Inland Northern American English

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This map shows the approximate extent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and thus the approximate area where the Inland North dialect predominates. Note that the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania, is excluded; the dialect spoken there more closely resembles that of Pittsburgh.
This map shows the approximate extent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and thus the approximate area where the Inland North dialect predominates. Note that the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania, is excluded; the dialect spoken there more closely resembles that of Pittsburgh.

The Inland North Dialect of American English was the "standard Midwestern" speech that is traditionally regarded as the basis for General American in the mid-20th century,[1] though it has been recently modified by the Northern cities vowel shift. This area is centered on the Great Lakes, and consists of western New York State (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse), much of Michigan's Lower Peninsula (Detroit, Grand Rapids), Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, South Bend, Gary, and Southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha).

Speakers in a corridor extending down across central Illinois from Chicago to St. Louis, Missouri, show some influence from the Northern cities shift as well, although St. Louis is not historically in the Inland North.

Notable speakers of the Inland North Dialect include actors Jim Belushi and Chris Farley, Senator Hillary Clinton, actresses Katie Holmes and Bonnie Hunt, filmmaker Michael Moore, and musician Bob Seger.

Contents

[edit] Characteristics

Many of the characteristics listed here are not unique to the region, but are found elsewhere in the United States, especially elsewhere in the Midwest. The Northern cities vowel shift, however, is found only in the Inland North—in fact, it is the feature that defines the Inland North, for modern dialectological purposes.

[edit] Phonology

  • As in General American, which was based on this accent, Inland North speech is rhotic.
  • The words roof and root may be variously pronounced with either /ʊ/ or /u/; that is, with the vowel of foot or boot, respectively. This is highly variable, however, and these words are pronounced both ways in other parts of the country.
  • The Mary-marry-merry merger: Words containing /æ/, /ɛ/, or /eɪ/ before an r and a vowel are all pronounced "[eɪ]-r-vowel", so that Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme with each other, and have the same first vowel as Sharon, Sarah, and bearing. This merger is widespread throughout the Midwest, West, and Canada.
  • The word on rhymes with don, not with dawn[2].

[edit] Phonetics

  • The Northern cities vowel shift
Main article: Northern cities vowel shift

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Inland Northern dialects, this chain shift has been occurring in six stages:

  1. The first stage of the shift is the general raising and fronting of /æ/, which often comes to be realized as a centering diphthong of the type [eə] or [ɪə].
  2. The second stage is the fronting of /ɑ/ to [a], which occupies a place close to the former /æ/.
  3. In the third stage, /ɔ/ lowers towards [ɑ].
  4. The fourth stage is the backing and lowering of /ɛ/.
  5. During the fifth stage, /ʌ/ is backed towards [ɔ].
  6. In the sixth stage, /ɪ/ is lowered and backed, although it is kept distinct from /ɛ/ in all phonetic environments, so the pin-pen merger does not occur.

Note that this shift is in progress across the region, but that each subsequent stage is a result of the previous one(s), so that an individual speaker may not display all of these shifts, but no speaker will display the last without also showing the ones before it.

  • Other characteristics
  1. Canadian raising of /aɪ/ is found in this region.[3] It occurs before some voiced consonants. For example, many speakers pronounce fire, tiger, and spider with the raised vowel.
  2. The starting point of /aʊ/ (for example, browse, down) is pronounced noticeably in the back of the mouth [bɻɑʊz], [dɑʊn], while /aɪ/ (size, dine) is much further front.
  3. Like /aʊ/, the nucleus of /oʊ/ (as in go and boat) remains a back vowel [oʊ], not undergoing the fronting that is common in some other regions. [4].
  4. /ɑr/ (as in bar) is fronted for many speakers in this region.

[edit] Vocabulary

Note that not all of these are specific to the region.

  • Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
  • (Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
  • Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. In parts of eastern Wisconsin, soda is more common.
  • Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
  • Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
  • Tennis shoes vs. New England sneakers.
  • Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain.

Individual cities and regions also have their own vocabularies. For example, in eastern and southern Wisconsin, drinking fountains are known as bubblers, and in Cleveland the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street is called a tree lawn.

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Talking the Tawk", The New Yorker
  2. ^ Labov, William, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg (2006). The Atlas of North American English. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-016746-8, Chapter 14, p. 189.
  3. ^ Labov et al. (2006), pp. 203-204.
  4. ^ Labov et al. (2006), p. 187

[edit] See also


[edit] External links


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