American English

There is no uniform accent of North American English, rather there are various phonological dialects whose differences can be manifested on the basis of ongoing sound changes. The following major dialects can be distinguished:

  • African American English
  • American Indian English
  • Canadian English
  • Northeastern American English
  • Southern States American English

In teaching American English, it seems, that Northern varieties with their resistance to the low back merger are to be preferred to other varieties:

The linguist William Labov made the following remarks about the role of the phonological varieties of American in teaching:

Question: What sort of American should we use in teaching?

Labov: Well, I can see the problem. British varieties have great cultural prestige. American varieties have their own prestige (though who knows, it may be disappearing?) If you have to choose among American varieties, it will probably be a conservative variety of the Northern English spoken around the Great Lakes area. That's what you hear from most announcers.

Source: Live Chat with William Labov (21 May 2003, the VLC)


In these varieties we can define the following phonemes: