English language Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === North America === {{Main|American English|General American English|Southern American English|African-American Vernacular English|Canadian English|Atlantic Canadian English}} {| style="text-align: center; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" | {{listen|filename=Emery Emery Voice.ogg|title=Speech example|description=An example of a [[Midwestern America]]n man with a [[General American accent]] ([[Emery Emery]]).|image=none}} | {{listen|filename=Rep. Martha Roby's "Roller Coaster" Speech Sound Bite.flac|title=Speech example|description=An example of an [[Alabamian]] woman with a contemporary [[Southern American accent]] ([[Martha Roby]]).|help=no|image=none}} | {{listen|filename=Chuck Zito on Becoming a Hells Angel.flac|title=Speech example|description=An example of a man with a [[New York City accent]] ([[Chuck Zito]]).|help=no|image=none}} |- | {{listen|filename=Sec. Walsh on Construction Jobs in Infrastructure Bill v2.flac|title=Speech example|description=An example of a man with a [[Boston accent]] ([[Marty Walsh]]).|help=no|image=none}} | {{listen|filename=On the phone- Russell Gage.ogg|title=Speech example|description=An example of two men with [[AAVE accents]], the interviewer from [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] ([[D. J. Shockley]]) and the interviewee from [[Louisiana]] ([[Russell Gage]]).|help=no|image=none}} | {{listen|filename=Margaret atwood bbc radio4 front row 27 07 2007 b007tjpb.flac|title=Speech example|description=An example of an [[Ontarian]] woman with a [[Standard Canadian accent]] ([[Margaret Atwood]]).|help=no|image=none}} |} [[File:Population speaking English at home by PUMA.png|thumb|Percentage of Americans aged 5+ speaking English at home in each public usage microdata area (PUMA) of the 50 states, [[Washington, D.C.]] and [[Puerto Rico]]. according to the 2016–2021 five-year [[American Community Survey]]]] [[File:Non-RhoticityUSA.png|thumb|[[Rhoticity in English|Rhoticity]] dominates in [[North American English]], but ''[[The Atlas of North American English]]'' found over 50% non-rhoticity with at least one local speaker in each US metropolitan area (designated with a red dot) and non-rhotic [[African-American Vernacular English]] pronunciations found primarily among [[African Americans]] regardless of location.]] [[North American English]] is generally homogeneous compared to [[British English]], but this has been disputed.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Handbook of World Englishes |date=2020 |publisher=Wiley |isbn=978-1-119-16421-0 |page=45 |chapter=3 |quote=American English has traditionally been perceived as relatively homogeneous, at least in comparison with British dialects... However... others strongly opposed this notion}}</ref> American accent variation is increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level,{{sfn|Labov|2012}} though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents,{{sfn|Wells|1982|page=34}} known collectively as [[General American English]] (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves, including [[Midland American English|Midland]] and [[Western American English]].{{sfn|Rowicka|2006}}{{sfn|Toon|1982}}{{sfn|Cassidy|1982}} In most American and Canadian English dialects, [[rhoticity in English|rhoticity]] (or ''r''-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping) being associated with lower prestige and social class, especially since the end of [[World War II]]. This contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.{{sfn|Labov|1972}} The English language is far and away the most widely used in the [[United States]]. Its roots trace back to the [[British colonization of the Americas|British colonial era]], which began with the settlement in present-day [[Jamestown, Virginia]] in 1607. While [[German language|German]] was the predominant language among [[Germans|German]] immigrants, who arrived primarily in eastern [[Pennsylvania]], English was ultimately widely adopted throughout the [[Thirteen Colonies]] that ultimately launched both the [[American Revolution]] and [[American Revolutionary War]] against the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]], then ruled by [[King George III]] and establishing the United States as an independent sovereign nation in September 1783. Separate from General American English are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems that have developed over time, including [[Southern American English]], the English of the coastal [[Northeastern United States]]—including [[New York City English]] and [[Eastern New England English]]—and [[African-American Vernacular English]]; all of these, aside from certain subdialects of the American South, were historically non-rhotic. [[Canadian English]] varieties, except for those of the [[Atlantic provinces]] and perhaps [[Quebec]], are generally considered to fall under the General American English continuum, although they often show [[Canadian raising|raising]] of the vowels {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} and {{IPAc-en|aʊ}} before [[voiceless consonants]] and have distinct norms for writing and pronunciation as well.{{sfn|Boberg|2010}} In [[Southern American English]], the most populous American "accent group" outside of General American English,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/|title=Do You Speak American: What Lies Ahead|access-date=15 August 2007|publisher=[[PBS]]|archive-date=14 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914172319/http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/|url-status=live}}</ref> rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's [[older Southern American English|historical non-rhotic prestige]].<ref>{{citation|title=Rural White Southern Accents|first=Erik R.|last=Thomas|publisher=[[Mouton de Gruyter]]|work=Atlas of North American English (online)|year=2003|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|page=16|access-date=11 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222004531/http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|archive-date=22 December 2014|url-status=dead}} [Later published as a chapter in: Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (eds) (2004). ''A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool.'' New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 300–324.]</ref>{{sfn|Levine|Crockett|1966}}{{sfn|Schönweitz|2001}} Southern accents are colloquially described as a "drawl" or "twang",{{sfn|Montgomery|1993}} being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift initiated by [[monophthong|glide-deleting]] in the {{IPA|/aɪ/}} vowel (e.g. pronouncing ''spy'' almost like ''spa''), the "Southern breaking" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word "press" almost like "pray-us"),{{sfn|Thomas|2008|page=95–96}} the [[pin–pen merger]], and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.{{sfn|Bailey|1997}} Spoken primarily by working- and middle-class [[African Americans]], [[African-American Vernacular English]] (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard [[older Southern American English|older Southern dialects]]. A minority of linguists,<ref name="Word on the Street">{{cite book|title=Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English|last=McWhorter|first=John H.|author-link=John McWhorter|publisher=Basic Books|year=2001|url={{GBurl|id=Edt7yUD6PkMC}}|page=162|isbn=978-0-7382-0446-8|access-date=22 November 2015}}</ref> contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a [[pidgin]] or [[Creole English]] to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins.{{sfn|Bailey|2001}} AAVE's important commonalities with Southern accents suggest it developed into a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of "broken" or "uneducated" English, as are white Southern accents, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by large speech communities.{{sfn|Green|2002}}{{sfn|Patrick|2006b}} Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page