Click on map to enlarge: $Mapping1 Small-Scale Dialect Map Full-Scale Dialect Map The Atlas of North American English (ANAE) Map notes Dialect Description Chart Other Sources Audio Samples of Local Dialects

North American English Dialects This is just a little hobby of mine, that I thought might be interesting to a lot of people. Please let me know what you think of it. - Rick Aschmann There are 8 major dialect areas in North American English, shown in blue on the map and in the Dialect Description Chart below. 6 of these begin at the eastern seaboard and proceed west, reflecting western settlement patterns. Subdialects are shown in red. In the Dialect Description Chart additional features not shown on the map are provided for distinguishing the dialects. For many of the cities or towns on this map, you can listen to a 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 300 samples listed. I am working on making all of these maps fully clickable. The tiny map above and the Small-Scale Dialect Map below are already fully clickable. So far about half of the states and provinces of the Full-Scale Dialect Map are also. (This web page was last updated March 10, 2010. All additions within the last couple of months are marked with “New!” and the date, or with “Adjusted”.) The important recent addition is a detailed (and somewhat conjectural) map of New Orleans. Another recent addition is the Indiana Intrusion. 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! (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. - Rick Aschmann Thanks to enthusiastic contributor Eli Koslofsky, much of Kentucky and Tennessee and neighboring areas are about as thoroughly mapped as they possibly can be. (In fact, I was forced to go to a numbering system for such areas, since the scale of map is already big enough! I put the key to the numbers off the west coast.) That’s the kind of help needed to really fill out this map! Send in your links of audio and video samples! Special Interest Articles: The Cot-Caught Merger Did the cot-caught merger come from Scotland? Inland and Lowland Southern and their relationship to the extent of slavery before the Civil War The Pin-Pen Merger, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives New York City and Its Offspring New Orleans New! 30-Jan.-2010 Where do they speak without an accent? Or where do they speak “General American”? 22-July-2009 Do state or provincial borders define the dialect boundaries? New! 30-Jan.-2010 The U.S. - Canada Border and the “Badge of Identity” New! 6-Feb.-2010

Small-Scale Dialect Map

The small map below is the same as the Full-Scale Dialect Map that follows, but shows the entire map at once (on most monitors).

Click on any part of this map to move to the equivalent part of the large map. (For now this only moves to the far left or the far right, so unfortunately it doesn’t work well for the middle portions, so you will have to scroll over.)

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Full-Scale Dialect Map

Use the scroll bars to move around on this map. So far about half of the states and provinces on this map are now clickable, taking you to the list of samples from that state or province. Place the mouse over a particular state or province to see if it is currently clickable. If it is not, you will have to go to the Audio Samples of Local Dialects section and find the samples for a particular state. Only those locations with green centers, and a few with pink centers, have a sample so far. If there aren’t any of these yet for a particular state or province, then it will not be clickable, since there is no data to go to!

$Mapping3 $$width=2715 height=2298$$

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: ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch11_2nd.rev.pdf, which is chapter 11 of a draft version of the atlas, 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.)

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

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 www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch09_2nd.rev.pdf 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 he shows, especially in the west. (See The Pin-Pen Merger, The Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Texas Cattle Drives below.)

2: Long o fronting: See Map 20.2 in www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch20_2nd.rev.pdf. 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 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. New! 20-Jan.-2010

3: R-dropping: See Map 7.1 in www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch07_2nd.rev.pdf. R-droppers are also called non-rhotic English speakers. There are two types of r-droppers, which I call Systematic R-droppers and Simple R-droppers.

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. In another speech during the Cuban missile crisis he says: “Theah has been a great deal of talk on the situation in Cubar in recent days...”, which again has one intrusive r, and one dropped r.

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.

Numerous examples of both kinds of r-droppers are given in the audio samples below.

4: Canadian and Tidewater raising: See Map 15.5 in www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch15_2nd.rev.pdf, noting only the info for the /aw/ vowel, not the /ay/ vowel. For Tidewater I have gleaned the info from various sources, including stray comments in ANAE.

5: Bite-bout line: See Map 14.1 in www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch14_2nd.rev.pdf.

6: “On” line: See Map 14.2 in www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/Atlas_chapters/Ch14_2nd.rev.pdf. This is the only lexical item included in this analysis, but it seems to correlate with the phonological data. Why it turns north at its western end in the Dakotas is unclear. (The ANAE did not have Mitchell, SD or Ashley, ND, which are the surprises.) Miles City, Montana and San Francisco, California are below the line.

Dialect Description Chart

	vowel of “lot” fronted almost as much as vowel of “let”	vowel of “cot” more fronted than vowel of “cut”	vowel of “too” much more fronted than vowel of “toe”	Vowel of “far” fronted	Vowel of “caught” 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
North Central						yes	Like Western North, but “cot” = “caught”	14
West			yes			yes	Vowel of “too” significantly more fronted than vowel of “toe”, “cot” = “caught”	20
Alaska			yes			yes	Same as West (ANAE 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”
Canada (main area)			yes	very little		yes	Same as West, plus Canadian vowel shift, vowel of “cat” central, raising of “bite”, “bout”	15
Atlantic Provinces			mixed?	yes		yes	vowel of “far” fronted (but not “father”)	15
Northern New England & Montréal (Eastern New England)				yes		no	“far” & “father” fronted, systematic r-dropping, “cot” = “caught”, “father” & “bother” don’t rhyme	16
NW New England & Montréal[1]	very little	very little		yes		yes	vowel of “far” fronted (but not “father”) , “cot” = “caught” (Changed name Aug. 1, 2009)	16, (14)
North	mixed	mixed		mostly		almost all	Back vowels strongly backed
Western North	mixed	mixed		mostly		yes	Least distinctive dialect of the North, some sections are “General American” Changed name 27-Nov.-2009	14
Inland North	Yes	yes		mostly		almost all	Northern Cities Shift: “bat” strongly raised, most short vowels shifted	14
St. Louis Corridor	Yes	yes		mixed		mixed	Northern Cities Shift: “bat” strongly raised, most short vowels shifted, but many other vowels like Midland	19, 14
Indiana Intrusion[2]	no	no				yes	Only “North” because of the pronunciation of long o, the raising of “bat”, and the bite-bout line[3]. Pin=pen. (Added this dialect 16-Feb.-2010)	14
Eastern North[4]	yes	yes		very little	mixed	yes	Mostly like Western North, but some similarities to New York City (Changed name July 21, 2009)	14, 16
Albany	yes	yes		very little	yes	yes	Many vowels like New York City, but no r-dropping
Providence		yes				no	vowel of “cat” central, systematic r-dropping	14
Greater New York City					yes	Yes	Various unusual vowels, systematic r-dropping, “bad” does not rhyme with “had” (Adjusted 20-Jan.-2010)	17
The Hamptons						Yes	Less r-dropping than New York City? Really more like Atlantic Midland? “On” rhymes with “Dawn”? (More research needed!) Added 30-Nov.-2009
Midland						almost all	In many ways is intermediate between Northern and Southern[5] Changed name 27-Nov.-2009	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 New York City	19, 11
West Midland (Not in ANAE)						Yes	“cot” = “caught”	(19)
Allegheny Midland[6]						Yes	“cot” = “caught” (Changed name June 2, 2009)	19
Pittsburgh						Yes	Pittsburgh vowel shift: “out” is pronounced with no diphthong, the way a Bostonian says “art”	19
Oklahoma City (Not in ANAE) [7]						Yes	Like the parts of the Central Midland south of the pin-pen line (Added this dialect July 11, 2009)	19
East Midland (Not in ANAE)					yes	Yes	Like the Central Midland, with influences from Atlantic Midland (Added June 3, 2009)	17
Atlantic Midland[8]					yes	Yes	“bad” does not rhyme with “had”, like New York City (Adjusted 20-Jan.-2010)	17
North Florida						Yes	Like the Central Midland, “pin” = “pen”	11, 18
South Florida						Yes	Like the Central Midland, “pin” <> “pen”	11
Corpus Christi						Yes	Mixture of Southern and Northern features (but no Southern shift), “pin” = “pen”	11
Galveston(Not in ANAE)						Yes	Very similar to East Midland, or even to Atlantic Midland, except that “bad” rhymes with “had”
El Paso						Yes	“cot” <> “caught”, “pin” = “pen”	11
San Francisco					yes	yes	Very similar to East Midland, or even to Atlantic Midland, except that “bad” rhymes with “had”	(11)
South						mixed	Partial to complete Southern shift: vowels of “ride” and “buy” have no diphthong	18
Lowland South						mixed	Partial Southern shift: vowels of “ride” and “buy” have no diphthong, but “right” does, “pin” = “pen”
Savannah						yes	R-dropping, “pin” <> “pen”	18
Inland South						almost all	Full Southern shift: vowels of “ride”, “buy”, and “right” all have no diphthong, “pin” = “pen”	18
New Orleans						yes	Various dialects (see New Orleans inset on map and the New Orleans section below)	18
Outer Banks (Not in ANAE)						yes	No Southern shift, long “i” vowel often almost like “oi”, “pin” <> “pen”	(18, 11)
Charleston						yes	No Southern shift, vowels of “bait” and “boat” are not diphthongs	11, 18

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 and French mother-tongue areas of Canada	atlas.nrcan.gc.ca/site/english/maps/peopleandsociety/lang/languages2001/mt
French mother-tongue areas of Maine	en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language_in_the_United_States - Francophone_communities, www.francomaine.org/English/Carto/carto.htm
Indigenous languages	www.ethnologue.com/web.asp
the eastern boundary of Inland North	ling.upenn.edu/~dinkin/GapHandout.pdf
Greater New York City	www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Papers/TD.pdf

Multiple-region audio samples found on the Internet

Location	Source	Comment
Samples from almost all U. S. states	source	Few indications are given as to whether the speakers are natives of the area in which they were interviewed, or if they represent well the local dialect. Also, locations are often limited, and often only urban locations are given. Even so, in many cases the data is useful, and I have used it (see the next chart), especially when clearer indications are given of “nativeness”.
Samples only from north-central U. S.	csumc.wisc.edu/AmericanLanguages/english/eng_us.htm	Again, 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, includes rural speakers, which can help fill in holes. Used occasionally.

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.

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 identify 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, and I like them better than politicians.

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.

The pronunciation guide in brackets [ ] after some of the names is not IPA, but the traditional dictionary pronunciation system as used in many dictionaries. This has the advantage that it is phonemic, rather than phonetic, allowing different dialects to use the same pronunciation key and get the right result for each dialect. The syllable with primary stress is underlined. If anyone thinks I have the pronunciation of a place wrong, please let me know!

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	White male, student, born 1988	Auburn	Alabama	IDEA audio ( source)
2	U.S. representative Spencer Bachus	Birmingham	Alabama	YouTube video New! 10-Mar.-2010
3	Bobby Bowden, football coach	Birmingham	Alabama	YouTube video
4	U.S. Senator Richard Shelby	Birmingham	Alabama	YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009
5	White male, student, born 1980	Brewton	Alabama	IDEA audio ( source)
6	Charlie Hodge, Elvis associate	Decatur	Alabama	YouTube video New! 30-Jan.-2010
7	Governor Jim Folsom, Sr.	Elba	Alabama	audio links New! 30-Jan.-2010
8	White male, student, born 1981	Elberta	Alabama	IDEA audio ( source)
9	Sam Phillips, record producer	Florence	Alabama	YouTube video New! 30-Jan.-2010
10	Ron Sparks, Alabama Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries	Fort Payne	Alabama	YouTube video
11	Sonny James Loden, country singer	Hackleburg	Alabama	YouTube video 7-Nov.-2009
12	City council meeting	Hamilton	Alabama	YouTube video All speakers clearly Inland North! 7-Nov.-2009
13	Charlie Louvin, country singer	Henagar	Alabama	YouTube video New! 10-Mar.-2010
14	U.S. representative Bud Cramer	Huntsville	Alabama	YouTube video 1-June-2009
15	Eugene Walter, writer	Mobile	Alabama	YouTube video New! 7-Dec.-2009
16	Robert Lightfoot, Marshall Space Flight Center director	Montevallo	Alabama	YouTube video New! 10-Mar.-2010
17	Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom, Jr.	Montgomery	Alabama	YouTube video
18	Steve Patton, football coach	Oneonta	Alabama	audio (other info)
19	Tammy Wynette, country singer	Redbay	Alabama	YouTube video (Clearly Inland, though with some inconsistencies, which is not surprising, given that she grew up right on the border) New! 23-Feb.-2010
20	Charlie Louvin, country singer	Section	Alabama	YouTube video
21	Jay Barker, football player	Trussville	Alabama	YouTube video
22	U.S. senator Mark Begich	Anchorage	Alaska	YouTube video
23	John Binkley, politician	Fairbanks	Alaska	YouTube video
24	Jake Metcalfe, politician	Juneau	Alaska	YouTube video
25	Andy Devine, actor	Kingman	Arizona	YouTube video (Chubby guy with odd voice. Also plays Friar Tuck on Disney’s Robin Hood.) 1-Sep.-2009
26	Carlos Nakai, Native American flutist	Flagstaff	Arizona	YouTube video 26-Sep.-2009
27	U.S. representative Ann Kirkpatrick	McNary	Arizona	YouTube video 1-Sep.-2009
28	Joan Ganz Cooney, Sesame Street creator	Phoenix	Arizona	YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009
29	Transportation Sec. Mary Peters	Phoenix	Arizona	YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009
30	U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini	Tucson	Arizona	YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009
31	Rex Allen, western actor	Willcox	Arizona	YouTube video 31-Aug.-2009
32	Ernest Tsosie, Navajo comedian	Window Rock	Arizona	YouTube video (other info) 26-Sep.-2009
33	Collin Raye, country singer	De Queen	Arkansas	YouTube video 13-May-2009
34	White male, born 1980	DeVall’s Bluff	Arkansas	IDEA audio ( source)
35	Bear Bryant, football coach	Fordyce	Arkansas	YouTube video
36	U.S. President Bill Clinton	Hot Springs	Arkansas	YouTube video 13-May-2009
37	Houston Nutt, college football coach [9]	Little Rock	Arkansas	YouTube video
38	Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner^9	Little Rock	Arkansas	YouTube video
39	White female, born 1947, medical technician[10]	Little Rock	Arkansas	IDEA audio ( source)
40	White male, born 1982, student	Palestine	Arkansas	IDEA audio ( source)
41	Ben Rutledge, Olympic rower	Cranbrook	British Columbia	YouTube video
42