Language Variation

Sample Phonological Differences

/r/-less pronunciations in parts of the Northeast (e.g., car as /ka/)
Monophthongization of some diphthongs in Southern American English (e.g., /al/ as [a] in a word like right)
• Loss of initial [h/ in huge /juj/ and humid /jumld/ in many urban areas on the East Coast
• Realization of/ö/ as [d] in African American English and other dialects
Sample Morphological Differences

• Second-person plural forms youse (Boston), y'all (Southern American English), or yinz (Pittsburgh)
• a-prefixing in Appalachian English (e.g., "We were a-huntin'
Zero-ending for third-person singular present tense in African American
English, some varieties of English in the Caribbean, and some dialects in East Anglia in Britain (he walk vs.
he walks)
Extension of inflectional -s to all present-tense forms in some British dialects, as well as in some areas
ofAppalachia and the Outer Banks (e.g., I walks, you walks, he/she walks, we walks, the ducks walks)

• Generalization of -s in possessive pronouns to mines, by analogy with yours, ours, his, hers, theirs, in
some urban areas on the East Coast

Sample Syntactic Differences

Multiple negation in many varieties of American English
Use of habitual be in African American English (e.g., "He be working at school these days.")

• need + past-participle constructions in areas from Colorado to Pennsylvania (e.g., "The car needs
washed.")

Sample Lexical Differences

Fireflies vs. firebugs vs. lightning bugs u Afeard vs. afraid (past participle reflexes of nearly synonymous
verbs, the first from Old English afæren 'frighten, terrify', the second from Anglo-French afrayer 'disturb,
startle, frighten') Gumbands vs. rubberbands

• Fixin'to vs. about to/intend to/prepare to

Sample Discourse-level Differences
Sentence-final eh (or hey) in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to invite or suggest agreement (e.g., "See you
tonight, eh.")

"Please?" to request that someone repeat an utterance, in parts of Ohio and other regions
influenced by German (from German "Bitte?")
Not all speakers of any of the dialects represented here necessarily use all of the variants listed,
nor any one of the variants all of the time. These features are typical of one or another dialect, on
terms described in more detail below.