New England English

All you want to know about New England English

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Several dialects of American English are spoken in New England. These include Eastern New England dialect, most famously typified by the Boston accent, the Rhode Island accent and the Western New England accent, including Vermont English.

Contents

Features

Eastern New England and Rhode Island are both historically non-rhotic accents, while Western New England is historically rhotic. Eastern New England possesses the so-called caught-cot merger; Rhode Island does not possess the merger; and Western New England exhibits a continuum from full merger in northern Vermont to full distinction in western Connecticut. The Western New England accent is closely related to the Inland North accent which prevails further west.

Regional Variances

The red areas are those where non-rhotic pronunciation is found among some whites in the United States. AAVE-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among African-Americans throughout the country. Map based on Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006:48)
The red areas are those where non-rhotic pronunciation is found among some whites in the United States. AAVE-influenced non-rhotic pronunciations may be found among African-Americans throughout the country. Map based on Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006:48)

Within New England English exists a number of dialects particular to individual states and regions. These include the dialects of Eastern New England, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Boston and Rhode Island.

Boston English

Main article: Boston accent

Vermont English

 Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)

The dialect of the English Language spoken in the U.S. state of Vermont is often referred to as Vermont English. Although a New England state, the variety of English spoken in most parts of the state generally has more in common with the accent spoken in nearby New York State and parts of the Midwest. Features include:

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  • The [æ/] in words like 'bad' and 'cat' is tensed in most environments to [eə], though rarely to the same extreme as the Inland North dialect.[1]

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  • As with Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and some Great Lakes English, glottal replacement of 't' is common.[2]

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  • As with Maine and New Hampshire, 'caught' and 'cot' are usually merged, in this case to [ɑ].[1]

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  • Words ending in the letter 'a' are pronounced as if the word ended in 'er', for instance the word area would be pronounced [eɪriɝ].[1]

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c Walsh, Molly. "Vermont Accent: Endangered Species?". Burlington Free Press. Retrieved on 2007-11-20.
  2. ^ MacQuarrie, Brian. "Taking bah-k Vermont", The Boston Globe. 
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