North American English


North American English is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar of American English and Canadian English, the two spoken varieties are often grouped together under a single category. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, with British spellings being favored in more formal settings and in Canadian print media.
The United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States. Although many English speakers from outside North America regard such terms as distinct Americanisms, they are often just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially as spoken in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island where significant pockets of British culture still remain.
There are a considerable number of different accents within the regions of both the United States and Canada, originally deriving from the accents prevalent in different English, Scottish and Irish regions of the British Isles and corresponding to settlement patterns of these peoples in the colonies. These were developed and built upon as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, brought new accents and dialects to new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged and assimilated with the population. It is claimed that despite the centuries of linguistic changes there is still a resemblance between the English East Anglia accents which would have been used by early English settlers in New England, and modern Northeastern United States accents. Similarly, the accents of Newfoundland have some similarities to the accents of Scotland and Ireland.

Dialects

American English

Ethnic American English
Regional American English
Below, thirteen major North American English accents are defined by particular characteristics:
Accent nameMost populous urban centerStrong frontingStrong frontingStrong frontingStrong frontingCot–caught mergerPin–pen merger/æ/ raising systemOther defining criteria
African-Americanpre-nasalSouthern drawl / African-American Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity
Atlantic CanadianHalifaxvariousCanadian raising
General Americanpre-nasal
Inland Northern U.S.ChicagogeneralNorthern Cities Vowel Shift
Mid-Atlantic U.S.Philadelphiasplit
Midland U.S.Indianapolispre-nasal
New York CityNew York CitysplitVariable non-rhoticity
North-Central U.S.Minneapolispre-nasal & pre-velar
New England English|Bostonpre-nasal
Southern U.S.San Antoniopre-nasalSouthern drawl / Southern Vowel Shift
Standard CanadianTorontopre-nasal & pre-velarCanadian raising / Canadian Vowel Shift
Western U.S.Los Angelespre-nasal
Western PennsylvaniaPittsburghpre-nasal glide weakening

Phonology

A majority of North American English includes phonological features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity, conditioned T-glottalization, T- and D-flapping, L-velarization, as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before , raising of pre-voiceless , the weak vowel merger, at least one of the vowel mergers, and yod-dropping. The last item is more advanced in American English than Canadian English.