General American

General American (abbreviated as GA or GenAm) is the umbrella variety of American English—the continuum of accents[1]—spoken by a majority of
Americans and popularly perceived, among Americans, as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic characteristics.[2][3][4] Americans
with high education,[5] or from the North Midland, Western New England, and Western regions of the country, are the most likely to be perceived as
having "General American" accents.[6][7][8] The precise definition and usefulness of the term continues to be debated,[9][10][11] and the scholars who use
it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness.[9][12] Some scholars, despite controversy,[13] prefer the term
Standard American English.[4][5][14]

Standard Canadian English is sometimes considered to fall under the phonological spectrum of General American,[14] especially rather than the United
Kingdom's Received Pronunciation; in fact, spoken Canadian English aligns with General American in nearly every situation where British and
American English differ.[15]

Contents
Definition
History and modern definition
Disputed usage
Origins
Regional origins
Popularity
In the media
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Pure vowels
Gliding vowels
R-colored vowels

See also
References
Bibliography
Further reading
External links

Definition

History and modern definition

The term "General American" was first disseminated by American English scholar George Philip Krapp, who, in 1925, described it as an American type
of speech that was "Western" but "not local in character".[16] In 1930, American linguist John Samuel Kenyon, who largely popularized the term,
considered it equivalent to the speech of "the North" or "Northern American",[16] but, in 1934, "Western and Midwestern".[17] Now typically regarded
as falling under the General American umbrella are the regional accents of the West,[18][19] Western New England,[20] and the North Midland (a band
spanning central Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, and southeastern Nebraska),[21][22] plus the accents of highly
educated Americans nationwide.[5] In 1982, British phonetician John C. Wells wrote that two-thirds of the American population spoke with a General
American accent.[4] Arguably, all Canadian English accents west of Quebec are also General American,[14] though developing Canadian features,
[23]
including vowel raising, may serve to increasingly distinguish such accents from American ones.

Regarded as General American in the earlier 20th century, but not since the 1960s, are the more recent regional accents of the Mid-Atlantic United
States,[6] the Inland Northern United States,[1] and Western Pennsylvania.[6] Accents that have never been included, even since the term's popularization
in the 1930s, are the regional accents (especially the "r"-dropping ones) of Eastern New England, New York City, and the American South.[24] In 2006,
American sociolinguist William Labov et al. concluded that a hypothetical "General American" accent would essentially be a convergence of those
pronunciation features shared byWestern, Midland, and Canadian accents.[18]
Disputed usage
English-language scholar William A. Kretzchmar, Jr. explains in a 2004 article that the term "General American" came to refer to "a presumed most
common or 'default' form of American English, especially to be distinguished from marked regional speech of New England or the South" and especially
to speech associated with the vaguely-defined "Midwest", despite any historical or present evidence supporting this notion. In fact, he argues, a General
American accent is merely any in which American speakers have suppressed regional and social features that have become widely noticed and
stigmatized.[25]

Since calling one variety of American speech the "general" variety can imply privileging and prejudice, Kretzchmar instead promotes the term Standard
American English, which he defines as a level of American English pronunciation "employed by educated speakers in formal settings", while still being
variable within the U.S. from place to place, and even from speaker to speaker.[5] However, the term "standard" may also be interpreted as
problematically implying a superior or "best" form of speech.[26] The term Standard North American English, in an effort to incorporate Canadian
speakers under the accent continuum, was also first suggested byCharles Boberg in 2004.[14]

Modern language scholars discredit the original notion of General American as a single unified accent, or a standardized form of English[9][12] —except
perhaps as used by television networks and other mass media.[1][27] Today, the term is understood to refer to a continuum of American speech, with
some slight internal variation,[9] but otherwise characterized by the absence of "marked" pronunciation features: those perceived by Americans as
strongly indicative of a fellow American speaker's regional origin, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status. Despite confusion arising from the evolving
definition and vagueness of the term "General American" and its consequent rejection by some linguists,[28] the term persists mainly as a reference point
to compare a baseline "typical" American English accent with otherEnglishes around the world(for instance, see: Comparison of General American and
Received Pronunciation).[9]

Origins

Regional origins
Though General American accents are not commonly perceived as associated with any region, their sound system does have traceable regional origins:
specifically, the English of the non-coastal Northeastern United States in the very early twentieth century.[29] This includes western New England and
the area to its immediate west, settled by members of the same dialect community:[30] interior Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and the adjacent
"Midwest" or Great Lakes region. However, since the early to middle twentieth century,[1][31] deviance away from General American sounds started
occurring, and may be ongoing, in the eastern Great Lakes region due to its Northern Cities Vowel Shift (NCVS) towards a unique Inland Northern
accent (often now associated with the region's urban centers, like Chicago and Detroit) and in the western Great Lakes region towards a unique North
Central accent (often associated with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and North Dakota).

Popularity
Linguists have proposed multiple factors contributing to the popularity of a rhotic "General American" class of accents throughout the United States.
Most factors focus on the first half of the twentieth century, though a basic General American pronunciation system may have existed even before the
twentieth century, since most American English dialects have diverged very little from each other anyway, when compared to dialects of single
languages in other countries where there has been more time for language change (such as the English dialects of England or German dialects of
Germany).[32]

One factor fueling General American's popularity was the major demographic change of twentieth-century American society: increased suburbanization,
leading to less mingling of different social classes and less density and diversity of linguistic interactions. As a result, wealthier and higher-educated
Americans' communications became more restricted to their own demographic. This, alongside their new marketplace that transcended regional
boundaries (arising from the century's faster transportation methods), reinforced a widespread belief that highly-educated Americans should not possess
a regional accent.[33] A General American sound, then, originated from both suburbanization and suppression of regional accent by highly-educated
Americans in formal settings. A second factor was a rise in immigration to the Great Lakes area (one native region of supposed "General American"
speech) following the region's rapid industrialization period after the American Civil War, when this region's speakers went on to form a successful and
highly mobile business elite, who travelled around the country in the mid-twentieth century, spreading the high status of their accents.[34] A third factor
is that various sociological (often race- and class-based) forces repelled socially-conscious Americans away from accents negatively associated with
certain minority groups, such as African Americans and poor white communities in the South and with Southern and Eastern European immigrant
groups (for example, Jewish communities) in the coastal Northeast.[35] Instead, socially-conscious Americans settled upon accents more prestigiously
associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant communities in the remainder of the country: namely, the West, the Midwest, and the non-coastal
Northeast.[36]
Influential to codifying General American pronunciation standards in writing was John Samuel Kenyon, author of American Pronunciation (1924) and
pronunciation editor for the second edition of Webster's New International Dictionary (1934), who used as a basis his native Midwestern (specifically,
northern Ohio) pronunciation.[37] Kenyon's home state of Ohio, far from being an area of "non-regional" accents, has emer
ged now as a crossroads for at
least four distinct regional accents, according to late twentieth-century research.[38] Furthermore, Kenyon himself was vocally opposed to the notion of
any supreme standard of American speech.[39]

In the media
General American, like the British Received Pronunciation (RP) and prestige accents of many other societies, has never been the accent of the entire
nation, and, unlike RP, does not constitute a homogeneous national standard. Starting in the 1930s, nationwide radio networks adopted rhotic, non-
[40] Theatrical media similarly shifted from a non-rhotic standard to a rhotic
coastal Northern U.S. pronunciations for their "General American" standard.
one in the late 1940s, after the triumph of the Second World War, with the patriotic incentive for a more wide-ranging and unpretentious Midwestern
"heartland variety" in television and radio.[41]

General American has thus come to be associated with the speech of North American
newscasters and radio and television announcers, sometimes called
a "newscaster accent", "television English", or "Network Standard".[3] General American is commonly promoted as preferable to more evidently
regional accents and is regarded as prestigious.[42][43] In the United States, instructional classes promising "accent reduction", "accent modification", or
"accent neutralization" usually attempt to teach General American accent patterns. A common experience among many American celebrities is having
worked hard to lose their native accents in favor of a more mainstream General American sound, including television journalist Linda Ellerbee
(originally, a speaker of Texan English), who stated that "in television you are not supposed to sound like you're from anywhere",[44] as well as political
comedian Stephen Colbert, who completely reduced his South Carolina accent as a child because of the common portrayal of Southerners as stupid on
American television.[42][43]

Phonology

Consonants
A table containing theconsonant phonemes is given below:

Consonant phonemes

Post-
Labial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
alveolar
Nasal m n ŋ
Stop p b t d k ɡ
Affricate tʃ dʒ
Fricative f v θ ð s z ʃ ʒ h
Approximant l ɹ j (ʍ) w

Rhoticity (or r-fulness): General American accents are firmlyrhotic, pronouncing the r sound in all environments, including after
vowels, such as in pearl, car, and court.[45][46] Americans often realize the phoneme/r/ as postalveolar [ɹ ̠] ( listen), as in most
varieties of English, but sometimes asretroflex [ɻ] ( listen).[47] Non-rhotic American accents, those that do not pronouncer in some
positions in a word, such as someEastern New England, New York, or African American vernacular accents, are often quickly noticed
by General American listeners and perceived to sound especially ethnic, regional, or "old-fashioned". [45][48][49]

T-glottalization: /t/ is normally pronounced asunreleased or as a glottal stop [ʔ] when T-glottalization and flapping
before another consonant (notably including beforesyllabic [n̩ ], as in button mountain (glottalized t)
[ˈbʌʔn̩ ] ( listen)) or when following a vowel at the end of a sentence.
Flapping: /t/ and /d/ become an alveolar flap, written [ɾ] ( listen), between vowels or 0:00
liquids (l and r), as in water [ˈwɔɾɚ] ( listen), party [ˈpɑɹɾi], model [ˈmɑɾɫ̩], and what is
it? [wʌɾˈɪzɪt]. [ˈmæʊnʔn̩ ]
Yod-dropping: After consonants formed with the tongue touching the ridge on the roof
of the mouth (alveolar consonants), a formerly present /j/ is normally "dropped" or partner (glottalized t)
"deleted" in syllables bearing full or partial stress, so that, for example,suit /sjut/ has
become /sut/, new /nju/ has become /nu/, endure /ˌɛnˈdjʊr/ has become /ˌɛnˈdʊr/, and 0:00
attitude /ˈætɪˌtjud/ has become /ˈætɪˌtud/.[50]
[ˈpʰɑɹʔnɚ]
L-velarization: The distinction between a clearl (i.e. [l] ( listen)) and a dark l (i.e.
[ɫ] ( listen)) in the standard English of England,Received Pronunciation(RP), is mostly
gut (glottalized t)
absent in General American.[51] Instead, all l sounds are pronounced more or less
"dark", which means that they all have some degree ofvelarization.[52] Some speakers 0:00
also vocalize /l/ to [ɤ̯ ] when it appears before/f, v/ (and sometimes also /s, z/).[53]
[gʌʔ]
 Wine–whine merger: The consonants spelledw and wh are usually pronounced the leader (d-flapping)
same, as in most modern English dialects worldwide. A separate phoneme /ʍ/ (wh) is
present only in certain dialects./ʍ/ is often analyzed as a consonant cluster of/hw/. 0:00

[ˈɫiɾɚ]
Vowels
cattle (t-flapping)
Wells's vowel phonemes in General American 0:00

Front Back [ˈkʰæɾɫ̩]

Central
lax tense lax tense
party (t-flapping)
Close ɪ i ʊ u
0:00
Close-mid eɪ ə oʊ
(ɜ) [ˈpʰɑɹɾi]
Open-mid ɛ ʌ (ɔ)
Open æ ɑ
Diphthongs aɪ ɔɪ aʊ

Vowel length is not phonemic in General American, and therefore vowels such as/i/ are
usually transcribed without the length mark. Phonetically , the vowels of GA are short[ɪ, i, ʊ,
u, eɪ, oʊ, ɛ, ʌ, ɔ, æ, ɑ, aɪ, ɔɪ, aʊ] when they precede the fortis consonants/p, t, k, tʃ, f, θ, s, ʃ/
within the same syllable and long[ɪˑ, iˑ, ʊˑ, uˑ, eˑɪ, oˑʊ, ɛˑ, ʌˑ, ɔˑ, æˑ, ɑˑ, aˑɪ, ɔˑɪ, aˑʊ]
elsewhere. This applies to all vowels but the schwa/ə/ (which is typically very short[ə̆ ]), so
when e.g. /i/ is realized as a diphthong[ɪ̝i] it has the same allophones as the other
diphthongs, whereas the sequence/ɜr/ (which corresponds to theNURSE vowel /ɜː/ in RP) Monophthongs of General
has the same allophones as phonemic monophthongs: short[ɚ] before fortis consonants and
long [ɚˑ] elsewhere. The short [ɚ] is also used for the sequence/ər/ (the LETTER vowel). All American, from Wells (1982,
unstressed vowels are also shorter than the stressed ones, and the more unstressed p. 486). The exact height of/ɔ/
syllables follow a stressed one, the shorter it is, so that/i/ in lead is noticeably longer than in and the backness of /ɑ/ vary from
leadership.[54][55] speaker to speaker.
/i, u, eɪ, oʊ, ɑ/ are considered to compose anatural class of tense monophthongs in General
American, especially for speakers with thecot–caught merger. The class manifests in how
GA speakers treat loanwords, as in the majority of cases stressed syllables of foreign words
are assigned one of these five vowels, regardless of whether the original pronunciation has a
tense or a lax vowel. An example of that is the surname ofThomas Mann, which is
pronounced with the tense/ɑ/ rather than lax /æ/ (as in RP, which mirrors the German
pronunciation /man/, which also has a lax vowel).[56] All of the tense vowels except/ɑ/ can
have either monophthongal or diphthongal pronunciations (i.e.[i, u ~ ʉ, e, o] vs [ɪ̝i, ʊ̝ u ~ ʊ̝̈ ʉ,
eɪ, oʊ]). The diphthongs are the most usual realizations of/eɪ/ and /oʊ/, which is reflected in
the way they are transcribed. In the case of/i/ and /u/, the monophthongal pronunciations are
in free variation with diphthongs. Even the diphthongal pronunciations themselves vary
between the very narrow (i.e.[ɪ̝i, ʊ̝ u ~ ʊ̝̈ ʉ]) and somewhat wider (i.e.[ɪi ~ ɪ̈i, ʊu ~ ʊ̈ ʉ]), with
the former being more common. As indicated in above phonetic transcriptions, the backness
of /u/ varies from fairly back to central; the same applies to/ɑ/, which is realized as [ɑ ~ Ranges of the weak vowels in
ä].[57] General American and Received
Before the dark l, /i, u/ and sometimes also /eɪ, oʊ/ are realized as centering diphthongs[iə, Pronunciation. From Wells (2008,
uə, eə, oə] or even as disyllabic sequences[i.jə, u.wə, e.jə, o.wə]. Therefore, words such as p. XXV)
peel and fool and sometimes also rail and role are pronounced [ˈpiəɫ ~ ˈpi.jəɫ], [ˈfuəɫ ~
ˈfu.wəɫ], [ˈɹeəɫ ~ ˈɹe.jəɫ], [ˈɹoəɫ ~ ˈɹo.wəɫ]. This can even happen word-internally before
another morpheme, as inpeeling [ˈpiəɫɪŋ ~ ˈpi.jəɫɪŋ] and fooling [ˈfuəɫɪŋ ~ ˈfu.wəɫɪŋ].[58]
When prosodically salient, the lax vowels/ɪ, ʊ, ɛ, ʌ, æ/ tend to be realized as centering
diphthongs [ɪə, ʊə, ɛə, ʌə, æə] instead of the more usual long monophthongs[ɪˑ, ʊˑ, ɛˑ, ʌˑ,
æˑ] when they precede a word-final voiced consonant, so that the wordgood in the sentence
that's very good! tends to be pronounced[ɡʊəd] instead of [ɡʊˑd].[59]
General American does not have the opposition between/ɜr/ and /ər/, which are both
rendered [ɚ] ( listen); therefore, the vowels infurther /ˈfɜrðər/ are typically realized with the
same segmental quality as[ˈfɚðɚ] ( listen).[60] This also makes homophonous the words
forward /ˈfɔrwərd/ and foreword /ˈfɔrwɜrd/ as [ˈfɔɹwɚd], which are distinguished in Received
Pronunciation as [ˈfɔːwəd] and [ˈfɔːwɜːd], respectively.[60] Therefore, /ɜ/ is not a true
phoneme in General American but merely a dif ferent notation of /ə/ preserved for when this Diphthongs of General American,
phoneme precedes /r/ and is stressed—a convention adopted in literature to facilitate
from Wells (1982, p. 486). The
comparisons with other accents.[61] What is historically /ʌr/, as in hurry, is also pronounced
exact height and/or backness of
[ɚ] ( listen), so /ʌ/, /ɜ/ and /ə/ are all neutralized before /r/.[61] Furthermore, some analyze/
ʌ/ as an allophone of /ə/ that surfaces when stressed, so/ʌ/, /ɜ/ and /ə/ may be considered the starting points is somewhat
to be in complementary distributionand thus comprising one phoneme.[62] variable.
The phonetic quality of/ʌ/ is typically somewhat advanced[ʌ̟ ], which is still somewhat more
back than the corresponding RP realization[ɐ].[59][63]
The 2006 Atlas of North American English surmises that "if one were to recognize a type of North American English to be called 'General American'"
according to data measurements of vowel pronunciations, "it would be the configuration formed by these three" dialect regions: Canada, the American
West, and the American Midland.[64] The following charts (as well as the one above) present the vowels that these three dialects encompass as a
perceived General American sound system.

Pure vowels

Pure vowels (Monophthongs)

IPA Wells's
GenAm Example
English GenAm
realization words
diaphoneme phoneme

[æ] ( listen)[65] bath, trap, yak

/æ/
[eə~ɛə~æ][66][67] ban, tram (/æ/ tensing)

/ɑː/ ah, father, spa

/ɑ/ [ɑ~ä] ( listen)[68]
bother, lot, wasp (father–bother merger)
/ɒ/
boss, cloth, dog, off (lot–cloth split)
/ɔ/ [ɑ~ɔ̞ ][68][69]
/ɔː/ all, bought, flaunt (cot–caught variability)

/oʊ/ /o/ [oʊ~ɔʊ~ʌʊ~o̞ ] listen[70][71][72] goat, home, toe

/ɛ/ [ɛ] ( listen)[65] dress, met, bread

/eɪ/ [e̞ɪ~eɪ~e] ( listen)[65] lake, paid, rein

/ə/ [ə] ( listen)[65] about, syrup, arena

[ɪ] ( listen)[65] kit, pink, tip

/ɪ/
[ɪ̈~ɪ~ə] ( listen)[65] private, muffin, wasted (unstressed /ɪ/ allophone)

beam, chic, fleece

/iː/ /i/ [i ( listen)~ɪi][65]
happy, money, parties (happY tensing)
/ʌ/ [ʌ̟ ] ( listen) bus, flood, what

/ʊ/ [ʊ] ( listen)[65] book, put, should

/uː/ /u/ [u̟ ~ʊu~ʉu~ɵu] ( listen)[73][70] goose, new, true

Raising of short a before m and n sounds: For most speakers, theshort a sound, transcribed as[æ] ( listen), is pronounced with the
tongue raised in the mouth, followed by a backwardglide, whenever occurring before anasal consonant (that is, before /m/, /n/ and,
for some speakers, /ŋ/).[74] This sound may be narrowly transcribed as[ɛə] (as in Anne and am), or, based on a specific dialect,
variously as [eə] or [ɪə]. This phenomenon is called/æ/-tensing in phonological discourse.
 /æ/ raising in North American English[75] [show]

Environment Dialect
General
New Canadian, Southern
American,
York Eastern Northwestern U.S. &
Consonant Syllable Example Baltimore & Midland Great
City & New U.S., & Upper African
after /æ/ type words Philadelphia U.S., & Lakes
New England Midwestern American
Western
Orleans U.S. Vernacular
U.S.

[show]
arable, arid,
baron,
barrel,
barren,
carry, carrot,
chariot,
charity,
clarity, Gary,
Harry, Larry,
marionette,
maritime,
marry,
marriage,
/r/ Open [æ] [æ~ɛ(ə)] [ɛ(ə)]
paragon,
parent,
parish,
parody,
parrot, etc.;
this feature
is
determined
by the
presence or
absence of
the Mary-
marry-merry
merger

[show]
Alexander,
answer, ant,
band, can
(the noun) ,
can't, clam,
dance, ham,
hamburger,
hand, handy,
man, manly,
Closed pants, plan, [eə]
planning,
ranch, sand,
slant, tan,
understand ,
etc.; in
Philadelphia,
began, ran,
and swam
alone remain
/m/, /n/ lax [æ~eə] [æ~ɛə] [ɛ(j)ə~eə] [eə]

amity, [show]
animal, can
(the verb) ,
Canada,
ceramic,
family
(varies by
speaker), [76],
gamut,
Open hammer, [æ]
janitor,
manager,
manner,
Montana,
panel,
planet,
profanity,
salmon,
Spanish, etc.

/ɡ/ Closed [show] [eə] [æ] [æ] [æ~e] [æ~ɛ(j)ə] [eə~æ]

 agriculture,
bag, crag,
drag, flag,
magnet, rag,
sag, tag,
tagging, etc.

agate, [show]
agony,
dragon,
Open [æ]
magazine,
ragamuffin ,
etc.

[show] [æ~ɛə] [æ]

absolve,
abstain, add,
ash, as, bad,
badge, bash,
cab, cash,
clad, crag,
dad, drab,
fad, flash,
glad, grab,
had, halve
(varies by
speaker) ,
jazz (varies
by speaker) ,
kashmir,
mad,
magnet, pad,
plaid, rag,
raspberry,
rash, sad,
sag, smash,
splash, tab,
tadpole,
/b/, /d/, trash, etc. In
/dʒ/, /ʃ/, /v/, Closed NYC, this [eə]
/z/, /ʒ/ environment,
particularly,
/v/ and /z/,
has a lot of
variance and
many
exceptions
to the rules.
In
Philadelphia,
bad, mad,
and glad
alone in this
set become
tense.
Similarly, in
New York
City, the /dʒ/
set is often
tense even
in open
syllables
(magic,
imagine,
etc.)

ask, [show]
bask,
basket, bath,
brass,
casket, cast,
class, craft,
crass, daft,
drastic,
/f/, /s/, /θ/ Closed glass, grass, [eə]
flask, half,
last, laugh,
laughter,
mask, mast,
math, pass,
past, path,
plastic, task,
wrath, etc.
All other consonants act, [show] [æ]
agony,
allergy,
apple,
aspirin,
athlete, avid,
back, bat,
brat, café,
cafeteria,
cap, cashew,
cat, Catholic,
chap, clap,
classy,
diagonal,
fashion, fat,
flap, flat,
gap, gnat,
latch,
magazine,
mallet, map,
mastiff,
match,
maverick,
Max, pack,
pal, passive,
passion, pat,
patch,
pattern,
rabid, racket,
rally, rap, rat,
sack, sat,
Saturn,
savvy,
scratch,
shack, slack,
slap, tackle,
talent, trap,
travel, wrap ,
etc.

Footnotes [show]

1. Nearly all American English speakers pronounce /æŋ/ somewhere between [æŋ] and [eɪŋ], though Western speakers specifically
favor [eɪŋ].
2. The Great Lakes dialect traditionally tenses /æ/ in all cases, but reversals of that tensing before non-nasal consonants (while often
maintaining some of the other vowel shifts of the region) has been observed recently where it has been studied, in Lansing and
Syracuse .
3. The NYC, Philadelphia, and Baltimore dialects' rule of tensing /æ/ in certain closed-syllable environments also applies to words
inflectionally derived from those closed-syllable /æ/ environments that now have an open-syllable /æ/. For example, in addition to
pass being tense (according to the general rule), so are its open-syllable derivatives passing and passer-by, but not passive.

Father–bother merger (/ɒ/ → [ɑ]): Nearly all American accents merge theshort o of words like spot and odd to the sound of the broad
a in words like spa and ah; therefore, sob and Saab are homophones in General American.
Cot–caught merger in transition: There is no single General American way to pronounce the vowels in words like cot /ɑ/ (the ah or
broad a vowel) versus caught /ɔ/ (the aw vowel), largely due to a merger occurring between the two sounds in some parts of North
America, but not others. American speakers with a completed merger pronounce the two historically separate vowels with the exact
same sound (especially in the West, northern New England, West Virginia, western Pennsylvania, and the Upper Midwest), but other
speakers have no trace of a merger at all (especially in theSouth, the Great Lakes region, southern New England, and the Mid-
Atlantic and New York metropolitan areas) and so pronounce each vowel with distinct sounds( listen).[77] Among speakers who
distinguish between the two, the vowel ofcot (usually transcribed in American English as[ɑ] ( listen)), may be central [ä] ( listen) or
advanced back [ɑ̟ ], while /ɔ/ is pronounced with more rounded lips and/or phonetically higher in the mouth, close to
[ɒ] ( listen) or
[ɔ] ( listen), but with only slight rounding.[68] Among speakers who do not distinguish between the two and are thus said to have
undergone the cot–caught merger, /ɑ/ usually remains a back vowel,[ɑ], sometimes showing lip rounding as[ɒ]. Therefore, General
American speakers vary greatly with this speech feature, with possibilities ranging from a full merger to no merger at all. In the middle
of this range, a transitional stage of the merger is also common in random scatterings throughout the U.S., though especially among
younger speakers and most consistently in theMidland region lying between the historical North and South. According to a 2003
dialect survey carried out across the United States, about 61% of participants perceive themselves as keeping the two vowels distinct
and 39% do not.[78]
Vowel mergers before r (before a vowel): General American participates in some mergers of vowel sounds only when such a vowel
occurs before an /r/ sound that is itself followed by another vowel intervocalic
( r).

Mary–marry–merry merger in transition: According to a 2003 dialect survey of the United States, nearly 57% of participants from
around the country merged the sounds/ær/ (as in the first syllable ofparish), /ɛr/ (as in the first syllable ofperish), and /ɛər/ (as in
pear or pair).[79] The merger is in transition, already complete everywhere except along some areas of the Atlantic Coast. [80]

Hurry–furry merger: The pre-r vowels in words like hurry /ʌ/ and furry /ɜ/ are merged in most General American accents to[ə~ɚ].
Only 10% of English speakers across the U.S. acknowledge the distinct hurry vowel before /r/, according to a 2003 dialect
survey.[81]
 Mirror–nearer merger in transition: The pre-r vowels in words like mirror /ɪ/ and nearer /i/ are merged or at least close in General
American accents. The quality of the historicmirror vowel in the word miracle is quite variable.[82]
Unstressed pure vowels:

Weak-vowel merger: [ə] and [ɪ̈] ( listen) (also transcribed as [ɨ ̞] and [ᵻ], the latter being an unofficial IPA extension symbol) are
indeterminate vowel sounds that occur only in unstressed syllables of certain types. [ə] is heard, for example, as thea at the
beginning of about and at the end of China, as the o in omit, and as the u in syrup. [ɪ̈] is heard as the a in private or cottage, the e
in evading or sorted, the i in sordid, the u in minute, or the y in mythologist. However, [ə] and [ɪ̈] frequently overlap and often
merge in American accents, especially towards theschwa [ə].
Phonetically, the schwa /ə/ (as in COMMA) ranges from close-mid[ɘ] to open-mid [ɜ].[83]
In environments in which the tense–lax contrast between the close vowels is neutralized, the phonetic realization of these vowels
varies in height between close and close-mid:

/i~ɪ/ (as in HAPPY; usually transcribed /i/ even though it is not a phoneme) ranges from close front[i] to close-mid retracted
front [e̠];[83]
/u~ʊ/ (as in INFLUENCE; usually transcribed /u/ even though it is not a phoneme) ranges from close advanced back[u̟ ] to close-
mid retracted central [ɵ̠ ].[83]
Fronting of long oo (/u/ → [u̟ ]): The vowel /u/ (as in lose, loose, or loot) has a unique quality in the United States( listen); it tends to
be less rounded [u̜ ] and more fronted [u̟ ], and perhaps even diphthongized with a somewhat fronter andlower onset; this can be
transcribed in a variety of ways.

Gliding vowels

Gliding vowels (diphthongs)

English diaphoneme General American realization Example words

[äɪ] ( listen)[70] bride, prize, tie

/aɪ/
[äɪ~ɐɪ~ʌ̈ ɪ][84] bright, price, tyke

/aʊ/ [aʊ~æʊ] ( listen)[65] now, ouch, scout

/ɔɪ/ [ɔɪ~oɪ] ( listen)[65] boy, choice, moist

Raising of the start of the longi sound before voiceless consonants: The long i vowel (/aɪ/), as in pine or pie—pronounced [aɪ] (
listen) in North America—has a starting sound (an "on-glide") in which the tongue is raised towards [ɐɪ] or [ʌ̈ ɪ] whenever it appears
before a voiceless consonant (such as /t, k, θ, s/, for instance, in pike or python). Because of this sound change, the wordsrider and
writer ( listen), for instance, remain distinct from one another by virtue of their dif
ference in height (and length) of the diphthong's
starting point, even though the lettersd and t represent as alveolar flaps[ɾ]. The sound-change also applies across word boundaries,
though the position of a word or phrase's stress may prevent the raising from taking place. For instance,high a school in the sense of
"secondary school" is generally pronounced[ˈhɐɪskuɫ]; however, a high school in the literal sense of "a tall school" would be
pronounced [ˌhaɪˈskuɫ].

This sound change began in the Northern, New England, and Mid-Atlantic regions of the country,[85] and is
becoming more common. This is one of the two types of so-called Canadian raising, even though it occurs
in the U.S. as well as in Canada.

R-colored vowels

R-colored vowels
English diaphoneme General American realization Example words

/ɑːr/ [ɑɹ] ( listen)[65] barn, car, park

/ɛər/ [ɛɹ] ( listen)[65] bare, bear, there

/ɜːr/ burn, doctor, first,

[ɚ] ( listen)[65]
/ər/ herd, learn, murder

/ɪər/ [iɹ~ɪɹ] ( listen)[65] fear, peer, tier

horse, storm, war

/ɔːr/ [ɔɹ~oɹ] ( listen)[65]
hoarse, store, wore
/ʊər/ [ʊɹ~oɹ~ɔɹ] ( listen) moor, poor, tour
/jʊər/ [jʊɹ~jɚ] ( listen) cure, Europe, pure

Horse–hoarse merger (/ɔr/ + /oʊr/ → [ɔɹ]): As in most modern varieties of English around the world, words likewar and wore are
pronounced the same in General American English. W ords with these r-colored vowels, such asnorth and horse, are usually

transcribed /nɔrθ/ and /hɔrs/, but may be closer in General American English to[no̞ ɹθ] and [ho̞ ɹs].[86] Thus, in these cases, the[ɔ]
 transcribed /nɔrθ/ and /hɔrs/, but may be closer in General American English to[no̞ ɹθ] and [ho̞ ɹs].[86] Thus, in these cases, the[ɔ]
before /r/ can be analyzed as anallophone of /oʊ/.
The vowel sounds of both/ɜr/ and /ər/ are neutralized, resulting in both pronounced as[ɚ] ( listen); so the vowels in further /ˈfɜrðər/
are typically realized with the same segmental quality as[ˈfɚðɚ] ( listen).[60]
"Short o" before r before a vowel: In typical North American accents (U.S. and Canada alike), the historical sequence /ɒr/ (a short o
sound followed by r and then another vowel, as inorange, forest, moral, and warrant) is realized as [oɹ~ɔɹ], thus further merging with
the already-merged /ɔr/–/oʊr/ (horse–hoarse) set. In the U.S., four words (tomorrow, sorry, sorrow, borrow and, for some speakers,
morrow) usually contain the sound[ɑɹ] instead, and merge with the/ɑr/ set (thus, sorry and sari become homophones, both rhyming
with starry).[68]

General American /ɒr/ and /ɔr/ followed by a vowel, compared with other dialects [show]
Pronounced [ɔːɹ] in RP and eastern coastal
Pronounced [ɒɹ] in RP and [ɑɹ~ɒɹ] in eastern coastal American English
American English
Pronounced [ɔɹ] in Canadian English
Pronounced
[ɒɹ~ɑɹ] in
Pronounced [ɔɹ] in General American
General
American
only these four
or five words: Words containing /ɒr-/: Words containing /ɔːr-/:

borrow, corridor, euphoric, foreign, forest, Florida, historic, aura, boring, choral, deplorable, flooring,
sorry, horrible, majority, minority, moral, orange, Oregon, flora, glory, hoary, memorial, menorah,
sorrow, origin, porridge, priority, quarantine, quarrel, sorority, orient, Moorish, oral, pouring, scorer,
tomorrow warranty, warren, warrior (etc.) storage, story, Tory, warring (etc.)
(morrow)

See also
List of dialects of the English language
List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas
Accent reduction
African-American English
American English
Chicano English
English phonology
English spelling reform
Standard Written English
Hawaiian Pidgin
Transatlantic accent
Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Received Pronunciation
Regional vocabularies of American English

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Further reading
Jilka, Matthias. "North American English: General Accents"(PDF). Stuttgart: Institut für Linguistik/Anglistik, University of Stuttgart.
Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 April 2014.

External links
The CMU Pronouncing Dictionary
'Hover & Hear' pronunciations in a General American accent, and compare side by side with other English accents from the US and
around the World.
Hollywords Audiovisual Industry Dictionary Project Style Guide (Includes pronunciation guides based on the American Broadcast
English (ABE) accent)

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