North–Central American English

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North–Central American English is used to refer to a dialect of American English. The region is also known as Upper Midwest among some linguists, consisting primarily of the area of Northern American English, specifically excluding the area of Inland Northern American English and areas east thereof.^[1] It is also sometimes called the Minnesota Accent or Great Lakes Accent.^[who?] It is spoken by about 12 million people in the Upper Midwest and the northern portion of the central United States bordering Canada. This dialect region includes parts of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, parts of Wisconsin and Iowa, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is considered a residual region, distinct from the neighboring regions of the West, the North, and Canada.^[2]

Characteristics

Not all of these characteristics are unique to the North Central region.

Vowels

• /uː/ and /oʊ/ are "conservative" in this region, and do not undergo the fronting that is common in some other regions of the United States.
• In addition to being conservative, /oʊ/ may be monophthongal, sometimes with lengthening: [o] ~ [oː]. The same is true for /eɪ/, which leads to variants like [e] or [eː], though data suggests that monophthongal variants are more common for /oʊ/ than for /eɪ/, and also that they are more common in coat than in ago or road, which may indicate phonological conditioning. Regionally, monophthongal mid vowels are more common in the northern tier of states, occurring more frequently in Minnesota and the Dakotas but much rarer in Iowa and Nebraska.^[1] The appearance of monophthongs in this region is sometimes explained as a consequence of the high degree of Scandinavian and German immigration to these northern states in the late nineteenth century. Erik R. Thomas argues that these monophthongs are the product of language contact and notes that other areas where they occur are places where speakers of other languages have had an influence such as the Pennsylvania "Dutch" region.^[3] An alternative account posits that these monophthongal variants represent historical retentions. Diphthongization of the mid vowels seems to have been a relatively recent phenomenon, appearing within the last few centuries, and did not affect all dialects in the U.K. The monophthongs heard in this region may stem from the influence of Scots-Irish or other British dialects that maintain such forms. The fact that the monophthongs also appear in Canadian English may lend support to this account since Scots-Irish speech is known as an important influence in Canada.
• Some speakers exhibit raising of /æ/ before voiced velars (/ɡ/ and /ŋ/), with an up-glide rather than an in-glide, so that bag sounds close to beg or the first syllable of bagel in other dialects (other examples of where this applies include the word flag and agriculture). Sometimes the two are merged.^[2]
• Canadian raising of /aɪ/ is found in this region. It occurs before some voiced consonants. For example, many speakers pronounce fire, tiger, and spider with the raised vowel.^[4] Some speakers in this region raise /aʊ/ as well.^[5]
• The onset of /aʊ/ when not subject to raising is often quite far back, resulting in pronunciations like [ɑʊ].
• The cot–caught merger takes place in parts of this region.^[2]
• 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 "[ɛ]-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 pen–pin merger does not occur.
• There is no Canadian shift.^[2]

Consonants

• North Central speech is rhotic.

See also

• Yooper dialect
• North American English regional phonology
• Regional vocabularies of American English

References

Further reading

• Kortmand, Bernd, Schneider, Edgar W. (2004). A Handbook of Varieties of English. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3-11-017532-0, ISBN 978-3-11-017532-5