General American (GA) is a major accent In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation of a language. Accents can be confused with dialects which are varieties of language differing in vocabulary, syntax, and morphology, as well as pronunciation. Dialects are usually spoken by a group united by geography or social status of American English American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States. The accent is not restricted to the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language, as it is quite common in parts of Canada The land occupied by Canada was inhabited for millennia by various groups of Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the late 15th century, British and French expeditions explored, and later settled, along the Atlantic coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War. In 1867, with the union of three[citation needed]. Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English Southern American English is a group of dialects of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from Southern and Eastern Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky to the Gulf Coast, and from the Atlantic coast to most of Texas and Oklahoma, several Northeastern The Northeastern United States is a region of the United States. According to the definition used by the United States Census Bureau, the Northeast region consists of nine states: the New England states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New York, New Jersey and accents, and other distinct regional accents American English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States and social group accents like African American Vernacular English African American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular (BEV), or Black Vernacular English (BVE)—is an African American variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English. Non-linguists sometimes call it Ebonics (a term that also has other.

Contents

General American in the media

General American, like British The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland[note 7] is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, and many small islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's (or King's) English and BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to that of other European languages. Although there is nothing intrinsic about RP that marks it as superior to any other variety, sociolinguistic factors give Received (RP) as well as most standard language varieties of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire nation. However, it has become widely spoken in many American films, TV series, national news, commercial ads, and American radio broadcasts[citation needed]. Local ads, in contrast, tend to use the local accents because they are often made using salespeople or owners from local businesses[citation needed].

The General American accent is most closely related to a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters News broadcasting is the broadcasting of various news events and other information via television or radio. The content is usually either produced locally in a newsroom, or by a broadcast network. It may also include such additional material as sports coverage, weather forecasts, traffic reports, commentary and other material that the broadcaster. The famous news anchor A news presenter is a person who presents a news show on television, radio or the Internet Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years (1962–81). During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Although he reported many events from 1937 to 19 is a good example of a broadcaster using this accent[citation needed]. General American is sometimes promoted as preferable to other regional accents[citation needed]. In the United States, classes promising "accent reduction" generally attempt to teach speech patterns similar to this accent. The well-known television journalist A journalist collects and disseminates information about current events, people, trends, and issues. His or her work is acknowledged as journalism Linda Ellerbee Linda Ellerbee is an American journalist who is most known for several jobs at NBC News, including Washington (DC) correspondent, host of the Nickelodeon network's Nick News, and reporter and co-anchor of NBC News Overnight, which was recognized by the jurors of the duPont Columbia Awards as "possibly the best written and most intelligent, who worked hard early in her career to eliminate a Texas Houston is the largest city in Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States, while San Antonio is the second largest in the state and seventh largest in the United States. Dallas–Fort Worth and Greater Houston are the fourth and sixth largest United States metropolitan areas, respectively. Other major cities include El Paso and Austin—the accent, stated, "in television you are not supposed to sound like you're from anywhere"[citation needed]; political comedian Stephen Colbert Dr. Stephen Tyrone Colbert is an American political satirist, writer, comedian and television host. He is the host of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, a satirical news show in which Colbert portrays a caricatured version of conservative political pundits worked hard as a child to reduce his South Carolina The colony was originally named in honor of King Charles I, as Carolus is Latin for Charles accent because of the portrayal of Southerners as stupid on television of the day.[1][2] General American is also the accent typically taught to people learning English as a second language ESL , ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), and EFL (English as a foreign language) all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with a different native language. The precise usage, including the different use of the terms ESL and ESOL in different countries, is described below. These terms are most commonly used in relation to in the United States, as well as outside the country to anyone who wishes to learn "American English"[citation needed]. In much of Asia, for example, ESL ESL , ESOL (English for speakers of other languages), and EFL (English as a foreign language) all refer to the use or study of English by speakers with a different native language. The precise usage, including the different use of the terms ESL and ESOL in different countries, is described below. These terms are most commonly used in relation to teachers are strongly encouraged to teach American English, no matter their own origins or accents.[citation needed]

Regional home of General American

It is commonly believed that General American English evolved as a result of an aggregation of rural and suburban Midwestern dialects, though the English of the Upper Midwest can deviate quite dramatically from what would be considered a "regular" American Accent.[citation needed] The local accent often gets more distinct the farther north one goes within the Midwest, and the more rural the area, with the Northern Midwest featuring its own dialect North Central American English North Central American English is used to refer to a dialect of American English. It is also known as Upper Midwestern among some linguists. It is spoken, as its name suggests, in the northern portion of the central United States, near Canada. This dialect region includes parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin.[citation needed] The fact that a Midwestern dialect became the basis of what is General American English is often attributed to the mass migration of Midwestern farmers to California California's geography ranges from the Pacific coast to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the east, to Mojave desert areas in the southeast and the Redwood–Douglas fir forests of the northwest. The center of the state is dominated by the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world. California is the most and the Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest is a region in western North America, bound by the Pacific Ocean to the west. Always included are the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, and the Canadian province of British Columbia. Southeast Alaska, Idaho, western Montana and northern California are often included from where it spread.

The area of the United States ^ b. English is the de facto language of American government and the sole language spoken at home by 80% of Americans age five and older. Spanish is the second most commonly spoken language where the local accent is largely free of regional features

The Telsur Project[3] (of William Labov William Labov is an American linguist, widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of the methodology" of sociolinguistics. He is employed as a professor in the linguistics department of the University of and others) examines a number of phonetic properties by which regional accents of the U.S. may be identified. The area with Midwestern regional properties is indicated on the map: eastern Nebraska Once considered part of the Great American Desert , Nebraska is now a leading farming and ranching state (including Omaha Omaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles (30 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River. Omaha is the anchor of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area, which includes Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Lincoln The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second most populous city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. The population was 225,581 at the 2000 census, however the 2008 estimate puts it at 251,624), southern and central Iowa Iowa is bordered by the Mississippi River on the east; the Missouri River and the Big Sioux River on the west; the northern boundary is a line along 43 degrees, 30 minutes north latitude.[note 1] The southern border is the Des Moines River and a line along approximately 40 degrees 35 minutes north, as decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in Missouri (including Des Moines Des Moines (pronounced /dɪˈmɔɪn/ ) is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small portion of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines which was shortened to "Des Moines" in 1857. It is named after the Des), and western Illinois United States migrant settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1810s; Illinois achieved statehood in 1818. The future metropolis of Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River, one of the few natural harbors on southern Lake Michigan. Railroads and John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow made central (including Peoria Peoria is the largest city on the Illinois River and the county seat of Peoria County, Illinois, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the city was the fifth-largest in Illinois, with a population of 112,936; by 2007 it was the sixth-largest city and had population of 113,546. The Peoria Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 372, and the Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a geographic region of the Mid-Mississippi Valley of the United States that includes several communities in the states of Iowa and Illinois. As of 2009, the population is 379,066 and consists of four counties: Scott County in Iowa and Henry, Mercer, and Rock Island counties in Illinois but not the Chicago Chicago ( /ʃɨˈkɑːɡoʊ/ or /ʃɨˈkɔːɡoʊ/) is the largest city in both Illinois and the Midwest, and the third most populous city in the United States, with over 2.8 million living within the city limits. Its metropolitan area, commonly named "Chicagoland", is the 26th most populous in the world, home to an estimated 9.7 million area).

Since the 1960s, northeastern Ohio and much of the rest of the Inland North have been affected by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift The Northern cities vowel shift is a chain shift in the sounds of some vowels in the dialect region of American English known as the Inland North.[4]

The fact that the NCS is well established in Michigan is particularly interesting in light of the dominant beliefs about local speech. As research by Dennis Preston has shown, Michiganians believe they are “blessed” with a high degree of linguistic security; when surveyed, they rate their own speech as more correct and more pleasant than that of even their fellow Mid-westerners. By contrast Indianans Hoosier is the official demonym for a resident of the U.S. State of Indiana. Although residents of most U.S. states typically adopt a derivative of the state name, e.g., Indianan or Indianian, natives of Indiana never use these demonyms. The State of Indiana adopted the nickname "Hoosier State" more than 150 years ago. "Hoosiers& tend to rate the speech of their state on par with that of Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Indeed, it is not uncommon to find Michiganders who will claim that the speech of national broadcasters is modeled on their dialect. Even a cursory comparison of the speech of the network news anchors with that of the local news anchors in Detroit will reveal the fallacy of such claims.

Nevertheless, the Michiganders’ faith that they speak an accentless variety is just an extreme version of the general stereotype of Midwestern English. [1]

Particularly important in setting standards was John Kenyon Born in Medina, Ohio, he graduated from Hiram College in 1898 and taught there as a professor of English from 1916 to 1944, when he retired and became an emeritus professor until his death. Together with Thomas A. Knott, he wrote A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English , still regarded as a classic guide to American English pronunciation, the pronunciation editor of the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary Webster's Dictionary is the name given to a common type of English language dictionary in the United States. The name is derived from lexicographer Noah Webster and has become a genericized trademark for this type of dictionary.[5]

Phonology

Consonants

A table containing the consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are [p], pronounced with the lips; [t], pronounced with the front of the tongue; [k], pronounced with the back of the tongue; [h], pronounced in the throat; [f] and [s], pronounced by forcing air through a phonemes In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances is given below:

Bilabial In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are: Labio- dental Dental In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as /t/, /d/, /n/, and /l/ in some languages. Dentals are primarily distinguished from sounds in which contact is made with the tongue and the gum ridge, as in English , due to the acoustic similarity of the sounds and the Alveolar Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth. Alveolar consonants may be articulated with the tip of the tongue (so-called apical consonants), as in English, or with the flat of the tongue just above the tip (the " Post- alveolar Palatal Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate . Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex Velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum) Glottal Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider them to be consonants at all. However, the glottal
Plosive A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. The terms plosive and stop are usually used interchangeably, but they are not perfect synonyms. Plosives are oral stops with a pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. The term is also used to describe oral stops. Many use the term nasal p The voiceless bilabial plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is p, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is p. The voiceless bilabial plosive in English is spelled with 'p', as in pit or speed b t d k ɡ The voiced velar plosive is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ɡ, and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is g. Strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called "opentail G" , though the "looptail G" is considered an acceptable
Affricate Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative (such as [s] or [z] or occasionally into a fricative trill) rather than directly into the following vowel tʃ dʒ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l
Approximant ɹ j (ʍ) w

The phoneme /ʍ/ is present only in varieties that have not undergone the wine-whine merger. /ʍ/ is often analyzed as a consonant cluster of /hw/. Also, many Americans realize the phoneme /ɹ/ (often transcribed as /r/) as a retroflex approximant [ɻ][citation needed].

Vowels

General American has sixteen or seventeen vowel sounds that can be used in stressed syllables as well as two that can be used only in unstressed syllables. Most of the vowel sounds are monophthongs. The monophthongs of General American are shown in the table below:

Monophthongs Front Central Back
plain rhotacized
Close i u
Near-close ɪ ʊ
Close-mid e[6] o[6]
Mid ə ɚ
Open-mid ɛ ɝ ʌ • ɔ
Near Open æ ɑ

Depending on one's analysis, people who merge the vowels of cot and caught to /ɑ/ either have no phoneme /ɔ/ at all or have the [ɔ] only before /r/. Words like north and horse are usually transcribed /nɔɹθ/ and /hɔɹs/, but since all accents with cot and caught merged to /kɑt/ have also undergone the horse-hoarse merger, it may be preferable to transcribe north and horse /noɹθ/ and /hoɹs/.[7] Thus, in these cases, the [ɔ] before /ɹ/ can be analyzed as an allophone of /o/. [ɝ] and [ɚ] are often analyzed as sequences of /ʌr, ər/, respectively. /ə/ is an indeterminate vowel that occurs only in unstressed syllables.

Among speakers who distinguish between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, the vowel of cot (usually transcribed /ɑ/), is sometimes more of a central vowel which may vary from [a–] to [ɑ+], while /ɔ/ is phonetically lower, closer to [ɒ].[8] Among cot-caught merged speakers, /ɑ/ usually remains a back vowel, [ɑ], sometimes showing lip rounding as [ɑʷ] or [ɒ], and, since these speakers do not distinguish between /ɑ/ and /ɔ/, their retracted allophones for /ɑ/ may be identical to the lowered allophones of /ɔ/ among speakers who preserve the contrast.

The diphthongs of General American are shown in the next table:

Diphthongs Offglide is a front vowel Offglide is a back vowel
Opener component is unrounded aɪ eɪ[6] aʊ
Opener component is rounded ɔɪ oʊ[6]

Characteristics

While there is not any single formal definition of General American, various features are considered to be part of it, including rhotic pronunciation, which maintains the coda [ɹ] in words like pearl, car, and court[citation needed]. Unlike RP, General American is characterized by the merger of the vowels of words like father and bother, flapping, and the reduction of vowel contrasts before [ɹ][citation needed]. General American also generally has yod-dropping after alveolar consonants[citation needed]. Other phonemic mergers, including the cot-caught merger, the pin-pen merger, the Mary-marry-merry merger and the wine-whine merger, may be found optionally at least in informal and semiformal varieties[citation needed].

One phenomenon apparently unique to General American is the behavior of words that in RP have /ɒrV/ where /V/ stands for any vowel. These words are treated differently in different North American accents: in New York-New Jersey English, Philadelphia dialect, and the Carolinas they are all pronounced with /-ɑr-/ and in Canadian English they are all pronounced with /-ɔr-/ (thus a Canadian's sorry sounds like sore-ee to an American). But in General American there is a split: the majority of these words have /-ɔr-/, like Canadian English, but the last four words of the list below have /-ɑr-/, like New York-New Jersey English, for many speakers.[9] Words of this class include, among others:

RP NY/NJ, Philadelphia, and the Carolinas GA Can.
orange ˈɒrɪndʒ ˈɑrəndʒ ˈɔrəndʒ
origin ˈɒrədʒɪn ˈɑrədʒɪn ˈɔrədʒɪn
Florida ˈflɒrɨdə ˈflɑrədə ˈflɔrədə
horrible ˈhɒrɨbl̩ ˈhɑrəbl̩ ˈhɔrəbl̩
quarrel ˈkwɒrəl ˈkwɑrəl ˈkwɔrəl
warren ˈwɒrən ˈwɑrən ˈwɔrən
borrow ˈbɒrəʊ ˈbɑroʊ ˈbɔroʊ
tomorrow təˈmɒrəʊ təˈmɑroʊ təˈmɔroʊ
sorry ˈsɒri ˈsɑri ˈsɔri
sorrow ˈsɒrəʊ ˈsɑroʊ ˈsɔroʊ

See also

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Gross, Terry (January 24, 2005), , Fresh Air (National Public Radio), , retrieved 2007-07-11
  2. ^ Safer, Morley (August 13, 2006), The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's 'Fake' Newsman, 60 Minutes, http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/60minutes/main1553506.shtml, retrieved 2006-08-15
  3. ^ Telsur Project home page
  4. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:187–208)
  5. ^ Seabrook (2005)
  6. ^ a b c d For most speakers, what are often transcribed as /e o/ are realized as [eɪ oʊ], especially in open syllables.
  7. ^ Wells (1982:479)
  8. ^ Wells (1982:476)
  9. ^ Shitara (1993:?)

References

Dialects and accents of Modern English by continent
Africa Cameroon · Liberian · Malawian · Namibian · Nigerian · South African · Ugandan
Asia Burmese · Chinese · Hong Kong · Indian (regional/occupational dialects) · Malaysian (Manglish) · Pakistani · Philippine · Singaporean (Singlish) · Sri Lankan
Europe
Great Britain Black British · Black Country · Brummie · Cockney · Cumbrian · East Anglian · East Midlands · Estuary · Geordie · Kentish · Lancashire · Mackem · Mancunian · Manx · Multicultural London · Norfolk · Northern · Pitmatic · Potteries · Received Pronunciation · Scottish (Glaswegian · Highland) · Scouse · Southern · Sussex · West Midlands · Welsh (Cardiff) · West Country · Yorkshire
Ireland Cork · Dublin · Belfast · Derry · Mid Ulster
Other Czech · Dutch (Dunglish) · French · German · Gibraltarian (Llanito) · Guernsey · Jersey · Maltese · Polish · Swedish
North America
United States African American Vernacular · Appalachian · Baltimorese · Boston · Buffalonian · Cajun · California · Central Pennsylvania · Chicano · General American · Hudson Valley · Inland Northern American · Midland · New England · New Jersey · New York City · North Central American · Northeast Pennsylvania · Pacific Northwest · Pennsylvania Dutch English · Philadelphia · Pittsburgh · Southern American · Tidewater · Western · Yat · Yooper
Canada Cape Breton · Lunenburg · Maritimer · Newfoundland · Ottawa Valley Twang · Quebec · West/Central Canadian
Other Belizean · Bermudian · Caribbean (Bahamian · Jamaican · Trinidadian)
South America Falkland Islands · Guyanese
Oceania
Australia Australian Aboriginal · South Australian · Torres Strait · Western Australian
Other New Zealand · Norfuk · Pitkern
Related English language · American and British English differences · Anglish · Basic · E-Prime · Engrish · English as a lingua franca · Globish · International · Mid-Atlantic (American Theater Standard) · Non-native pronunciations of English · Pidgin · Plain · Simplified · Special · Standard

Categories: American English

 

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