Филологические науки / 3. Теоретические и методологические проблемы исследования языка

Rudevskiy A.O.

Innovative University of Eurasia, the Republic of Kazakhstan

Regional Varieties of American English

Many differences of climate, plants and animal life can be found inside the borders of the United States. The USA is a large country and therefore differences can be found not only in the nature, but also among people and the language they speak. American English has also developed different regional variations. People across the country do not speak alike, although when compared to United Kingdom the language inside the country varies very little.

According to Walt Wolfram (1941 - ) American English regional differences can be found in vocabulary, pronunciation and the combinations of items as they are placed in sentences, and even language use. This article will deal with some of the differences in pronunciation, and also briefly mention some of the historical factors which have influenced regional divergence.

The differences have their roots in the time when the first settlers reached the 'new' continent. A.H. Marckwardt (1903-1975) explains how the early settlements were not likely to consist of solely of speakers from the same dialect area of Britain, but of speakers of various dialects. So as the speakers of several different English dialects communicated with each other on a daily basis, they were likely to adapt vocabulary and other features from another dialect than their own. And later on the settlers presumably created a “compromised” dialect, which had features mixed from various English dialects.

As time went on other factors also influenced the dialects. Environment had a fairly large impact on them: plants and animal life, topography and climate definitely offered some special features to the regional dialects. A.H. Marckwardt also points out that the Industrial Revolution, migrations and the different types of institutions in separate parts of the country influenced the dialects, too.

Generally the United States is divided into three main speech areas: the Northern, the Midland and the Southern. All of these three main areas could be divided into several sub-dialect areas. The Midland area is often divided into at least the North Midland and South Midland. In the Northern area there are also two regions which differ clearly from the rest of the area, New England and the New York City area. Linguists also note that Midland dialects differ as much from the Northern dialects as from the Southern dialects.

The speech differences between these three main areas can often be easily noticed by even a foreign speaker of English. On the other hand it would be very difficult to point out a specific pronunciation difference while listening to a speaker from one of these areas.

According to A.H. Marckwardt though there are some specific pronunciation differences between these areas. Some of his examples are shown in the following paragraphs.

Speakers in the Northern area generally make a clear distinction between the [ o ] and [ o ] sounds for example in the following word pairs: hoarse – horse, mourning – morning.

At the same time speakers in the Midland area often fail to make a difference between these two sounds.

The Southern speakers tend to “lose” the [ r ] sound except when it appears before vowels. In the Northern area New Englanders and speakers from the New York City area have the same tendency, but usually the rest of the speakers from that area use the [ r ] sound even when it is not before vowels.

Characteristic to the Midland speakers is the rounding of some vowels. Rounding is typical of the vowels of these words: hog, frog, log, wasp, wash.

Also the vowels of due and new are pronounced as the vowel in the word food rather than the one in the word feud.

There are also some typical features to the Southern dialects. The Southerners produce a “y-like glide” before the vowel in such words as: Tuesday, due, new.

Also while speaking it is very common for the Southerners to pronounce the final sound of the word Mrs. as the sound [ z ] .

It is generally very hard to make a clear distinction between different regional dialects. It is almost impossible to find certain characteristics that would fit a dialect on the whole. The dialects differ between every speaker. It is not only the area that the speaker comes from but also the social status, speaking style and even the sex of the speaker that have their effect on the language that is spoken. And as it was stated before, the regional differences of American English are actually fairly minor. Even though all the people do not speak alike, they are still speaking the same English language, American English.