Woody Allen, actor & comedian - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video Certifiably weird! 3-Mar.-2011

544     

Lauren Bacall, actress - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

545     

Howard Cosell, sports journalist - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

546     

Regis Philbin, TV personality - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

547     

Don Rickles, actor & comedian - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

548     

Walter Matthau, actor - modern middle class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

549     

U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt - classic upper class **

New York City

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

550     

U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt - classic upper class **

New York City

New York

audio 3-Mar.-2011

551     

Skip Tollefson, restaurateur - classic middle class! **

New York City??

New York

YouTube video (clip 10:40-17:44) (Sent in by Alex Van Boer. Thanks!) The curl-coil merger is not dead! This guy clearly says /woyth/ [ˈwɜɪθ] instead of /wûrth/ [ˈwɝθ] for “worth”, and /foyst/ [ˈfɜɪst] instead of /fûrst/ [ˈfɝst] for “first”, and uses [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in several other words also. Obviously he is from Greater New York City rather than the Hamptons, but I couldn’t find out where! Does anyone happen to know? 3-Mar.-2011

552     

Rick Pitino, basketball coach - modern working class **

Oyster Bay

New York

YouTube video 3-Mar.-2011

553     

David Smithgall, dairy producer

Perry

New York

YouTube video 18-Dec.-2010

554     

Jack Foley, poet

Port Chester

New York

YouTube video 16-Nov.-2009

555     

David Lee, Physicist

Port Chester (Rye)

New York

YouTube video 21-July-2009

556     

Ed Kritzler, historian

Roslyn Heights

New York

YouTube video (more info) 11-Feb.-2010

557     

yoghurtlover16

Rochester

New York

YouTube video Hilarious: Teaches you how to talk Rochester! (Sent in by Laura Feller. Thanks!) 11-Feb.-2011

558     

unnamed, news anchor

Rochester

New York

YouTube video This guy’s accent isn’t quite as pronounced as the preceding (in spite of the crude comment on the YouTube page), but it’s pretty strong for a newscaster! (Sent in by Laura Feller. Thanks!) 11-Feb.-2011

559     

Ralph Pagano, TV chef

Staten Island

New York

YouTube video (more info) 30-Nov.-2009

560     

Gabby Hayes, actor

Wellsville

New York

YouTube video In spite of being an actor, and in spite of trying to sound like a tough old cowboy, his Inland North accent is still almost unchanged: Backed /ōō/, /ō/ and /ou/ ([u], [oʊ], and [ɑʊ]), “cot”≠“caught”, etc. 24-Aug.-2010

561     

Mike Breen, sports commentator

Yonkers

New York

YouTube video 21-July-2009

562     

Paul Teutul Sr., American Chopper

Yonkers

New York

YouTube video 21-July-2009

563     

Residents Lizzy Careen, Mary Power, and others

Branch

Newfoundland

(& Labrador)

YouTube video (Sent in by Michael Collins. Thanks! He also helped me set the boundaries of Irish Newfoundland.) 19-Apr.-2011

564     

Holly Nelson, concerned citizen

Elliston

Newfoundland

(& Labrador)

YouTube video (Sent in by Michael Collins. Thanks!) 14-Jan.-2011

565     

Anthony, aspiring singer

Placentia

Newfoundland

(& Labrador)

YouTube video (Sent in by Michael Collins. Thanks!) 14-Jan.-2011

566     

John Crosbie, M.P.

St. John’s

Newfoundland

(& Labrador)

video (Replaced bad link.) 14-Jan.-2011

567     

Steve Kent, politician

Stephenville

Newfoundland

(& Labrador)

YouTube video 1-Aug.-2009

568     

Roy Williams, basketball coach

Asheville

North Carolina

video

569     

Harold A., age 46, territorial engineer

Asheville

North Carolina

ANAE info and audio This sample, like the previous one, is clearly Lowland, based on the next-to-last word “like”. However, the ANAE classifies it as Inland Southern, perhaps based on the word “revitalized”, pronounced twice as [ɹiˈvaɾl̩ˈazd]. However, this case is expected to be variable, because, though phonemically it is followed by /t/, which is a voiceless consonant, phonetically the /t/ is realized as [ɾ], which is voiced. 2-Jan.-2012

570     

Various residents

Atlantic

North Carolina

YouTube video, YouTube video (throughout the videos) 9-Sep.-2010

571     

Del McCroury, bluegrass singer

Bakersville

North Carolina

YouTube video 18-Nov.-2011

572     

Ray Hicks, storyteller

Beech Mountain

North Carolina

YouTube video Interesting character. Clearly “cot”≠“caught” following the usual Inland South pattern, except for the one word “pawn” /pŏn/ pʰɑn]: I wouldn’t think this would be an unfamiliar word, so I have no good explanation. (I had earlier said “cot”=“caught”, but that was a typo.) 11-Mar.-2016

                He also uses at one point the word “it” with an initial “h”, “hit”, which is its original archaic pronunciation, just like “he”, “him”, and “her”, but in most dialects this “h” disappeared. This is typical of Appalachian and perhaps other Inland Southern.

                Beech Mountain has the highest elevation of any town east of the Rockies, so it would be expected to be Inland! 1-July-2013

573     

Amanda Swimmer, Cherokee grandmother

Big Cove

North Carolina

YouTube video (Her first English clip starts at 2:58, Cherokee clip at 2:44.) Has a clear Inland Southern accent, though with an accent influenced by her native Cherokee, most noticeable being /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d], though /th/ [θ]/t/ [t]. 23-Sep.-2015

574     

U.S. representative Charles Taylor

Brevard

North Carolina

YouTube video 12-June-2010

575     

Archie Watkins, southern gospel singer

Bryson City

North Carolina

YouTube video (clip at 46:03) (more info) When he sings he often partially suppresses his southern accent, but when he talks he has a pristine Inland Southern accent! He was a member of the Inspirations quartet, which started out in 1964 as a quartet of 4 high school students from Bryson City, and became nationally famous! Here’s an early clip, while his singing style still retained some traces of Inland Southern: YouTube video. New! 13-Sep.-2017

576     

U.S. representative Heath Shuler

Bryson City

North Carolina

YouTube video Contributor Lisa Jillani wrote, “Shuler’s accent has been tainted by spending time in the NC legislature & possibly trying to sound not so southern.” I listened to the clip again and realized that this is probably true, though it is still clearly Inland. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

577     

White male, born 1958, attorney

Burnsville

North Carolina

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

578     

Billy Graham, preacher

Charlotte

North Carolina

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although younger ones have apparently completely lost it!) Billy Graham has a nearly perfect Classical Southern accent, though many in Charlotte don’t even have a Southern accent any more. 15-Sep.-2014

579     

Various residents

Crusoe Island,

Columbus County

North Carolina

YouTube video (more info) (Suggested by Joan Riley. Thanks!) This is not exactly a conventional island, but a high spot in the swamp. (On maps it only shows up as Crusoe Island Road, near Whiteville.)‎ They seem to have a colorful history and reputation, as shown in the “more info” link. That web page, and contributor Joan Riley, both suggest that the dialect spoken here is unique, but I personally cannot detect anything but the local Lowland Southern dialect. In fact, the first speaker on the video appears to be from outside the community, and all the rest from inside, but they seem to all speak the same dialect. 19-Dec.-2013

580     

John D. Loudermilk, composer

Durham

North Carolina

YouTube video

581     

State senator Bob Carpenter

Franklin

North Carolina

YouTube video 6-Apr.-2010

582     

Erskine Bowles, president UNC system

Greensboro

North Carolina

YouTube video He speaks as expected, except that every case of /th/ [θ] becomes /f/ [f], and every case of /ŧħ/ [ð] becomes /v/ [v]. I didn’t know if this was an individual idiosyncrasy, or whether it was a local pattern. There is actually a well-established English dialect that has this pattern, Cockney English (London, England). 10-May-2013

                According to contributor Emily Sparkman:

                «It’s a local pattern, but not limited to the Greensboro/Triad area. I was born and raised in and around Raleigh, NC and did my undergrad in Winston-Salem, fifteen minutes down the road from Greensboro. I’ve heard the substitution everywhere I’ve lived within NC and would guess that it’s prevalent across much of the state, at least among Caucasian, native speakers. It also tends to be somewhat transient, slipping into some words and not others, and comes and goes depending on how quickly the speaker is speaking.

                «When I’m tired or surrounded by family I slide from /ŧħ/ to /v/ or even an /f/. My mother is from Fayetteville, NC and generally sounds very similar to Mr. Bowles. My father is from Charleston, SC and slips in /ŧħ//v/ substitutions after 39 years of living with my mom. My grandfather is from Wilmington, NC but has spent the last 40 years in Charleston, SC. He never makes this substitution.

                «‘Without’ slides reeeaaally easily into an /f/. “You goin’ wifout ’im?”
‘With’, rarely becomes /v/ but sometimes becomes /f/. “You goin’ with ’im?” “Is she wiffew?”
‘Twelfth’ commonly becomes ‘twelf’, depending on the context and placement within a sentence. “He’s in twelf grade,” for instance, but not, “I almost won! I came in ... twelfth.”
I’ve never heard ‘father/mother’ as ‘fahfer’ or ‘muvver’, however. Same goes for ‘grandfather’ and ‘grandmother’. Tack a possessive s or a -hood after ‘brother’, though, and the /v/ goes in

                Thanks, Emily. Based on this information, it most likely covers an area in central NC, maybe from Winston-Salem and Raleigh down to Fayetteville, but not so far as Wilmington. 21-July-2012

583     

Elizabeth Allen, singer and local church mainstay

Hendersonville

North Carolina

YouTube video (Her first clip starts at 22:20.) Unlike the other two speakers featured on this video, both of whom speak Inland Southern, this speaker is African American, and, as is usual for older African Americans in the South, speaks Lowland Southern, in fact speaks Classical Southern (including a few cases of [ɜɪ] for /ûr/; see [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in some Classical Southern dialects.). However, she shows very few of the features of African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Now I’m curious about how the white people in the town speak! The town is clearly in the mountains, so based on my settlement theory it should speak Inland. However, the town also is 12.5% Black according to Wikipedia, suggesting that she speaks Classical only because she belongs to the African American community, and that this tells us nothing about the white dialect. Granted, she herself said that she played more with white kids than black kids when small, but it is also clear from one of the pictures in the video that she attended a segregated school. So we can say nothing with confidence about the white dialect here. 23-Sep.-2015

584     

Dale Earnhardt, Sr., NASCAR driver

Kannapolis

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clips start at 4:40.) (Replaced bad link.) I can’t quite figure him out: unlike the other speakers from Kannapolis, who all speak Lowland Southern, he sounds more Inland than Lowland in his pronunciation of words like “life” at 43:28, “night” at 7:13, “like” at 15:06, and “rifle” at 15:29, the one exception being “like” at 43:55. This leaves me unsure about which side of the line Kannapolis falls, so I have tentatively moved the line so that it moves right through the middle of Kannapolis. (This would not seem to be a case of Possible Southern Class Distinction, since all of these speakers are clearly working class.) 4-Nov.-2015

585     

Dale Earnhardt, Jr., NASCAR driver

Kannapolis

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clips start at 34:27.) 9-May-2013

586     

Punchy Whitaker, tire salesman

Kannapolis

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clip starts at 5:09.) 9-May-2013

587     

Tony Eury, Sr., NASCAR crew member

Kannapolis

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clips start at 38:29.) 9-May-2013

588     

Tony Eury, Jr., NASCAR crew member

Kannapolis

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clips start at 39:15.) 9-May-2013

589     

Peggy Bennett, Program Director, Citizens for Change

Leicester

North Carolina

YouTube video (Her clips start at 0:51.) (more info) She clearly speaks Inland Southern, except in one case of the word “right”; however, this case is sandwiched between “right and wrong”, pronounced with no diphthong, and “web site,” again pronounced with no diphthong. This made the line between Inland and Lowland Southern even twistier than before, but looking at the terrain, Leicester is clearly in a more mountainous area than Charlotte, which follows my settlement theory. 23-Sep.-2015

590     

Richard Petty, NASCAR driver

Level Cross

North Carolina

YouTube video, YouTube video 4-Aug.-2010

591     

George Younce, southern gospel singer

Lenoir

North Carolina

YouTube video 8-Feb.-2013

592     

Connie Hopper, southern gospel singer

Madison

North Carolina

YouTube video (more info) 2-Sep.-2013

593     

Randy Travis, country singer

Marshville

North Carolina

YouTube video The fascinating interplay of dialects continues to amaze me! Randy Travis is clearly Lowland Southern, as this interview shows, as could hardly be otherwise, given where he grew up. However, when he sings, he sometimes clearly adopts an Inland Southern accent, perhaps in an unconscious effort to sound more “country”, given his image as a Neotraditional country singer, as can be heard in this moving rendition of Three Wooden Crosses (replaced bad link). 31-May-2011

594     

Andy Griffith, comedian & actor

Mount Airy

North Carolina

YouTube video Throughout his career on the Andy Griffith show and elsewhere, Andy Griffith has demonstrated a consistent Lowland Southern dialect, as shown in this clip, although Mount Airy is right on the border with Inland Southern. However, in some of his earliest comedy clips, before he started his acting career, he mixes some Inland Southern into his speech, probably to sound more “hick”, as can be heard in this clip. (Sent in by Abbey Thomas. Thanks!) However, he is inconsistent, suggesting that his native dialect is indeed Lowland. 14-Apr.-2012

595     

Jeff Easter, southern gospel singer

Mount Airy /mountərē/ [ˈmaʊɾ̃ɚi]

North Carolina

YouTube video Like Andy Griffith he is Lowland, not Inland, in spite of all his talk about “Goobers and Gomers” and “I’m one of ’em.” In only one word does he sound Inland, “wife” at about 8:03, but he had just said “life” with the Lowland pronunciation at 8:00! I suspect he was trying to sound more like “Goobers and Gomers” when he said “wife”, because he is consistently Lowland throughout the rest of the video. This confirms that the line runs west of Mount Airy, even though it is just as clear that it runs east of Cana, Virginia (see).

                He first gives the (to me unexpected) pronunciation of the name of the town at around 7:33, and repeats it after that, and this pronunciation is confirmed by James King from neighboring Cana, Virginia (see), at around 0:22 in his first clip. 12-Nov.-2015

596     

Jeff Whisnant /hwĭsnənt/ ʍɪsnənt] (not with a /z/ sound!), southern gospel singer

Morganton

North Carolina

YouTube video (more info) Clearly Inland, though with some inconsistencies, which is not surprising, given that he grew up right on the border. 4-Sep.-2010

597     

Brooke Aldridge, bluegrass and southern gospel singer

Newland

North Carolina

YouTube video, YouTube video (more info) 21-July-2012

598     

Various residents

Okracoke Island

North Carolina

YouTube video, YouTube video (throughout the videos), YouTube video (more info, more info) 9-Sep.-2010

599     

White male, born 1926, retired journalist

Oak City

North Carolina

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

600     

(No names or specific towns given, only regions.)[43]

Outer Banks (location uncertain)

North Carolina

ncsu.edu/linguistics/ncllp/dialectquiz.php 9-Sep.-2010

601     

State senator Fred Smith

Raleigh

North Carolina

YouTube video 11-Feb.-2010

602     

Richard Jenrette, investment banker

Raleigh

North Carolina

YouTube video 11-Feb.-2010

603     

Jody Brown & Stephanie Brown, southern gospel singers, ethnic Cherokees

Robbinsville

North Carolina

YouTube video 10-Apr.-2010

604     

Various residents

(Robbinsville?) Graham /grāhæm/ [ˈɡɹɛɪˌhæm] County

North Carolina

YouTube video A delightful clip! Nearly all these speakers have very strong Inland Southern accents. The only identification of location is Graham County at 1:20 (though with a pronunciation I found unexpected), and that it is near Waynesville at 0:44, but this is enough to pin it down as being Graham County, North Carolina. 29-Aug.-2015

605     

Roy Cooper, North Carolina attorney general

Rocky Mount

North Carolina

YouTube video He only seems to drop an r in one word: “North”, part of the name of his state, which doesn’t quite count. 25-Mar.-2011

606     

Junior Johnson, NASCAR driver

Ronda

North Carolina

YouTube video, video & info Very much a borderline accent: a mixture of Lowland and Inland, but probably slightly more Lowland. 4-Aug.-2010

607     

Pastor Rick Perry, bluegrass gospel singer

Salisbury /sôlzbərē/ [ˈsɒʊlzbɚi]

North Carolina

YouTube video, YouTube video - (other info) Standard and consistent Lowland Southern, drops very few r’s. 23-Sep.-2015

608     

White female, born 1930, housewife

Shelby

North Carolina

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

609     

Mary Jane Queen, ballad singer, gardener, grandmother

Cullowhee /kŭləhwē/ [ˈkʰʌləˌhwi] (Caney Fork)

North Carolina

YouTube video (Her first clip starts at 11:20.) 23-Sep.-2015

610     

Greenville Mayor Pat Dunn

Wake County (rural)

North Carolina

YouTube video (clip starts at 5:48) Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern. I had made the assumption that she was from Greenville, but this web site says she is from rural Wake County. She clearly drop r’s, and it is unclear whether she has Tidewater raising: the only test word is “out”, which she only says once, and it goes by rather fast, but it does sound raised. This only messes up my map! It would have been simpler if she were from Greenville! Instead, I will treat her as an older speaker retaining older features. 25-Mar.-2011

611     

Stephanie Glance, basketball coach

Waynesville

North Carolina

YouTube video 16-Mar.-2010

612     

Herb Key, Appalachian singer

Wilkesboro?

North Carolina

YouTube video 3-Apr.-2010

613     

Charlie Daniels, country singer (sort of)

Wilmington

North Carolina

YouTube video (Replaced clip again.) His first hilarious hit, back when he was a long-hair. He has changed a lot, as this clip shows: YouTube video 14-Dec.-2013

614     

Charles R. “Buster” Humphreys, retired industrial chemist

Wilmington

North Carolina

YouTube video (He begins narrating at 1:18.) (more info, more info, more info) Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern. Mister Humphreys, the main narrator of this clip, is from Wilmington. He speaks Classical Southern and has the Tidewater raising, unlike younger speakers like Charlie Daniels. He passed away in 2002. As to the people featured in the clip, I have no information. 14-Dec.-2013

615     

David Brinkley, newscaster

Wilmington

North Carolina

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

616     

Richard Childress, NASCAR driver and team owner

Winston-Salem

North Carolina

YouTube video (His clips start at 23:09.) 11-May-2013

617     

White male, 19

Winston-Salem

North Carolina

IDEA audio (source) The IDEA website has now clarified that he was born there. 8-Nov.-2013

618     

Governor John Hoeven[44]

Ashley

North Dakota

YouTube video (more info)

619     

Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer

Bismarck

North Dakota

audio & info

620     

CariDee English, fashion model

Fargo

North Dakota

YouTube video

621     

Josh Duhamel, actor

Minot /nŏt/ [ˈmaɪˌnat]

North Dakota

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

622     

U.S. senator Byron Dorgan

Regent

North Dakota

YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009

623     

Dennis Bevington, M.P.

Fort Smith

Northwest

Territories

YouTube video. 25-Sep.-2013

624     

Eva Aariak, politician

Arctic Bay

Nunavut

YouTube video (clip at 0:57) (See next entry for details.) I had to do major adjustment of the dialect and feature lines because of this entry! New! 13-Sep.-2017

625     

Mayor Madeleine Redfern

Iqaluit (Eastern Canadian Inuktitut pronunciation: [ɪˈqaluɪt], with a uvular stop: listen to how she says it. English pronunciation: kălōōĭt/ [ɪˈkʰæluɪt])

Nunavut

YouTube video Note that she has no Canadian raising, but does have the Atlantic Provinces /är/ [aɹ] and a fairly fronted pronunciation of /ou/ [aʊ] and /ō/ [oʊ]. This is in sharp distinction to the other Nunavut speakers Jordin Tootoo and Eva Aariak, in all of these features. This places her English dialect closer to Newfoundland and Labrador than anywhere else, but apparently she has always lived in Iqaluit! This suggests that this area has followed Newfoundland and Labrador because of proximity and influence. Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

626     

Jordin Tootoo, pro hockey player

Rankin Inlet

Nunavut

YouTube video. 25-Sep.-2013

627     

Paige Palmer, TV fitness expert

Akron

Ohio

YouTube video 4-Nov.-2009

628     

Connie Schultz, columnist

Ashtabula

Ohio

YouTube video 27-Dec.-2010

629     

Urban Meyer, college football coach

Ashtabula

Ohio

YouTube video 27-Dec.-2010

630     

Maya Lin, designer

Athens

Ohio

YouTube video

631     

Sam Hornish, Jr., NASCAR driver

Bryan

Ohio

YouTube video 16-Feb.-2010

632     

John Glenn, astronaut, U.S. senator

New Concord

Ohio

YouTube video (Contributor Amber Rodland pointed out that he actually grew up in New Concord, not Cambridge. Thanks!). 23-May-2013

633     

U.S. representative Steve Chabot

Cincinnati

Ohio

YouTube video

634     

House Republican Leader John Boehner

Cincinnati

Ohio

YouTube video

635     

U.S. representative Dennis Kucinich, former mayor

Cleveland

Ohio

YouTube video

636     

Ohio House Speaker Armond Budish

Cleveland

Ohio

YouTube video 6-Dec.-2010

637     

Jack Nicklaus, pro golfer

Columbus

Ohio

YouTube video I listened long and hard to this very long interview, but it was only the second time through that I was finally able to decide that “pin”≠“pen”, even though he pronounces “again” as gǐn/ [əˈɡɪn], though most speakers who make the distinction pronounce it gĕn/ [əˈɡɛn], which simply means that Columbus is very close to the line. This forced me to revise the dialect lines around Columbus to reflect this. The two following samples, which have “pin”=“pen” and which I had thought were representative of Columbus, I now realize are not. 17-Dec.-2015

638     

Ray Stevens, “pro” wrestler

Columbus

Ohio

YouTube video (Dead link, and can’t find another.) I believe that in this now dead link he had “pin”=“pen”, and I had assumed he was a good Columbus sample, even though he was born in New York, because the Wikipedia article said he was raised in Columbus from shortly after his birth. However, Jack Nicklaus above is a much more solid sample. 17-Dec.-2015

639     

Dwight Yoakam, country singer

Columbus

Ohio

YouTube video He has “pin”=“pen”, and I had assumed he was a good Columbus sample, even though he was born in Kentucky, because the Wikipedia article said he was raised in Columbus. However, it doesn’t say how old he was when he moved there, so I am no longer confident about him. 12-Mar.-2016

640     

“Debbie”, victim

Damascus

Ohio

From “Forensic Files - Season 5, Episode 8: Material Evidence” (12:15), which I will not link to, since the material is definitely too graphic for this family-friendly page. Clearly “cot”=“caught”, distinguishing her from the other speakers from further west. New! 13-Sep.-2017

641     

Martin Sheen, actor

Dayton

Ohio

YouTube video 1-Mar.-2010

642     

Robert Pollard, indie rock singer

Dayton

Ohio

YouTube video 21-Dec.-2010

643     

U.S. representative Zack Space

Dover

Ohio

YouTube video 22-Aug.-2009

644     

Johnny Paycheck, country singer

Greenfield

Ohio

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

645     

Bobby Bare, country singer

Ironton

Ohio

YouTube video (more info, more info) He also speaks some on these clips: YouTube video, YouTube video. 27-Apr.-2013

646     

Phyllis Diller, comedian

Lima /mə/ [ˈlaɪmə]

Ohio

YouTube video 24-Jan.-2011

647     

Susan Smeersol (spelling?), bookstore owner

Greenville

Ohio

YouTube video She is a native, as she says, and clearly “pin”≠“pen”, so in spite of my early idea that Cincinnati and Dayton formed an island surrounded by “pin”=“pen” areas, in fact there is a corridor uniting them to the “pin”≠“pen” area! 11-July-2011

648     

State representative Jay Goyal

Mansfield (Lexington)

Ohio

YouTube video 6-Dec.-2010

649     

Mayor Robert Brooker

Marshallville

Ohio

From “Forensic Files - Season 5, Episode 8: Material Evidence” (1:27), which I will not link to, since the material is definitely too graphic for this family-friendly page. Evidently a native, “cot”≠“caught”, and “on” rhymes with “Don” (1:33), all like Canton, expanding the Canton mini-dialect area. New! 13-Sep.-2017

650     

Ricky Stanzi, college football player

Mentor

Ohio

YouTube video 27-Dec.-2010

651     

Don Shula, pro football coach

Painesville

Ohio

YouTube video 27-Dec.-2010

652     

Roy Rogers, singer & actor

Portsmouth

Ohio

YouTube video, YouTube video 27-Mar.-2010

653     

Dean Martin, actor

Steubenville

Ohio

YouTube video 26-Oct.-2009

654     

Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director

Toledo

Ohio

YouTube video 24-Oct.-2009

655     

U.S. representative Jim Jordan

Urbana

Ohio

YouTube video 12-Nov.-2010

656     

State representative Bob Peterson

Washington Court House

Ohio

YouTube video (more info) 6-Dec.-2010

657     

Mike DeWine, politician

Yellow Springs

Ohio

YouTube video 1-Mar.-2010

658     

Bob Stooks, University of Oklahoma football coach

Youngstown

Ohio

YouTube video 12-Dec.-2011

659     

Bo Pelini, University of Nebraska football coach

Youngstown

Ohio

YouTube video 12-Dec.-2011

660     

Various residents

Ada

Oklahoma

YouTube video All speakers except the narrator speak Inland Southern. Nancy Duncan has a few long /ī/ vowels with diphthong [aɪ], but she is mostly consistently Inland. 27-Apr.-2013

661     

Blake Shelton, country singer

Ada

Oklahoma

YouTube video 30-Sep.-2016

662     

Johnny Bench, baseball player

Binger /bǐnggər/ [ˈbɪŋɡɚ]

Oklahoma

YouTube video

663     

Stephen Vaughan, loan officer and rancher

Boise City

Oklahoma

YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:33.) He is the speaker wearing the red plaid shirt. Of all the speakers on this video, he is the only one with a clear Inland Southern accent, that is, all of his long /ī/ vowels are pronounced [a]. According to a picture on this website, his name is Stephen Vaughan, though the caption is a bit confusing as to who is who. However, a picture on this website seems to confirm his identity. This website says that he is a rancher as well as a farm loan officer, suggesting that he is a local.

                Local farmer and Farm Bureau president Larry Crews evidently also speaks Inland Southern based on his long /ī/ vowels, but no examples of long /ī/ vowels before voiceless consonants occur to make it absolutely certain.

                The other speakers show many of the secondary features of Inland Southern, but their long /ī/ vowels are diphthongs [aɪ]. 6-Oct.-2011

664     

Robert Conley, author

Cushing

Oklahoma

YouTube video 18-Oct.-2010

665     

Owen K. Garriott, astronaut

Enid

Oklahoma

YouTube video

666     

Captain Charles Scheffel, World War II veteran

Enid

Oklahoma

YouTube video 11-Jan.-2011

667     

Roger Miller, country singer

Erick

Oklahoma

YouTube video 12-Aug.-2010

668     

Darrell Royal, football coach

Hollis

Oklahoma

YouTube video

669     

General Kenneth M. Taylor

Hominy

Oklahoma

msn video

670     

Kurt Stevenson, school board candidate

Idabel

Oklahoma

YouTube video 29-Mar.-2010

671     

Bernice (and Leroy) Krittenbrink and fire chief Randy Poindexter[45]

Kingfisher

Oklahoma

MSNBC video (more info)

672     

Reba McEntire, country singer

McAlester

Oklahoma

YouTube video

673     

Keith Anderson, country singer

Miami /ămə/ [ˌmaɪˈæmə]

Oklahoma

YouTube video 18-Oct.-2010

674     

LeRoy Jones, cowboy poet

Mountain View

Oklahoma

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (more info) (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) As might be expected by someone who is right on the border, he has many of the secondary features of Inland Southern, but his long /ī/s are almost all [aɪ]s. Johnny Bench above is similar. 22-Apr.-2011

675     

James Garner, actor

Norman

Oklahoma

YouTube video

676     

Vince Gill, country singer

Norman

Oklahoma

YouTube video 22-Aug.-2009

677     

Woody Guthrie, folk singer

Okemah /ōmə/ [ˌoʊˈkʰimə]

or /ǔkēmə/ [ˈʌkimə][46]

Oklahoma

YouTube video 30-Mar.-2010

678     

Bobby Murcer, baseball player

Oklahoma City

Oklahoma

YouTube video

679     

Garth Brooks, country singer

Oklahoma City (Yukon)

Oklahoma

YouTube video 11-July-2009

680     

Mel McDaniel, country singer

Okmulgee

Oklahoma

YouTube video He talks consistent Inland Southern, and usually sings Inland: YouTube video, but sometimes he sings Lowland: as when he is singing as someone from Louisiana: YouTube video as heard in “light” and “night”, which of course is quite appropriate; even so, he slips up once, on “rifle”, showing that he really is Inland! 12-July-2011

681     

Jeff Piotrowski, tornado chaser

Owasso

Oklahoma

YouTube video Clearly “cot”=“caught”, and almost all cases of long /ī/ [a] vowel has diphthong [aɪ]. 30-Sep.-2016

682     

Ricky Manning, homeowner

Pauls Valley

Oklahoma

YouTube video

683     

Mark Whitehead, singer

Purcell

Oklahoma

YouTube video According to this song, which he wrote, he spent all of his youth in Purcell, and he sings the song with a clear Inland Southern accent. However, his web site says he was born in Norman, and Purcell is not mentioned. I have not found an interview. So, if anyone can clarify the situation one way or the other, please do so. 23-May-2011

684     

Matt Holliday, pro baseball player

Stillwater

Oklahoma

YouTube video 11-July-2009

685     

U.S. representative John Sullivan

Tulsa

Oklahoma

sullivan.house.gov (click VIDEOS, then Select) 1-Mar.-2010

686     

Caucasian Male, 34, Fire Chief

Wyandotte

Oklahoma

IDEA audio Listen to 4b rather than 4a, because 4b shows his natural Inland Southern accent. (source) The IDEA website has now clarified that he was indeed born there, so this turns out to be a critical sample, marking clearly a triple dialect boundary point with Miami, OK and Joplin, MO. 8-Nov.-2013

687     

Peter Short, United Church moderator

Arnprior

Ontario

YouTube video 31-July-2009

688     

Dan Quinn, pro hockey player

Brockville

Ontario

YouTube video (more info) 31-July-2009

689     

Chief Edmund Matatawabin

Fort Albany

Ontario

YouTube video (His clip starts at 0:52.) 25-Sep.-2013

690     

Duncan Keith, pro hockey player

Fort Frances

Ontario

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) Even with 7 teeth missing, this clip is quite clear. This one is longer, but doesn’t really have more of him speaking: YouTube video. 12-Aug.-2013

691     

Rochelle Mazar, contributor

Guelph /gwĕlf/ [ˈɡwɛlf]

Ontario

YouTube video (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) 4-Apr.-2011

692     

Jason Law, contributor

Inwood

Ontario

YouTube video (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) 30-Mar.-2011

693     

Lubomyr Luciuk, college professor

Kingston

Ontario

YouTube video 31-July-2009

694     

Mike Fletcher, diver

Port Dover

Ontario

YouTube video 21-Dec.-2010

695     

Tanya Kim, TV personality

Sault Ste. Marie

Ontario

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

696     

Joe Bowen, sportscaster

Sudbury

Ontario

YouTube video

697     

Michael Barry, pro cyclist

Toronto

Ontario

YouTube video 20-Feb.-2010

698     

Nora Young, CBC Radio host

Toronto (Don Mills)

Ontario

YouTube video Nora made this video after she interviewed me on CBC radio in March of 2011. Thanks! I hope many others will do the same. (See Record Your Own Voice for more info or to hear the interview.) 26-Mar.-2011

699     

Ken Boshcoff, politician

Thunder Bay

Ontario

YouTube video 30-Jan.-2010

700     

Mike Eaves, Hockey Coach

Windsor

Ontario

YouTube video 4-Nov.-2009

701     

Killer Kowalski, “pro” wrestler

Windsor

Ontario

YouTube video Warning: graphic description of gore! Don’t listen too long! 4-Nov.-2009

702     

Ross Coleman, pro bull rider

Molalla /məlŏlə/ [məˈlɑlə]

Oregon

YouTube video This is actually not a good sample for this area, which is why I have colored it pink. He sometimes seems to be trying to imitate a Texas accent, which seems to be in vogue on the rodeo circuit. In particular, he seems to have fronted his long /ō/ [oʊ] vowel more than is normal for his area.

                Contributor Andrea Niemiec wrote to confirm this: ‹‹I listened to the Mollala, OR audio sample with a great deal of interest, as I grew up about 15 miles away in Silverton, OR, where I lived until the age of 18. I believe that he is attempting to sound “country” a great deal more than most people do; certainly there is a slight accent from certain older generations who have grown up in rural Oregon, but he sounded like an “out-of-towner” to me, and I would agree with you in ascribing it to his profession.››

                Contributor Meagan Ford also confirms that he is not a good sample. 17-May-2012

703     

Phil Knight, Nike co-founder

Portland

Oregon

YouTube video Oops! I had him listed as being from Eugene, not Portland. Don’t know how I did that: Wikipedia is very clear about it. Contributor Gilbert Kennen pointed out my error. Thanks! And as I listen to his long /ō/ [oʊ] vowels, I realize that they are Portland, not Eugene. 5-Mar.-2011

704     

U.S. representative Earl Blumenauer

Portland

Oregon

YouTube video 25-Nov.-2010

705     

David Griggs, astronaut

Portland

Oregon

YouTube video (His clips are at 12:25-16:30 and 17:25-17:55) 14-Apr.-2012

706     

Roy Afflerbach, former state senator and mayor

Allentown

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 28-Oct.-2011

707     

Charles Bronson, actor

Ehrenfeld

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 5-May-2009

708     

Fred Biletnikoff, pro football player

Erie

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 4-Nov.-2009

709     

Mayor William Troxell

Gettysburg

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 5-Nov.-2015

710     

Curt Wootton, actor

Greensburg

Pennsylvania

YouTube video He plays the role of “Pittsburgh Dad”, modelled apparently on his own father, though actually he is from nearby Greensburg. Hilarious! 14-Oct.-2016

711     

State representative Glen Grell

Harrisburg

Pennsylvania

YouTube video There’s nothing quite as boring as parliamentary procedure! 4-June-2009

712     

Rick Gray, mayor of Lancaster, PA

Harrisburg

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 28-Nov.-2011

713     

Jimmy Stewart, actor

Indiana

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 26-Nov.-2009

714     

“Greg & Donny”, Jeff Skowron and Matt Yeager, actors

Johnstown

Pennsylvania

YouTube video (more info) (Suggested by Kathy Guido. Thanks!) These well-known actors are playing exaggerated versions of people from their hometown. 14-Oct.-2016

715     

Mayor Charlie Smithgall

Lancaster

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 25-Sep.-2013

716     

Fred Rogers, host of Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood

Latrobe

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 5-May-2009

717     

Arnold Palmer, pro golfer

Latrobe

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 5-May-2009

718     

Joe Montana, pro football player

Monongahela

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 26-Jan.-2013

719     

Judge John E. Jones

Orwigsburg

Pennsylvania

Google video

720     

City Councilman Frank Rizzo, Jr.

Philadelphia

Pennsylvania

Compare “bad” in this YouTube video with “dad” and “had” in this

YouTube video to hear the two distinct vowels. 4-June-2009

721     

U.S. representative Michael Doyle

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 7-May-2009

722     

Dennis Miller, comedian & commentator

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania

YouTube video (Replaced bad link again!) Interviewing Jesse Ventura: talk about two extremely distinct accents! And points of view! (Original link suggested by Y.I. Thanks!) 24-Jan.-2011

723     

Johnny Angel & the Halos, singing group

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania

Santa Claus is comin’ Dahntahn This is great! It’s a dialect enthusiast’s dream! They take the familiar song, and change the words just enough to really maximize the occurrence of their unique pronunciation of the /ou/ [a] vowel! Not to mention various unique terms. And they even have good harmony! (See the next entry for some help on the words.) (more info) 24-Jan.-2011

724     

DoubleShot!, singing group

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania

Santa Claus is goin’ Dahntahn Very similar to the preceding, but shows the words, which is a big help in a few places! On the other hand, their Pittsburg accent sounds to me to be just the tiniest bit less pristine than the preceding. (more info) (Sent in by Ted Ying. Thanks!) 24-Jan.-2011

725     

The Yinzers, singing group

Pittsburgh

Pennsylvania

YouTube video Just as fun as the preceding two! 24-Jan.-2011

726     

Richard “Punchy” Kozlowski[47]

Reading /rĕdĭng/ [ˈɹɛdɪŋ]

Pennsylvania

YouTube video 15-Nov.-2011

727     

Ray Lyman, unhappy citizen

Scranton

Pennsylvania

YouTube video, YouTube video This guy is truly disconnected from reality! But his accent is fascinating, and he is apparently a native, though I have not been able to confirm this. There are lots more videos of this guy, but this gives you the idea! He consistently has /th/ [θ]/t/ [t] and /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d], as well as the distinctive Inland North pronunciation of /ă/ [eə] in “ask”, /ŏ/ [a] in “cop”, and /ô/ [ɒ] in “lawsuit”. The other speakers on the videos have these same vowels, but not the /th/ [θ]/t/ [t] and /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d] feature, though the next two samples below show that this is a standard feature of the region. 17-Aug.-2015

728     

Ozzie Quinn, Scranton Taxpayers Association

Scranton

Pennsylvania

YouTube video (His clip starts at 12:20.) He sometimes has /th/ [θ]/t/ [t] and /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d], and sometimes not. (Many of the other citizens who speak are also good samples, though not the first one, who is apparently not local.) 16-May-2013

729     

Bob Kadlubowski, tow truck owner

Wilkes-Barre /wĭlksbârē/ [ˈwɪlksˌbeɹi]

Pennsylvania

YouTube video (His clip starts at 2:20.) Dialect very similar to Scranton. He has several cases of /th/ [θ]/t/ [t] and /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d]. At 2:50 he says, “I told yas,” demonstrating the special second person plural pronoun discussed in the following clip. 16-May-2013

730     

Greg Korin, actor

Wilkes-Barre

Pennsylvania

YouTube video (Sent in most recently by Claudio Salvucci. Thanks!) Okay, this is not a good sample for at least two big reasons: 1) It’s a spoof, exaggerating and poking fun at the Northeast Pennsylvania accent, so of course it is not natural, and 2) The main actor playing the teacher who is modeling the dialect isn’t even from the area! He was born and raised in Great Falls, Montana! He clearly gets parts of the dialect right, like /th/ [θ]/t/ [t] and /ŧħ/ [ð]/d/ [d], but he also gets other parts wrong, in particular the pronunciation of the distinctive /ă/ and /ô/ vowels. But it’s fun, and it points out various grammar and vocabulary features that are probably dying out, so I stuck it in. Besides, multiple contributors have suggested that I include it, so I really had to say something about it. No, the dialect is not really called Heynabonics, they just made that up! 16-May-2013

731     

Mike Mussina, pro baseball pitcher

Williamsport

Pennsylvania

YouTube video

732     

Jonathan Mann, Journalist

Montreal

Quebec

video 24-June-2010

733     

Dan Laxer, Journalist

Montreal

Quebec

YouTube video 24-June-2010

734     

Mayor Jean Tremblay

Saguenay /săgə/ [ˈsaɡəˌne] Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

Quebec

YouTube video, YouTube video (His first clip starts at 1:14.) I wanted to get some clips of people from parts of Quebec where English is essentially absent, to get a feel for where the long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting lines run through Quebec, but what is clear is that his French phonology completely trumps any such subtleties, so these lines are meaningless here, so I will not show them passing through Quebec at all, but running along the east side, since the French pronunciation of the English /ō/ is strongly backed. 10-Sep.-2013

735     

U.S. senator John Chafee

Providence

Rhode Island

YouTube video

736     

Police officer

Providence

Rhode Island

YouTube video 31-Mar.-2010

737     

David “onemon22”

Regina /rənə/ [ɹəˈdʒaɪnə]

Saskatchewan

YouTube video Yes, I know the clip is about Wilmington, Delaware, but the speaker is from Regina! 26-Mar.-2011

738     

U.S. senator Lindsey Graham

Central

South Carolina

YouTube video Lowland Southern speaker from an apparently Inland Southern area. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 2-Jan.-2012

739     

Fritz Hollings, U.S. senator, governor

Charleston

South Carolina

YouTube video

740     

Katon Dawson, politician

Columbia

South Carolina

YouTube video

741     

David Beasley, former governor

Darlington

South Carolina

YouTube video

742     

U.S. senator Strom Thurmond

Edgefield

South Carolina

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, although many younger ones may have lost it!) One feature that he had, which most Classical Southern speakers no longer have, is his special pronunciation of the vowel /ûr/ in “hurt”, “turning”, and “concerning” as [ɜɪ] rather than [ɝ]. (See [ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in some Classical Southern dialects.) 23-Sep.-2015

743     

U.S. senator Jim DeMint

Greenville

South Carolina

YouTube video Lowland Southern speaker from an apparently Inland Southern area. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 2-Jan.-2012

744     

Sofia B., age 33, bank teller

Greenville

South Carolina

ANAE info and audio Clearly Inland, based on the word “invite”. 14-Feb.-2012

745     

Kristen B., age 41, bank teller

Greenville

South Carolina

ANAE info and audio Clearly Inland, based on the word “like”. 14-Feb.-2012

746     

Susan Smith, murderer

Union

South Carolina

YouTube video (Her clip is 1:48-2:30.) 12-July-2011

747     

U.S. senator Tom Daschle

Aberdeen

South Dakota

YouTube video

748     

Ralph Kurtenbach, interviewer

Dimock /dǐmŏk/ [ˈdɪmˌak]

South Dakota

audio “On” rhymes with “Dawn”! This can be heard clearly several times in the clip, and Ralph personally confirmed this to me. 11-July-2015

749     

67-year-old White man with some schooling

Ludlow

South Dakota

audio and info

750     

Bob Barker, game show host

Mission

South Dakota

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Dawn”! 27-Mar.-2010

751     

U.S. senator George McGovern

Mitchell

South Dakota

YouTube video Oops! I was totally wrong about Mitchell: “on” rhymes with “Dawn”, though at first listen I thought that it rhymed with “Don”. The clearest case is just after 6:20. 11-July-2015

752     

Nancy Tystad Koupal, historian

Mitchell

South Dakota

audio (more info, more info) I had already realized that “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, but I had thought that she was different from the others from Mitchell, but in fact she is just like them! 11-July-2015

753     

Mike Miller, pro basketball player

Mitchell

South Dakota

YouTube video, YouTube video Oops! “On” rhymes with “Dawn”, though at first listen I thought that it rhymed with “Don”. Several clear cases starting at 2:26 in the first clip. The second clip, which I had posted before, is not really very good. 11-July-2015

754     

Governor Mike Rounds

Pierre /pîr/ [ˈpʰɪɹ]

South Dakota

YouTube video “cot”≠“caught”, but the difference is minimal, so much so that I at first missed it, and had him in the wrong region! This is not unusual for the Western North.

755     

Mark Ellis, pro baseball player

Rapid City

South Dakota

YouTube video, YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:30.) These clips are short, but he clearly speaks differently from Becky Hammond, and instead speaks a bit more the way the ANAE says someone from Rapid City should speak! However, he clearly has more backed long /ō/ [oʊ] vowels, unlike what the ANAE says, which straightens out the yellow long o fronting line of dots, which I had twisting around Rapid City! 12-Mar.-2013

756     

Becky Hammond, basketball player

Rapid City

South Dakota

YouTube video She evidently does not represent Rapid City well, having apparently lived too long in Texas! 12-Mar.-2013

757     

Tillie Black Bear, Lakota women’s advocate

St. Francis

South Dakota

YouTube video “On” rhymes with “Don”. 27-Mar.-2010

758     

Joe Foss, World War II flying ace

Sioux Falls

South Dakota

YouTube video

759     

U.S. senator Tim Johnson

Vermillion

South Dakota

YouTube video 19-Mar.-2010

760     

Lee Raymond, Exxon

Watertown

South Dakota

YouTube video

761     

James Abourezk, former U.S. representative and U.S. senator

Woods

South Dakota

YouTube video An interesting character. And he clearly has “on” rhyming with “Dawn”, which makes the “on” line even twistier than before! 12-Mar.-2013

762     

Archie Campbell, comedian

Bulls Gap

Tennessee

YouTube video 1-Jan.-2010

763     

Troy Odle

Camden

Tennessee

YouTube video

764     

Kevin Burke, entrepreneur

Chattanooga

Tennessee

YouTube video (more info, more info) He starts out with a non-southern “Hi!”, but immediately lapses into nearly pure Inland Southern! He was born and raised in Chattanooga, and represents the bedrock dialect. For quite a while I had thought that Chattanooga was Lowland Southern, since the people I had met there were, but it turns out there is a class distinction there, as discussed in Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 11-Aug.-2014

765     

Lamar Trotter, grandfather

Cleveland

Tennessee

YouTube video. 15-Sep.-2014

766     

Peg McKamey Bean, southern gospel singer

Clinton

Tennessee

YouTube video, YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) These are two different renditions of the same song, separated by decades. But her accent never changes, and is one of the best examples of Inland Southern I have heard! (The song’s message is right on also, and she sure feels it as she sings it!) 21-July-2012

767     

Sterling Marlin, NASCAR driver

Columbia

Tennessee

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video (His clip starts at 3:22; sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!), YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:22.) In the first two clips he sounds thoroughly Inland, but in the last two he sounds more Lowland, but mixed with Inland. Actually, in the last one, from 1:59 to 2:05 he says “Coors Lite” with what sounds like [aɪ], though it is awfully fast, “twice” with a clear [aɪ], and “tonight” with a clear monophthong [a]. I would have to say he is Inland, but very borderline, and I have tried to draw the border to somewhat represent this! (One could also surmise that he might have changed over the decades, but the remainder of his accent is absolutely pristine, so I doubt it!) 12-Mar.-2013

768     

Mack Brown, football coach

Cookeville

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

769     

Amanda Garrett, vlogger

Cookeville

Tennessee

YouTube video (Sent in by her mother Tracy. Thanks!) Almost fully consistent Lowland Southern as far as her long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels and in other ways. The dialect is not dying out, even among young people! 5-Mar.-2011

770     

Rodney Atkins, country singer

Cumberland Gap

Tennessee

YouTube video, YouTube video 5-July-2010

771     

State senator Doug Jackson

Dickson

Tennessee

YouTube video The stuff politicians find to quibble about! 10-Mar.-2010

772     

Dave’s mom

Dover

Tennessee

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 16-Feb.-2010

773     

Dave’s dad

Dover

Tennessee

YouTube video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 16-Feb.-2010

774     

Committee members

Dunlap

Tennessee

YouTube video The lady who does most of the talking is clearly Inland, as is the man who speaks briefly towards the end. (The man who talks the most sounds like a transplanted northerner.) 1-Nov.-2011

775     

Politically active resident

Dunlap

Tennessee

YouTube video Not to detract in any way from the concerns of the main speaker, mainly teenage drinking, and who seems to have researched his subject, I find it delightful that his kids (presumably) are playing “punch bug” in the background. Clearly Inland. 1-Nov.-2011

776     

The Boyd Brothers, local country singers

Dunlap

Tennessee

YouTube video Clearly Inland. 1-Nov.-2011

777     

Diana Walker, southern gospel singer

Knoxville

Tennessee

audio & info (Scroll down to her testimony to listen.) Very consistent and clear Inland, but very occasionally does a long /ī/ [a] vowel with a diphthong [aɪ], for no obvious reason! (more info) 11-July-2011

778     

Rafael Eledge, Civil War relic expert

Lawrenceburg

Tennessee

PBS video (more info, more info) This is a wonderful sample: Rafael is such a confident professional, and his accent is such perfect Inland Southern. 1-May-2012

779     

Fred Thompson, politician, actor, etc.

Lawrenceburg

Tennessee

YouTube video (more info) Since we have such a clear sample in the previous one from Rafael Eledge, it is almost pointless to include this one. His pronunciation here is mostly Lowland, which might be explained by the fact that he has worked extensively as an actor, and could presumably adjust his speech accordingly. However, I decided to include it anyway, because in spite of all this he does pronounce a few words with a clear Inland pronunciation, notable the word “iceberg”, suggesting that his native dialect is Inland. 1-May-2012

780     

Storekeepers: Cathy Bell, Robbie Treadwell

Linden

Tennessee

YouTube video These 2 are clearly Inland. 12-June-2010

781     

Dwight Hines, businessman

Lobelville

Tennessee

YouTube video All but the first one are clearly Southern, but only this speaker happens to use any diagnostic words for Inland: his name being one of them! (The first speaker sounds like a transplant from up North.) 12-June-2010

782     

Mayor Randy Brundige

Martin

Tennessee

Google video (Video no longer public.) (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 15-Jan.-2013

783     

John Wilder, speaker, TN senate

Mason

Tennessee

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, something only heard occasionally from much older speakers in this area.) 10-Mar.-2010

784     

Roy Acuff, “king of country music”

Maynardville

Tennessee

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) Beautiful combination of Anglo-Celtic melody (more info) with traditional mountain dialect. YouTube video, YouTube video Anybody like railroad songs? These are two of the best! 5-Nov.-2014

785     

Carl Smith, country singer

Maynardville

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-May-2011

786     

Buddy Coppock, southern gospel singer

Maynardville

Tennessee

audio & info (Scroll down to his testimony to listen.) Very consistent and clear Inland, but very occasionally does a long /ī/ [a] vowel with a diphthong [aɪ], for no obvious reason! (more info) 11-July-2011

787     

Various, presumably residents

McMinnville

Tennessee

YouTube video (All speakers are Lowland.) 10-Mar.-2010

788     

Dottie West, country singer

McMinnville

Tennessee

YouTube video (Clearly Lowland as well!) 23-Feb.-2011

789     

Grady Ward Partin, storyteller

Monteagle

Tennessee

YouTube video (Sent in by Eva Griffin. Thanks!) Contributor Eva Griffin suggested that the Grundy County dialects are mountain dialects, i.e. Inland Southern, and she was quite right. Grundy County is up on the Cumberland Plateau, all of which is solidly Inland Southern. (See comments about the Cumberland Plateau in the Inland and Lowland Southern section.) 16-Mar.-2013

790     

Don Hill, storyteller

Beersheba Springs /bûrshəbə sprēngz/ [ˈbɝʃəbə ˈspɹɪiŋz]

Tennessee

videos & info: click on Big Don “Tells It Like It Was”. (Sent in by Eva Griffin. Thanks! There is a lot more great information on the Grundy County history page.) 16-Mar.-2013

791     

Doyle Lawson, bluegrass gospel singer

Fordtown

Tennessee

YouTube video He is the older guy. 5-Nov.-2015

792     

Paula Flowers, politician

Monterey

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

793     

U.S. Congressman Bart Gordon

Murfreesboro

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

794     

Caucasian male, born 1990

Nashville

Tennessee

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

795     

John Seigenthaler, journalist

Nashville

Tennessee

YouTube video (Older r-dropper retaining Classical Southern, dropping many of his droppable r’s, something only heard occasionally from much older speakers in this area.) 26-Jan.-2013

796     

Ronnie McDowell, pop singer

Portland

Tennessee

YouTube video (more info) 2-Dec.-2009

797     

Darryl Worley /wûrlē/ [ˈwɝli], country singer

Pyburn

Tennessee

YouTube video 4-Sep.-2010

798     

Bryan Simmons, southern gospel singer

Quebeck

Tennessee

Click here, then click on the second “Play Demo” link. (more info, more info) 31-July-2012

799     

Caucasian male, born 1943

Ridgetop

Tennessee

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

800     

Skylar McBee, college basketball player

Rutledge

Tennessee

YouTube video (Sent in by Jay Brantner. Thanks!) 18-Nov.-2011

801     

Josh Franks, Southern gospel singer

Savannah

Tennessee

YouTube video (more info) 23-June-2010

802     

Randy Parton, Dolly’s brother

Sevierville

Tennessee

YouTube video Dolly has modified her speech, but Randy still speaks pure Inland Southern! 30-Jan.-2010

803     

U.S. Congressman Jim Cooper

Shelbyville

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

804     

Jimmy Martin, bluegrass singer

Sneedville

Tennessee

YouTube video, YouTube video 25-Apr.-2013

805     

Billy Blakely, fishing guide

Tiptonville

Tennessee

YouTube video 26-Nov.-2009

806     

Carl Perkins, rockabilly singer

Tiptonville

Tennessee

YouTube video 28-Mar.-2012

807     

Herbert and Marie Adams, “Herbie Town”

Trenton /trǐntən/ [ˈtʰɹɪɾ̃ən]

Tennessee

Google video (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 4-Sep.-2010

808     

Ron Pace, financier

Waverley

Tennessee

MSNBC video 20-Feb.-2010

809     

Phillip Fulmer, football coach

Winchester

Tennessee

YouTube video 10-Mar.-2010

810     

Caucasian male, born 1940, hair stylist

Amarillo

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

811     

Jeannie C. Riley, country singer, later southern gospel singer

Anson

Texas

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) This is the song that made her famous (and a bit notorious), but later she preferred to be known for her gospel music. 2-Sep.-2013

812     

U.S. representative Lloyd Doggett

Austin

Texas

YouTube video 9-May-2009

813     

Colby Yates, bull rider & country singer

Azle

Texas

YouTube video (more info) Clearly has an Inland Southern accent, more representative of the Dallas-Fort Worth area than that of Kenny Marchant of Carrollton below. 6-Sep.-2011

814     

Mark Chesnutt, country singer

Beaumont

Texas

YouTube video Has a clear Lowland South accent, but a few words sound Inland. I don’t have a good explanation for this, since Beaumont is far from the Inland Southern area. 12-Dec.-2011

815     

Debra Medina, politician

Beeville

Texas

YouTube video 28-Apr.-2010

816     

U.S. representative Mac Thornberry

Clarendon

Texas

YouTube video 30-Dec.-2011

817     

Terry Labonte, NASCAR driver

Corpus Christi

Texas

YouTube video Very thorough Lowland Southern, though occasional diphthongs in voiced situations, especially before /n/, which is not unusual. This and the next clip demonstrate that the ANAE was mistaken, and that Corpus Christi is not actually a distinct dialect. (I have now moved the Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath clip to the Rejected Data section below.) 23-Nov.-2012

818     

Bobby Labonte, NASCAR driver

Corpus Christi

Texas

YouTube video Very much like his brother, can’t decide whether the word “time” has a diphthong or not. 23-Nov.-2012

819     

U.S. representative Kenny Marchant

Carrollton

Texas

YouTube video (clip at 5:35) The Dallas-Fort Worth area is one of the few areas where there seems to be a mixture of Inland Southern and Lowland Southern based perhaps on class distinctions, though the bedrock dialect seems to be Inland. Kenny Marchant in this clip speaks mostly Lowland, with occasional lapses into Inland. However, the two speakers before him, apparently also locals, speak only Inland. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

820     

Valerie M., age 47, food service worker

Dallas

Texas

ANAE info and audio (Replaced bad link.) Clearly Inland South! 31-Dec.-2011

821     

Heather Cranford-Nied, sports commentator, etc.

Dallas (Duncanville)

Texas

YouTube video (Her clip starts at 1:30) more info) Clearly speaks Inland Southern! 12-Dec.-2011

822     

Ross Perot, Jr., businessman

Dallas

Texas

YouTube video Perot clearly comes from a wealthy family and attended a private school, which may explain why he shows no sign of Inland Southern, but only Lowland Southern. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

823     

Kent Hance, Texas Tech Chancellor

Dimmitt

Texas

YouTube video 20-Jan.-2010

824     

State senator Eliot Shapleigh

El Paso

Texas

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) [48] 19-Aug.-2015

825     

Ronn Lucas, ventriloquist

El Paso

Texas

YouTube video 24-Feb.-2011

826     

Governor John Connally

Floresville

Texas

YouTube video, YouTube video (Second one sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

827     

Clayton Williams, oil man

Fort Stockton

Texas

YouTube video 12-Jan.-2010

828     

Dr. Adam Boyd, M.D.

Franklin

Texas

audio & info 9-May-2009

829     

Ron White, comedian

Fritch

Texas

YouTube video Not as objectionable as some of his stuff, unless you love dogs or parents. (Sent in by Y.I. Thanks!) 1-July-2010

830     

Harry Kreisler, host of “Conversations with History”

Galveston

Texas

YouTube video Hardly Southern at all. See Galveston Movement. This was confirmed by contributor James Dallas: «Also, regarding Galveston... I think it’s an odd duck. I am not surprised you marked it as Midland but I think it probably a mix of Midland and Lowland Southern depending on geography, race and class (literally, different neighborhoods sound different just like New Orleans, although definitely Galvestonians sound less “interesting” and closer to “Broadcast Television American” than N’Orleanians do).» Adj. 13-Sep.-2017

                I listened to the sample again and realized that “pin”≠“pen”, so I adjusted the map accordingly. New! 14-Sep.-2017

831     

Joe Don Baker, actor

Groesbeck

Texas

YouTube video 9-May-2009

832     

Bob Moorhouse, photographer and rancher

Guthrie

Texas

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) (more info) 23-Apr.-2011

833     

Mary Kay Ash, entrepreneur

Houston /hyōōstən/ [ˈhjustən]

Texas

YouTube video Yes, I know, she’s an older speaker, now deceased, but there still must be some real southerners in Houston, right? Yes, there are: see the following! 23-May-2011

834     

Joel Osteen /ōstēn/ [ˈoʊˌstin], “prosperity gospel” preacher

Houston

Texas

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) Finally, a living Houstonian who actually speaks Southern! (See also John MacArthur) 16-Jan.-2012

835     

White female, born 1981, college student

Huntsville

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

836     

Vernon Dalhart, very early country singer

Jefferson

Texas

YouTube video (Not the kids’ version of Big Rock Candy Mountain! Very similar to the version in O Brother Where Art Thou?.) Lowland Southern with hints of Classical, but generally not Classical. 31-July-2012

837     

Bill Burns, fiddle player

Lipan /păn/ [ˈlaˌpʰæn] Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

Texas

YouTube video (Sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

838     

Ed Gerlach, big band legend

Livingston

Texas

YouTube video (Sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

839     

Terry Allen, “outlaw” country singer

Lubbock

Texas

YouTube video Occasionally his long /ī/ vowels are [aɪ], but the vast majority are clearly Inland Southern [a], before both voiced and voiceless sounds. 3-Mar.-2011

840     

Don Bowman, “outlaw” country singer

Lubbock

Texas

YouTube video This is the infamous “Wildwood Weed” song, in its original incarnation. (more info) 3-Mar.-2011

841     

Julia Plumley, lifelong resident

Marfa

Texas

YouTube video (His clip starts at 1:43; sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) Clearly Inland, demolishing my theory that the Inland South line followed the western edge of the Great Plains all the way to the Mexican border. 19-Aug.-2015

842     

Caucasian male, born 1938

Mart

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

843     

General Tommy Franks

Midland

Texas

YouTube video

844     

Larry Gatlin, country singer

Odessa[49]

Texas

YouTube video, YouTube video (Second one sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

845     

Leslie Satcher, country singer

Paris

Texas

YouTube video 27-Mar.-2010

846     

Gene Stallings, college football coach

Paris

Texas

YouTube video 9-Mar.-2012

847     

George Strait, country singer

Pearsall

Texas

YouTube video

848     

Ray Price, country singer

Perryville

Texas

YouTube video 24-Mar.-2010

849     

U.S. representative Louie Gohmert

Pittsburg

Texas

YouTube video, YouTube video (Second one sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) (There is no “h” in “Pittsburg”, as pointed out by David Lawrence. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

850     

Dickie Greenwood, President of Disability Resources, Inc.

Rochester

Texas

YouTube video (Sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) This speaker starts out trying not to sound as Southern, but as he goes along his speech settles into solid Inland Southern, except once right at the end. 8-Nov.-2012

851     

Fess Parker, actor

San Angelo

Texas

YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009

852     

George Jones, country singer

Saratoga

Texas

YouTube video 23-Feb.-2010

853     

Johnny Horton, country singer

Rusk

Texas

YouTube video (Replaced bad link.) 15-Dec.-2010

854     

Caucasian female, born 1924

San Marcos

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

855     

Caucasian male, born 1950(?)

Sanderson

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

856     

Lieutenant Governor Bill Ratliff

Sonora

Texas

YouTube video 27-Mar.-2010

857     

Lisa Gail Allred, singer

Snyder

Texas

YouTube video (Sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) audio and info 19-Aug.-2015

858     

Rex Linn, actor

Spearman

Texas

YouTube video

859     

Lee Roy Parnell, country singer

Stephenville

Texas

YouTube video Added interview clip: YouTube video. Oops! I had him listed as being from Abilene, whereas he is actually from Stephenville. Contributor Karl Gerlach set me straight. Thanks! He also pointed out that he isn’t consistent in his speech, which can be heard on the interview clip, but he also clearly is Inland Southern, because those features keep popping up, unlike Ben Hogan, who is Lowland. 4-Sep.-2012

860     

Ben Hogan, pro golfer

Stephenville

Texas

YouTube video He is another speaker of Lowland in a predominantly Inland Southern region. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

861     

Ross Perot, Sr., Politician

Texarkana

Texas

YouTube video, YouTube video (Second one sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 8-Nov.-2012

862     

Female, born 1980, student

Texarkana

Texas

IDEA audio (source) The IDEA website has now clarified that she was born and raised there, so I have reinstated her as a valid sample. She is mostly Lowland Southern, with a few signs of Inland Southern, which is not too surprising given how close to the border she lives. In the first part of the sample, which was rote reading, she seemed to pronounce a few of her long /ī/ [a(ɪ)] vowels in a non-Southern way, but in the second part she is quite consistent. 8-Nov.-2013

863     

Sarah McClendon, correspondent

Tyler

Texas

YouTube video (Her clip is at 8:40.) 13-May-2009

864     

Dale Evans, singer & actress

Uvalde

Texas

YouTube video 27-Mar.-2010

865     

Tracy Byrd, country singer

Vidor

Texas

YouTube video Has a clear Lowland South accent, but a few words sound Inland. 15-Dec.-2010

866     

U.S. representative Joe Barton

Waco

Texas

YouTube video 9-May-2009

867     

Various residents

Waxahachie /wôkhăchē/ [ˌwɒʊksəˈhæʧɪ]

Texas

YouTube video All residents clearly Inland, unlike Byron Nelson below! 6-Sep.-2011

868     

Byron Nelson, pro golfer

Waxahachie

Texas

CBS News video (more info) He clearly speaks Lowland, although the native dialect of Waxahachie seem to be Inland, as can be seen from the previous sample. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

869     

Mary Martin, actress

Weatherford

Texas

YouTube video An actress, and another speaker of Lowland in a predominantly Inland Southern region. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

870     

Caucasian female, born 1938

Weslaco /wĕs/ [ˈwɛsləˌkʰəʊ]

Texas

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

871     

Alan Wachsman, native Wichitan, sixth-generation Texan

(How in world do you pronounce “Wichitan”?)

Wichita Falls /wĭchĭfôlz/ [ˈwɪtʃɪˌtʰɒʊ ˈfɒʊlz]

Texas

YouTube video (more info) Sometimes finding a good sound sample for a particular place is like pulling teeth: You search through dozens of web sites and still don’t find one. Not this time: the very first clip found by searching for Wichita Falls on YouTube is this one, and it is excellent, and is as Inland North as you can get, filling in a nice blank spot. If only it were always this easy! 19-Apr.-2011

872     

Jamie Wilson, country singer

Yancey

Texas

YouTube video, YouTube video 5-Nov.-2013

873     

Governor Michael Leavitt

Cedar City

Utah

YouTube video Clearly “pin”≠“pen” and long /ō/ [oʊ] vowel is back of middle, as expected. 11-Mar.-2016

874     

Forrest Cuch, Indian leader

Fort Duchesne /dōōshān/ [ˌduˈʃeɪn]

Utah

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

875     

Waldo Wilcox, rancher

Green River

Utah

YouTube video (more info) 26-Sep.-2009

876     

Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s

Ogden (Clearfield)

Utah

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

877     

Governor Gary Herbert

Orem

Utah

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

878     

Mayor Lewis Billings

Provo

Utah

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

879     

Clayton Christensen, Harvard Professor

Salt Lake City

Utah

YouTube video 6-Feb.-2010

880     

Hannah Teter, Olympic snowboarder

Belmont

Vermont

YouTube video Not a true Vermont accent? 11-Feb.-2011

881     

Chris Wagner, dairy farmer

Enosburg, Franklin County

Vermont

YouTube video Very much like Mark Magnan. 5-Sep.-2013

882     

Mark Magnan, dairy farmer

Fairfield, Franklin County

Vermont

YouTube video (Sent in by R.E.M. Thanks!) Excellent Vermont accent, with all the characteristic features: “cot”=“caught”, strongly fronted /är/ [aɹ], slightly fronted /ou/ [aʊ]. In spite of closeness to Canada, no raising of the latter. 5-Sep.-2013

883     

Claire Stanley, dairy farmer

(East) Fairfield, Franklin County

Vermont

YouTube video (Sent in by R.E.M. Thanks!) Very much like Mark Magnan. 5-Sep.-2013

884     

Paul Stanley, dairy farmer

Franklin, Franklin County

Vermont

YouTube video (His clip starts at 0:17.) (Sent in by R.E.M. Thanks!) Very much like Mark Magnan. 5-Sep.-2013

885     

U.S. senator Patrick Leahy

Montpelier

Vermont

YouTube video After feedback from contributors, and listening again, I see that he does not really have a distinct Vermont accent, even though he grew up in Montpelier. However he clearly does have “cot”=“caught”. 11-Feb.-2011

886     

Danny Perry, etymologist

Newport

Vermont

Video (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) He says, “I’m from a very rural area of Vermont called the Northeast Kingdom (or NEK for short). If you cut Vermont into 4 squares, the region is the top right quadrant. I live in Newport, Vermont, right on the Quebec border. The region I’m talking about essentially spans from Lowell, Vermont area on the west side, all the way to the eastern border of the state. And it goes from the Canadian border down to the Saint Johnsbury, Vermont area.” 6-Nov.-2015

887     

Ross Powers, Olympic snowboarder

Peru

Vermont

YouTube video More than one contributor has said that Ross Powers does not have a real Vermont accent, and the non-pink examples are probably better. However, my question is: does southern Vermont have a less pronounced accent than the north? 6-Sep.-2013

888     

Ron and Cheryl Machia (pronunciation?), dairy farmers

Sheldon, Franklin County

Vermont

YouTube video (Sent in by R.E.M. Thanks!) She sounds very much like Mark Magnan, but it isn’t clear whether she is from Sheldon or not. He, on the other hand, definitely is from Sheldon, and he pronounces one of his vowels, /ă/ [æ], quite differently from all the other people from Franklin County: it is noticeably lower and slightly more backed, exactly the way a Canadian would pronounce it. But all the rest of his vowels seem to be just like the other people from Franklin County, so this is a bit of an enigma. And he certainly does not have Canadian raising! 5-Sep.-2013

889     

Bill, old timer

Stowe

Vermont

YouTube video Contributor Jon Protas says none of the preceding three pink samples from Vermont shows a real Vermont accent, so I added this one. There were several even better ones, but they used some words you can’t use on TV, so I couldn’t use it. There were some others, but they seemed to be of people imitating a Vermont accent, so they didn’t work either! 2-Feb.-2011

890     

George Woodard, dairy farmer

Waterbury

Vermont

YouTube video This was sent in by Charlie Farrington as a more representative sample. Thanks! 11-Feb.-2011

891     

John Bowman, bluegrass gospel singer

Ararat

Virginia

YouTube video (www.caccwarriors.com/john-bowman) 9-Sep.-2010

892     

Katie Couric, CBS news anchor

Arlington

Virginia

YouTube video (more info) (“pin”≠“pen”) 5-Oct.-2010

893     

Rich Lowry, National Review editor

Arlington

Virginia

YouTube video (more info) (“pin”≠“pen”) 5-Oct.-2010

894     

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google

Arlington

Virginia

YouTube video (“pin”≠“pen”, except “any”, “many”) 5-Oct.-2010

895     

Hope Elliott, lifelong resident

Chesterfield

Virginia

video (Sent in by Sam Williams. Thanks!) Very much standard Lowland Southern, does not have either of the features that make Tidewater speech distinctive: the raising of “out” but not “down”, and the r-dropping of Classical Southern. This is typical of younger people in this area, according to contributor Sam Williams, though he says that her grandfather has both. 19-Aug.-2015

896     

Charles Stanley, pastor

Danville (Dry Fork)

Virginia

YouTube video 4-Sep.-2012

897     

Elliott Sadler, NASCAR driver

Emporia

Virginia

YouTube video (His clip starts at 4:12.) He is clearly both Classical Southern, dropping most of his droppable r’s, and he is quite a young man at 37, showing that Classical Southern is alive and well! He is also clearly Tidewater, as his pronunciation of “out” shows! (Sent in by Karl Gerlach. Thanks!) 23-Nov.-2012

898     

Various residents

Guinea (Gloucester Country)

Virginia

YouTube video (Sent in by John Drummond. Thanks!) A unique accent, with some features reminiscent of the Chesapeake Islands. However, unlike the Chesapeake Islands, clearly falls within Classical Southern, with both Lowland Southern long /ī/ vowel and r-dropping. However, I do not know whether “pin”=“pen” or not, since no diagnostic word seems to occur, but I am guessing it is like Norfolk. All speakers have the accent (except the narrator, of course), though Nannie Mae has it much less than the others. 8-May-2013

899     

Chris Kraft, NASA engineer

Hampton

Virginia

YouTube video 21-July-2009

900     

James King bluegrass

Cana

Virginia

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video  Very consistent Inland Southern, which defines the border clearly at this point. (See the discussion at the entries for Mount Airy, North Caroline.) What a tear jerker the second clip is! 11-Nov.-2015

901     

Jackson Family, bluegrass gospel singers (Joe Jackson, banjo)

Hurley

Virginia

YouTube video 9-Sep.-2010

902     

white male, born 1979

Leesburg

Virginia

IDEA audio (source) 8-Nov.-2013

903     

Jerry Falwell, preacher

Lynchburg

Virginia

YouTube video

904     

June Carter Cash (of the Carter Family), country singer

Maces Spring

Virginia

audio, YouTube video 16-Apr.-2013

905     

Ralph Stanley, bluegrass singer

McClure

Virginia

YouTube video (Replaced dead links.) He sings tenor and plays the banjo. 5-Nov.-2015

906     

Carter Stanley, bluegrass singer

McClure

Virginia

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) He sings lead and plays the guitar. 5-Nov.-2015

907     

“Mother” Maybelle Addington Carter (of the Carter Family), country singer

Nickelsville

Virginia

YouTube video 16-Apr.-2013

908     

Bill Fanney, TV spokesman

Norfolk

Virginia

YouTube video Delightful clip, clearly both Classical Southern and Tidewater, and clearly “pin”≠“pen”, which is only true for a few Tidewater cities, as the ANAE also shows. 8-May-2013

909     

L. Douglas Wilder, mayor of Richmond, governor of Virginia

Richmond

Virginia

YouTube video, YouTube video Sent in by Carlisle Childress. Thanks! He comments: “I’d like to offer the following video as a candidate for a native Richmond speaker. Doug Wilder was the first elected African-American governor in the US in 1990. Although you have said that you were not following African American dialects, he does speak just like my father and his siblings (all Caucasians), all born in the same neighborhood about the same time (Church Hill neighborhood in Richmond VA, in the 20’s and 30’s).” I am now including some African American samples, but only in the Lowland South where their dialects originated. However, I hardly perceive any AAVE features in Doug Wilder’s pronunciation, and wonder how he compares with other African Americans in Richmond. He has both the Tidewater raising and Classical Southern, which made me redraw both of these lines. 25-Apr.-2013

910     

Margaret Gibson, poet

Richmond

Virginia

YouTube video I at first thought that she was representative of the traditional Richmond accent, but contributor Carlisle Childress clarified that she is not. She has neither the Tidewater raising nor Classical Southern, unlike Douglas Wilder, who does represent the traditional accent. 25-Apr.-2013

911     

U.S. Ambassador Nicholas Taubman

Roanoke

Virginia

YouTube video

912     

U.S. representative Virgil Goode

Rocky Mount

Virginia

YouTube video

913     

E.C. Ball, gospel & folk singer

Rugby

Virginia

YouTube video 3-Apr.-2010

914     

Wayne Henderson, guitar maker

Rugby

Virginia

YouTube video, YouTube video 3-Apr.-2010

915     

Harrison Tyler, grandson of president John Tyler

Sherwood Forest Plantation

Virginia

C-span video (His clips start at 7:00) (Sent in by Robert Taylor. Thanks!) He clearly demonstrates both Classical Southern and Tidewater raising, as in his pronunciation of “house”. His wife Payne Tyler (her clips start at 18:20) also has a very interesting accent, somewhat different from his, but I have not found any definite information on where she grew up. Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

916     

Anne Tyler Netick, great-granddaughter of president John Tyler

Sherwood Forest Plantation

Virginia

C-span video (Her clip starts at 2:22:40.) (Sent in by Robert Taylor. Thanks!) (more info) She clearly demonstrates both Classical Southern and Tidewater raising, as in her pronunciation of “about”. 13-Apr.-2013

917     

Brothers Don & Harold Reid, southern gospel singers

Staunton /stăntən/ [ˈstænʔn̩]

Virginia

YouTube video 8-Apr.-2013

918     

Various residents

Tangier Island

Virginia

YouTube video 9-Sep.-2010

919     

The Singing Cookes, bluegrass and southern gospel singers

Wise

Virginia

YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video, YouTube video (more info) Gorgeous harmony and Inland Southern! 6-Apr.-2013

920     

Douglas Osheroff, physicist

Aberdeen

Washington

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 16-May-2013

921     

Bob Hickman, saddle maker

Colfax

Washington

YouTube video (more info) 6-Dec.-2010

922     

Kirk Triplett, pro golfer

Pullman

Washington

YouTube video 25-Nov.-2010

923     

Travis B., contributor

North Bonneville

Washington

Audio (Self-recording for this site. Thanks!) This contributor has precisely the accent we would expect for this location. He also clearly pronounces “poor” as /pȯr/ [ˈpʰoɹ] and “tour” as /tōōər/ [ˈtʰᵿʉɚ], showing that he only has 5 r-colored vowels, just like my wife who speaks West Midland, suggesting that the special r-colored vowel /ŏŏr/ may be limited to the northeastern U.S. (See R’s Between Vowels: To Color or Not to Color and footnote Error! Bookmark not defined. for more details.) 29-Aug.-2015

924     

Judy Collins, folk singer

Seattle

Washington

YouTube video 6-Sep.-2011

925     

Aya Sumika, actress

Seattle

Washington

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 16-May-2013

926     

Bill Gates, Microsoft cofounder

Seattle

Washington

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 17-May-2013

927     

Richard Karn, actor & game show host

Seattle

Washington

YouTube video (Replaced dead link.) 17-May-2013

928     

U.S. representative George Nethercutt

Spokane

Washington

YouTube video 25-Nov.-2010

929     

Tom Maccarone, restaurateur

Walla Walla

Washington

YouTube video (Sent in by S. Radtke. Thanks!) 19-Feb.-2011

930     

Jay Randolph, sports commentator

Clarksburg

West Virginia

YouTube video

931     

Homer Hickam, NASA engineer

Coalwood

West Virginia

YouTube video

932     

Richard Thompson, politician

Fort Gay

West Virginia

YouTube video (more info) (Cannot get a long enough clip to be sure “cot”=“caught”, but the surrounding samples are clear.) 28-Apr.-2010

933     

Jim Grobe, college football coach

Huntington

West Virginia

YouTube video 2-Dec.-2009

934     

Don Blankenship, coal CEO

Matewan /mātwŏn/ [ˈmeɪtˌwɑn]

West Virginia

YouTube video 26-July-2012

935     

CountryBoyYes

Matewan

West Virginia

YouTube video 28-Apr.-2010

936     

Tom Chafin, descendant of the feudin’ Hatfields

Matewan

West Virginia

YouTube video (Clip starts at 4:50.) 30-Apr.-2010

937     

Lawrence Kasdan, movie producer, director, and screenwriter

Morgantown

West Virginia

YouTube video (His clip starts at 2:20.) (more info) This is the second northernmost example of Southern (after nearby Cumberland, Maryland), and is a rare case of someone in the movie industry who retains a strong regional accent! He seems to have “cot”=“caught”, unlike Cumberland, but this is not surprising. 23-July-2011

938     

Mark Funkhouser, Kansas City mayor

Paden

West Virginia

YouTube video

939     

Steve Chapman, gospel singer

Point Pleasant

West Virginia

YouTube video (more info) 1-Sep.-2014

940     

John McKay, football coach

Shinnston

West Virginia

YouTube video

941     

General Chuck Yeager, test pilot

Myra

West Virginia

YouTube video I have listened to various samples of his, and clearly “cot”≠“caught”, though they are fairly close! Now need to verify Charleston. 28-Apr.-2010

942     

Annie Chapman, gospel singer

Southside

West Virginia

YouTube video (more info) 1-Sep.-2014

943     

Sara Stapleton, high school principal

Wayne

West Virginia

YouTube video (Her clip starts at 3:57.) 28-Apr.-2010

944     

Steven Akers, high school student

Wayne

West Virginia

YouTube video (His clip starts at 0:41.) 28-Apr.-2010

945     

Arden Cogar, Sr., lumberjack

Webster Springs

West Virginia

YouTube video 1-July-2010

946     

John Corbett, actor

Wheeling

West Virginia

YouTube video Oops! I had put Wheeling in the “pin”=“pen” region, but I must have been in a hurry: Both speakers clearly distinguish. 12-June-2010

947     

Bob Ney, talk radio host

Wheeling

West Virginia

YouTube video 22-Aug.-2009

948     

J. P. Hayes, pro golfer

Appleton

Wisconsin

YouTube video 3-June-2011

949     

Matt Kenseth, NASCAR driver

Cambridge

Wisconsin

YouTube video Not as strong as some Inland North, but still representative. 31-Dec.-2011

950     

Thomas Christianson, boil master

Door County

Wisconsin

YouTube video (Sent in by Y.I. Thanks!) 28-Oct.-2010

951     

State senator Dave Hansen

Green Bay

Wisconsin

YouTube video 29-Dec.-2010

952     

Laura, cancer patient

Green Bay (Hobart)

Wisconsin

YouTube video (Sent in by Anneke Majors. Thanks!) 24-Jan.-2011

953     

Defense secretary Les Aspin

Milwaukee

Wisconsin

YouTube video 16-Mar.-2010

954     

Craig Counsell, pro baseball player

Milwaukee

Wisconsin

YouTube video (Clip starts at 4:00) 16-Feb.-2010

955     

John Koepke /kĕpkē/ [ˈkʰɛpki], dairy producer

Oconomowoc /ōkŏnəmōŏk/ [ˌoˈkʰanəmoˌak]

Wisconsin

YouTube video 3-June-2011

956     

State senator Joe Leibham /līphŏm/ [ˈlaɪpˌham]

Sheboygan /shəboigən/ [ʃəˈbɔɪɡən]

Wisconsin

YouTube video, YouTube video This guy speaks what I’ve always thought of as a typical Wisconsin accent, though I now realize that it’s limited to southern and eastern Wisconsin, and is simply a fairly pure (or extreme) example of Inland North, also heard elsewhere in the region. 2-Mar.-2011

957     

Secretary of state Lawrence Eagleburger

Stevens Point

Wisconsin

YouTube video 16-Mar.-2010

958     

Chris Bangle, car designer

Wausau

Wisconsin

YouTube video 6-Sep.-2011

959     

Lynne Cheney, wife of U.S. vice president

Casper

Wyoming

YouTube video

960     

U.S. representative Cynthia Lummis

Cheyenne

Wyoming

YouTube video

961     

U.S. senator Alan K. Simpson

Cody

Wyoming

YouTube video

962     

Steve Moulton, Western singer and rancher

Encampment

Wyoming

National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum interview (Source suggested by archivist Laura Anne Heller. Thanks!) 23-Apr.-2011

963     

Douglas Owsley, forensic anthropologist

Lusk

Wyoming

YouTube video, YouTube video What I said about Torrington below still seems to be true, but the pin-pen line makes a fairly sharp twist now, and it makes me wonder. 1-Sep.-2014

964     

Jesse Garcia, actor

Rawlins

Wyoming

YouTube video 8-Feb.-2010

965     

Lexie Madden, Miss Wyoming 2012

Torrington

Wyoming

YouTube video, YouTube video Sent in by M.W. Thanks! He complained that in Torrington “pin”≠“pen”, and he was right. In fact, Torrington has several features that distinguish it from the rest of Wyoming and from nearby towns in Nebraska. 9-Mar.-2013

966     

Phil Gatensby, counselor

Carcross

Yukon Territory

YouTube video

967     

Stanley, Sr., Native American from Gwich’in tribe

Old Crow

Yukon Territory

YouTube video

 

 

Rejected Data:

 

 

(These are people raised in a certain place, but not representing the local dialect. If any of you have local knowledge and think that these people do represent the local dialect, please let me know!) 3-Nov.-2011

 

 

 

 

 

Reject:

Collin Raye, country singer

De Queen

Arkansas

YouTube video When I first heard him, singing this clip, I thought, “Okay, he’s from De Queen, Arkansas, and he speaks Inland Southern.” Turns out I was wrong on both counts. First, he is totally inconsistent: he sometimes sings Inland, as in this clip, but usually sings Lowland, as in the first song on this interview clip: YouTube video, but he doesn’t actually talk Southern at all, as can be heard in the interview. Also, though he was born in De Queen, he was raised someplace in Texas. The first clip is a cool song, and I had at first assumed that it was a true story about Collin Raye’s grandparents, but I can find nothing to indicate this. Even so, he probably sang it in Inland Southern because he was thinking of his own grandparents, who may have been from De Queen. (I only included all this because I like the song.) 25-Feb.-2011

Reject:

Joe Spano, actor [50]

San Francisco

California

Google video

Reject:

Christopher Lloyd, actor

New Canaan

Connecticut

YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009

Reject:

U.S. president George H. W. Bush

Greenwich

Connecticut

YouTube video (Evidently spent too much time in Texas!) 16-Nov.-2009

Reject:

John Malkovich, filmmaker

Benton

Illinois

YouTube video (Has “pin”≠“pen”, but Benton is “pin”=“pen”) 8-Jan.-2011

Reject:

Bill Doba, football coach

New Carlisle

Indiana

YouTube video (Evidently has picked up some Southernisms from places he has coached!) 8-Jan.-2011

Reject:

Hank Harris, actor

Duluth

Minnesota

YouTube video 1-May-2010

Reject:

Rush Limbaugh, radio personality[51]

Cape Girardeau

Missouri

YouTube video 7-May-2009

Reject:

Terry Teachout, conservative writer [51]

Sikeston

Missouri

YouTube video 7-May-2009

Reject:

Melanie Wilkinson, reporter

Clearwater

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) “cot”=“caught”; where did that come from?

Reject:

Kyle Rosfeld, boot maker

Valentine

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info)

Reject:

Harvey Perlman, Chancellor, UNL

York

Nebraska

YouTube video (more info) According to the previous website, he was raised in York, but this website and several others say he was born in Lincoln. So the question is, when did he move to York? Based on the other samples from York, which are Northern, I assume he does not represent York. 7-Nov.-2011

Reject:

Leah Dizon, model

Las Vegas

Nevada

YouTube video Native Las Vegan contributor Jim Hoffman said that this speaker has a slight Asian accent, and suggested Andre Agassi instead. Thanks! 5-Mar.-2011

Reject:

Matt Bonner, pro basketball player[52]

Concord

New Hampshire

YouTube video 2-June-2009

Reject:

Richard Lederer, columnist

Concord

New Hampshire

YouTube video 2-June-2009

Reject:

U.S. first lady Barbara Bush

Rye

New York

YouTube video (Evidently spent too much time in Texas!) 16-Nov.-2009

Reject:

Gavin Veris, pro football player

Chillicothe /chǐlǐthē/ [ˌtʃʰɪlɪˈkʰɒθi]

Ohio

YouTube video Oops! He looks African American, but speaks General American, with no hint of AAVE, and with “pin”≠“pen”! I thought this was for historical reasons, e.g.: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chillicothe,_OH#History, and that he represented the local “white” dialect, but in fact the local white dialect has “pin”=“pen”, something I was able to determine by watching a documentary about the town, in which all the speakers were locals. 3-Nov.-2011

Reject:

Gerald Tremblay, mayor

Montreal

Quebec

YouTube video Does not have Canadian raising, but is a native French speaker! 1-July-2010

Reject:

Mayor James Ruberto /rəbâr/ [ɹəˈbeɹˌtʰoʊ]

Pittsfield

Massachusetts

YouTube video (Sent in by Nicole Garzino. Thanks!) (more info) Nicole Garzino had proposed this speaker as representative of Pittsfield, even though he clearly has an Inland North accent. What makes it all confusing is that he apparently was raised and born in Pittsfield, at least according to the above web site, and for a while I adjusted the map assuming that he was representative, even though it makes some weird bends in the lines. However, I have finally had to reject him, for reasons given under Gary Kitmacher. 20-Apr.-2011

Reject:

Jean Charest, Premier of Quebec

Sherbrooke

Quebec

YouTube video Does not have Canadian raising, but is a native French speaker! 1-July-2010

Reject:

Two residents

Trenton

Tennessee

Google video (It is not clear if this lady is from Trenton, but she speaks Lowland, and the people in the other clip from Trenton, who are far more likely to be natives, speak Inland. The sample of the other person in this clip is too short to be sure.) (Sent in by Eli K. Thanks!) 20-Feb.-2010

Reject:

Jim “Reverend Horton” Heath, “country-fed punkabilly” singer

Corpus Christi

Texas

YouTube video The ANAE had claimed that Corpus Christi did not speak Southern, and I thought this clip proved it, but actually the Labontes demonstrate the opposite. 23-Nov.-2012

Reject:

Dan Blocker, “Hoss” on Bonanza

O’Donnell

Texas

YouTube video (Supposedly grew up in O’Donnell, in west Texas, but speaks Lowland. However, the information in Wikipedia is sketchy.)

Reject:

Jimbo Fisher, FSU assistant football coach.[53]

Clarksburg

West Virginia

YouTube video

Reject:

Larry Wilcox, actor

Rawlins

Wyoming

YouTube video (Because he is an actor, he has evidently learned to say “ten-four” instead of “tin-four”!) 8-Feb.-2010

9

Special Interest and Historical Articles

 

Minimal Pairs*

Before↓

short /ŏ/

[a/ɑ/ɒ/ɔ]

/ô/ “aw”

[ɒ/ɔ/oə/ɒʊ/o:]

/t/ [t]

1.     cot

caught

2.     rot

wrought

3.     sot

sought

4.     tot

taught / taut

5.     knotty

naughty

6.     hottie

haughty

7.     Bott (surname)

bought

/d/ [d]

8.     pod

pawed

9.     odd

awed

10. cod

cawed

11. clod

clawed, Claude

12. nod

gnawed

13. sod

sawed

14. body

bawdy

/n/ [n]

15. Don

Dawn

16. pond

pawned

17. Fonz

fawns

/l/ [l]

18. collar

caller

19. holler

hauler

20. moll

maul

21. doll

Dall (surname)

/b/ [b]

22. bobble

bauble

23. Dobbin

daubin’

/p/ [p]

24. popper

pauper

25. moppin’

Maupin (surname)

/z/ [z]

26. Oz

awes

/k/ [k]

27. hock

hawk

28. sock

Sauk (tribe)

29. ox

auks

30. fox

Fawkes

31. stock

stalk

32. cock

caulk

33. chock

chalk

34. wok

walk

35. box

balks

(26-Sep.-2016)

 

* These words are distinguished in both American
and British English, in those regions with the
distinction. Those that are capitalized are proper
names, but in every case these are known and used
in English. 15-Aug.-2015

Some Americans actually pronounce the “l” in some
of these words, in which case pronouncing the pair
differently proves nothing about the vowels.

Other Examples

short /ŏ/

/ô/ “aw”

botch

debauch

fossil

faucet

profit

offer

Goth

cloth, moth

congress

stronger

cog,

boggle,

goggles

bog, dog,

flog, hog,

log,

boondoggle

(The chart above shows
the American pattern.
Those in blue in the
second column have
short /ŏ/ in British English,
and also possibly for
some Northeasterners.)

(28-Oct.-2011)

 

 

The Cot-Caught Merger

You will notice that in the most of the area on this map people pronounce “cot” and “caught” the same, the areas with either single or double hatching. However, much of this area is sparsely populated, so actually the majority of speakers in North America pronounce them differently, probably about 50% more[54]. Those of you in the first group may think, “How would they be different?” Or, if you can sometimes hear a difference in other people’s speech, you may say, “How could that be important?” On the other hand, those of you in the second group may be amazed to realize that some people pronounce them the same. That’s the way it is with language: people filter what other people say through their own language filter, and assume that other people pronounce things the way they do, when actually they don’t. 16-Nov.-2010

And this isn’t the only word pair that has (or doesn’t have) this distinction. When I was living overseas in a community that was made up mostly of Americans and Canadians from various regions, I knew a family in which the father’s name was “Don”, and the daughter’s name was “Dawn”. Guess which group they belonged to! When I would be talking to someone about the family, and would mention that I had recently been chatting with Don, if they belonged to the “merger” group, they would often say, “Do you mean the father or the daughter?” Now, I consistently say those two names differently, but they couldn’t hear the difference! You might wonder, “Why would those people name their daughter Dawn, knowing the confusion it would cause?” The answer is: It never crossed their minds! To them, the two names were obviously pronounced differently, and it never even occurred to them that anyone would pronounce them the same! 26-Sep.-2016

And there are plenty of word pairs for which this vowel distinction is the only difference, as the charts to the left show. (The minimal pairs are especially interesting, since there are so many of them, and this list is still almost certainly not exhaustive, since I keep finding new pairs to add to it. However, I think I’m getting close now, since I discovered Wiktionary’s rhyming lists, and added a whole bunch in March, 2016. If any of you can think of more minimal pairs, please let me know. (I haven’t included words I had never heard of before I saw them in the rhyming lists, and which aren’t in standard dictionaries, preferring to stick to generally known items. Nor have I included all possibilities with proper names. If I had, the list would be even longer.) The five pairs in red are a short list to try if you don’t want to do the whole list.) So you see, it really does matter! 26-Sep.-2016

 

On the other hand, the amazing thing to me is that the “merger” group gets along so well saying all these pairs of words the same, as the following personal anecdote shows! 14-Mar.-2016

One day my wife and I were talking about farming practices, something I know almost nothing about, and she mentioned that they sometimes use “stocks” of corn to make silage. At least, that’s what I heard her say. I was surprised. “You mean they can’t just feed the corn to the cattle straight?” However, she was actually referring to “stalks” of corn, which never occurred to me, since I heard her say “stocks”. In fact, she says them both the same (with a pronunciation closer to the way I say “stocks” than the way I say “stalks”), so to her, the context should have told me which she meant, not the pronunciation. Go figure! Other similar confusions continue to arise occasionally in our marriage based on this distinction, but each time it takes me a little less time to realize what she meant. 28-Oct.-2011

 

And many other potential ambiguities can arise. I can come up with various phrases that would be ambiguous if spoken by, or to, someone with the cot-caught merger, but completely unambiguous between two speakers who maintain the distinction: 26-Sep.-2016

“I saw Don today, but I didn’t see Dawn.”

“I saw Dawn today, but I didn’t see Don.”

“He was acting odd.”

(strange)

“He was acting awed.”

(feeling fear or respect or wonder)

“That is an unusual looking collar.”

(top part of a shirt or jacket)

“That is an unusual looking caller.”

(visitor)

“It was a very knotty idea.”

(difficult or complicated)

“It was a very naughty idea.”

(disobedient, improper, indecent)

“He’s hocking some watches.”

(pawning them at a pawn shop)

“He’s hawking some watches.”

(selling them on the street with a loud voice)

“I see the ox.”

(a big bovine)

“I see the auks.”

(small sea birds)

“I heard a loud holler.”

(a shout)

“I heard a loud hauler.”

(a trucker, or his truck)

“I see the Fonz.”

(colorful Happy Days TV character)

“I see the fawns.”

(baby deer)

“Here comes the body builder.”

(someone with big muscles)

“Here comes the bawdy builder.”

(a contractor with a foul mouth)

(28-Nov.-2016)

The last example probably wouldn’t actually be ambiguous, since the first would probably have emphasis on “body”, but the second on “builder”. Even so, it would be confusing out of context. And if the second one is said with emphasis on “bawdy”, to distinguish this builder from several others in a group, then they would be perfectly ambiguous. 26-Sep.-2016

However, coming up with these ambiguous sentences wasn’t easy, and some are fairly unlikely, which demonstrates why the loss of this distinction is so seldom a problem! And some of the words just aren’t that well known: a lot of people don’t know what auks are, or who the Fonz was, or the difference between hocking and hawking. But most of them are pretty well known. Try some of them on your friends, especially if you make the distinction and they don’t! 26-Sep.-2016

 

To see an even more complex system, see The Father-Bother distinction below.

 

Did the cot-caught merger come from Scotland?

The three largest dialects that are characterized by the cot-caught merger, The West and the two main Canadian dialects, also have one other feature in common: the vowel of “too” is significantly more fronted than the vowel of “toe”. Now this situation is not seen in England, but it is in Scotland, where the difference in fronting of “too” and “toe” is even more extreme. And it turns out that many speakers of Scottish English also have the cot-caught merger! (In fact, they only have 12 vowels, having also merged the vowels in “good” and “food”.) Canadian English has other features like Scottish English, in particular the pronunciation of the “long vowels” in “boat” and “bait” as pure vowels rather than diphthongs, and the lower, more central pronunciation of the vowel in “bat”. Therefore, it seems likely that Canadian English, which had very heavy Scottish immigration, took all of these features from Scottish English. (Newfoundland also had very significant Irish influence, and this has given its English a distinctive Irish pronunciation, especially in Irish Newfoundland.) The dialect of the West in the U.S. may then have taken just the cot-caught merger and the fronting of the vowel of “too” from Canadian English, since no other U. S. dialect has the latter. 4-Apr.-2011

How the other dialects with the cot-caught merger got it is less clear, but it is evident from the map that they are all close to the Canadian border! In particular, based on the western settlement patterns, it seems fairly clear that the North Central dialect is simply a case of speakers from the North dialect who have adopted the cot-caught merger from the West and from Canada.

 

 

/ä/ “ah”

short /ŏ/

/ô/ “aw”

England:

[ɑ]

[ɔ]

[o:]

GNYC:

[ɑə]

[a]

[oə]

ENE:

[a]

[ɒə]

South:

[ɑ]

[ɒʊ]

MEA:

[ɑ]

 

[ɒ]

Before↓

 

 

 

/k/ [k]

Bach’s

box

balks*

/r/ [ɹ]

sparring

horrid

warring

/ŧħ/ [ð]

father

bother

(broader)

/b/ [b]

Saab

sob

 

/n/ [n]

Kahn

con

 

/l/ [l]

Mali

Molly

 

/m/ [m]

balm*

bomb

/m/ [m]

psalm*

Somme

/m/ [m]

palm*

pompom

/m/ [m]

qualm*

/m/ [m]

alms*

/m/ [m]

calming*

common

ah

 

awe

ha

 

haw

la

law

ma‡

 

maw

pa‡

paw

(11-Mar.-2016)

  

The Father-Bother distinction

In Eastern New England (ENE), many Greater New York City (GNYC) speakers, England, Australia, various other former British colonies, and possibly a few speakers in the Maritime Provinces of Canada, the words “father” and “bother” do not rhyme, having different vowels in the first syllable. Not only that, but in all of these areas except Eastern New England and possibly the Maritimes the words “father”, “bother”, and “broader” all have different vowels. However, the words with /ä/ (the vowel in “father”) are relatively few, so there are few minimal pairs (scroll down to the second group; I found a few more here). 11-Mar.-2016

I have only found one minimal triple, which was only possible by including the name Bach, which is not an English word in the strictest sense. The three words “Bach’s”, “box”, and “balks” would each be pronounced differently in most of these areas, including England. However, in Greater New York City “Bach’s” and “box” are the same (confirmed by GNYC contributor Kevin McNamara), even though GNYC speakers make the three-way distinction in the other words listed, because of the fact that the phonetic pronunciations of /ä/ and /ŏ/ are reversed from the other regions, as shown in the chart.[55] In Eastern New England “box” and “balks” would be the same, but “Bach’s” would be different. (In the chart, MEA means “Many Eastern Americans”. Obviously, all of those with the cot-caught merger would say them all with the same vowel, and I have not shown this.) 11-Mar.-2016

Part of the issue is the limited number of consonants which may follow the /ä/ vowel. That is, native English words with /ä/ are relatively few if you don’t count words in which an r has been dropped in the pronunciation, since most of these areas (though not the Maritimes) are systematic r-dropping regions. Thus, in most of these areas the words “father” and “farther” are identical, and most words spelled with “ar” are pronounced with /ä/. 17-Dec.-2015

But apart from these words with dropped r’s, or with /ä/ before an /r/ between vowels as in the second row in the chart, native English words with /ä/ before a consonant are almost nonexistent, the only genuine cases being “father” and the “alm” words. (This is why I had to add the foreign names marked with , just to help fill out the chart, and even these don’t work in GNYC.) On the other hand, there are quite a number at the end of a word, as the last five rows of the chart show, but none of these have minimal pairs with short /ŏ/, only with /ô/. 17-Dec.-2015

The chart on the left shows examples of these three groups of words. 26-Sep.-2016

There is another group of words that have /ä/ in southern England (and occasionally in Eastern New England), but /ă/ in most of North America and the rest of Britain, like “staff”, “pass”, “half”, “bath”, “rather”, etc. I have not included any of these in the chart. 30-Mar.-2010

Scotland is a special case: “father” and “bother” do not rhyme, but there is no distinction between /ä/ and /ă/, so “palm”=“Pam”, “psalm”=“Sam”, and “father” rhymes with “rather”. See the previous section for more info about the Scottish vowel system. 11-Jan.-2011

Those who lack the father-bother distinction will pronounce the vowels in the first two columns the same, except that the word “horrid” is variable, being pronounced /hŏrid/ ([ˈhɑɹɪd] or even [ˈhaɹɪd]) in the northeastern U.S., but /hȯrid/ [ˈhoɹɪd] by most Americans. (There may or may not be an intermediate group that says /hôrid/ [ˈhɔɹɪd].) Many similar words have this same variation, as in “horrible”, “porridge”, “coral”. 7-Feb.-2013

* Most English speakers worldwide do not pronounce the “l” in these words, and in particular all of those with the Father-Bother distinction or who are systematic r-droppers apparently do not. However, many Americans do. See the following section, The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk”, for a discussion of these words. 24-Sep.-2011

In Greater New York City each of these words is the same as the corresponding word in the next column, but apparently in all other areas with the Father-Bother distinction they are different. See also the discussion in the second paragraph above. 17-Dec.-2015

‡ Many Eastern Americans (MEA) may pronounce these two words the same as the corresponding word in the third column, but I doubt that any with the father-bother distinction do. 17-Dec.-2015

 

The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk”

Do you pronounce the “l” in the red words in the chart below? How about in the blue words? I don’t pronounce the “l” in any of them! However, I do pronounce the “l” in all of the green words, though some people don’t pronounce it in all of these. I only became aware in 2011 that many Americans pronounce the “l” in the red words, and I’m trying to find out if the distribution is regional, or is just all mixed up! (The words in parentheses are not very common, so don’t pay attention to them if you aren’t sure, or if they don’t work like the others.) 15-May-2012

Most Americans apparently pronounce the “l” in the red words in the first column below, a smaller number pronounce the “l” in the red words in the second column, and an even smaller number pronounce the “l” in the red words in the third column, but like me some Americans definitely do not pronounce the “l” in any of them, nor do the vast majority of English speakers outside North America. 1-June-2011

I am fairly certain that no native English speakers pronounce the “l” in the blue words. However, I thought that was true of the third red column, and I was proved wrong, so please let me know. 8-June-2011

Please let me know which words you pronounce the “l” in, and which you don’t. Be sure to compare them with the words in black below to see if they rhyme. If they do, then you aren’t pronouncing the “l”! 1-June-2011

I became aware in late 2011 that some speakers pronounce “my folks” without the “l”, but “folk song” with an “l”. Similarly, some speakers pronounce “corn stalk” (a noun) without the “l”, but “I stalk the deer” (a verb) with an “l”. If any of you who have already answered the survey find that you do the same, please let me know. 15-May-2012

 

calm

yolk

talk

half

would

palm

my folks

walk

calf

could

balm

folk song

chalk

behalf

should

psalm

(Polk)

corn stalk (noun)

 

 

qualm

polka dot

I stalk the deer (verb)

 

 

alms

 

balk

 

 

(napalm)

 

calk/caulk

 

 

(malmsey)

 

(Falklands)

 

 

almond

polka (dance)

falcon

Ralph

mould

 

talc

 

 

If any of the red words above rhyme with any of the words in the same column below, then you are not pronouncing the “l”!

I believe that the blue words above rhyme with the words in the same column below for all speakers (except perhaps the words with **). Let me know if I am wrong!

bomb*

poke

hawk

laugh

wood

arm*

cloak

squawk

graph**

good

farm*

soak

gawk

chaff**

 

 

 

auk

 

 

 

 

hock

 

 

 

 

dock

 

 

 

 

cock

 

 

 

 

wok

 

 

* Very few English speakers rhyme “bomb” with “arm” or “farm”. (Apparently only the Providence Rhode Island dialect does!) However, some Americans rhyme the red words in the first column above with “bomb”, not pronouncing the “l”. Distinctly, most systematic r-droppers, e.g. Eastern New England, Greater New York City, and Standard British rhyme them with “arm”, again not pronouncing the “l”. 18-July-2013

** Many Britishers and other systematic r-droppers outside North America pronounce all of the blue and black words in this column with /ä/ [ɑ:] rather than /ă/ [æ], and also rhyme them with “scarf”. However, “graph” and “chaff” show variation between the two. Contributor Peter Nelson from New Zealand has /ä/ [ɑ:] in “laugh”, but /ă/ [æ] in “graph” and “chaff”, but says he knows New Zealanders and Australians who use /ä/ [ɑ:] in “graph”. He could not think of another word he rhymes with “laugh” that has neither an “l” nor an “r” in the spelling. On the other hand, an older reference I have which shows Standard British pronunciation has /ă/ [æ] in “graph” but /ä/ [ɑ:] in “chaff” (Langenscheidt’s German-English, English-German Dictionary, 1970). 21-Sep.-2015

(21-Sep.-2015)

(1-Sep.-2015)$Mapping4

 

 

Background Info

 

In English the number of words which end in “-alm” or “-alms” is limited. The only ones of these which are really common, well-known words are listed in the first column of the first chart above, although obviously there are other words derived from these that are also common, like “embalm” or “becalm” or “psalms”. (This web site lists a few more, but they are so rare they don’t even show up in standard dictionaries. The word “realm” doesn’t count, since its pronunciation is completely different.) So, the list is short, though it is clearly a pronunciation pattern. Now, around the world most English speakers, including myself, do not pronounce the “l” in these words, and these words contribute to the short list of words containing the /ä/ vowel for those speakers who do not rhyme the words “father” and “bother”, as discussed in the previous section. For this reason this list of words, though short, is somewhat important when discussing how many vowels a particular speaker has. 19-May-2011

Until 2011 I had assumed that historically the “l” in all of the red words above was completely lost in all English dialects, and that the few speakers who did pronounce the “l” did so because it had been reintroduced based on a “bookish” pronunciation. However, I seem to have been quite wrong. A number of contributors to this page have written in and told me so, after seeing the “-alm” words listed in the previous section, and marked as having a “silent l”. Thus, contributor Jon from Sacramento, California disagrees: “I would also note that all of the words that you list with a silent ‘l’ in your father-bother distinction (balm, psalm, palm, alms, calming) I would say with a swallowed but still present to varying degrees “l” sound, and I think the majority of people I grew up with in Sacramento would too.” Thus he pronounces “balm” as /bŏlm/ ([ˈbɒɫm] (he does not distinguish “cot” and “caught”), with a “dark l”, which would sound almost “swallowed”, as he describes it, though clearly there. 15-May-2012

I should have realized that it wasn’t a bookish pronunciation, since it only applies to certain groups of words, as shown in the first chart above, not to all words with silent “l”, of which there are many. I have listed the main groups in the first chart above. 3-June-2011

After I was challenged by these two contributors, I went looking on the Internet, and found that there is indeed one American dictionary that lists a pronunciation of some of these words with the “l” pronounced, the Online Merriam-Webster dictionary, in all of these words: calm, palm, balm, psalm, qualm, alms, and napalm, and even provides audio samples of the “l” pronunciation. This was surprising to me, since most dictionaries, both American and British, give only a pronunciation with no “l”. (Merriam-Webster also gives another pronunciation /kăm/ for “calm”, which would evidently be the Scottish pronunciation, like “palm” mentioned above.) 16-May-2011

Contributor Y.I. has pointed out to me that the ANAE Ch. 2, p. 14 had also observed this phenomenon: “Words with vocalized /l/ formed a part of this class: calm, palm, balm, almond, though a large number of North Americans have retained or restored the /l/.” Like me, they are apparently unsure whether the “l” was retained or restored, and unfortunately they have not provided any help about the regional distribution. (In this book, also found by Y.I., the assumption is simply made that these “l”s are retained because of spelling pronunciations, without providing any evidence.) I had not previously thought of the word “almond” as belonging to this class, since I myself pronounce the “l” in this word, as /ôlmənd/ ([ˈɒlmənd], quite different from my “calm” /kŏm/ ([ˈkʰɑm]. (I distinguish “cot” and “caught” but not “father” and “bother”.) However, after consulting my many dictionaries, none of them recognize such a pronunciation, but say that the proper pronunciation is either /ämənd/ or /ămənd/! I checked with my wife, who is from Nebraska and does not pronounce the “l” in “calm”, though she does in “balm”, and she does pronounce it in “almond”, just as I do. The Online Merriam-Webster dictionary comes the closest to our pronunciation, at least recognizing that some people do pronounce the “l”, but they give the options as /ämənd/, /ămənd/, /älmənd/, or /ălmənd/. I find the third of these four options extremely unlikely, and speculate that perhaps a speaker for whom /ä/ = /ŏ/ = /ô/ may have worked on this entry.) Most American dictionaries give both /ämənd/ and /ămənd/, and according to contributor Marna Ducharme, her grandmother who always lived in New York City said /ămənd/ [ˈæmənd]. Not only that, but several contributors (Emmor Nile, James Divine, John Kelly), have told me that it has the /ămənd/ [ˈæmənd] pronunciation throughout California’s Central Valley, where they grow lots of them! In any case, it seems clear that “almond” often does not go along with the other “-alm” words. 2-Oct.-2011

Later I realized that a lot of people also pronounce the “l” in “folk” and “yolk”, as shown in the Initial Survey Results chart below. Almost all of these also pronounce the “l” in “calm”, suggesting that the two word groups are part of the same pattern of “l” retention. 8-June-2011

So this seems to be a conservative feature harking back to a time when the “l” in the red words was pronounced by all speakers, and as such, is probably a regional feature like the others on the map. 8-June-2011

 

If this is a conservative feature, then it must have been brought over to the U.S. from some region of Great Britain or Ireland. However, there is almost no trace of this “l” anywhere in this area, not even in Scotland or Ireland, from which many of the conservative features in American English came. However, my trusty contributor Y.I. has been able to track down one possible source: what is called the West Country of England (really the extreme southwest) apparently continues to pronounce this “l”, according to John Wells in The Accents of English, page 346, in a section describing the vowels in the West Country. According to this article, <<The West Country accent is probably most identified in American English as “pirate speech” - cartoon-like “Ooh arr, me ’earties! Sploice the mainbrace!” talk is very similar. This may be a result of the strong seafaring and fisherman tradition of the West Country, both legal and outlaw.>> Clearly this accent could have had influence in the Americas (as suggested in this linguistics book tracked down by contributor Y.I.), though why the influence has been so pervasive is unclear. 6-Sep.-2011

In any case, the retention of this “l” thus does not seem to depend on whether or not “cot”=“caught”, since it occurs across the continent. However, I am fairly certain that all speakers who are systematic r-droppers always lack the “l” in the “calm” group, and that all speakers with the father-bother distinction do too. This makes sense, since the resulting vowel is /ä/, which mainly occurs as the result of r-dropping. It is less clear why the “yolk” group would drop the “l” for this group, since the resulting vowel /ō/ [oʊ] does not normally occur as a result of r-dropping. 2-Oct.-2011

 

Initial Survey Results

 

Unlike the other data on the main map, this data is not from audio or video sound samples, but from self-analysis and direct interviews, since finding individual words in sound samples is almost impossible. It appears that the vast majority of Americans pronounce the “l” in “calm”, except for those in systematic r-dropping areas (as mentioned in the previous section), and nearby areas like Poughkeepsie and Port Chester, New York, in the Eastern North dialect. (New Orleans seems to have followed GNYC in this as in many other features, at least as far as the common words go.) So it would seem that I am in a small minority! Evidently my dialect was influenced by my parents more than I realized: my Dad was from Port Chester, New York, an area that does not pronounce the “l”, and my mother was originally from Australia, which is a systematic r-dropping area, and so again does not pronounce the “l”. Even so, I can’t believe I didn’t even notice such a widespread pattern for so long! As for Canada, it seems likely that many or most there also retain the “l”, though so far I only have data for one location. 6-Sep.-2011

We now seem to have enough data that the geographical pattern is becoming clear for the “calm” group and to a lesser extent for the “yolk” group, though the “talk” group remains unclear. However, we clearly still need more data to map these patterns fully. In particular we need more locations where the “l” in these words is definitely not pronounced. Help me out, people. This is a very simple thing for you to write in and tell me: “I grew up in X, and I pronounce the “l” in all these words,” or “I grew up in Y, and I don’t pronounce the “l” in any of these words except ‘almond’,” or whatever the case may be. 15-May-2012

 

Person

Raised in

“cot”=

“caught”?

Other info

Pronounce

“l” in

“calm”,

etc.

Pronounce

“l” in

“almond”

Pronounce

“l” in

“yolk”,

etc.

Pronounce

“l” in

“talk”,

etc.

Yuri

Toronto, Ontario

yes

contributor 6-Sep.-2011

yes

yes

no

(only

“Polk” yes)

most no

“baulk” yes

“caulk” yes

Amanda Hocking

Sacramento (Citrus Heights), California

yes

contributor 23-July-2011

yes

yes

yes

“talk” no

“walk” no

“stalk” no

“chalk” yes

“balk” yes

“caulk” yes

Jon

Sacramento, California

yes

contributor

yes

no: /ămənd/

[ˈæmənd]?

?

?

Je.Ha.

Oakland, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

James Divine

Fresno, California

yes

contributor 20-May-2011

yes

no: /ămənd/

[ˈæmənd]

no

?

Ju.Ar.

Ventura, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 8-June-2011

yes

?

no

(only

“Polk” yes)

?

Fe.Mo.

Oxnard, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

M.M.

Los Angeles, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

yes

no

most no

“caulk” yes,

“Falklands” yes

Yu.k.Jo.

Pomona, California

no (!)

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

Ma.Pa.

Upland, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

Ma.Cu.

Escondido, California

yes

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 8-June-2011

yes

?

no

(only

“Polk” yes)

?

Jonathan

California

yes

on this website

yes

?

?

no

Sabrina Badger

Carson City, Nevada

yes

contributor 30-Nov.-2011

yes

yes

no

(only maybe

“Polk” yes)

most no

“balk” yes,

 “caulk” yes,

“Falklands” yes

Brett Deibel

Tulsa, Oklahoma

yes

contributor 16-May-2012

yes

yes

“yolk” no

my folks” no

“folk song” yes

“Polk” yes

“polka” yes

most no

“Falklands” yes

Ma.Ca.

Houston, Texas

yes (!)

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

Za.Ri.

Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

no

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

Ali King

Portland, Oregon

yes

contributor 18-Nov.-2011

yes

yes

yes

(“yolk” no)

most no

“balk” yes,

 “caulk” yes

(friend of Jennifer Nagel)

Oregon

yes

 

yes

?

?

?

Randy Howell

Kelso, Washington

yes

contributor 19-May-2011

yes

?

“yolk” no

sometimes

“folk” yes

“talk” no

“walk” no

“stalk” no

“balk” yes

“caulk” yes

Christina Aschmann

Bremerton, Washington

yes

my daughter-in-law 8-June-2011

yes

yes

yes

yes

Gerald Erichsen

Snohomish, Washington

yes

contributor 17-May-2013

yes

yes

yes almost all,

“polka dot” no

“talk” no

“walk” no

“chalk” no

“caulk” yes

corn stalk” no

“stalk” (verb) yes

“balk” yes

“Falklands yes

“OhKaty”

Utah

yes

on this website

yes

?

?

?

“Jaques S”

Anchorage, Alaska

yes

on this website

yes

?

?

?

Kirk Sniff

Lamar, Colorado

yes

contributor 30-Nov.-2011

yes

yes

yes

yes

Tom Brokaw

South Dakota

no?

according to this website; he moved around the state too much for me to use him as a local sample

yes

?

?

?

Larry Unruh

Wallace, Nebraska

yes

my brother-in-law 21-Oct.-2011

“calm” no,

others yes

yes

“yolk” no

my folks” no

“folk song” yes

“Polk” yes

“talk” no

“walk” no

“chalk” no

“caulk” no

corn stalk” no

“stalk” (verb) yes

“balk” yes

“Falklands yes

Sharla Unruh

Casper, Wyoming

yes

my brother-in-law’s wife 16-Dec.-2011

“calm” no,

others yes

yes

“yolk” no

my folks” no

“folk song” yes

“Polk” yes

“talk” no

“walk” no

“chalk” no

corn stalk” no

“stalk” (verb) yes

“balk” yes

“caulk” yes

“Falklands yes

Arlene Unruh

Axtell, Nebraska

yes

my mother-in-law 21-Oct.-2011

yes

yes

yes

Yes

Rebecca Ratzlaff

Omaha, Nebraska

no

contributor 28-Oct.-2011

yes

yes

yes

most no

“Falklands” yes

Jennifer Nagel

Minneapolis, Minnesota

no

contributor

yes

?

?

?

Les Mattson

Grand Marais, Minnesota

yes

contributor 15-May-2012

yes

yes

no

no

Lewis Thorwaldson

Rothschild, Wisconsin

no?

contributor

yes

yes

no

(only

“Polk” yes)

most no

“balk” yes,

“Falklands” yes

Robert Edwards

Central Wisconsin

no

contributor

yes

sometimes

“calm” no

yes

no

no

“balk” yes

only in sports,

“caulk” yes

only as a verb

Daniel Mathews

Columbia, Missouri

no

contributor

yes

?

?

?

Tim

St. Louis, Missouri

no

on this website 17-May-2011

yes

?

yes

?

Y.I.

Quincy, Illinois

no

contributor

yes

?

yes

no

Richard R.

Chicago, Illinois

no

contributor 14-Dec.-2013

yes

“malmsey”

no

yes

“yolk” no

my folks” no

“polka dot” no

“Polk” yes

 “folk song” yes

 “polka” yes

most no

“Falklands” yes

“windy city”

Chicago, Illinois

no

on this website

yes

?

?

?

ma.ba.

New Orleans

no

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 9-June-2011

“calm” no,

“palm” no,

“balm” no,

others yes

yes

no

“talk” no,

“walk” no,

“chalk” no,

others yes

Nicholas Miller

Camden, South Carolina

no

contributor 18-May-2011

yes

?

?

?

Melissa Gordon

Byron, Georgia

no

contributor 2-June-2011

yes

yes

yes

yes

Alex Coblentz

Frederick, Maryland

no

contributor 16-Dec.-2011

yes

yes

“yolk” no

you folks” no

“folk music” yes

“Polk” yes

no

Janet McConnaughey

Suburban Washington, D.C.

no

contributor 15-May-2012

yes

yes

no

no

Marna Ducharme

Burlington, Vermont

no*

contributor

yes

yes

yes

yes

Ann Roubal

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

no

contributor 8-Sep.-2011

no

no

no

no

To.Ba.

Cleveland, Ohio

no

Info from contributor M.M. Thanks! 18-May-2011

no

?

yes (!??)

?

Herman Aschmann

Port Chester, New York

no

my father

no

?

no

no

Marna Ducharme’s grandmother

New York City

no

father-bother distinction, systematic r-dropper

no

no: /ămənd/

[ˈæmənd]

no?

no

Larry S.

Poughkeepsie, New York

no

friend 1-Sep.-2011

no

?

no?

“Polk” yes?

no

“balk” yes

(16-May-2011)

* Although she grew up in Burlington, she was strongly influenced by her NYC relatives, and retains the distinction. 23-May-2011

 

Inland and Lowland Southern and their relationship to the extent of slavery before the Civil War

 

What’s the Difference between Inland Southern and Lowland Southern?

Before discussing the distribution of Inland Southern and Lowland Southern, I need to define them more clearly, since I find that there is a lot of confusion as to what I mean by Inland Southern versus Lowland Southern. 17-Apr.-2013

Inland Southern has full monophthongization of long /ī/ [aɪ] to [a]. This means that all long /ī/ vowels are not diphthongs [aɪ], but essentially pure vowels, usually [a] (which is clearly distinguished from /ŏ/ [ɑ]). Thus, the “i”s in “ride”, “buy”, and “right” are all the same, and all sound quite Southern! However, this doesn’t mean that “ride” [ˈɹad] is pronounced the same as “rod” [ˈɹɑd], or that “right” [ˈɹat] is pronounced the same as “rot” [ˈɹɑt]: these words still have distinct pronunciations, though Yankees may have trouble hearing the difference! 27-Apr.-2013

Lowland Southern is similar, except that Lowland Southern only has partial monophthongization of long /ī/ [aɪ] to [a]. This means that the vowels of “ride” and “buy” have the Southern vowel [a] just like Inland, but the vowel of “right” is a diphthong [aɪ], with a pronunciation a bit more like other parts of the United States. The specific rule is this: before voiceless sounds the vowel is a diphthong, but elsewhere it is not. Voiceless sounds are /p,t,ch,k,f,s,sh,th/ (as is “python” /thən/ [ˈpʰaɪθən], where it is voiceless, not as in “lithe” /līŧħ/ [ˈlaɪð], where it is voiced). Why does it work that way? Ah, that kind of question doesn’t have a good answer in human language! However, to put it another way, how is it that they follow such a technical rule without knowing it? That does have an answer: patterns such as this are common in human language, even though the speakers are totally unaware of them at a conscious level. 17-Apr.-2013

Thus, to determine if a particular speaker speaks Inland or Lowland Southern, first make sure he speaks Southern at all by listening to words like “ride” and “buy”. If he does, then listen to words with voiceless sounds like “ripe”, “bite”, “righteous” (which has a /ch/ sound in spite of the spelling), “like”, “life”, “ice” (s sound), “python”, etc.

The ANAE chapter 18 uses more complex criteria to distinguish their varieties of Southern, but I find theirs to be unwieldy, so I have gone for the simpler criterion, which seems to be sufficient, as seen in the next paragraph.

 

My Theory of the Settlement of the American South

A surprising pattern seen on the map is the peculiar way in which the two Southern dialect areas are intertwined. It turns out that the current pattern of Lowland Southern matches to an amazing degree the areas with a high percentage of slaves before the Civil War, as shown by this famous antique map (viewable in one piece and downloadable here). Granted, there are a few minor surprises, but what is astonishing is not the occasional surprises, but how few the surprises are! 8-Nov.-2013

What seems likely is that the Inland Southern dialect spread west and south first, and then the Lowland Southern dialect was spread later by the slaveholding “aristocracy”, but never penetrated into areas unsuitable for large plantations, such as mountainous areas or dryer areas in the west. An exceptional area is Virginia and West Virginia, where Lowland Southern spread westward into non-slaveholding areas (see My Theory about the Original Area of Inland Southern below for more on this). Another exceptional area seems to be south Georgia and north Florida, which no Inland Southern speakers apparently ever reached. Other exceptional areas are discussed below in Southern Areas Settled after the Civil War. 8-Nov.-2013

The “r-dropping” areas (the green lines) and “Tidewater raising” (the pink line) also seem to be restricted to these slaveholding areas.

One result of this later spread of Lowland Southern is that Inland Southern was nearly broken into two sections, divided by what might be called the “Nashville-Florence Corridor”. If you look at a satellite map of this area, you can actually see this corridor in a lighter color outlined by darker forests, a fascinating geographic demonstration of my theory. This is not to say that, as a general rule, Inland areas are forested and Lowland areas are not, though this is often the case, and holds true in this case. The forested area to the east of the corridor matches rather precisely the Cumberland Plateau, a stretch of higher and often rugged land which often rises abruptly from the flatter land to the west. In fact, the line dividing Inland Southern from Lowland Southern seems to follow exactly the northwest edge of the Cumberland Plateau from just west of Monterey, Tennessee all the way to Hackleburg, Alabama, with the entire plateau being solidly Inland Southern (except for its southern tip in Alabama, which was mostly settled later). 16-Mar.-2013

A narrow neck around Iuka, Mississippi remains to connect the two sections of Inland Southern. 16-Mar.-2013

However, as more data comes in an expected result of this should be that there will be occasional islands of one dialect surrounded by the other. I had thought that Chattanooga, Tennessee was such a case. This is an important city in southeastern Tennessee. I most recently spent some time there in October, 2011, and was able to listen to many native speakers, all of whom spoke Lowland Southern. However, I have since realized that these speakers were all higher class speakers, since my exposure was socially quite limited. Since then I have heard various working class speakers from Chattanooga (mainly policemen) on TV, and have confirmed that Chattanooga is Inland Southern, and that Kevin Burke, whom I had originally assumed was not from Chattanooga, is actually a native, and represents the dialect quite well. However, many higher class speakers speak Lowland Southern, as discussed below in Possible Southern Class Distinction?. So we will have to look for another example of such a linguistic island! 11-Aug.-2014

The obsolete terms Tuckahoe and Cohee, used in the northeastern part of the South before the Civil War, seem to have been used to reflect the strong cultural and linguistic differences between these two groups, though again West Virginia was clearly Cohee without getting the Inland Southern dialect. The article confirms my analysis of the settlement patterns, saying, “As the frontier moves westward, the third zone (slave-based plantation society) moves into land formerly held by the second (the frontier society).” 8-Nov.-2013

One interesting corroboration of my theory is political: After the Civil War, the former slave states tended to elect exclusively Democratic Party candidates, rejecting the Republican Party as the party of Lincoln. This phenomenon is referred to as the Solid South, which remained so at least up into the 1960’s. However, certain areas of the south, primarily in mountain areas like the Appalachians and the Ozarks, where little or no slavery had existed, resisted this tendency, and aligned themselves with the Union and with the Republican Party, consistently electing Republican candidates throughout this period. The fascinating map on this web page shows what areas of the south these were, at least in the 1940 election. (Notice particularly the circled areas, and the discussion about these.) Notice the correlation between these areas, my map, and the slavery map mentioned above: If we exclude the areas in Texas (which apparently represent later German immigration, at least according to the discussion on the web page), none of these areas is Lowland South (except for Sampson County, North Carolina, for which I have no explanation). Instead, ignoring the exceptions mentioned, they are all Inland South, except for part of Missouri, which is Midland! Winston County, Alabama, is in fact famous for the degree to which it opposed secession during the Civil War, being known as the “Free State of Winston”!

This is not to say that Inland South areas in general voted Republican: they didn’t, and in Texas and Oklahoma they were as Solid South as anywhere else. I am only saying that such areas are consistently in the Inland South region. (Nowadays, of course, everything has changed, and the south overwhelmingly votes Republican.) 9-Mar.-2012

Charleston is clearly a special case of Lowland Southern, as is clear by listening to it. The Down East & Outer Banks dialect doesn’t sound very Southern at all, but does at least have the “Tidewater raising”. Florida doesn’t count, since it had a huge influx of Yankees in the 20th century. In fact, Florida is effectively upside down: the farther south you go in Florida, the more Northern people sound! 19-Nov.-2011

 

Southern Areas Settled after the Civil War

Obviously areas in the South settled after the Civil War may not follow this pattern, especially those which are near the border between the two subdialects. The Birmingham, Alabama area is a case in point. Birmingham did not exist before the Civil War, but was founded in 1871 as a steel production center, and grew so fast between 1880 and 1920 that it was given its well-known nickname “The Magic City.” It lies in a very mountainous area (part of the Cumberland Plateau mentioned above), and thus was probably originally in the Inland South, but because of the huge influx of people from all over the South, it is now Lowland Southern. Trussville was founded much earlier, around 1820, but remained small until it was swamped by the growth of Birmingham, and now follows its pattern, as do the other nearby towns, but towns just a little farther removed like Odenville or Jasper do not. 16-Mar.-2013

Anniston Alabama has a similar history. It was not really settled until 1872, and for various reasons attracted many people from outside the local area, ending up as Lowland Southern. 28-Mar.-2012

However, it turns out that there is at least one town south of Birmingham and Anniston which speaks Inland Southern and which was definitely settled before the Civil War, the town of Sylacauga, which was originally incorporated in 1838, though it had been a Creek (or Shawnee?) Indian village as far back as 1748. The name of the town is pronounced /sĭləkŏgə/ [ˌsɪləˈkʰɑɡə], not /sĭləkôgə/ [ˌsɪləˈkʰɒʊɡə], in spite of the spelling: it was originally called Syllacoga, which in turn was derived from the Indian name Chalaka-ge, according to the Wikipedia article). So far I have not been able to find any good sound clips for Sylacauga (if you know of one please send it me!), but I made a visit there in the spring of 2012, where I met a native who clearly spoke Inland Southern, and who had lived there all her life. In November of 2012 I met two more natives of Sylacauga and talked with them at length, and they also spoke clear Inland Southern. As can be seen by looking at a map of the Talladega National Forest, which runs in a northeast to southwest direction just to the east of Anniston, and which includes the highest point in Alabama, Mount Cheaha, Sylacauga lies at the tail end of the southernmost ridge of the Appalachian mountains. (This ridge can also be clearly seen on this map and this map.) 12-Aug.-2014

Because of all this, the Inland South line makes several sharp curves along its southern edge in Alabama. Presumably at the time of the civil war, Inland Southern was spoken throughout the entire Cumberland Plateau and the southern part of the Appalachian Mountains, shown fairly well on this map, whereas the Piedmont was mainly Lowland Southern. 26-Aug.-2014

Another example is the Asheville-Waynesville area of North Carolina. Both of these towns existed before the Civil War, but they both saw massive growth after the war, Asheville more than tripling in size between 1910 and 1930, apparently because of strong growth of manufacturing, and Waynesville only beginning to grow after the arrival of the railroad in 1884. In both cases this seems to have brought in Lowland Southern speakers, whereas the surrounding towns are still solidly Inland Southern. (The one exception seems to be Burnsville: why it is Lowland is unclear.) 8-Nov.-2013

 

Possible Southern Class Distinction?

It has been often been suggested (or assumed) that in some areas there is also a social-status distinction between what I have called “Inland Southern” (sometimes referred to as “hillbilly” or “country”, as in “He sure talks country!”) and “Lowland Southern”, with people from higher-class family backgrounds favoring the “Lowland Southern” pattern, and this would make sense if my hypothesis as to its spread is true. Even so, evidence of such a social distinction does not appear in very many places, and only near the border between these two regions. 11-Aug.-2014

Two such areas are an area surrounding Dallas and Fort Worth in Texas and an area around Greenville in South Carolina, which are evidently Inland Southern areas, but in which a number of people born and raised there (like Ross Perot, Jr. or Kenny Marchant) have Lowland Southern accents, mostly people in the middle and upper socioeconomic class. 11-Aug.-2014

A third such area is Little Rock, Arkansas, which is clearly a Lowland Southern area, but in which several samples of people born and raised there show traces of Inland Southern, notably people in what are often viewed as working class professions. 11-Aug.-2014

Recently (2014) I have realized that Chattanooga, Tennessee is a fourth area where this holds true, which makes it unusual in that it is not on the border between the two dialects, but is surrounded on all sides by solidly Inland South areas, though Lowland South areas are not far away, such as Decatur and Florence (and partially Huntsville) down the Tennessee river. 4-Nov.-2015

Most such areas are marked on the map surrounded by a dotted red line, and with both background colors as alternate bars. Samples showing this variation will often refer to the Possible Southern Class Distinction? 4-Nov.-2015

If only one town seems to have both Inland and Lowland speakers, with this presumed class distinction distinguishing them, then rather than the dotted line I simply run the dialect boundary through the middle of the town. Examples of this are Huntsville and West Blocton, Alabama and Kannapolis, North Carolina. 4-Nov.-2015

Very rarely I run the dialect boundary through the middle of a town if the only sample I have is highly mixed, as in the case of Junior Johnson from Ronda, North Carolina. 4-Nov.-2015

 

However, “Inland Southern” is NOT equivalent to “hillbilly”, nor do people who talk “really, really southern” or even “really, really country” necessarily speak Inland rather than Lowland. Some people who sound “really, really Southern” actually speak Lowland Southern based on the definition I am using, which seems to match high slave density areas, whereas some people whose speech doesn’t sound quite as “strong”, or who are obviously well educated and sophisticated, actually speak Inland Southern. Even so, it is true that areas generally recognized as more “hillbilly”, such as the Appalachians or the Ozarks, do indeed fall within Inland Southern, so one could say that “hillbilly” is definitely a subset of Inland Southern and not of Lowland Southern. As for “redneck”, this term has absolutely no linguistic meaning, so don’t try using this map to find out where the “rednecks” live! 12-Dec.-2011

 

According to contributor A.T.W., in Texas the status of Inland Southern is different from its status in the east:

I hadn’t realized, until I heard the Fess Parker clip, that the Inland Southern accent is the same as the west/central Texas accent I often hear in Houston. It’s odd, but I think you’re absolutely correct: they’re almost identical.

The interesting point is that this is actually a high status accent here, although regarded as a “hillbilly” accent in the East. When I moved to Texas 30 years ago and decided to adopt a slightly more local “voice” in my law practice, this was the accent I adopted -- it was the dialect of the senior lawyers and judges, oil men, and others with whom I wanted to communicate. Many of them came from wealthier ranching families in central Texas and settled in Houston as the first post-war generation of professionals and white-collar business people. I suspect this is a somewhat dated status distinction today, but that dialect still tends to receive something similar to the automatic credence which an educated English accent used to get in the northeast. 10-Mar.-2011

Who woulda thunk it?

 

My Theory about the Original Area of Inland Southern

But all this leaves the question: Where did Inland Southern start out? What was its original area? If we look at this map showing settlement as of 1800, we see that the earliest settled areas of what is now the Inland South region are located on either side of the Cumberland Gap, which allowed easy crossing of the Appalachian Mountains and through which nearly all of the western settlement from the South took place after the Revolutionary War in 1776. This settlement process would have involved much mixing of populations and dialects, and it seems likely that Inland Southern was the result of this mixing, thus distinguishing it from the more settled Lowland Southern. I have marked the Cumberland Gap on my map, and it can be seen that it lies almost exactly in the center of the northernmost node of Inland Southern, which would have been its original area. The Appalachian Mountains themselves, including the Cumberland Gap area, were not settled until later, since it was not desirable land, but the settlers were evidently speakers moving south from this original area, as the map suggests. 7-Nov.-2013

Technically the Cumberland Gap allowed easy crossing of the western ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, called at this point the Cumberland Mountains, not the eastern ridge, which is called the Blue Ridge. This western ridge (technically the eastern escarpment of the Appalachian Plateau) was generally harder to cross than the eastern ridge. Between the two runs the Appalachian Great Valley (the map on that page shows fairly clearly the two ridges and the valley). As can be seen on the map mentioned in the preceding paragraph, part of this valley, the upper reaches of the Tennessee River valley, was settled fairly early, in the Overmountain Settlements from the late 1760s, in what is now the extreme northeast corner of Tennessee. It is possible that these settlements formed the original melting pot that created Inland Southern. 8-Nov.-2013

Does this mean that Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett spoke Inland Southern, since they lived in this area? Well, in spite of the fact that many of us grew up hearing Texan Fess Parker play him on television with an Inland Southern accent, Daniel Boone certainly did not have the accent, for two reasons. One is that he was born and raised in Pennsylvania, not in the South at all, and didn’t move to the south until he was 16, in 1750. The second is that he lived way too early, long before Inland Southern would have even formed according to my theory, being born in 1734. He was one of the prime movers in encouraging the population movement that would have created it, but he would have been an old man before it really coalesced. His grandchildren probably did speak it. 12-Aug.-2014

What about Davy Crockett? His is a different story, and he very likely did speak it. He was born about 50 years after Daniel Boone, in 1786, and was born in the heart of the Inland South area, in the Overmountain Settlements mentioned above, during the existence of the short-lived State of Franklin. 8-Nov.-2013

This does not explain why Inland Southern is almost non-existent in West Virginia (except for the Hatfield-McCoy area), which speaks almost entirely Lowland Southern in the southern part, in spite of being almost entirely mountains, and Midland in the north. It turns out that its settlement pattern was different from the rest of the Appalachians (check out this interesting 1861 voting map, which lines up very closely with my map, showing that most of those who voted for statehood spoke Midland, not Southern). In any case Inland Southerners apparently tended to move east and south into new lands, not north. 8-Nov.-2013

Classical Southern and African American Vernacular English (AAVE)

The r-dropping areas in the Lowland South (marked with a dark green line) could be described as “Classical Southern”. This is the accent that Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) is attempting to imitate in this clip from Gone with the Wind. This area represents the heart of the old plantation system, as can be seen on the map mentioned above. However, this feature seems to only occur in older settled areas, and does not occur in western areas on the Mississippi River or farther west that were settled after about 1825. 23-Sep.-2015

Within this area older speakers seem to be consistent in maintaining this pattern. However, many younger ones in this area seem to be pronouncing all of their r’s, and I will include some of these with a comment. Outside of this area (but always within the Lowland Southern area) there will occasionally be much older speakers who do speak Classical Southern. I will comment individually on each of these, and will mark their city surrounded by a dotted green line. 23-July-2011

African American Vernacular English (AAVE), the dialect of most African Americans in the United States, is derived from Classical Southern, and shares its main features and many other features. However, it also has a number of distinctive features. I have not generally included AAVE in this study, since its geographical distribution tends to be independent of “white” dialects, primarily because after the Civil War large numbers of former slaves moved to all parts of the U.S., and tended to form their own communities, retaining their unique dialect. However, in many areas of the Lowland South no such migration occurred, and in these areas AAVE and “white” dialects share features and clearly have developed together, so in these areas I have sometimes included AAVE samples. AAVE tends to retain r-dropping more than “white” dialects do, even among younger speakers, and throughout the United States in African American communities. 2-Jan.-2012

 

[ɜɪ] instead of [ɝ] in some Classical Southern dialects
(23-Sep.-2015)

One feature that was formerly common among (white) speakers of Classical Southern is their special pronunciation of the vowel /ûr/ in words like “hurt”, “turning”, and “concerning” as [ɜɪ], much like Greater New York City, rather than the now more common [ɝ]. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina is an excellent example (see his sample). (Unlike GNYC, this vowel [ɜɪ] is quite distinct from the /oi/ vowel in words like “coin”, which is usually pronounced [ɔɛ] in the South.)

Contributor Jason Reid provides further info: “According to the linguist John Wells in his book Accents of English (1982), this pronunciation was at one time common. Erik R. Thomas in his very detailed phonetic description of Southern speech in A Handbook of Varieties of English (2004) says this pronunciation was at one time very widespread, but very few speakers born after 1930 show it (Strom Thurmond was born in 1902).”

The latter writer’s indicated range seems to cover all of my Lowland Southern area except North Carolina and Virginia (and Florida, though I have personally heard it there also, from African American speakers, many of whom retain it to the present day). This same pronunciation can also be heard in most of the New Orleans samples, from both whites and blacks, and is still heard today. In general, my observation is that it persists today among some African Americans, especially older ones, in many regions, an example being Elizabeth Allen of North Carolina (see her sample).

However, I visited with a number of older white speakers in Augusta, Georgia, in the spring of 2012, and though they all had consistent Classical Southern accents, none of them showed any sign of the [ɜɪ] pronunciation. Nor did I hear it from the Classical Southern speakers I met in Brewton, Alabama in February of 2012. However, the [ɜɪ] pronunciation is not dead among whites in the older south: in November of 2012 I met an older gentleman from Sumter, South Carolina, who spoke Classical Southern and used the [ɜɪ] pronunciation in a number of words.

Not even all Classical Southern speakers from this area born before 1930 have it: George Wallace does not, nor do Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter.

 

The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives

As can be seen on the map, the pin-pen merger is primarily a Southern feature, but has spread well beyond the South. I suspect that this has happened for two principal historical processes, both of them involving Southerners moving west and North. 12-June-2010

 

1. The first was the settlement of the Kansas and Nebraska territories, driven in part by the political issues concerning slavery surrounding the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. Evidently the bulk of the Southern settlement stopped at the Platte River in what is now eastern Nebraska, as can be seen by the comment about people “sympathetic towards the Confederate cause” in the Wikipedia article about Lincoln, Nebraska. This is where the pin-pen line runs in Eastern Nebraska: south of the Platte River. (The rest of Nebraska was not really settled until after the Civil War, and the line crosses to the north side of the Platte River west of Grand Island, though it does return to it briefly between Gothenburg and North Platte. At North Platte the river splits into the North and South Platte, and as the pin-pen line moves west it stays north of the North Platte.) 7-Nov.-2011

 

2. Farther west the line runs much further north, and, I suspect, was spread north up the cattle drive trails from Texas in the late 1800’s, presumably by Texas cowboys who hired on for a drive and decided to settle down somewhere along the trail home. This can be seen by comparing the pin-pen line with this map of the cattle drive trails (replaced bad link). (The sites I originally had for this map are all gone, and no full-size map seems to be available except for purchase.) This map is quite accurate, even though the red trails were added to show details from a fictional book, and the “Hat Creek Cattle Company” is fictional. Other maps corroborating the northern extent of the cattle trails are: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cattle-trails.jpg and nps.gov/hfc/carto/RELIEFS/GRKOrelief3_c.jpg (replaced bad link) (from nps.gov/hfc/cfm/carto-detail.cfm?Alpha=GRKO (replaced bad link)), which shows a trail going as far north as Buford, though neither shows the full course of the Bozeman Trail, which can be seen here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bozeman_Trail. See also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cattle_drives_in_the_United_States, where Miles City, MT and Medora, ND are specifically mentioned. 26-Sep.-2016

In fact, the pin-pen line seems to only have been stopped in its northward progress by the Canadian border! Apparently none of the cattle drives felt free or were invited or were contracted to cross that border. 26-Sep.-2016

Most of these trails stayed in the Great Plains, not venturing into the mountains, because it was much easier to move cattle on the flatlands. However, Nelson Story certainly used the Bozeman Trail to bring cattle from Texas to Bozeman, which is west into the mountains. And one trail shown on the nps.gov/hfc/carto/RELIEFS/GRKOrelief3_c.jpg map, the 1870-78 Kohrs Trail, also moves west into the mountains, but apparently this was only used by en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conrad_Kohrs to move cattle to his ranch at Deer Lodge, which is west of Helena and Butte and is not in the pin-pen merger area. In any case, these movements may partly explain why the pin-pen line bends west of the western edge of the Great Plains line to encompass all of Wyoming and parts of Idaho. Adj. 2-May-2018

This doesn’t quite explain why the pin-pen merger also reached the Salt Lake City area, which was solidly Mormon throughout this period and would not seem to have had much settlement by Texas cattle drivers. Contributor Trevan Richins suggested the following: «I think the answer is because of the Mormon missionary program and their desire to “gather in Zion”.  Up until the turn of the century (1900), almost all converted Mormons would move to Utah.  In the 1870 census, it showed that 1 in 3 Utahns were born outside of the United States.  There was an extensive missionary program at that time to convert people from all of the United States, Canada, Europe, and elsewhere.  So, the pin/pen probably reached Utah on the tongues of Southern converts.» Seems reasonable… Adj. 14-Sep.-2017

 

Other Areas with the Pin-Pen Merger
(16-Jul.-2016)

In addition to these two major influences, there are several additional areas for the pin-pen merger. One, which is no surprise, is that there is a small area of pin-pen merger that spreads west from the tail end of the Southern area. This seems to reach as far west as Arizona, but does not reach California. This area was settled by a mixed population even before the Civil War, but these included a large proportion of southerners, and during the Civil war the southern half of what became Arizona and New Mexico seceded from the Union, as discussed in the Wikipedia article on Traditional Arizona. 29-Apr.-2011

Another very interesting area is the San Joaquin Valley in California, which apparently adopted the pin-pen merger during the Great Depression, as a result of over a million “Okies” who moved there in the 1930’s. The ANAE had marked just Bakersfield as “pin”=“pen”, but the merger appears to cover the entire valley. However, obviously older speakers do not have it: contributor James Divine, who grew up mostly around Fresno, and was born in the mid 1940’s, has “pin”≠“pen”. (I had previously thought that this merger also extended north to include parts of the Sacramento Valley as well, which is the northern part of California’s Central Valley, but contributor Jon, a native of Sacramento, assures me that in Sacramento “pin”≠“pen”). 20-May-2011

 

The following is from contributor Branden Collingsworth (thanks!):

My wife and I are from Nebraska. She was born in Omaha and I was born in Lincoln. More than once I’ve asked her to “hand me that pen” and she replies “The pen or the pin?” I’ve tried to convince her that there is no difference in the pronunciation: of course, I don’t hear it. I was pretty amused to learn that we speak different sub-dialects. 14-Feb.-2011

 

New York City and Its Offspring

The Greater New York City dialect is the second most unusual dialect in all of North America (after New Orleans). It has many unusual features, and, more than any other city, New York seems to have historically shown great variation by social class, which is why I give so many audio examples. The following descriptions explain the classes marked in the chart with **: 10-May-2011

The classic working class dialect has “curl”=“coil”, and “dese” and “dose”; the latter is still heard in the modern working class dialect. Bennett Cerf and Humphrey Bogart are classic middle class, and have “curl”=“coil”, but not “dese” and “dose”. The curl-coil merger has nearly died out, according to William Labov, though there are plenty of well-known examples in recent history. Actually, it hasn’t completely died out! I have recently found two clips of people from Greater New York City who do still retain the curl-coil merger, Tommy DeVito and Skip Tollefson. And even Regis Philbin still seems to use the old pronunciation of the “curl”/”coil” vowel in a few words, like “circus” in his video clip. 3-Mar.-2011

Franklin Roosevelt and Teddy Roosevelt both speak what is sometimes called Mid-Atlantic English, (quite distinct from what the ANAE chapter 17 calls Mid-Atlantic, which I am calling Atlantic Midland). According to the Wikipedia article, Teddy speaks more “naturally” than Franklin, but structurally I see little difference between their dialects. They do not seem to have the had-bad distinction of Greater New York City, reflecting instead the British 15-vowel system. Eleanor Roosevelt, Teddy’s niece and Franklin’s wife, went to an even greater extreme, and spoke almost pure Standard British English. (She was raised mostly in the U.S., but was educated with private tutors, and went to finishing school in England.) Another sample, that of Doris “Granny D” Haddock, shows the Eastern New England variety of Mid-Atlantic English, with only the 14 vowels of Eastern New England. 14-Apr.-2011

The ANAE chapter 17 says that “One of the most startling facts about New York City is the narrow extent of its influence in the surrounding area,” and that its boundary “has remained fixed for more than two centuries... This geographic restriction appears to be associated with the negative prestige of the New York City vernacular...” In other words, everybody thinks the New York City dialect is really weird, even though we are all fascinated with it!

The differences are of class, not section of town, according to William Labov: The ANAE chapter 17 says “Within this metropolitan linguistic area, there is no reliable evidence for geographic differentiation. The stereotype Brooklynese is used to refer to working-class GNYC speech, whether the speaker is a resident of Brooklyn, Queens, the Lower East Side of Manhattan, or Jersey City. Many members of the public are convinced that they can recognize a Queens or Bronx or Jersey accent, but it appears that these geographic labels are in fact labels for perceived social class differences.”

Though its influence on the surrounding area has been limited, it has had a lot of effect on the speech of Cincinnati and of New Orleans (see the Dialect Description Chart), and shares the short-a split with the Atlantic Midland region.

 

New Orleans

The various dialects of New Orleans make it the most unusual dialect situation in all of North America. Some neighborhoods speak Classical Southern, and other neighborhoods speak a dialect which doesn’t sound Southern at all, but instead sounds exactly like Greater New York City until you listen for a while, and others are somewhere in between. I have taken several dialect samples from this clip from the “YEAH, YOU RITE” documentary. This clip is a dialect student’s dream, and explains in some detail the dialect situation in New Orleans. I used four samples from this clip because it was clear what neighborhood of New Orleans they were each from, and now I have tentatively added the guy on the park bench. I would have used more, but it was impossible to determine what part of town the other speakers were from, or else they had too much General American to be a useful sample. 17-Dec.-2015

The entire documentary does not seem to be available on the Internet, except for purchase. I did, however, find a transcript, which helped a bit in identifying speakers. 14-Jan.-2011

New Orleans seems to be the only city in North America that has more than one distinct dialect.[56] In this respect it is like London of the early 1900’s, as is implied by the speaker on the park bench who refers to “’Enry ’Iggins or Higgins”, the dialect expert in the movie My Fair Lady. This fact, explained in some detail by several of the speakers in the “YEAH, YOU RITE” documentary, seems to have been missed by the ANAE (Ch. 18) (see pages 259 and following), since they treat the city as a whole in their descriptions. 17-Dec.-2015

Thanks to samples that many of you sent in, and others that I have found, I now have a much clearer picture of the New Orleans neighborhoods and their dialects. Even so, I would still like to know who the guy on the park bench is, and where exactly he grew up. (Contributor Charles Meeks cited below has at least confirmed that he is evidently Uptown, so I added him tentatively to the map.) 11-Mar.-2016

Actually, my biggest question now is about what I am calling the Downtown New Orleans dialect, the only New Orleans dialect with no Southern features at all (most importantly, all of her long /ī/ vowels are [aɪ], making her not Southern by the definition we are using here), and which I have listed under the Greater New York City dialect. I only have one sample for this, Deborah Chauvin, which is very short, and the transcript suggests that this is the only time she speaks, even in the full documentary. Every other New Orleans sample I have found has at least some long /ī/ vowels reduced to [a], which reduces my Downtown New Orleans dialect to just the Ninth Ward. Is this valid? For now I will continue to assume that it is, but I need more data to confirm this. 11-Mar.-2016

 

So, I have now identified five distinctive New Orleans dialects, plus two that are not unique to New Orleans, as shown on the right. They are listed from top to bottom according to how close they are to the Greater New York City dialect as opposed to Southern. (Irish Channel and St. Bernard are probably about equal on this scale, and Cajun English is just a special variety of Lowland Southern.) Those without the pin-pen merger can be grouped together as Central New Orleans dialects. All are Southern (specifically Lowland Southern and Classical Southern) except Downtown New Orleans, as discussed in the previous paragraph. 11-Mar.-2016

For more details about each of these dialects, the best thing is to go my discussion of individual New Orleans sound samples. New! 15-Sep.-2017

  

 Distinctive 

 Downtown New Orleans

 

 

 Greater New York City 

 

 New

 St. Bernard Parish New Orleans* 

 Central

 (“pin”≠“pen”) 

 

 

 Orleans

 Irish Channel New Orleans

 New Orleans

 

 Southern

 

 Dialects

 Mid City New Orleans

 

 

 (Lowland Southern,

 

 

 Peripheral New Orleans

 (North N. O.)

 

 Classical Southern)

 

 Not unique 

 Standard Lowland Southern

 (Uptown)

 (“pin”=“pen”) 

 

 

 to N. O.

 Cajun English

 (Belle Chasse) 

 

 

 

* This is the only one of these dialects that has the Tidewater raising. Adj. table 15-Sep.-2017

 

Wards: It is not uncommon for New Orleanians to identify where they are from by their ward number, and several of the speakers do so. These are not neighborhoods, but voting wards, and seem to radiate away from the Mississippi River in long strips. For a map of the wards see: wards.pdf. (This map was originally at www.louisianarebuilds.info/files/wards.pdf, but this link is no longer valid.) 26-Jan.-201

 

The following is from contributor Charles Meeks (thanks!): 17-Dec.-2015

Ran across your dialect map and found it fascinating. I’m from New Orleans and always thought the variance was crazy. The guy sitting on the bench in the park is Uptown for sure. Hard to pin point the exact park, but I suspect it’s Audubon Blvd.

The southern accent (1:50 m) in New Orleans is dying out. It’s only heard in older people now. [I wonder if he means specifically the Garden District variety, or all of them. If the latter, then I am skeptical. If the former, then it’s probably true.]

It’s absolutely true that you can tell pretty much where anybody is from. I’m white, so I can pick out where any white person is from. Harder to distinguish black people. But it is extremely neighborhood and financially based.

 

Where do they speak without an accent? Or where do they speak “General American”?

This question implies that there is an accepted standard of spoken American English which is perceived as not having any strictly regional features. In other words, any features which are distinctly northern, southern, eastern or western would be excluded. And indeed there is such a standard, used by most radio and television news staff throughout the U.S. Applying such a definition rigorously leaves us with the orange striped areas on the map, in parts of the Central Midland and South Florida, and the southern fringe of the North. Applying a slightly less rigorous definition would also include some neighboring areas on the map, although these all have some noticeable regional features. For instance, San Francisco and East Midland both sound just a little bit too eastern, areas below the pin-pen line sound just a bit southern, etc. The Wikipedia article on General American covers the question fairly well, and in some detail, and I recommend reading it. The area mapped in that article covers the same general area in the Midwest as mine, but I would not include all of the cities included there.

The Canadian standard dialect is obviously distinct from the American one, and corresponds to what is spoken in most of Canada, excluding the Atlantic Provinces. The dialect of eastern Ontario or of most of British Columbia would probably be considered more standard than the Prairie Provinces and western Ontario, since these are above the bite-bout line, as shown on the map. 15-Aug.-2015

Obviously there are many differences in pronunciation details between Canadian and American English, as explained in the description of the Canadian dialects in the Dialect Description Chart, but most of these are not structural details affecting how many distinct sounds (phonemes) the dialects have. However, there is one very important difference between “General American” and “General Canadian”, and that is the Cot-Caught Merger: “General American” makes the distinction, whereas no Canadian dialect does. People from California might disagree with me, claiming that their dialect is as “General American” as any, but in fact the majority of Americans retain the distinction, as discussed in The Cot-Caught Merger section and in the footnote there. (California also has the distinctly Western fronting of the long /ōō/ [u] vowel which it shares with Canada and not with “General American”.) 15-Aug.-2015

 

Do some geographic features coincide with dialect boundaries or areas? 17-Dec.-2010

Yes, some do, though obviously many do not. I have included a number of the former on the map, and even a few of the latter. These are all marked on the map in Dark Blue, or in a few cases in Rust.

 

The following geographic features (arranged more or less from west to east) seem to have a direct correlation with some dialect area, boundary, or feature: 1-Nov.-2011

 

Suisun /səsōōn/ [səˈsun] Bay: This bay, along with the Carquinez /kärnəs/ [ˌkʰɑɹˈkʰinəs] Strait, San Francisco Bay, and the Golden Gate (which are not marked) define the northern border of the San Francisco Bay dialect. 28-Apr.-2011

The San Joaquin /săn wŏkēn/ [ˌsæn ˌwɑˈkʰin] River: See The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives. 28-Apr.-2011

The Sierra Nevada (California): The dip in long o fronting in the Great Basin (possibly represented by Mormon settlement) stopped at the Sierra Nevada.

Death Valley: Obviously a geographic barrier to travel! Continues the Great Basin line. 5-Mar.-2011

Grand Canyon: Obviously a geographic barrier to travel! Continues the Great Basin line. 5-Mar.-2011

The western edge of the Great Plains: (Thanks to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_physiographic_region for a map of the U.S. portion of this line.)
                One thing that is immediately obvious about this line is that most of the West dialect in the U.S. is found to the west of it, but that this dialect also spills over a hundred miles or so east into the Great Plains for most of its length (except in the far south). This dialect was probably created in the rough country to the west of this line, in a great melting-pot process in the late 1800’s with tremendous population movements. Then it appears that it spilled back over the mountains into the Great Plains for some distance, as part of those same population movements, leveling from that point all of the dialects that had travelled west from the eastern seaboard. Adj. 2-May-2018
                This happened everywhere except in the far south, where Inland Southern had already spilled over the mountains onto the western side, a process which probably began before the Civil War. (See The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives.) 16-Jul.-2016
                A couple of bulges in the eastern edge of the West dialect which push it farther east can be seen. One is the Black Hills, discussed immediately below, which had a gold rush that brought people from all over. Another is Dodge City, Kansas, which became famous as a Wild West town with many famous gunfighters, and may have been a magnet for people from farther west. New! 2-May-2018

                But besides this fact, this line seems to affect only one other dialect feature, and only in extreme northern United States and Canada: Adj. 5-Oct.-2017
                When the bite-bout line hits the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming as it moves west, it turns north and mostly follows the edge of the plains all the way into northern British Columbia, suggesting that the Rocky Mountains tended to block the continued westward movement of speakers from north of this line, and that points west were settled primarily by speakers from south of the bite-bout line.[57] If we look at a map of the Oregon Trail, by which the vast majority of early settlement (mainly 1846-1869) of the northwest took place, we can see that this was true, whereas there were no major trails north of the Oregon Trail, either in the U.S. or in Canada. After 1869 the First Transcontinental Railroad replaced the Oregon Trail as the primary means of travelling west, but followed approximately the same route across the Great Plains and for the first part of its path into the mountains. The funneling effect that these two processes had on western settlement can be seen on this map and this map showing where western settlement had reached in 1890. 19-Aug.-2015
                It would appear that even most of British Columbia was primarily settled from the south or by the Pacific Ocean, not from the east: Coastal B.C. was apparently already well settled when it joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871, before any of the Prairie Provinces did, and there had been a huge influx of Americans in 1858 because of the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush. Even the first railroad connecting B.C. to the rest of Canada was only completed in 1885. Even so, over the decades these transplants seem to have fully accepted their Canadian identity and even adopted the “Badge of Identity”!

                I had originally thought that the western edge of the Great Plains also blocked further westward expansion of the Inland South dialect from southern New Mexico all the way to the Mexican border, but contributor Karl Gerlach has informed me that this is not so, but that the Inland South dialect reaches as far west as Fort Hancock, and he was able to find me a sound sample for Marfa. Thus the mountains apparently had little or no effect on settlement in this area. 19-Aug.-2015
                This leaves El Paso as the only city in Texas that does not have a Southern accent. Gerlach says, “This makes sense historically, since settlement patterns traditionally moved toward El Paso along established routes, but never from it. I can’t speak for southern New Mexico, but I can at least assert that the ‘Midland island’ section of deep West Texas likely only includes the city of El Paso County and its immediate surroundings, but that the rest, at least where Anglos are concerned, sound like the rest of Texas.” Even so, the El Paso dialect probably owes the fact that it is east of the cot-caught line and south of the pin-pen line to influence from the South, but it clearly is not Southern by the definition of that dialect, and must have had significant admixture from the West and the Midland. 19-Aug.-2015

 

The Black Hills (South Dakota): The purple pin-pen line bends around these on the west side. Thus they avoided the pin-pen merger, not being on the route of any of the cattle drives from Texas, for obvious geographic reasons. Another reason they avoided it is that they were settled very rapidly during the 1875-1878 gold rush, by people from all over the place! In 1880, the area was the most densely populated part of Dakota Territory. This gold rush also probably pushed the eastern edge of the West dialect farther east to include it, so it is more similar to areas much farther west than it is to those that are closer. Adj. 5-Oct.-2017

The Nebraska Sandhills: See The Unique Position of Nebraska.

The North Platte River: See The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives. Also, the Oregon Trail followed this until the point where it bends southwards in Wyoming, and this may be part of the reason that the bite-bout line stayed north of it, as discussed under the western edge of the Great Plains above. 9-Oct.-2011

The Platte River: (Not labeled for reasons of space, though its tributaries the North and South Platte are labeled.) See The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives. 7-Nov.-2011

The Lake of the Woods: This lake forms part of the border between the U.S. and Canada, but a piece of Minnesota, the Northwest Angle, lies north of the lake. This happened because of geographical confusion affecting the Treaty of Paris in 1783. Do the people there talk like Americans or Canadians? Americans! 29-Dec.-2010

The Appalachian Mountains, Ozark Mountains, Ouachita Mountains, and St. Francois /frănsĭs/ ænsɪs] Mountains: These are all mountain ranges associated with the Inland South.

The Ohio River: For a long time I have been saying that this marks the border between the South and the Midland for much of Kentucky, but it really doesn’t! In fact, the line follows the river very little, spending most of its time north of it, but dipping south of it near Cincinnati. Larry Bird, the Hick from French Lick finally did that notion in! (That’s really his nickname, I didn’t make it up!) Even so, there still seem to be a few stretches where it follows the river. How much of this was due to geography (it was easier for settlers to stay on their own side of the river as they went west), and how much was due to politics (slavery was only allowed on the south side of the river) is unclear. Probably mostly the latter, since the line only dips south of the river once. 17-Apr.-2013
                Abraham Lincoln is reported to have had a southern accent, often called a “Kentucky accent” as here, but in fact he moved to Indiana when he was six. However, there was evidently a large influx of southerners, so he probably spoke a lot like Larry Bird. Thus, he spoke Lowland Southern, the same dialect spoken by most of the slave owners. 22-Nov.-2012

The Cumberland Gap: According to my origin theory, this was the area where Inland South originated and spread. 23-Sep.-2015

The Hudson River and the Erie Canal: The North dialect, and its central subdialect the Inland North were largely spread westward by way of these two waterways, as discussed in ANAE Ch. 14, pp. 212-213. This partially explains the strange hourglass shape of the Inland North subdialect, since all of the settlement came by boat to Buffalo and then continued up Lake Erie. (Originally the hourglass did not have quite so tight a waist, since originally Erie, Pennsylvania and probably also Ashtabula and Painesville, Ohio were part of the Inland North, as explained in Shared Features Across the U.S. - Canada Border.) 11-Feb.-2011

 

I have also included a few geographical features which do not seem to have any correlation with dialect features:

 

The Sacramento River: Unlike the San Joaquin River above, this does not seem to have any special features. 28-Apr.-2011

The South Platte River: See The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives.

The Mississippi River: In spite of being the greatest river in the U.S., and forming state boundaries for almost its entire course, it has had absolutely no effect on dialect patterns! Of course, it stood perpendicular to the entire western settlement flow, so people had no alternative but to find a way across!

The Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers: (Not labeled for reasons of space.) These rivers run mostly through rugged mountains or broken plateau country, and for the most part do not have a wide flood plain suitable for plantation agriculture, required, according to my settlement theory, for the spread of Lowland Southern. The only areas that do are the middle section of the Cumberland River, centered on Nashville, one section of the Tennessee River in Alabama, and the small area around Chattanooga. 23-Sep.-2015

 

Do state or provincial borders coincide with dialect boundaries?

No, they don’t! From the map it is clear that the dialect boundaries totally ignore state and provincial borders, except for a very few exceptions. One of the few places where a dialect boundary does seem to follow a state boundary is certain sections of the northern border of Kentucky, which also mark the northern border of the South. However, even in this case it is not the state border that is being following but a geographical feature, the Ohio River, and even then the line doesn’t follow it all that much. 4-Sep.-2012

In spite of this, one often hears people refer to a “Texas accent” (there are really three, just considering the blue and red lines!), or a “Massachusetts accent” (there are really four!). In fact, there isn’t a single dialect area on this map that could be described as a “state dialect”: they are all either significantly larger or smaller than a state! 17-Aug.-2010

 

Which states are the most linguistically complex?

As for which state has the most distinct dialect areas (defined by the blue and red lines), the winner appears to be Pennsylvania, with five dialect areas, though Louisiana may also have five, depending on how New Orleans is treated. 17-Aug.-2010

The runners up, with four, are: Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Ohio, and possibly also Maryland and New York (data is lacking for the latter two). It could also be argued that West Virginia has four, since in all other cases I have treated the loss of a vowel phoneme as grounds for defining a new dialect, but I am hesitant to introduce a new dialect on these grounds alone, “Allegheny Lowland Southern”, since this phoneme loss here may be viewed as a minor spillover from up north. 23-Mar.-2011

 

The Unique Position of Nebraska

The state of Nebraska is unique (besides the fact that my wife is from there) in that it is the linguistic center of North America, where east, west, north, and south meet. Thus, besides the fact that it has four dialect areas based on the blue and red lines, 2 major linguistic divisions also run through it: the light blue cot-caught line (running north to south, separating the blue hatched area from the non-hatched area), which divides the U.S. into western and eastern regions, and the purple pin-pen line (running east to west), which divides the U.S. into northern and southern regions. The 7 towns shown in the chart on the right serve to determine the exact linguistic center of North America, which is found at some point between Gibbon and Grand Island. 5-Nov.-2010

Do people who live in Kearney say, “Oh, yes, the people in Grand Island really talk different from us!”? No! They don’t even notice the differences until these are pointed out, even though these differences are easily demonstrated through word comparison, and make a difference phonemically. Even people from Grand Island don’t notice them, and they would have more of a reason to do so, since it involves the loss of distinctions that they retain. (I have personally interviewed many people from this whole area, and these lines are very real and well-defined!) Most people’s internal filters prevent them from being aware of such differences: they adjust what they hear to their own sound system. 4-Sep.-2010

The blue line separating The North (the pale green area) from The Midland (the white area) makes some very sharp bends in Nebraska. These suggest that Grand Island, St. Paul (number 4), Henderson (number 8), and York were settled by people from The North, but that places farther east and west were not. And this proves to be the case for the data available: Grand Island was settled in 1857 by people from Davenport, Iowa (just across from Rock Island, Illinois), after which the town was moved in 1862 (or 1866 according to the preceding link) to its current site. Columbus (7 on map), just to the east of Grand Island, was settled by people from Columbus, Ohio in 1856. As the map shows, the dialects of Columbus, Ohio and Columbus, Nebraska are basically identical, including the fact that both are north of the pin-pen line.[58] (York, Nebraska was founded in 1869, though it does not appear that its early residents came from any particular area. I can find no information about the founding of Henderson, Gresham, Thayer, or Utica.) The origin of the settlers east of York and south of the pin-pen line has already been discussed under The Pin-Pen Merger, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives. 9-Feb.-2012

West of Grand Island the differences are even more abrupt, with both the pin-pen line and the yellow dots indicating the backing of the /ō/ [o] vowel bending sharply north, and the cot-caught line splitting Nebraska into two parts at the same place. Part of the explanation for this is that the Nebraska Sandhills (whose outline I have now marked on the map) remained essentially empty until much later than other areas of Nebraska, with little settlement until the 1904 Kinkaid Act, and were apparently settled primarily from the south and west, by people interested in cattle ranching. This explains why the bulge of the West Midland goes so far north, reaching to the northern edge of the Sandhills along its entire length (specifically, I realized in early 2016 that it reaches as far north as Valentine). But it does not really explain why the lines turn sharply north just west of Grand Island, since Broken Bow and Ravenna are south of the Sandhills. However, dates of settlement still seem to provide the explanation, since Broken Bow (1882) and Ravenna (1886) were settled much later than Grand Island (1857-1862) or St. Paul (1871). Even Kearney, a much larger town which was originally settled as early as 1871, grew so rapidly that its original population was evidently swamped by the newcomers. North Platte was settled even earlier, in 1866, as the winter stopping point for the transcontinental railroad, which built a major depot there in 1869. Thus both Kearney and North Platte were founded and grew rapidly as a result of the First Transcontinental Railroad, whereas Grand Island was founded much earlier, and grew more slowly after the arrival of the railroad, apparently allowing it to retain its original dialect. 11-Mar.-2016

Another oddity is the fact that Hastings has “cot”=“caught”, but Ayr, some 15 miles to its south, has “cot”≠“caught”, as does Grand Island, some 30 miles north. The result of this is that the cot-caught line twists east around Hastings. I interviewed a couple now living in Kearney, of which the wife grew up in Hastings and clearly has “cot”=“caught”, but the husband grew up in Ayr and has “cot”≠“caught”, except before the letter /n/ (e.g. “Don”=“Dawn”), precisely the situation in which the distinction is most likely to be lost according to the ANAE Ch. 9 (pages 58 and 59). They were both amazed that the other pronounced the words in the cot-caught list differently, though they had been married for decades! So why does the cot-caught line twist around Hastings in this way? Part of the explanation may be that Hastings was founded in 1872 as a railroad town, whereas Ayr was not on the railroad. 26-Sep.-2016

I have no idea why the towns between North Platte and Gothenburg (9 on map) lie north of the pin-pen line while a group of towns around Kearney lie to the south, but I have interviewed many people from both North Platte and Kearney, and done spot checks in the other towns, so there is no uncertainty! I also cannot explain the double twist the pin-pen line makes as it moves farther west, but I have interviewed two different natives of Stapleton (2 on map), and it definitely has “pin”=“pen”. Now that I have mapped the outline of the Sandhills, I suspect it may have to do with the settlement of the Sandhills, which I have already theorized was settled from the south and west, which apparently dragged the pin-pin line up towards the middle of the Sandhills. 11-Mar.-2016

(I had earlier stated that the importance of North Platte and Kearney was due to their location on the Oregon Trail, but in fact they did not exist that early, only Grand Island did. When the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, it essentially did away with the Oregon Trail, something I had not considered. I also stated that Grand Island was off the trail because it was north of the river, but this was also incorrect.) 9-Nov.-2011

Towns that Determine the

Linguistic Center of North America

 

 

West:

“cot”=“caught”

East:

“cot”≠“caught”

North:

“pin”≠“pen”

Broken Bow

St. Paul (4)

Grand Island

South:

“pin”=“pen”

Ravenna

Gibbon

Hastings

Harvard

z 5-Nov.-2010

 

The U.S. - Canada Border and the “Badge of Identity”

How about the national border between Canada and United States? This is a different story, and in fact this border is also the southern boundary of the Canadian dialect for its entire length. This dialect’s notable characteristic is the “Canadian raising” of the vowels in words like “out” and “house” (where the vowel is followed by a voiceless consonant), but not in “loud” and “now”. This feature appears to be viewed by Canadians as a sort of badge of identity, and defines the border rather clearly! Granted, it also occurs in the Tidewater South, but since this is far from the Canadian border, and since their dialect bears no other resemblance to Canadian English, it doesn’t matter! Adj. 4-Oct.-2017

I suspect that historically the retention of this badge of identity has been to some degree conscious and intentional: It is important for Canadians to counter the idea that many Americans have that “Canadians are really just like us”, and to have some kind of distinct identity. I really like Pierre Trudeau’s famous quote: “Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered is the beast, if I can call it that, one is affected by every twitch and grunt”. 15-Apr.-2011

However, this doesn’t fully explain the situation. At least two Canadian contributors have written in and begged to differ with this analysis, saying that the vast majority of Canadians are totally unaware of how they pronounce things, and are certainly not consciously putting on the Canadian raising as a kind of affectation. And of course they are absolutely right! The vast majority of speakers of any language are totally unaware of the fine detail of their pronunciation system, and most Americans and Canadians cannot tell what side of the border someone is from simply by their pronunciation. So why hasn’t this feature seeped across the border to the U.S. side at any point? Other features have crossed the border freely, as the next section shows, but this one has not. Well, part of the explanation may be that a small percentage of people are able to discern features like Canadian raising, and perhaps some of these people, perhaps on both sides of the border, have lit on this particular feature as being a badge of identity for Canadians, and have helped keep it from crossing the border. So maybe it’s as much the Americans as the Canadians who have kept it a Canadian feature! 6-Sep.-2011

On the other hand, at least one section of Canada, southern British Columbia, was evidently settled mostly by Americans or Europeans, with little direct immigration from previously settled areas of Canada, since the center of the country was still largely unpopulated, as discussed in the Do some geographic features coincide with dialect boundaries or areas?” section under the discussion of the bite-bout line. And yet all of these settlers adopted the Canadian raising, and the line follows the U.S.-Canadian border all the way to the Pacific. Why did this happen unless at least some people felt that this was a badge of identity for Canadians? 15-Apr.-2011

 

However, there is one exception to this rule about Canadian raising and the national border: Newfoundland and Labrador do not have Canadian raising. Again, since they are nowhere near the national border, in a way this doesn’t matter, but it is unexpected, given how solid the feature is throughout the rest of Canada and even in the Maritimes! However, contributor Bob Goudreau has pointed out that there is really a simple explanation that actually bolsters my badge of identity theory: “The province of Newfoundland and Labrador did not even join Canada until 1949. ‘Newfies’ would have had no reason to sound self-consciously Canadian, because they were NOT Canadian until then (just a British colony a la Bermuda, etc.).” Cool. (Parts of Baffin Island also seem to follow the Newfoundland / Labrador accent, as can be seen by the various lines in this area. This presumably resulted from greater influence from this area than other parts of Nunavut.) Adj. 2-Oct.-2017

For a while I had thought that there was a second exception, because I thought I had found an area in Southeastern Quebec where Canadian raising did not apply, specifically the cities of Montreal and Sherbrooke. However, the samples I had selected were ethnic French speakers, and even though their English showed no trace of a French accent, Chris Harvey says that ethnic French speakers are not the best samples of the native English Montreal accent. Check out the two samples I have now included for Montreal. It seems my entire idea was wrong that, because the Stanstead area was settled by Americans, they would still speak like Americans rather than Canadians. Chris Harvey assures me that they do not. Apparently the “Badge of Identity” applies here, too! However, I am still looking for good sound samples for Sherbrooke and Stanstead. Please send me some if you have them! 17-July-2010

Because native French speakers do not typically have the Canadian raising, I have now explicitly shown the pink Canadian-raising line as excluding the French-speaking area in Canada. (Earlier I had simply not shown it in this area, but the result was confusing even to me, so I put it in.) Adj. 4-Oct.-2017

This is not to say that this is the only feature that distinguishes Canadian from American English: The Canadian shift, discussed in detail in ANAE Ch. 14, affects many Canadian vowels. However, the Canadian raising is what most people tend to notice, which is why I think that it has become the badge of identity. 29-Dec.-2010

Read the next section for more insight on this question. 15-Apr.-2011

 

Shared Features Across the U.S. - Canada Border

Another thing that suggests that Canadian raising is a badge of identity is that plenty of other dialect features cross the border freely. If we look at the map we see that in the west several dialect feature lines cross the border, in particular the bite-bout line, making parts of British Columbia sound more like the neighboring Americans than the neighboring Canadians, except of course that they do have the Canadian raising. In the Great Lakes area the bite-bout line again crosses the border three times, making Windsor similar to its neighbor Detroit in only this one feature, and farther north making the twin cities of Sault Ste. Marie share this feature as well, but on the other side of the line.

But of course the big thing shared by Canadians with many Americans, in both the east and west, is the cot-caught merger. In fact, this feature is shared along the western two-thirds of the border, and it seems almost certain, simply by a quick look at the map, that the North Central dialect borrowed this feature from Canada, since this is the only feature that distinguishes North Central from the North. How much the West derived this feature from Canada is uncertain, but it must have been significant, since they not only share this feature, but also the fronting of the long /ōō/ [u] vowel.

In the east there are two areas along the border where this feature is shared across the border. Obviously the border shared by the Maritimes and Quebec with New England is one of them, and it is extremely probable that this feature was shared across this border very early in the history of the two nations, or even before they split into two nations in 1776! The other area is Lake Erie, where there are a line of cities on the American side that have the cot-caught merger. Was this due to Canadian influence? It would seem unlikely, except that another dialect feature crosses into Canada at this same point: one of the long o fronting lines of dots (the pink ones), and another dialect line is split at this point, the bite-bout line. So who knows? On the other hand, the ANAE Ch. 14, pp. 203-206 suggests that there was no such influence, since the city of Erie, Pennsylvania was originally part of the Inland North (and presumably Ashtabula and Painesville were also, though these are not mentioned in the ANAE), and only later became Allegheny Midland. Because of this I have not shown the cot-caught line crossing Lake Erie. 12-Mar.-2013

However, even with various features crossing the border, this does not mean that towns on opposite sides of the border will sound particularly similar. As mentioned above, Windsor and Detroit sound extremely different, sharing only one important feature. But even towns sharing more features don’t really sound that close: Tammy Faye Bakker Messner from International Falls, Minnesota, and Duncan Keith from across the river in Fort Frances, Ontario pronounce their /ō/ [o] vowels the same, and also their /ou/ [ɑʊ] vowels in words like “down”, but many of their other vowels are very different. The fact that they are neighboring towns in a remote area doesn’t seem to matter: one is American and the other Canadian, and that matters more! 8-Aug.-2014

 

A Description of the Layers in the Layers File

The information in most of these layers is described in the legends on the map and elsewhere on this site.

You can make each layer visible or invisible by clicking the checkmark for that layer in the Layers window. You should usually keep layers 1, 2, 3, 13, and 15 visible (those outlined in red below), except when you really want to see something without the clutter. However, even then you should leave level 1 visible, because otherwise you get a weird cross-hatching which is the “invisible color”. Level 10 (outlined in blue) is the most important data on the map, but it can be made visible or not depending on whether you want the main dialect lines over or under the other lines, since all of the data in level 10 is also included in level 2. This data can only be made completely invisible by making both layer 2 and layer 10 invisible. 12-Aug.-2014

 

Layer

Name

Description (if needed) and suggestions

Repetition

L15:

coastlines & political boundaries

Can be laid over the other lines or not, in which case they will be under them if 1 or 2 is displayed.

Included in 2.

L14:

geographic features

 

 

L13:

cities & towns with names

Without this, you really can’t see what’s what!

 

L12:

long o fronting lines

 

 

L11:

the “on” line

 

 

L10:

dialect boundaries (red, blue, & orange lines)

Can be laid over the other lines or not, in which case they will be under them if 2 is displayed.

Included in 2.

L09:

indigenous language names & boundaries

This requires 2 for full information.

Partly included in 2.

L08:

r-droppers

 

 

L07:

Canadian & Tidewater raising

 

 

L06:

pin-pen line

 

 

L05:

bite-bout line

 

 

L04:

cot-caught line & hatching

 

 

L03:

gray boxes & arrows

Contains the outlines of two of the insets, plus the boxes.

 

L02:

main map: all dialects & boundaries

This contains the main data for the map, and includes different color backgrounds for the different dialect areas.

1, 10, 15, and part of 9 repeated.

L01:

base map: coastline & water

Plain map of North America, including only land, water, coastlines, and boxes.

Included in 2.

(31-Aug.-2015)

(Oops, I only recently, 20-Oct.-2016, realized that I had swapped the order of layers 10 and 11 on the map, though the intended order was correct in the chart above. I don’t know how long I had it wrong. I have now adjusted these.) 20-Oct.-2016

 

About Me

I am a professional linguist and a Christian missionary, working in indigenous Amerindian languages. My work has nothing to do with English, so that is why this project is just a hobby.

A few readers have asked where I am from, and what dialect I speak. Actually, I am the total opposite of the kind of people I am looking for for the sound samples on my map: They have each been born and raised in one specific place in the U.S. or Canada. I was born in Mexico City, the son of Christian missionaries, and moved back and forth between Mexico and various places in the U.S. throughout my childhood, spending most of my time in the U.S. in the Oklahoma City area. My parents met in Mexico. 6-Nov.-2015

My father was born and raised in Port Chester, New York. He spoke a number of different languages. He did not have a Port Chester accent (Eastern North; check out the two sound samples I have listed), but instead spoke essentially General American, the one relic of his Eastern North upbringing being that he distinguished words like “merry” /mĕrē/ [ˈmɛɹi] and “marry” /mărē/ [ˈmæɹi].

My mother had an even more interesting background. She was born in Sydney, Australia, of parents who emigrated there from Scotland. When she was 10, the family moved to Berkeley, California. When she arrived, she had a strong Australian accent, but due to the ridicule of her peers, she quickly adopted a Bay Area accent, and sounded thoroughly American for the rest of her life. However, the Australian system had apparently established itself in her subconscious, because after I got interested in English dialects, I asked her if the words “father” and “bother” rhymed for her (see The Father-Bother Distinction above). She said, “Oh, no, they are quite different!” “Really?” I said. “Say them for me.” And when she said them, they both had the very same vowel, rhyming perfectly, following the Bay Area pattern. But they still felt different to her, because in her childhood she had pronounced them with very different vowels, and that phonemic system was apparently still there, though covered up by a Bay Area surface system. She also clearly distinguished “merry” and “marry”, which is not a Bay Area feature, but evidently a remnant of her Australian childhood. She also rhymed “on” with “Don”, which matches both Berkeley and Australia. (For other cases in which a phonemic system can be fixed by the age of 10, see the footnote for John Hoeven). 12-Aug.-2014

So, what accent do I have? I turns out that I speak fairly pure General American, probably because all of my schooling was in English in an American style school, even when I lived in Mexico. For the most part I don’t follow my parents’ speech patterns. For instance, they both distinguish “merry” and “marry”, and I do not. Specifically, in my dialect “cot”≠“caught” (with a clear Central Midland pattern, not the raised /ô/ [oə] of the northeastern U.S.), “pin”≠“pen”, and “on” rhymes with “Don”. Even though I spent seven years in the Oklahoma City/Norman area between the ages of 7 and 18, I didn’t pick up any influence there, since in this area “pin”=“pen” and “on” rhymes with “Dawn”. 8-June-2011

The one area in which I seem to have followed my parents, and differ from most Americans, is that I don’t pronounce the “l” in “calm” or “yolk” or “talk” (see The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk”). 8-June-2011

So what area matches my dialect? No area matches my dialect exactly, though the closest seems to be South Florida, especially the southern part below the “on” line, though I think my native pronunciation of the long /ō/ [oʊ] vowel is a bit more backed, and I don’t know yet how South Florida handles the words in The Pronunciation of “-alm” and “-olk” and “-alk”). (I had previously thought that Canton, Ohio was also a close match, but it has a strongly raised “bat” vowel, whereas I do not.) I suspect that many others who moved constantly in their youth, such as “army brats” or missionary kids like me, will have a similar pattern, which could be called something like “Transient General American”. (South Florida was populated by transients, especially the southern half, so the fact that it has this dialect should not be surprising.) On the other hand, most people who grow up in those Central Midland areas which have a General American accent as their native dialect normally rhyme “on” with “Dawn”, not “Don”. 12-Aug.-2014

To hear a sample of my speech, listen to the CBC interview Nora Young did with me. 26-Mar.-2011

 

This web page is hosted by Hypermart, a very reliable host for many years!

 



[1] Why would this feature be incorrectly mapped by the ANAE, whereas all the other features were mapped correctly? Actually, I think there is a simple explanation: this is pretty much the only mapped feature that involves only a partial phoneme merger, not a complete merger. Everyone clearly distinguishes “bit” and “bet”, but not everyone distinguishes “pin” and “pen”. I know a lady from Axtell, Nebraska, who, when I asked her if she said “pin” and “pen” the same or different, said, “Different, of course! I’m a schoolteacher.” However, after that I had ample opportunity to listen to her speak, and in fact she says them both the same, and definitely has the pin-pen merger in all such words! Thus, her perception is very different from her production. I think that this is due to this being only a partial phoneme merger: she knows that the two vowels are different, so feels like she must pronounce them differently in all situations, when in fact she does not! I expect that this is why the ANAE showed the merger in a far smaller area than it in fact covers. 6-Aug.-2011

[2] The ANAE included the St. Louis Corridor in the Midland, even though it really has more in common with the North!

[3] This dialect area was a separate area in the ANAE, but had no name as such. This is part of what the ANAE (Ch. 9, p. 67) calls the “Hoosier apex” (see also Ch. 12, p. 153, Ch. 14, p. 212, and Ch. 21, p. 289), though I have demonstrated that it goes much farther north than the ANAE shows, into the North. (Others define the “Hoosier apex” as an area of southern Indiana in which Inland Southern is spoken, but neither the ANAE (Ch. 11, p. 147) nor I have been able to find any samples of this.) 11-Jan.-2010

[4] The ANAE has the bite-bout line going above this dialect area, but in some of the samples the vowel of “bout” sounds too far back for this to be true. 11-Jan.-2011

[5] Various attempts have been made to divide the Midland into a “South Midland” segment and a “North Midland” segment, since there does tend to be gradation from south to north. However, as can be seen by the pin-pen line and the pale blue Long /ō/ [oʊ] fronting line, which do not line up with any consistency, there is no clear way to do this. Granted, the pin-pen line represents a structural difference, so it is perhaps the more important of the two, and I have actually made the split on this basis, by defining General American as being north of the pin-pen line. 18-Nov.-2011

[6] The purple pin-pen line bends south to go around Cincinnati, but only Cincinnati has the other New York City features that make it unique. Cincinnati turns out to be a linguistic island, which matches the conclusions of the ANAE. 12-July-2011

[7] Called “Western Pennsylvania” by ANAE. However, it extends well outside of Pennsylvania. It corresponds fairly closely in east-west extent to the Allegheny Mountains and Plateau. It could also be called “Coal Fields Midland”, since it seems to correspond very closely to the extent of the coal fields in the northeastern U.S., and there is probably a historical reason for this, associated with the spread of coal-mining. Perhaps the same process of population mixing caused the cot-caught merger here as in the West. (I had called this dialect East Midland for a while, but am now using East Midland for the dialect to the east of it.)

[8] From the map one might surmise that Central Midland spread all the way to Oklahoma City, and then West Midland worked its way south, separating Oklahoma City from Central Midland. However, in view of the history of white settlement of Oklahoma, what really happened was evidently rather different. Instead, what happened was that central Oklahoma was settled first by white settlers, in the 1889 land run and the 1891 land runs, several years before the rest of Oklahoma was settled in later land runs in 1892 and later. This can be clearly seen in this map showing the extent of white settlement in 1890. This original settlement of central Oklahoma in the 1889 run was large (some 50,000) people, and in the 1891 runs some 20,000. These settlers were evidently from all over, making this a melting pot, with the result ending up like Central Midland. Subsequent settlement presumably came from closer by, with West Midland and Inland Southern gradually encroaching to fill the remaining area. 2-Jan.-2013

[9] Called “Mid-Atlantic” by ANAE, but this also refers to something quite different: see the article on New York City.

[10] This dialect exists alongside Cajun French in Louisiana. This was suggested by Philip Batton and Martin Ball. Thanks! I still don’t have many samples, so send me some, please! 9-Sep.-2010

[11] Information about the precise boundaries of this dialect is based on detailed information provided by Beaufort native and contributor Richard Jefferson. Thanks! 11-July-2011

[12] This system has been in use at least since the 1895 Webster’s International Dictionary in a form very close to the one used here, except that the weak (completely unstressed) vowel /ə/ is not handled consistently. Check out a sample page here. Note the pronunciation guide at the bottom of each page. It seems to have been used even earlier, and was certainly used in both American and British dictionaries, as shown in the Ogilvie’s 1883 Imperial Dictionary, which was based on Webster’s. The pronunciation system is a bit different, and I have not been able to determine whether any earlier editions of Webster’s were closer to this system. Noah Webster’s earliest dictionaries did not use this system, but had a more haphazard way of showing pronunciation, mostly just indicating the stressed syllable, though they did occasionally use a long or short mark over a vowel. A comparison is shown below, with differences from the current American Heritage Dictionary marked with a yellow background. (Merriam-Webster and Ogilvie’s leave the breve mark ˘ off the short vowels, but I am not treating this as a difference.) (Symbols in green on the 1895 Webster’s row are only used in unstressed syllables.) 12-Aug.-2014

 

Vowels:

My Dictionary symbols:

ē

ĭ

ā

ĕ

â

ă

skew

ä

ŏ

ô

ō

ŭ

ŏŏ

ōō

(yōō)

ī

ou

oi

 

ə

 

îr

âr

är

ôr

ȯr

ûr

ŏŏr

(yŏŏr)

ər

Current AHD symbols:

ē

ĭ

ā

ĕ

ă

ä

ŏ

ô

ō

ŭ

(y)

ī

ou

oi

 

ə

 

îr

âr

är

ôr

ōr

ûr

r

(yr)

ər

Current Merriam-Webster:

ē

i

ā

e

a

ä

ä

ȯ

ō

ə

ü

(yü)

ī

au̇

ȯi

 

ə

 

ir

er

är

ȯr

ȯr

ər

u̇r

(yu̇r)

ər

1895 Webster’s:

ē/ē̍/y̆

ĭ

ā

ĕ

ă

ȧ

ä

ŏ

ō/ō̍

ŭ

/ụ

/ṳ

(ū/ū̍)

ī/ī̍

ou

oi

 

ā̍/ē̍/a/e

 

ēr

âr

är

ôr

ōr

ûr/ẽr

r

(yr)

ẽr

1883 Ogilvie’s:

ē

i

ā

e

a

ȧ?

ä

o

ō

ŭ

ö

(ū)

ī

ou

oi

 

(various)

 

ēr

ār

är

or

ōr

ėr

ör

(yör)

ėr

Traditional:

beat

bit

bait

bet

bad

bat

bath

father

cot

caught

boat

cut

foot

boot

(cute)

bite

bout

boy

 

item

 

fear

fair

far

for

four

fur

poor

(cure)

sinner

(31-Aug.-2015)

Consonants:

My Dictionary symbols:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

th

ŧħ

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

Current AHD symbols:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

th

th

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

Current Merriam-Webster:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ŋ

p

r

s

sh

t

th

th

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

1895 Webster’s:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng/n

p

r

s

sh

t

th

th

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(hw)

1883 Ogilvie’s:

b

ch

d

f

g

h

j

k

l

m

n

ng

p

r

s

sh

t

th

TH

v

w

y

z

zh

 

(wh)

Traditional:

 

church,

nature

 

 

 

 

judge

 

 

 

 

sing,

singer,

finger

 

 

 

shush,

nation

 

thin,

bath

this,

bathe

 

 

 

 

pleasure,

vision,

genre,

rouge

 

(which,

whale)

(31-Aug.-2015)

 

Surprisingly, the AHD has stayed closer to the Webster tradition than Merriam-Webster has, and they claim to own that tradition! The AHD system is especially close to the 1895 Webster’s. 26-Aug.-2013

Interestingly, Ogilvie’s has no concept of the weak vowel /ə/, writing it as if it were fully pronounced, whereas the 1895 Webster’s begins to try to recognize it by writing the full vowels in special ways, but really doesn’t succeed! 26-Aug.-2013

 

[13] I had originally decided to show only the phonemic pronunciation, following the TDPS. However, I finally realized that I needed to include the IPA, mainly because many non-native speakers of English, like contributor Maria Mikkonen, only use that system. I always enclose these IPA pronunciations in square brackets [ ]. 31-Aug.-2015

[14] Previously Houghton Mifflin did not provide direct online access to their dictionary, but now they do. (It was previously available for a number of years on Yahoo, but is no longer.) I could not find a link on their dictionary page to their pronunciation guide, but it is indeed available on their web site here. 31-Aug.-2015

[15] The only changes in the vowel system are:

                • The addition of /â/ for the vowel in “bad” in Greater New York City and Atlantic Midland.

                • The spelling of // and // as /ŏŏ/ and /ōō/ for practical reasons (see footnote * in the vowel section).

                • The addition of /ȯr/ for the vowel in “hoarse” when this is intermediate between /ô/ and /ō/, or at least clearly distinct from either. The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition (of which I still thankfully have a hard copy) maintained the horse-hoarse distinction for those who have not undergone the merger by showing “horse” as /hôrs/ and “hoarse” as /hōrs/ (as seen also on this Wikipedia page), but in the online Fifth Edition they no longer represent the distinction, showing them both as /hôrs/. /hōrs/ was not really an accurate representation for “hoarse”, since the vowel in this word is never identical to /ō/, except in Scottish English, which underwent no r-coloring. For this reason I have introduced /ȯr/ for the r-colored vowel in “hoarse”, which follows the pattern of the other special r-colored vowels in the AHD system (e.g. /îr,âr,är,ûr/). 11-Mar.-2016

[16] The following is a quick comparison of just the Ordinary Stressed Vowels in the two systems:

Dictionary:

ē

ĭ

ā

ĕ

ă

â

ä

ŏ

ô

ō

ŭ

ŏŏ

ōō

yōō

ī

oi

ou

ANAE:

iy

i

ey

e

æ

æh

ah

o

oh

ow

ʌ

u

uw

yuw / iw

ay

oy

aw / æw

(11-June-2015)

[17] I suggest that nearly everyone use the dictionary spelling /är/ for the sound in “card”, even those who lack /ä/ otherwise. This may seem a somewhat arbitrary choice, since it may seem more natural for those who do not have /ä/ otherwise to write this combination as /ŏr/ or even /ôr/. However, the reason is that /är/ is far more common than plain /ä/ for those who have the father-bother distinction, and it makes more sense systematically to spell it as /är/. Also, /ŏr/ and /ôr/ may refer to other sounds in some dialects, as can be seen in the R-Coloring section and its subsections. The only people who should not spell this sound as /är/ are some with the card-cord merger for whom the vowel is clearly identical to /ô(r)/, particularly several of the New Orleans dialects. 11-Mar.-2016

[18] The Unicode combinations are /o͝o/ and /o͞o/ (using 035D and 035E), but these don’t actually look quite right in most of the standard fonts (though they look almost right in the Cambria font), since the diacritics sit too high above the letters, and in any case for some users they may not even display at all. 11-Mar.-2016

[19] It could be argued that in some parts of the South this is not true, at least in words like “new” or “dew”, but is instead something like /ēw/ ([iʊ]), and in fact the ANAE does claim this (Chapter 18, first map). However, phonemically I am skeptical that it makes any difference. 27-Aug.-2010

[20] The answers are: 11-Mar.-2016

1. “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” has 14 syllables.

2. All of the even numbered syllables are completely unstressed (weak).

3. Syllable 13 has the primary stress. This last is often the hardest to identify: the difference between primary and secondary stressed syllables is much more subtle than the difference between stressed and weak syllables. But what makes it clear is that this word rhymes with “atrocious” and “precocious” (as the song makes clear), so it must have primary stress on the next-to-the-last syllable! 22-Mar.-2013

Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke actually pronounce this word rather differently, but not so differently that any of the above answers change: 22-Mar.-2013

Standard British (Julie Andrews):

/s(y)ōō-pə-kăl-ĭ-frăj-ĭ-lĭst-ĭk-ĕk-spĭ-ăl-ĭ--shəs/

[ˌs(j)u:-pə-ˌkʰæl-ɪ-ˌfɹædʒ-ɪ-ˌlɪs-tɪk-ˌɛk-spɪ-ˌæl-ɪ-ˈdəʊ-ʃəs] 25-Sep.-2013

General American (Dick Van Dyke and me):

/sōō-pər-kăl-ə-frăj-ə-lĭst-ĭk-ĕk-spē-ăl-ə--shəs/

[ˌsu-pɚ-ˌkʰæl-ə-ˌfɹædʒ-ə-ˌlɪs-tɪk-ˌɛk-spi-ˌæl-ə-ˈdoʊ-ʃəs]

(I had originally assumed that the first syllable was /syōō-/ [ˌsju:-] for Julie Andrews, since Standard British has usually retained the /y/ [j] in these cases, but when I actually listen to the song, I find that the /y/ [j] is not there. I don’t know if this was because she was trying to accommodate to Dick Van Dyke, or whether she really doesn’t have it normally. The Oxford English Dictionary shows both pronunciations for British English.) 11-Mar.-2016

As you can see, the /ə/ [ə] vowel is more common in weak syllables in American English, whereas the /ĭ/ [ɪ] vowel is more common in British English, especially in older speakers. 22-Mar.-2013

[21] Ever since I first studied linguistics many decades ago I have called these vowels “r-colored vowels”, but I cannot recall how I came by this term. I have recently (August 2015) realized that this term has another meaning in phonetics, referring only to actual retroflexed vowels like [ɝ] and [ɚ]. However, quite a few websites also use the term to refer to the vowels I am discussing here (e.g. dailycues.com/learn/iqpedia/pages/r-colored-vowels, avspeechtherapy.com/2013/06/21/r-colored-vowels), though most seem to prefer the term “r-controlled vowels”, and one text for teaching reading to children actually uses the latter term in the teaching process: ling.upenn.edu/pri/pdfs/RR10.pdf. I can find not a single reference site that uses either term for these, so I will stick with “r-colored”, since the historical process was that the r “colored”, or changed, these vowels. 31-Aug.-2015

[22] Some of these have one or more additional consonants after the /r/, but this does not change the r-coloring of the preceding vowel. Most consonants can occur in this position. See One-syllable R Words for more info, if you are interested. (Oops, that link now works!) 28-Oct.-2016

[23] For Eastern New England /ŏ/ and /ô/ are the same, and I am spelling all cases of /ŏ/ as /ô/ (for Eastern New England only), though prior to December, 2015 I had been doing the opposite. 17-Dec.-2015

[24] See footnote †† in How Many Vowels are there in American English?. 8-July-2013

[25] My wife’s reduced pattern also seems to apply to the West, based on the self-recording of Travis B. from North Bonneville, Washington. This suggests that the special r-colored vowel /ŏŏr/ may be limited in North America to the northeastern U.S., though Standard British and other places which follow its systematic r-dropping system like Australia also have it. This again suggests that my own “transient General American” system was heavily influenced by my parents’ system, my father from Eastern North and my mother from Australia. Therefore further research is needed to see if I fairly represent “General American” in my use of the /ŏŏr/ vowel, or if I represent more the northeastern pattern. 29-Aug.-2015

[26] As in all Systematic R-dropping dialects, all of these words will be pronounced without the [ɹ] when in isolation or preceding a consonant in the next word, but an [ɹ] will suddenly appear when the word is immediately followed by a word starting with a vowel. (Most Southern r-droppers are not systematic, but New Orleans seems to be a mix of the two systems, perhaps leaning toward being systematic.) 11-Mar.-2016

[27] In systematic r-dropping dialects these words add an /r/ between the vowels, in others they do not. 11-Mar.-2016

[28] Older British dictionaries consistently show these words with [aɪɚ], but the current ones on the Internet seem to show a more “international” pronunciation without the [ə]. However, the comments of Levente Frindt on this page show that this is still the current British pronunciation. 8-July-2013

[29] I used to sing in a church choir in Birmingham, and one day the choir director said that we should get in touch with “former members” to invite them back to the choir. Someone asked, “But what if they’re not farmers?”, at which everyone laughed, and in the ensuing discussion I realized that the two words were being pronounced identically. My subsequent observation confirmed that the card-cord merger is well established there. 11-Mar.-2016

[30] However, “th” and “thh” are used in this way in Thomas E. Zurinskas’s Truespel system, though I used them long before I was aware of his system. 18-July-2013

[31] They tend to be reliable because they generally don’t try to adjust their dialect towards General American. However, occasionally, when they sing (though not when they talk) they sometimes try to sound more country or southern, as in the case of Randy Travis and Collin Raye. Even so, such examples are very rare. 10-Apr.-2010

[32] Before I found the media information about her, I had previously noticed that Sarah Palin didn’t talk like other Alaskans, and had surmised that she was strongly influenced by her parents, who are from Sandpoint, Idaho (in the far north of Idaho). However, I somehow missed the media hubbub about her accent. 13-Jan.-2011

[33] Both these speakers seem to clearly be Lowland Southern based on their pronunciation of words like “right”, but certain other words like “excited” or “like” have the Inland Southern pronunciation, indicating that Little Rock is very close to the border between the two dialects. See Possible Southern Class Distinction?. 12-Dec.-2011

[34] This speaker is clearly Lowland Southern, showing no “lapses” into Inland Southern (in spite of having lived in that region), indicating that Little Rock (where she was raised) must be placed in the Lowland Southern region.

[35] Many Spanish place names in the western United States begin with the words “Los” or “Las”, being the masculine and feminine plural definite articles. Speakers for whom “cot”≠“caught” typically pronounce “Los” as /lôs/ and “Las” as /lŏs/ (or even, for those with the father-bother distinction, as /läs/). However, those for whom “cot”=“caught” will typically pronounce both forms the same. I have tried in each case to give the local pronunciation, which in most cases represents “cot”=“caught”, since most Spanish names occur in the West! 17-Dec.-2015

[36] His speech shows many features of Southern, more so than the other speaker from Melbourne, but his long /ī/ [aɪ] vowels are all diphthongs, so he is not southern by the definition used here.

[37] In this clip are heard state senators E.J. Pipkin and Jim Rosapepe, along with Delegates Michael Smigiel, Jill Carter, and Patrick L. McDonough. All of these people are evidently from Baltimore, and represent the dialect, although Jill Carter shows some features of AAVE (African American Vernacular English).

[38] Somewhat inconsistent, showing influences from the wider world, but pronounces many words in a way which can only be Inland Southern.

[39] The contention in this video is a conspiracy theory, and is not true. The evidence indicates AIDS was brought from Africa by way of Haiti, not through vaccine research.

[40] The conclusion that Miles City is an Island of the North carried far to the west is surprising. However, both of these speakers seem to have almost identical pronunciation, and the conclusion seems clear. “On” also rhymes with “Dawn”, at least for Maurice Hilleman, and closely resembles the speech of Governor John Hoeven of Ashley, North Dakota, except that “pin”=“pen”.

[41] This is not a “mispronunciation”: The name was originally “North Fork”, thus the local pronunciation. The U.S. Post Office erroneously changed the official spelling at some point. 27-Aug.-2010

[42] Considering that Mel Blanc spoke “lowest common denominator” English, having grown up in Portland, Oregon, he did an amazing job on an amazing number of accents.

[43] To get to the Outer Banks example, you will have to take the quiz and get it right! The other five regions given do not correspond exactly to regions on my map, although they are all Lowland Southern. The Southern Highlands example given is Lowland Southern, not Inland Southern. 9-Sep.-2010

[44] He lived in Ashley during his formative years, though he was born in Bismarck, and moved to Minot when he was 12. Still, his phonemic system was evidently formed in Ashley, since he clearly distinguishes “cot” and “caught”, whereas Bismarck and Minot do not. I have seen other cases in which a phonemic system was firmly fixed by the age of 10, even though the person never lived in an area with that phonemic system after that. (See also the comment on Tom Osborne, and the comments about my own mother.) 4-Nov.-2011

[45] All three are said to be “from” Kingfisher, and presumably at least one of them is likely to really represent the local dialect. Leroy speaks pure Inland Southern, whereas the other 2 always have a diphthong in “ride” and “right”. Given this data, I have tentatively put Kingfisher in the Oklahoma City dialect, assuming that Leroy is from elsewhere.

[46] Various web sites show the pronunciation as /ōmə/ [ˌoʊˈkʰimə], but one web site claims the local pronunciation is actually /ǔkēmə/ [ˈʌkimə]. 27-Aug.-2010

[47] He is described as Director Ray Dennis Steckler’s “buddy since childhood”. Both of them were born and raised in Reading, but Kozlowski has preserved the local dialect much better.

[48] I had previously had Rich Beem for El Paso, but this person seems to represent El Paso better.

[49] The ANAE claims that in Odessa “cot”=“caught”, thus combining features of Inland Southern and the West. However, after extensive research I can find no evidence of this in Odessa or anywhere in the surrounding area. Instead, all I find is classic Inland Southern.

[50] This is certainly not a San Francisco accent, as can be seen by comparing it with the three listed above. It’s not clear what kind of accent he has chosen to adopt, perhaps a hint of New York City!

[51] I have been unable to find good audio samples on the Internet of people from extreme southeastern Missouri. At first it seemed that these two (Rush Limbaugh and Terry Teachout) could provide such samples, since they were clearly born and raised in these towns. However, they clearly distinguish pin and pen, and have other features from much further north. I have now interviewed a native of Port Girardeau, and she clearly merges pin and pen, and has other features of the southern portion of Midland, settling the question.

[52] Matt seems to have the Eastern New England system, except that he pronounces all of his r’s. The vowel of “father” can be heard in “garage”, quite distinct from the vowel he uses in “cot” or “caught” (which of course are the same).

[53] This case is very confusing, because Coach Fisher lived his entire youth in Clarksburg, and then did three years of college in Salem, which is nearby. This would usually be an excellent indicator of a pure dialect. However, instead of speaking the Allegheny Midland dialect, with no cot-caught distinction, as Labov indicates for Clarksburg, and as the other example above shows, he seems to clearly speak Lowland Southern, which has two major changes from Allegheny Midland: 1) a clear cot-caught distinction and 2) monophthongization of the long /ī/ [aɪ] vowel to [a], which strongly suggests that he has adapted his speech to Lowland Southern. This is unexpected, since most people who are capable of adapting to another dialect choose General American rather than Lowland Southern. However, he did live nearly 20 years in Alabama and Louisiana as an adult, giving him ample opportunity to make this adaptation. 30-Dec.-2010

[54] In fact, I have made the calculation, taking the population of all of the states and provinces, and estimating for the mixed states, and there are approximately 220,000,000 speakers for whom cot ≠ caught, and 130,000,000 for whom cot = caught.

[55] Also unlike all of the other areas with the father-bother distinction, the vowel of /ŏ/ is unrounded, as pointed out here. 11-Mar.-2016

[56] By this I don’t mean that there are no other cities or towns that straddle the border between two dialects or features. In fact, there are many such, notably all the towns and cities that straddle the border between Lowland and Inland Southern. Another case is the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-Saint Paul) in Minnesota, which straddle the line between the North Central and Western North dialects. (Read the commentary for Will Steger.) However, this does not mean that these cities and towns can be divided into distinct sections, one in one dialect and the other in another, or at least I have not found this to be the true for any of them, simply that there is a mix of the two dialects there. But unlike any of these others, New Orleans actually has distinct geographical dialect areas with surprisingly distinct dialects, something not seen anywhere else in North America. 17-Dec.-2015

[57] A bulge around Great Falls suggests that there may have been some back-settlement in this area from the west. ANAE showed Great Falls north of the bite-bout line, but in looking at several samples, I think they may have been mistaken due to limited data.

[58] Before now I had thought that Columbus, Ohio had “pin”=“pen”, but I have now realized that it does not, and have added Jack Nicklaus as the new representative speaker. 17-Dec.-2015