Inland Northern American English
The Inland North Dialect of American English was the "standard Midwestern" speech that is traditionally regarded as the basis for General American in the mid-20th Century[1], though it has been recently modified by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.
This area is centered on the Great Lakes, and consists of western New York State (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse), much of Michigan's Lower Peninsula (Detroit, Grand Rapids), Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, South Bend, Gary, and Southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha).
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Characteristics
Many of the characteristics listed here are not unique to the region, but are found elsewhere in the United States, especially elsewhere in the Midwest. The Northern Cities Vowel Shift, however, is found only in the Inland North—in fact, it's the feature that defines the Inland North, for modern dialectological purposes.
Phonology
As in General American, which was based on this accent, Inland North speech is rhotic. Also, the words "roof" and "root" may be variously pronounced with either [ʊ] or [u]; that is, with the vowel of "foot" or "boot", respectively. This is highly variable, however, and these words are pronounced both ways in other parts of the country.
- The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Inland Northern dialects, this chain shift has been occurring in six stages:
- The first stage of the shift is the diphthongization of [æ] to [ɪə].
- The second stage is the fronting of [ɑ] to [a], which occupies a place close to the former [æ].
- In the third stage, [ɔ] lowers towards [ɑ].
- The fourth stage, the lowering of [ɛ], is not unique to this particular vowel shift.
- During the fifth stage, [ʌ] is backed towards [ɔ].
- In the sixth stage, [ɪ] is lowered and backed, although it is kept distinct from [ɛ]. This means that the pin-pen merger does not occur.
Note that this merger is in progress across the region, but that each subsequent stage is a result of the previous one(s), so that an individual speaker may not display all of these shifts, but no speaker will display the last without also showing the ones before it.
- The Mary-Marry-Merry Merger
This merger is widespread throughout the Midwest, West, and Canada. Words containing /æ/, /ɛ/, or /eɪ/ before an "r" and a vowel are all pronounced "[eɪ]-r-vowel," so that Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme with each other, and have the same first vowel as Sharon, Sarah, and bearing.
- Other Characteristics
- The starting point of /aʊ/ (for example, mouse, down) is pronounced noticeably in the back of the mouth ([mɑʊs], [dɑʊn]), while /ɑɪ/ (mice, dine) is much further front: ([maɪs], [daɪn]). Standard American diphthongal glide /ɪ/ and word- or morph-final /ɪ/ are pronounced as a shortened /i/.
- The long-o of "bone" and "goat" is rounded and pronounced far back.
- The word "on" rhymes with "don," not with "dawn."
- Canadian raising is found in areas close to the Canadian border.
Vocabulary
Note that not all of these are specific to the region.
- Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
- (Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
- Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. In parts of Eastern Wisconsin, soda is more common.
- Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
- Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
- Tennis shoes vs. New England sneakers.
- drinking fountain vs. Water fountain.
Individual cities and regions also have their own vocabularies. For example, in Eastern and Southern Wisconsin, drinking fountains are known as bubblers, and in Cleveland the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street is called a tree lawn.
Notable Speakers of the Inland North Dialect
- U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton: Grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois; many of her constituents in Upstate New York speak this way.
- Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers and Blues Brothers 2000 imitates this dialect despite the fact that he is Canadian.
- Bill Swerski's Superfans on SNL had a very exaggerated version of this dialect for comic effect. However, listening to them helps you understand what some of the vowels sound like. Chris Farley, one of the stars of this sketch, grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, and was another famous speaker in real life.
- Jami Gertz from Still Standing was born in Chicago, and speaks with a much more realistic version of this dialect.
- Filmmaker Michael Moore hails from the Flint, Michigan area, and is a speaker of this dialect.
- Musician Bob Seger was born, and grew up in Michigan, and talks this way when he is not singing.
- John Belushi: Born in Chicago; used to be a part of The Second City. Also his brother Jim Belushi.
- Character actor Michael G. Hagerty
- Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley
- Sports talk radio show host Mike North
- Actor John Lithgow: Born in Rochester New York, grew up in northern Ohio.
See also
- List of dialects of the English language
- American English regional differences
- Midwest
- Buffalo English
- North Central American English
- General American
External links
- The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
- Telsur Project Maps
- Chicago Dialect Samples
- Nick Digilio interview with Corrine McCarthy
- PBS resource from the show "Do you Speak American?"
- NPR interview with Professor William Labov about the shift