| script = Latin (English alphabet)
Unified English Braille{{cite web|url=http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb.html|title=Unified English Braille (UEB)|author=|date=2 November 2016|website=Braille Authority of North America (BANA)|access-date=2 January 2017|archive-date=23 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161123220211/http://www.brailleauthority.org/ueb.html|url-status=dead}}

| isoexception = dialect

| glotto = nort3314

| glottorefname = North American English

| ietf = en-021

}}

North American English (NAmE) encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures,{{cite book|last=Chambers|first=J.K.|title=The Canadian Oxford Dictionary|year=1998|edition=2nd|page=xi|chapter=Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making}} plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), vocabulary, and grammar of U.S. English and Canadian English, linguists often group the two together.{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006}}Trudgill, Peter & Jean Hannah. (2002). International English: A Guide to the Varieties of Standard English, 4th. London: Arnold. {{ISBN|0-340-80834-9}}. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and American spellings, although certain words always take British spellings (e.g., cheque) and others American spellings (e.g., tire rather than tyre).Patti Tasko. (2004). The Canadian Press Stylebook: A Guide for Writers and Editors, 13th. Toronto: The Canadian Press. {{ISBN|0-920009-32-8}}, p. 308.Patti Tasko. (2006). The Canadian Press Stylebook: A Guide for Writers and Editors, 14th. Toronto: The Canadian Press. {{ISBN|0-920009-38-7}}, p. 312.

Dialects of English spoken by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution (1775–1783) have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots.M.H. Scargill. (1957). "Sources of Canadian English", The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, 56.4, pp. 610–614. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States (for example, the terms diaper and gasoline are widely used instead of nappy and petrol). Although many English speakers from outside North America regard those terms as distinct Americanisms, they are just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media.{{cite web | author = John Woitkowitz | title = Arctic Sovereignty and the Cold War: Asymmetry, Interdependence, and Ambiguity | year = 2012 | url = http://www.ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/arctic-sovereignty/asymmetry.cfm | access-date = 2012-03-13 | archive-date = 2011-07-02 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110702122534/http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/mmh/arctic-sovereignty/asymmetry.cfm | url-status = dead }}{{Better source needed|date=December 2020}} 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.{{explain|date=October 2024}}

There are a considerable number of different accents within the regions of both the United States and Canada. In North America, different English dialects of immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland, and other regions of the British Isles mixed together in the 17th and 18th centuries. These were developed, built upon, and blended together as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, developed new dialects in new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged with and assimilated to the greater American dialect mixture that solidified by the mid-18th century.Longmore, Paul K. (2007). "'Good English without Idiom or Tone': The Colonial Origins of American Speech". The Journal of Interdisciplinary History. MIT. 37 (4): 513–542.

Dialects

{{image frame

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|caption=The American English major regional dialects (in all caps), plus smaller and more local dialects, as demarcated primarily by William Labov et al.'s The Atlas of North American English,{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=148}} as well as the related Telsur Project's [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html#regional regional maps]. Many regions also contain speakers of a "General American" accent that resists the marked features of their region. This map does not account for speakers of ethnic or racial dialects.

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{{image frame

|content={{Map of Canadian English}}

|caption=The Canadian English's major regional dialects (in all caps), plus smaller and more local dialects, as demarcated primarily by William Labov et al.'s The Atlas of North American English, as well as the related Telsur Project's [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/home.html#regional regional maps]. Many regions also contain speakers of a "General American" accent that resists the marked features of their region. This map does not account for speakers of ethnic or racial dialects.

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=American English=

General American

==Ethnic American English==

==Regional American English==

=Canadian English=

=Table of accents=

Below, several major North American English accents are defined by particular characteristics:

Accent name	\|Most populous city	Strong {{IPA\|/aʊ/}} fronting	Strong {{IPA\|/oʊ/}} fronting	Strong {{IPA\|/u/}} fronting	Strong {{IPA\|/ɑr/}} fronting	Cot–caught merger	Pin–pen merger	/æ/ raising system	Other defining criteria
class="wikitable sortable" ! Accent name !! \|Most populous city !! Strong {{IPA\|/aʊ/}} fronting !! Strong {{IPA\|/oʊ/}} fronting !! Strong {{IPA\|/u/}} fronting !! Strong {{IPA\|/ɑr/}} fronting !! Cot–caught merger !! Pin–pen merger !! /æ/ raising system !! Other defining criteria{{Harvcoltxt\|Labov\|Ash\|Boberg\|2006\|p=146}}
African-American		{{partial\|Mixed}}	{{no}}	{{no}}	{{no}}	{{partial\|Mixed}}	{{yes}}	pre-nasal	{{small\|African-American Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-fronting}}
Atlantic Canadian	Halifax	{{partial\|Mixed}}	{{no}}	{{yes}}	{{yes}}	{{yes}}	{{no}}	various	{{small\|Canadian raising}}
General American		{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{Partial\|Mixed}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal
Inland Northern U.S.	Chicago	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	general	{{small\|Northern Cities Vowel Shift}}
Midland U.S.	Indianapolis	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{Partial\|Mixed}}	{{Partial\|Mixed}}	pre-nasal
New Orleans	New Orleans	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	split	{{small\|Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Non-rhoticity / Th-stopping / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable horse-hoarse distinction / Canadian Raising / L-vocalization}}
New York City	New York City	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	split	{{small\|Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-stopping / Variable Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/}}
North-Central (Upper Midwestern) U.S.	Minneapolis	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal & pre-velar
Eastern New England English#Northeastern New England English	Boston	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal	{{small\| Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/}}
Philadelphia	Philadelphia	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	split	{{small\|Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / L-vocalization / Northeastern /-ɒr-/ / Merry–Murray merger}}
Eastern New England English#Rhode Island English	Providence	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal	{{small\|Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Northeastern /-ɒr-/}}
Southern U.S.	San Antonio	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{Partial\|Mixed}}	{{Yes}}	pre-nasal	{{small\|Southern drawl / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable wine-whine distinction}}
Standard Canadian	Toronto	{{No}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal & pre-velar	{{small\|Canadian raising / Low Back Merger Shift}}
Western U.S.	Los Angeles	{{No}}	{{partial\|Mixed}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	pre-nasal	{{small\|Low Back Merger Shift}}
Western Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{Yes}}	{{No}}	{{Yes}}	{{Partial\|Mixed}}	pre-nasal	{{small\|{{IPA\|/aʊ/}} glide weakening / L-vocalization}}

Phonology

A majority of North American English (for example, in contrast to British English) includes phonological features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity (full pronunciation of all {{IPA|/r/}} sounds), conditioned T-glottalization (with satin pronounced {{IPA|[ˈsæʔn̩]}}, not {{IPA|[ˈsætn̩]}}), T- and D-flapping (with metal and medal pronounced the same, as {{IPA|[ˈmɛɾɫ̩]}}), L-velarization (with filling pronounced {{IPA|[ˈfɪɫɪŋ]}}, not {{IPA|[ˈfɪlɪŋ]}}), as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before {{IPA|/r/}} (so that, Mary, marry, and merry are all commonly pronounced the same), raising of pre-voiceless {{IPA|/aɪ/}} (with price and bright using a higher vowel sound than prize and bride), the weak vowel merger (with affected and effected often pronounced the same), at least one of the {{sc2|LOT}} vowel mergers (the father–bother merger is completed among virtually all Americans and the cot-caught merger among nearly half, while both are completed among virtually all Canadians), and yod-dropping (with tuesday pronounced {{IPA|/ˈtuzdeɪ/}}, not {{IPA|/ˈtjuzdeɪ/}}). The last item is more advanced in American English than Canadian English.

References

Bibliography

Chambers, J.K. (1998). "Canadian English: 250 Years in the Making," in The Canadian Oxford Dictionary, 2nd ed., p. xi.
Clark, Joe (2008). [http://en-CA.org/ Organizing Our Marvellous Neighbours: How to Feel Good About Canadian English] (e-book). {{ISBN|978-0-9809525-0-6}}.
{{Citation |last=Labov |first=William |year=1972 |title=Language in the Inner City: Studies in Black English Vernacular |place=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press}}
{{citation

|last=Labov

|first=William

|author-link=William Labov

|last2=Ash

|first2=Sharon

|last3=Boberg

|first3=Charles

|year=2006

|title=The Atlas of North American English

|location=Berlin

|publisher=Mouton-de Gruyter

|isbn=3-11-016746-8

}}

Category:18th-century establishments in North America

Category:Languages attested from the 18th century

Category:Dialects of English

:North American English