English in the USA

The United States has three large speech areas, Eastern, Southern (Virginia to Texas and all points southwards) and Northern (from Ohio westwards).  In these three areas, many words have more than one acceptable pronunciation and therefore not everyone pronounces the same word in the same way.  Or we can say, because not everyone in the United States pronounces the same word the same way, many words have more than one acceptable pronunciation.  (see alternate pronunciations)

Differences in pronunciation or variations in language and accent are dialects.  Differences in dialect depend mainly on place of birth, education and social status. Americans who are in a low or high social strata and who live in the Eastern, Western and Southern coastal or Border States have the most recognizable regional accents.  The accents which give foreigners including Americans the most difficulty, are chewing-gum English (clipped words and a drawl), Deep South speech and African American idiom.  Within the three major speech areas of the U.S.A., there are at least 15 geographical dialect areas, all alive and flourishing. 

All major American cities whether it be New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Jacksonville, Boston or Seattle, have slight differences in speech.  Some omit the ‘r ‘, some add an ‘r’ where there is none, some prefer / æ / to/ ɑ /  some prefer  / ɔ / to /   / ɑ / and some lengthen simple vowels until they become diphthongs.

The average white-collar American changes residency at least 7 times in a lifetime and when people move from one linguistic region to another they retain certain pronunciations and adopt new ones. And when Americans  move they often travel great distances and they cross dialect boundaries while they are at it.  Given the normal adaptability factor, a person moving from one dialect area to another will have assimilated the new dialect within a year.  So, many Americans have mixed dialects and this means that their pronunciation of certain words is inconsistent.  Skilled  linguists and phoneticians can identify an American’s speech pattern in terms of their geographical region, their education and their social status. 

The development of various cultural, ethnic, regional, social  and urban dialects is a natural process that enriches our linguistic culture.  Despite regional differences in accent, idiom, and vocabulary, the dialects in the USA have far more similarities than they have differences.  The English of 265 million first-language speakers in North America shows a high degree of uniformity especially when compared to the numerous varieties of English spoken in Britain.