1.3.3. Regional varieties of English in the usa

Regional varieties of American English are:

● Northern of which Canadian English is a part of

● Midland

● Southern

Each of these areas may be subdivided into subregions. Grammar is of relatively little importance for these three areas as most of dividing and subdividing is based on vocabulary and pronunciation. The lexical distinctions are evident in the more old-fashioned and rural vocabulary but some urban terms continue to reinforce the older regional terms.

Hero (NY), submarine (Pittsburgh), hoagie (Philadelphia), grinder (Boston), po' boy (New Orleans). All these words mean an average sandwich made of split loaf or bun of bread.

Vocabulary on the whole offers distinction which do not often occur and can be easily replaced by more widely used term.

Pronunciation differences in contrast to lexicon are evident in everything a person says and they are less subject to control.

The southern accents realize /ai/ as /aⁱ/ or /a/. Lack of rhoticity is typical of Eastern New England and New York City but Inland North. Rhoticity is also typical of Coastal Southern, Gulf Southern but not of Mid Southern areas. Opposition /O:/- /O/ is maintained in the South but has been lost in the North Midland and is weakening in the North.

The pronunciation of north Midland is referred to as General American. It is used to designated a huge area with numerous local differences but in which there are no noticeable sub-regional divisions. General American English is used on nation broadcasting networks.

The most vivid contrast is between North and South. There are differences in vocabulary, pronunciation and grammar. In Southern varieties including Black English such non-standard features occur:

● perfective "done" E.g. I done seen it.

● future “gon” E.g. I'm gon tell you something.

● multiple negation, E.g. I can't see nothing.

Some American scholars speak about Appalachian English and Ozark English which are found in the Southern Highlands. The English of these regions is characterized by relatively frequent occurrence of older forms which have passed out of other types of American English:

● syntactic phenomena: e.g. a-prefixing on verbs: I'm a-fixin’ to take her to town.

● morphological-phonological: initial /h/ is used where it shouldn't be:

e.g. ain't - hain't, it - hit

● lexical: e.g. before - afore, not any - nary