California English (or Californian, Californian English) is a dialect of the English language spoken in California.[1] California is home to a highly diverse population, which is reflected in the historical and continuing development of California English.
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English was first spoken on a wide scale in the area now known as California following the influx of English-speaking Whites from the United States and Canada during the California Gold Rush. The English-speaking population grew rapidly with subsequent migrations, which included large populations from New England, initially, and later, the Midwest. The dialects imported by these early migrants were the basis for the development of the modern language.
Before World War I, the variety of speech types reflected the differing origins of these early inhabitants. At the time a distinctly southwestern drawl could be heard in Southern California, although the San Francisco area sounded more Midwestern. When a collapse in commodity prices followed World War I, many bankrupted Midwestern farmers migrated to California, bringing speech characteristic of Nebraska, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa; and this speech type has dominated to this day. Subsequently, incoming groups with differing speech, such as the speakers of Highland Southern during the 1930s, have been absorbed within a generation. The Dust bowl migration of the so-called Okies introduced the Southern accent to the west coast in the 1920s and 30s before the migration ended in World War II.
California's status as a relatively young state is significant in that it has not had centuries for regional patterns to emerge and grow (compared to, say, some East Coast or Southern dialects). Linguists who studied English as spoken in California before and in the period immediately after World War II tended to find few if any distinct patterns unique to the region.[2] However, several decades later, with a more settled population and continued immigration from all over the globe, a noteworthy set of emerging characteristics of California English had begun to attract notice by linguists of the late 20th century and on.
As a variety of American English, California English is similar to most other forms of American speech in being a rhotic accent, which is historically a significant marker in differentiating different English varieties. The following vowel diagram represents the relative positions of the stressed monophthongs of the accent, based on nine speakers from southern California.[3] Notable is the absence of /ɔ/, which has merged with /ɑ/ through the cot–caught merger, and the relatively open quality of /ɪ/ due to the California vowel shift discussed below.
Several phonological processes have been identified as being particular to California English. However, these shifts are by no means universal in Californian speech, and any single Californian's speech may only have some or none of the changes identified below. The shifts might also be found in the speech of people from areas outside of California.
One topic that has begun to receive much attention among scholars in recent years has been the emergence of a vowel shift unique to California. Much like other vowel shifts occurring in North America, such as the Southern Shift, Northern Cities Shift, and the Canadian Shift, the California Vowel Shift is noted for a systematic chain shift of several vowels.
This image on the right illustrates the California vowel shift. The vowel space of the image is a cross-section (as if looking at the interior of a mouth from a side profile perspective); it is a rough approximation of the space in a human mouth where the tongue is located in articulating certain vowel sounds (the left is the front of the mouth closer to the teeth, the right side of the chart being the back of the mouth). As with other vowel shifts, several vowels may be seen moving in a chain shift around the mouth. As one vowel encroaches upon the space of another, the adjacent vowel in turn experiences a movement in order to maximize phonemic differentiation.
Two phonemes, /ɪ/ and /æ/, have allophones that are fairly widely spread apart from each other: before /ŋ/, /ɪ/ is raised to [i] and, as mentioned above, may even be identified with the phoneme /i/. In other contexts, /ɪ/ has a fairly open pronunciation, as indicated in the vowel chart above. /æ/ is raised and diphthongized to [eə] or [ɪə] before nasal consonants (a shift reminiscent of, but more restricted than, non-phonemic æ-tensing in the Inland North); before /ŋ/ it may be identified with the phoneme /e/. Elsewhere /æ/ is lowered in the direction of [a]. The other parts of the chain shift are apparently context-free: /ʊ/ is moving towards [ʌ], /ʌ/ towards [ɛ], /ɛ/ toward [æ], /ɑ/ toward [ɔ], and /u/ and /oʊ/ are diphthongs whose nuclei are moving toward [i] and [e] respectively.[5]
Unlike some of the other vowel shifts, however, the California Shift is generally considered to be in earlier stages of development as compared to the more widespread Northern Cities and Southern Shifts, although the new vowel characteristics of the California Shift are increasingly found among younger speakers. As with many vowel shifts, these significant changes occurring in the spoken language are rarely noticed by average speakers; imitation of peers and other sociolinguistic phenomena play a large part in determining the extent of the vowel shift in a particular speaker. For example, while some characteristics such as the close central rounded vowel [ʉ] or close back unrounded vowel [ɯ] for /u/ are widespread in Californian speech, the same high degree of fronting for /oʊ/ is common only within certain social groups.
Older native Californians tend to pronounce the suffixes -ive (motive) and -age (message) as eve and eej, respectively.
In the southern Central Valley (Kern, Tulare, and Kings Counties), where a large number of people from Oklahoma emigrated during the Dust Bowl, many white Californians speak with an Oklahoma-like accent that is quite distinct from the English spoken in coastal Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay region.
The popular image of a typical California speaker often conjures up images of the so-called Valley girls popularized by the 1982 hit song by Frank and Moon Unit Zappa, or "surfer-dude" speech made famous by movies such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High. While many phrases found in these extreme versions of California English from the 1980s may now be considered passé, certain words such as awesome, totally, fer sure, harsh and dude have remained popular in California and have spread to a national, even international, level. The use of the word like for numerous grammatical functions or as conversational "filler" (e.g. in place of thinking sounds "uh" and "um") has also remained popular in California English and is now found in many other varieties of English.
A common example of a Northern Californian[6] colloquialism is hella (from "hell of a (lot of)", rare euphemistic alternative, hecka) to mean "many", "much", "so" or "very".[7] It can be used with both count and mass nouns. For example: "I haven't seen you in hella days"; "There were hella people there"; or "This guacamole is hella good." More rarely, hella may also heard when used as an affirmative interjection. "Dude... Just got off the phone. Hooked us up for tonight with those bangin' snowboarder betties from earlier." - "Hel-llaa!" Pop culture references to "hella" are common, as in the song "Hella Good" by the band No Doubt, which hails from Southern California, and "Hella" by the band Skull Stomp, who come from Northern California.[8]
Popular Culture - Because California has traditionally been the filming location of a large number of television and commercial motion pictures based in the Southern California (Hollywood/Burbank) area, many transplanted actors/actresses from other states/countries have been obliged to learn/adopt a California accent in order to get acting roles.
Because these films and series are distributed across America and the rest of the world, it has become a recognized baseline standard of American speech, although regional dialects (Northeast, Southeast, Midwest) still persist in the US.
California, like other Southwestern states, has borrowed many words from Spanish, especially for place names, food, and other cultural items, reflecting the heritage of Mexican Californians. High concentrations of various ethnic groups throughout the state have contributed to general familiarity with words describing (especially cultural) phenomena. For example, a high concentration of Asian Americans from various cultural backgrounds, especially in urban and suburban metropolitan areas in California, has led to the adoption of words like hapa (itself originally a Hawaiian borrowing of English "half"[9]). A person who was hapa was either part European/Islander or part Asian/Islander. Today it refers to a person of mixed racial heritage — especially, but not limited to, half-Asian/half-European-Americans in common California usage) and FOB ("fresh off the boat", often a newly arrived Asian immigrant). Not surprisingly, the popularity of cultural food items such as Vietnamese phở and Taiwanese boba in many areas has led to the general adoption of such words amongst many speakers.
Since the 1950s and 1960s, California culture (and thus its variety of English) has been significantly affected by "car culture," that is, dependence on private automobile transportation and the effects thereof.
One difference between California and most of the rest of the United States has been the way California English speakers refer to highways, or freeways. The term freeway itself is not used in many areas outside California; for instance, in New England, the term highway is universally used. Where most Americans may refer to "I-80" for the east-west Interstate Highway leading from San Francisco to the suburbs of Oakland or "I-15" for the north-south artery linking San Diego through Salt Lake City to the Canadian border, Californians -- especially Southern Californians -- are less likely to use the "I." Northern and Southern Californians alike are even less likely to use the "interstate" designation in naming freeways.
The numbering of freeway exits, common in most parts of the United States, has only recently been applied in California and initially appearing only in more populous areas. Thus, virtually all Californians refer to exits by signage name rather than by number, as in "the Grand Avenue exit" (in Los Angeles) rather than "Exit 21."
A common expression amongst residents of the San Francisco Bay Area is to refer to the city of San Francisco itself as simply "The City". Some Mexican Spanish-speakers refer to it as "San Pancho" because Pancho is a nickname for the Spanish name Francisco. Similarly, the city of South San Francisco in San Mateo County and thus not a part of the city and county of San Francisco, is sometimes referred to as "South City", especially within the San Francisco Examiner.
The metro region often referred to as the Bay Area includes San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda, Marin, Contra Costa, Sonoma, Solano and Napa counties.
The San Francisco Bay Area is commonly referred to as "the Bay Area" or sometimes simply as "The Bay". The Bay Area is sub-divided into several regions:
The term "Frisco" is rarely used by San Francisco Bay Area residents, much as "The Big Apple" is not typically used by native New Yorkers. However, though well-known newspaper columnist Herb Caen once harshly criticized the use of the term "Frisco", he later recanted, and the term continues to be used.[17] Still, the term "Frisco" continues to be viewed by many as either revealing ignorance, or as vaguely derogatory. Emperor Norton, a colorful 19th century inhabitant of San Francisco, once issued a proclamation about the City's nickname:
| “ | Whoever after due and proper warning shall be heard to utter the abominable word "Frisco", which has no linguistic or other warrant, shall be deemed guilty of a High Misdemeanor, and shall pay into the Imperial Treasury as penalty the sum of twenty-five dollars.[18] | ” |
In 1918 in his courtroom, a San Francisco judge rebuked a Los Angeles resident's use of the nickname "Frisco" by saying "No one refers to San Francisco by that title except people from Los Angeles."[19] Decades later, San Francisco columnist Herb Caen renewed the drive to keep "Frisco" out of San Francisco.[20]
Some Northern Californians refer to Sacramento, the state capital, as "Sac", "Sacto", "Sactown", "Sacra" (by the Chicano community), "Sacratomato" (for the local tomato canning industry) and various other nicknames.
Bay Area and Sacramento residents speak of going "up the hill" into the neighboring mountains to Lake Tahoe or Reno, Nevada, but "over the hill" for crossing the Santa Cruz Mountains, either to Santa Cruz or Half Moon Bay. In the Sacramento area, "the Valley" refers to the Central Valley. Also residents of West Marin will call the San Geronimo Valley as "the valley and Mount Tamalpais "the hill" , as in you're from "the valley" or I'm going "over the hill". Additionally, residents of the Bay Area will sometimes refer to the area of the Santa Clara Valley and surrounding cities as "the Valley" or as the more famous term, "Silicon Valley". Residents of Santa Cruz use the phrase "over the hill" to refer to Silicon Valley (which is often referred to by Santa Cruz "locals" as "The Pit"), but for them "the Bay" refers to closer Monterey Bay, not San Francisco Bay.
Southern California has many distinctive accents and dialects; these often reflect the geographic origins of the people who came there. Bakersfield English and the "Valley Girl" dialect of the San Fernando Valley have their roots in the Ozark English of Arkansas and Missouri, and first developed when many people from the Ozarks migrated to California in the 1930s. East Los Angeles and the Gateway Cities house a distinctive form of Chicano English. These dialects can exist in very small areas, such as the traditionally New Orleanian Yat in northern Pasadena.
In the city of Los Angeles, the terms "Westside" and "Eastside" are frequently used to refer to regions on either side of the city. The boundaries of these regions are not defined, and whether certain neighborhoods should be included in the Westside or the Eastside remains a heated topic of discussion.[21] Generally, the Westside includes neighborhoods with the area code 310, including Santa Monica, Westwood and Culver City. The Eastside includes neighborhoods east of the Los Angeles River such as Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles and Whittier.
Neighborhoods south of downtown Los Angeles are typically referred to as "South Central" (though officially renamed to "South L.A." 2003). South Central initially referred to Central Ave South of Jefferson which was a major location for jazz and nightlife in the fifties and sixties. Neighborhoods in South L.A. include Watts, Leimert Park, and Inglewood.
In Los Angeles County, the "South Bay" refers to the area adjacent to southern Santa Monica Bay, encompassing communities between Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the Port of Los Angeles. This area includes the Beach Cities (Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach), El Segundo, the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Hawthorne, Lawndale and Torrance.
The San Fernando Valley, which lies north of the Santa Monica mountains, is often called simply "the Valley." It became a cultural phenomenon and a major real estate destination for millions of Angelenos to call home in the 20th century. And indeed where the "Valley girl/boy" accent developed in the later 1970s and 1980s or early 1990s become popularized by teenagers and young adults nationwide and globally through Hollywood's media circuit.
Residents of Long Beach simply refer to their city as Long Beach. Although residents outside the region may refer to the city as the "LBC," popularized in the media by famous residents, such as the rapper Snoop Dogg.
The Inland Empire, which encompasses cities in San Bernardino, Riverside, and sometimes the eastern edge of Los Angeles counties, is commonly referred to as "the I.E." or "the 909" for its original telephone area code. Although the United States Census Bureau defines the Inland Empire region as all of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, these counties' high or low desert regions are frequently excluded from the colloquial definition, which refers instead to the more urbanized area around the cities of Riverside and Rancho Cucamonga and other cities in the Pomona Valley which may also include Los Angeles County. Typically, this excludes all areas north of Cajon Pass and San Gorgonio Pass.
Residents in communities in the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains (i.e. Crestline, Wrightwood, Lake Arrowhead, Big Bear) will refer to people on either side of the mountains as "flat-landers". This practice is also common among hikers and outdoor enthusiasts when referring to those who do not venture into the mountains. In an example of wry understatement, the residents of these mountain communities also refer to the rather lengthy journeys between them and the surrounding lowlands as "going down (or up) the hill."
A common colloquialism for Orange County is "behind The Orange Curtain", referring to the politically conservative demographics for that area. This term is typically used by Californians who self-identify as politically liberal. According to the Fox television show The O.C., the abbreviation of the county's name tends to be mainly used by those from outside of the area, rather than natives. Many residents of Orange County refer to their telephone area codes to describe where in Orange County they are from. The "562" or "714" refers to people in Northern Orange County and the older suburban communities of Cypress, California, La Palma, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Huntington Beach, Sunset Beach, Fountain Valley, Brea, Fullerton, Orange, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Westminster, Tustin and Anaheim, while "949" refers to more affluent and recently developed communities in South Orange County such as Irvine, Mission Viejo, Aliso Viejo, Foothill Ranch, Laguna Hills, Newport Beach, Rancho Santa Margarita, and Coto de Caza. The "909" area code refers to people inland from Orange County, typically from Riverside and further inland, and is used by many native southern Californians, especially those living in cities near the beaches, as a derogatory term for tourists, "909ers". Rarely, people will even refer to their zip codes to communicate where they live, many times an indication of their income level.
In San Diego County, "South Bay" refers to the area adjacent to the southern portion of San Diego Bay. Suburbs in the northern half of the county almost always identify as simply North County and suburbs immediately east of the city proper, though geographically still located in the western half of the county, identify similarly as East County. San Diego residents will also sometimes define their location relative to major highways. "South of 8" refers to communities south of the I-8, which cuts roughly through the City of San Diego. This term also implies a socioeconomic divide, residents and communities are perceived as being less affluent, as well as a greater concentration of ethnic minorities. Another common example is "East of 5", in which many central beach community residents will use to define where in San Diego they will not go to. As the I-5 follows the coastline in much of San Diego, this is a way of signifying an inclination to stay within the coastal regions of San Diego.
And finally the California Desert region: the Coachella Valley and Imperial Valley are referred to as the "Desert", but a more "Southwestern" cultural emphasis on desert western living has a more Hispanic and American Indian flavor to the local dialect. The Mojave Desert and Mono Lake area is also known as the "High Desert" due to the region's higher elevations, but has a more rural American (i.e. Southern, Midwest/Central and Texan/Western) cultural character.