View source for General American English

{{Short description|Accents typical of English in the US}}
{{redirect|General American}}
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'''General American English''', known in [[linguistics]] simply as '''General American''' (abbreviated '''GA''' or '''GenAm'''), is the umbrella [[Accent (sociolinguistics)|accent]] of [[American English]] used by a majority of [[Americans]], encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent.{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=123}}{{sfnp|Kövecses|2000|pp=81–82}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=34, 470}} It is often perceived by Americans themselves as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or socioeconomic characteristics, though Americans with high education,{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=257}} or from the [[Midland American English|(North) Midland]], [[Western New England English|Western New England]], and [[Western American English|Western]] regions of the country are the most likely to be perceived as using General American speech.{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=128–9}}<ref>Labov, William; Ash, Sharon; Boberg, Charles (1997). "[http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html#Heading11 A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English]" and "[http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatMap1.html Map 1]". Department of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania. "The North Midland: Approximates the initial position|Absence of any marked features"; "On Map 1, there is no single defining feature of the North Midland given. In fact, the most characteristic sign of North Midland membership on this map is the small black dot that indicates a speaker with none of the defining features given"; "Map 1 shows Western New England as a residual area, surrounded by the marked patterns of Eastern New England, New York City, and the Inland North. [...] No clear pattern of sound change emerges from western New England in the Kurath and McDavid materials or in our present limited data."</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Clopper |first1=Cynthia G. |last2=Levi |first2=Susannah V. |last3=Pisoni |first3=David B. |year=2006 |title=Perceptual similarity of regional dialects of American English |journal=The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |volume=119 |issue=1 |pages=566–574 |bibcode=2006ASAJ..119..566C |doi=10.1121/1.2141171 |pmc=3319012 |pmid=16454310}} See also: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3319012/figure/F1/ map].</ref> The precise definition and usefulness of the term continue to be debated,{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=118}}{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=124, 126}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=262}} and the scholars who use it today admittedly do so as a convenient basis for comparison rather than for exactness.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=118}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=263}} Some scholars prefer other names, such as '''Standard American English''',{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=34}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=257}} though this can be a wider term encompassing more than just accent.

[[Standard Canadian English]] accents may be considered to fall under General American,{{sfnp|Boberg|2004a|p=159}} especially in opposition to the [[United Kingdom]]'s [[Received Pronunciation]]. Noted phonetician [[John C. Wells]], for instance, claimed in 1982 that typical Canadian English accents align with General American in nearly every situation where [[Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation|British and American accents differ]].{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=491}}

== Consonants ==
A table containing the [[consonant]] [[phoneme]]s is given below:

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes in General American
!
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Interdental consonant|Dental]]
! colspan="2" | [[alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[postalveolar consonant|Post-<br />alveolar]]
! colspan="2" | [[palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! colspan="2" | [[velar consonant|Velar]]
! colspan="2" | [[glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! <small>[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]</small>
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|m}}
| colspan="2" |
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|n}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ŋ}}
| colspan="2" |
|-
! <small>[[Stop consonant|Stop]]</small>
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|p}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|b}}
| colspan="2" |
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|t}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|d}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|k}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ɡ}}
| colspan="2" |
|-
! <small>[[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]</small>
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|tʃ}} || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|dʒ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
|-
! <small>[[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]</small>
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|f}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|v}}
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|θ}} || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ð}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|s}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|z}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ʃ}} || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ʒ}}
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | {{IPAlink|h}} || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" |
|-
! <small>[[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]</small>
| colspan="2" |
| colspan="2" |
| style="border-right: 0;" | || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|l}}
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|ɹ̠|r}}
| style="width: 20px; border-right: 0;" | || style="width: 20px; border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|j}}
| style="border-right: 0;" | ({{IPAlink|ʍ}}) || style="border-left: 0;" | {{IPAlink|w}}
| colspan="2" |
|}

===Pronunciation of R===
{{main|Pronunciation of English /r/}}
The [[phoneme]] {{IPA|/r/}} is pronounced as a [[postalveolar approximant]] {{IPAblink|ɹ̠|audio=y}} or [[retroflex approximant]] {{IPAblink|ɻ|audio=Retroflex_approximant.ogg}},{{sfn|Hallé|Best|Levitt|1999|p=283}} but a unique [[velar bunched approximant|"bunched tongue" variant]] of the sound is also associated with the United States, perhaps mostly in the [[Midwestern United States|Midwest]] and the South.{{sfn|Kortmann|Schneider|2004|p=317}} All these variants exhibit various degrees of [[labialization]] and [[pharyngealization]].{{sfnp|Zhou|Espy-Wilson|Boyce|Tiede|2008}}

====Rhoticity====
{{main|Rhoticity in English}}
Full rhoticity (or "R-fulness") is typical of American accents, in which {{IPA|/r/}} is pronounced in all historical environments spelled with the letter {{Angbr|r}}. This includes in syllable-final position or before a consonant, such as in ''pearl'', ''car'' and ''fort'', whereas most speakers in England do not pronounce this {{angbr|r}} in these environments and so are called non-rhotic.<ref name="Plag">{{cite book|last1=Plag|first1=Ingo|last2=Braun|first2=Maria|last3=Lappe|first3=Sabine|last4=Schramm |first4=Mareile |title=Introduction to English Linguistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLvZHmGA8q4C|access-date=July 4, 2013|year=2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|page=53|isbn=978-3-11-021550-2}}</ref>{{sfn|Collins|Mees|2002|p=178}} Non-rhotic American accents, such as some accents of [[Eastern New England English|Eastern New England]], [[New York City English|New York City]], and [[African American Vernacular English|African-American]]s, and a specific few (often [[older Southern American English|older]] ones) spoken by [[Southern American English|Southerners]], are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived as sounding especially ethnic, regional, or antiquated.<ref name="Plag" />{{sfn|Collins|Mees|2002|pp=181, 306}}<ref>Wolchover, Natalie (2012). "[http://www.livescience.com/33652-americans-brits-accents.html Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?]" ''LiveScience''. Purch.</ref>

Rhoticity is common in most American accents despite being now rare in England because, during the 17th-century British colonization of the Americas, nearly all [[dialects of English]] were rhotic, and most [[North American English|English in North America]] simply remained that way.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25484343 |title=Early Mainland Residues in Southern Hiberno-English |journal=Irish University Review |volume=20|issue=1 |pages=137–148 |last1=Lass |first1=Roger |year=1990 }}</ref> The North American preservation of rhoticity was also supported by waves of rhotic-accented Scotch-Irish immigrants, most intensely during the 18th century, when this ethnic group eventually made up one-seventh of the colonial population, plus smaller waves during the following two centuries. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from [[Delaware]] and [[Pennsylvania]] throughout the larger [[Mid-Atlantic region]], the inland regions of both the South and [[Northern United States|North]], and throughout the [[Western United States|West]]: American dialect areas that were all uninfluenced by upper-class non-rhoticity and that consequently have remained consistently rhotic.<ref>Wolfram, Walt; Schilling, Natalie (2015). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fOPLCgAAQBAJ&q=scots-irish+one+in+seven American English: Dialects and Variation]''. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 103–104.</ref> While non-rhoticity spread on the East Coast (perhaps first in imitation of early 19th-century London speech), even the East Coast has gradually begun to restore rhoticity, due to it becoming nationally prestigious since the mid-20th century.

===Yod dropping after alveolar consonants===
Dropping of the consonant {{IPA|/j/}} (the sound of the ''y'' in ''yes'' or ''you'') after another consonant, known as [[yod dropping]] in linguistics, is much more extensive in American accents than in most of England. In most North American accents, {{IPA|/j/}} is "dropped" or "deleted" in stressed syllables after all [[alveolar consonant|alveolar]] and dental consonants (that is: everywhere except after /p/, /b/, /f/, /h/, /k/, and /m/), so ''new, Tuesday, assume, duke'' are pronounced {{IPA|/nu/}}, {{IPA|/ˈtuzdeɪ/}}, {{IPA|/əˈsum/}}, {{IPA|/duk/|audio=En-us-duke.ogg}} (compare with British {{IPA|/nju/}}, {{IPA|/ˈtjuzdeɪ/}}, {{IPA|/əˈsjum/}}, {{IPA|/djuk/|audio=En-uk-duke.ogg}}. This applies also to syllables often transcribed with the secondary stress mark {{angbr IPA|ˌ}} by American linguists, as in ''avenue'' {{IPA|/ˈævəˌnu/}}. In unstressed syllables (as in ''menu'' {{IPA|/ˈmɛnju/}}), however, {{IPA|/j/}} is retained, as in most British accents.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=247}}

===T glottalization===
{{main|T-glottalization}}
{{IPA|/t/}} is normally pronounced as a [[glottal stop]] {{IPA|[ʔ]}}, both when after a vowel (or a [[liquid consonant|liquid]]) and when before a [[syllabic consonant|syllabic]] {{IPA|[n̩]}} or any non-syllabic consonant, as in ''button'' {{IPA|[ˈbʌʔn̩]|audio=en-us-button.ogg}} and ''fruitcake'' {{IPA|[ˈfɹuʔkʰeɪk]|audio=en-us-fruitcake.ogg}}. Similarly, in absolute final position after a vowel or liquid, {{IPA|/t/}} is replaced by, or simultaneously articulated with, glottal constriction:<ref>Seyfarth, Scott; [[Marc Garellek|Garellek, Marc]] (2015). "[https://pages.ucsd.edu/~mgarellek/files/Seyfarth_Garellek_2015_ICPhS.pdf Coda glottalization in American English]". In ICPhS. University of California, San Diego, p. 1.</ref> thus, ''what'' may be transcribed as {{IPA|[wʌʔ]}} and ''fruit'' as {{IPA|[fɹuʔ]}}. (This innovation of [[T-glottalization|/t/ glottal stopping]] occurs in many British English dialects as well.)

===T and D flapping===
{{main|Flapping}}
{{Listen
| header = ''T''-glottalization and flapping
| plain = yes
| style = float: right; border: 1px solid lightgray;
| filename = en-us-mountain.ogg
| title = ''mountain'' (glottalized ''t'')
| description = {{IPA|[ˈmaʊnʔn̩]}}
| filename2 = en-us-partner.ogg
| title2 = ''partner'' (glottalized ''t'')
| description2 = {{IPA|[ˈpʰɑɹʔnɚ]}}
| filename3 = en-us-leader.ogg
| title3 = ''leader'' (''d''-flapping)
| description3 = {{IPA|[ˈɫiɾɚ]}}
| filename4 = en-us-cattle.ogg
| title4 = ''cattle'' (''t''-flapping)
| description4 = {{IPA|[ˈkʰæɾɫ̩]}}
| filename5 = en-us-party.ogg
| title5 = ''party'' (''t''-flapping)
| description5 = {{IPA|[ˈpʰɑɹɾi]}}
}}
{{listen
| plain = yes
| style = float: right; border: 1px solid lightgray;
| header = Optional flapping in certain contexts
| filename = En-US relatively.ogg
| title = ''relatively'' without flapping
| description = {{IPA|[ˈɹɛɫɨtʰɪvɫi]}}
| filename2 = En-US relatively (flapped).ogg
| title2 = ''relatively'' with flapping
| description2 = {{IPA|[ˈɹɛɫɨɾɪvɫi]}}
}}

The consonants {{IPA|/t/}} and {{IPA|/d/}} become a [[alveolar flap|flap]] {{IPAblink|ɾ|audio=y}} both after a vowel or {{IPA|/r/}} and before an unstressed vowel or a syllabic consonant other than {{IPA|[n̩]}}. Common example words include ''later'' {{IPA|[ˈɫeɪɾɚ]|audio=En-us-later.ogg}}, ''party'' {{IPA|[ˈpʰɑɹɾi]}} and ''model'' {{IPA|[ˈmɑɾɫ̩]}}. Flapping thus results in pairs of words such as ''ladder/latter, metal/medal,'' and ''coating/coding'' being pronounced the same. Flapping of {{IPA|/t/}} or {{IPA|/d/}} before a full stressed vowel is also possible but only if that vowel begins a new word or morpheme, as in ''what is it?'' {{IPA|[wʌɾˈɪzɨʔ]}} and twice in ''not at all'' {{IPA|[nɑɾɨɾˈɔɫ]}}. Other rules apply to flapping, to such a complex degree in fact that flapping has been analyzed as being required in certain contexts, prohibited in others, and optional in still others.<ref>Vaux, Bert (2000_. "Flapping in English." ''Linguistic Society of America'', Chicago, IL. p .6.</ref> For instance, flapping is prohibited in words like ''seduce'' {{IPA|[sɨˈdus]}}, ''retail'' {{IPA|[ˈɹitʰeɪɫ]}}, and ''monotone'' {{IPA|[ˈmɑnɨtʰoʊn]}}, yet optional in ''impotence'' {{IPA|[ˈɪmpɨɾɨns, ˈɪmpɨtʰɨns]}}.

Both intervocalic {{IPA|/nt/}} and {{IPA|/n/}} may commonly be realized as {{IPAblink|ɾ̃}} (a nasalized [[alveolar flap]]) ([[flapping]]) or simply {{IPA|[n]}}, making ''winter'' a [[homophone]] with ''winner'' in fast or informal speech.

===Pronunciation of L===
{{main|Velarized alveolar lateral approximant}}
England's typical distinction between a "clear L" (i.e. {{IPAblink|l|audio=y}}) and a "dark L" (i.e. {{IPAblink|ɫ|audio=y}}) is much less noticeable in nearly all dialects of American English; it is often altogether absent,<ref>{{cite book|title=Language Talent and Brain Activity: Trends in Applied Linguistics|editor=Grzegorz Dogil |editor2=Susanne Maria Reiterer |editor3=Walter de Gruyter|year=2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH|page=299|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pfIGxRtdXsQC&pg=PA299|isbn=978-3-11-021549-6}}</ref> with all "L" sounds tending to be "dark", meaning having some degree of [[velarization]],{{sfn|Wells|1982|p=490}} perhaps even as dark as {{IPAblink|ʟ|audio=y}} (though in the initial position, perhaps less dark than elsewhere among some speakers).{{sfnp|Jones|Roach|Hartman|2006|p=xi}} The only notable exceptions to this "dark L" today are in some Spanish-influenced American English varieties (such as [[New York Latino English|East Coast Latino English]]) which can show a clear "L" in [[syllable onset]]s and intervocalically.

===Wine–whine merger===
{{main|Wine–whine merger}}
Word pairs like ''wine/whine, wet/whet, Wales/whales, wear/where,'' etc. are [[homophone]]s, in most cases eliminating {{IPA|/ʍ/}}, also transcribed {{IPA|/hw/}}, the [[voiceless labiovelar fricative]]. However, scatterings of older speakers who do not merge these pairs still exist nationwide, perhaps most strongly in the South.{{sfn|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=52}} This merger is also found in most modern varieties of [[British English]].

==Vowels==
[[File:General American monophthong chart.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Monophthongs of General American without the ''cot–caught'' merger, from {{harvtxt|Wells|1982|p=486}}. {{IPA|[e]|cat=no}} and {{IPA|[o]}} are monophthongal allophones of {{IPA|/eɪ/}} and {{IPA|/oʊ/}}.]]
[[File:General American diphthong chart.svg|thumb|upright=0.9|right|Diphthongs of General American, from {{harvtxt|Wells|1982|p=486}}]]

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" accent regions: [[Standard Canadian English|(Standard) Canada]], the [[Western American English|American West]], and the [[Midland American English|American Midland]].<ref>{{Harvp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=144}}</ref> The following charts present the vowels that converge across these three dialect regions to form an [[markedness|unmarked]] or generic American English sound system.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Vowel phonemes in General American
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Front vowel|Front]]
! colspan="2" | [[Central vowel|Central]]
! colspan="2" | [[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
! {{small|lax}}
! {{small|tense}}
! {{small|lax}}
! {{small|tense}}
! {{small|lax}}
! {{small|tense}}
|-
! [[Close vowel|Close]]
| {{IPA link|ɪ}} 
| {{IPA link|i}}
| 
|
| {{IPA link|ʊ}}
| {{IPA link|ʉ|u}}
|-
! [[Mid vowel|Mid]]
| {{IPA link|ɛ}}
| {{IPA link|e|eɪ}}
| {{IPA link|ə}}
|
| ({{IPA link|ʌ}})
| {{IPA link|o̞|oʊ}}
|-
! [[Open vowel|Open]]
| {{IPA link|æ}}
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɑ̈|ɑ}}
|
| ({{IPA link|ɒ|ɔ}})
|-
! [[Diphthong]]s
| colspan="6" | {{IPA|aɪ}} &nbsp; {{IPA|ɔɪ}} &nbsp; {{IPA|aʊ}}
|}

===Vowel length===
[[Vowel length]] is not [[phoneme|phonemic]] in General American, and therefore vowels such as {{IPA|/i/}} are customarily transcribed without the length mark.<ref>Some British sources, such as the ''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary'', use a unified symbol set with the length mark, {{IPA|ː}}, for both British and American English. Others, such as ''The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English'', do not use the length mark for American English only.</ref> Phonetically, the vowels of GA are short {{IPA|[ɪ, i, ʊ, u, eɪ, oʊ, ɛ, ʌ, ɔ, æ, ɑ, aɪ, ɔɪ, aʊ]}} when they precede the [[Fortis and lenis|fortis]] consonants {{IPA|/p, t, k, tʃ, f, θ, s, ʃ/}} within the same syllable and long {{IPA|[ɪː, iː, ʊː, uː, eːɪ, oːʊ, ɛː, ʌː, ɔː, æː, ɑː, aːɪ, ɔːɪ, aːʊ]}} elsewhere. (Listen to the minimal pair of {{audio|General American kit kid minimal pair.ogg|''kit'' and ''kid''|help=no}} {{IPA|[ˈkʰɪt, ˈkʰɪːd]}}.) All unstressed vowels are also shorter than the stressed ones, and the more unstressed syllables follow a stressed one, the shorter it is, so that {{IPA|/i/}} in ''l<u>ea</u>d'' is noticeably longer than in ''l<u>ea</u>dership''.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=120, 480–481}}{{sfnp|Wells|2008}} (See [[Stress and vowel reduction in English]].)

===Vowel tenseness===
{{IPA|/i, u, eɪ, oʊ, ɑ, ɔ/}} are considered to compose a [[natural class]] of [[Tenseness|tense]] pure vowels ([[monophthongs]]) in General American. All of the tense vowels except {{IPA|/ɑ/}} and {{IPA|/ɔ/}} can have either monophthongal or diphthongal pronunciations (i.e. {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|i}}, {{IPAplink|u}}, {{IPAplink|e}}, {{IPAplink|o̞|ö̞}}]}} vs {{IPA|[ɪi, ʊu, eɪ, ö̞ʊ]}}). The diphthongs are the most usual realizations of {{IPA|/eɪ/}} and {{IPA|/oʊ/}} (as in ''stay'' {{Audio-IPA|En-us-stay.ogg|[steɪ]|help=no}} and ''row'' {{Audio-IPA|En-us-row.ogg|[ɹö̞ʊ]|help=no}}, hereafter transcribed without the diacritics), which is reflected in the way they are transcribed. Monophthongal realizations are also possible, most commonly in unstressed syllables; here are audio examples for ''potato'' {{Audio-IPA|En-us-potato.ogg|[pʰəˈtʰeɪɾö̞]|help=no}} and ''window'' {{Audio-IPA|En-us-window.ogg|[ˈwɪndö̞]|help=no}}. In the case of {{IPA|/i/}} and {{IPA|/u/}}, the monophthongal pronunciations ({{IPA|[i, u]}}) are in [[free variation]] with diphthongs ({{IPA|[ɪi~ɪ̈i, ʊu~ʊ̈ʉ]}}).{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=487}} As indicated in above phonetic transcriptions, {{IPA|/u/}} is subject to the same variation (also when monophthongal: {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|u}} ~ {{IPAplink|ʉ}}]}}),{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=476, 487}} but its mean phonetic value is usually somewhat less central than in modern Received Pronunciation (RP).{{sfnp|Jones|2011|p=IX}} {{IPA|/ɑ/}} varies between back {{IPAblink|ɑ}} and central {{IPAblink|ɑ̈}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=476}}

====Assigning of tense vowels to loanwords====
The class of tense pure vowels manifests in how GA speakers treat recent [[loanword]]s, particularly borrowed in the last century or two, since in the majority of cases stressed syllables of foreign words are assigned one of these six vowels, regardless of whether the original pronunciation has a tense or a lax vowel. An example of this phenomenon is the Spanish word ''[[macho]]'', Middle Eastern (for instance Turkish) word ''[[kebab]]'', and German name ''[[Hans (given name)|Hans]]'', which are all pronounced in GA with the tense {{IPA|/ɑ/}}, the {{sc2|PALM/LOT}} vowel, rather than lax {{IPA|/æ/}}, the {{sc2|TRAP}} vowel, as in Britain's [[Received Pronunciation]] (which approximates the original languages' pronunciation {{IPA|/a/}} in using a lax vowel).{{sfnp|Lindsey|1990}}

====Pre-nasal {{sc2|TRAP}} tensing====
{{main|/æ/ raising}}
For most speakers, the [[Traditional English short vowel|short ''a'']] sound {{IPA|/æ/}} as in {{sc2|TRAP}} or {{sc2|BATH}}, which is not normally a tense vowel, is pronounced with tensing&mdash;the [[raising (phonetics)|tongue raised]], followed by a centering [[diphthong|glide]]&mdash;whenever occurring before a [[nasal stop|nasal consonant]] (that is, before {{IPA|/m/}}, {{IPA|/n/}} and, for many speakers, {{IPA|/ŋ/}}).<ref>Boberg, Charles (Spring 2001). "Phonological Status of Western New England". ''American Speech'', Volume 76, Number 1. pp. 3–29 (Article). Duke University Press. p. 11: "The vowel {{IPA|/æ/}} is generally tensed and raised [...] only before nasals, a raising environment for most speakers of North American English".</ref> This sound may be broadly phonetically transcribed as {{IPA|[ɛə]}} (as in {{Audio|En-us-Anne2.ogg|''Anne''|help=no}} and {{Audio|En-us-am.ogg|''am''|help=no}}), or, based on one's own [[idiolect|unique accent]] or regional accent, variously as {{IPA|[eə]}} or {{IPA|[ɪə]}}. In the following audio clip, the first pronunciation is the tensed one for the word ''camp'', much more common in American English than the second, which is more typical of British English {{Pronunciation|En-US camp (raised vs. unraised).ogg|listen|(|help=no}}. Linguists have variously called this "short ''a'' raising", "short ''a'' tensing", "pre-nasal /æ/ tensing", etc. 

{{/æ/ raising in North American English|hidden=yes}}

====Tense vowels before L====
Before dark {{serif|''l''}} in a [[syllable coda]], {{IPA|/i, u/}} and sometimes also {{IPA|/eɪ, oʊ/}} are realized as centering diphthongs {{IPA|[iə, uə, eə, oə]}}. Therefore, words such as ''peel'' {{IPA|/pil/}} and ''fool'' {{IPA|/ful/}} are often pronounced {{IPA|[pʰiəɫ]}} and {{IPA|[fuəɫ]}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=487}}

==={{Sc2|PALM}}, {{Sc2|LOT}}, {{Sc2|CLOTH}}, and {{Sc2|THOUGHT}} vowels===
====Unrounded {{Sc2|LOT}}====
The American phenomenon of the {{Sc2|LOT}} vowel (often spelled {{angbr|o}} in words like ''box, don, clock, notch, pot,'' etc.) being produced without [[rounded vowel|rounded lips]], like the {{Sc2|PALM}} vowel, allows the two vowels to unify as a single [[phoneme]] usually transcribed {{IPA|/ɑ/}} in IPA. A consequence is that some words, like ''father'' and ''bother'', rhyme for most Americans. This [[Phonological history of the low back vowels#Father–bother merger|''father-bother'' merger]] is widespread throughout the country, except in northeastern [[New England English]] (such as the [[Boston accent]]), the [[Western Pennsylvania English|Pittsburgh accent]], and variably in some older [[New York accent]]s, which may retain a rounded articulation of ''bother'', keeping it distinct from ''father''.{{sfn|Wells|1982|pp=136–37, 203–6, 234, 245–47, 339–40, 400, 419, 443, 576}}<!-- Wells 1982: 245–47 -->{{sfn|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=171}}

===={{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|THOUGHT}} merger in transition====
{{main|cot–caught merger}}
The vowel in a word like {{sc2|LOT}} {{IPA|/ɑ/}} versus the vowel in {{sc2|THOUGHT}} {{IPA|/ɔ/}} are undergoing a merger, the ''cot–caught'' merger, in many parts of North America, but not in certain regions. American speakers with a completed merger pronounce the two historically separate vowels with the same sound (especially in the [[American West|West]], [[Great Plains]] region, northern [[New England]], [[West Virginia]] and [[western Pennsylvania]]), but other speakers have no trace of a merger at all (especially middle-aged or older speakers in the [[American South|South]], the [[Great Lakes region]], southern New England, and the [[Philadelphia English|Philadelphia&ndash;Baltimore]] and [[New York metropolitan area]]s) and so pronounce each vowel with distinct sounds {{Pronunciation|Cot-caught distinction.ogg|listen||help=no}}.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=61}} Among speakers who distinguish between the two, the vowel of ''cot'' is often a [[central vowel|central]] {{IPAblink|ɑ̈|audio=y}} or slightly advanced [[back vowel|back]] {{IPA|[ɑ̟]}}, while {{IPA|/ɔ/}} is pronounced with more rounded lips and possibly phonetically higher in the mouth, close to {{IPAblink|ɒ|audio=y}} or {{IPAblink|ɔ|audio=y}}. Furthermore, there are dialectal differences regarding the amount of rounding of {{IPA|/ɔ/}}, with speakers from Baltimore, New York and Philadelphia having a more rounded vowel {{IPA|[ɔ̹]}} than other dialects.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=476}} Among speakers who do not distinguish between them, thus producing a ''cot–caught'' merger, {{IPA|/ɑ/}} usually remains a back vowel, {{IPAblink|ɑ|audio=y}}, sometimes showing lip rounding as {{IPA|[ɒ]}}. Therefore, even mainstream Americans vary greatly with this speech feature, with possibilities ranging from a full merger to no merger at all. In the West, for instance, {{Sc2|PALM}}, {{Sc2|LOT}}, {{Sc2|CLOTH}}, and {{Sc2|THOUGHT}} are all typically pronounced the same, falling under one phoneme. A transitional stage of the merger is also common in scatterings throughout the United States, most consistently in 1990s and early 2000s research in the [[Midland American English|American Midlands]] lying between the historical dialect regions of the North and the South. Meanwhile, younger Americans, in general, tend to be transitioning toward the merger. According to a 2003 dialect survey carried out across the country, about 61% of participants perceived themselves as keeping the two vowels distinct and 39% do not.<ref>Vaux, Bert; Golder, Scott (2003). "[http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_28.html Do you pronounce 'cot' and 'çaught' the same?]" The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.</ref> A 2009 follow-up survey put the percentages at 58% non-merging speakers and 41% merging.<ref>Vaux, Bert; Jøhndal, Marius L. (2009). "[http://survey.johndal.com/results/268/ Do you pronounce "cot" and "caught" the same?]" ''Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes''. Cambridge: Cambridge University.</ref>

===={{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|CLOTH}} split====
American accents that have not undergone the [[cot-caught merger|''cot–caught'' merger]] (the [[lexical set]]s {{sc2|LOT}} and {{sc2|THOUGHT}}) have instead retained a [[Lot-cloth split|{{sc2|LOT}}–{{sc2|CLOTH}} split]]: a 17th-century distinction in which certain words (labeled as the {{sc2|CLOTH}} [[lexical set]]) separated away from the {{sc2|LOT}} set. The split, which has now reversed in most British English, simultaneously shifts this relatively recent {{sc2|CLOTH}} set into a merger with the {{sc2|THOUGHT}} (''caught'') set. Having taken place prior to the unrounding of the ''cot'' vowel, it results in lengthening and perhaps raising, merging the more recently separated vowel into the {{sc2|THOUGHT}} vowel in the following environments: before many instances of {{IPA|/f/}}, {{IPA|/θ/}}, and particularly {{IPA|/s/}} (as in ''Austria, cloth, cost, loss, off, often,'' etc.), a few instances before {{IPA|/ŋ/}} (as in ''strong, long, wrong''), and variably by region or speaker in ''gone'', ''on'', and certain other words.{{sfn|Wells|1982|pp=136–7, 203–4}}

==={{sc2|STRUT}} and {{sc2|COMM{{underline|A}}}} vowels===
The phonetic quality of {{IPA|/ʌ/}} ({{sc2|STRUT}}) varies in General American. It is often an ([[Relative articulation#Advanced|advanced]]) open-mid back unrounded vowel {{IPAblink|ʌ|ʌ̟}}: {{Pronunciation|En-us-uh.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=485}}{{sfnp|Roca|Johnson|1999|p=190}} Many Midland, Southern, African-American, and younger speakers nationwide pronounce it somewhat more centralized in the mouth.

Also, some scholars analyze {{IPA|[ʌ]}} to be an allophone of {{IPA|/ə/}} (the unstressed vowel in words like {{Sc2|COMM{{underline|A}}}}, ''banana'', ''oblige'', etc.), that surfaces when stressed, so {{IPA|/ʌ/}} and {{IPA|/ə/}} may be considered to be in [[complementary distribution]], comprising only one phoneme.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=132}}

===={{Sc2|STRUT}} in special words====
The {{Sc2|STRUT}} vowel, rather than the one in {{sc2|LOT}} (as in Britain), is used in [[function words]] and certain other words like ''was, of, from, what, everybody, nobody, somebody, anybody'', and, for many speakers ''because'' and sometimes even ''want'', when stressed.<ref>According to ''Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition''.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://dictionary.infoplease.com/want |title=Want: meaning and definitions|publisher=Dictionary.infoplease.com |access-date=May 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/W0025500.html |title=want. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.|publisher=Bartleby.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080109040108/http://www.bartleby.com/61/55/W0025500.html |archive-date=January 9, 2008 |access-date=May 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/want |title=Want – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary|publisher=M-w.com |access-date=May 29, 2013}}</ref>

===Pre-voiceless {{sc2|PRICE}} raising===
Many speakers split the sound {{IPA|/aɪ/}} based on whether it occurs before a voiceless consonant or not. Thus, in ''rider'', it is pronounced {{IPA|[ä(ː)ɪ]}}, but in ''writer'', it is raised and potentially shortened to {{IPA|[ʌɪ]}} (because {{IPA|/t/}} is a voiceless consonant while {{IPA|/d/}} is not). Thus, words like ''bright, hike, price, wipe,'' etc. with a following voiceless consonant (such as {{IPA|/t, k, θ, s/}}) use a raised vowel sound compared to ''bride, high, prize, wide'', etc. Because of this sound change, the words ''rider'' and ''writer'' {{Pronunciation|En-us-rider-writer.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}, for instance, remain distinct from one another by virtue of their difference in height (and length) of the diphthong's starting point (unrelated to both the letters ''d'' and ''t'' being pronounced in these words as alveolar flaps {{IPA|[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, a ''high school'' in the sense of "secondary school" is generally pronounced {{IPA|[ˈhɐɪskuɫ]}}; however, a ''high school'' in the literal sense of "a tall school" would be pronounced {{IPA|[ˌhaɪˈskuɫ]}}. The [[sound change]] began in the [[Northern American English|Northern]], [[New England English|New England]], and [[Mid-Atlantic American English|Mid-Atlantic]] regions of the country,{{sfn|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|loc=p. 114: "where Canadian raising has traditionally been reported: Canada, Eastern New England, Philadelphia, and the North"}} and is becoming more common across the nation.

Many speakers outside of General American areas in the [[Inland Northern American English|Inland North]], [[North Central American English|Upper Midwestern]], and [[Philadelphia English|Philadelphia dialect areas]] raise {{IPA|/aɪ/}} before voiced consonants in certain words as well, particularly {{IPA|[d]}}, {{IPA|[g]}} and {{IPA|[n]}}. Hence, words like ''tiny'', ''spider'', ''cider'', ''tiger'', ''dinosaur'', ''beside'', ''idle'' (but sometimes not ''idol''), and ''fire'' may contain a raised nucleus. The use of {{IPA|[ʌɪ]}}, rather than {{IPA|[aɪ]}}, in such words is unpredictable from the phonetic environment alone, but it may have to do with their acoustic similarity to other words with {{IPA|[ʌɪ]}} before a voiceless consonant, per the traditional Canadian-raising system. Some researchers have argued that there has been a [[phonemic split]] in those dialects, and the distribution of the two sounds is becoming more unpredictable among younger speakers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1087&context=curej|publisher=[[University of Pennsylvania]]|title=The Spread of Raising: Opacity, lexicalization, and diffusion|date=November 11, 2007|access-date=September 21, 2016|last=Freuhwald|first=Josef T.}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Murphy |first1=Patrick Joseph |title=Listening to Writers and Riders: Partial Contrast and the Perception of Canadian Raising |journal=University of Toronto PhD Dissertation |date=2019 |pages=116–117 |url=https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/97604/3/Murphy_Patrick_J_201911_PhD_thesis.pdf |access-date=January 17, 2024}}</ref>

=== {{Sc2|KIT}} variation in final unstressed /ɪŋ/ ===
General American speakers typically realize final unstressed {{IPA|/ɪŋ/}}, like at the end of ''singing'', as {{IPA|[ɪŋ]}} or, in a particularly casual [[style (sociolinguistics)|style]], {{IPA|[ɪn]}}. However, many speakers from [[California English|California]], other [[Western American English|Western states]] including those in the [[Pacific Northwest English|Pacific Northwest]], and the [[North-Central American English|Upper Midwest]] realize final unstressed {{IPA|/ɪŋ/}} as {{IPA|[in]}} when {{IPA|/ɪ/}} ("short ''i''") is raised to become {{IPAblink|i}} ("long ''ee''") before the underlying {{IPA|/ŋ/}} is converted to {{IPA|[n]}}, so that ''coding'', for example, is pronounced {{IPA|[ˈkoʊdin]}}, homophonous with ''codeine''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Metcalf|first=Allan|title=How We Talk: American Regional English Today |date=2000|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|chapter=The Far West and beyond|isbn=0618043624|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsMUCl5j8X4C&pg=PA143|page=143|quote=Another pronunciation even more widely heard among older teens and adults in California and throughout the West is 'een' for -''ing'', as in 'I'm think-een of go-een camp-een.'}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=Marsha |last2=Johnson |first2=Brian K. |title=The Articulate Advocate: New Techniques of Persuasion for Trial Attorneys |date=2009 |publisher=Crown King Books |chapter=Articulators and Articulation |isbn=9780979689505 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OQDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA92|page=92|quote=Regional Accents ... A distinguishing characteristic of the Upper Midwestern accent is the tendency to turn the 'ing' sound into 'een,' with a cheerful 'Good morneen!'}}</ref>

===Weak vowel merger===
{{main|Weak vowel merger}}
The {{sc2|KIT}} vowel {{IPA|/ɪ/}} in unstressed syllables generally merges with the {{sc2|COMM{{underline|A}}}} vowel {{IPA|/ə/}}, so that the noun ''effect'' is pronounced like verb ''affect'', and ''abbot'' and ''rabbit'' rhyme. The quality of the merged vowel varies considerably based on the environment but is typically more open, like {{IPA|[ə]}}, in word-final or [[Open syllable|open-syllable]] word-initial positions (making ''salon'' {{IPA|[səˈɫɑn]}} and ''comma'' {{IPA|[ˈkʰɑmə]}}), but more close and often more fronted, like {{IPA|[ɪ~ɨ]}}, in other positions (making ''patted'' or ''padded'' {{IPA|[ˈpʰæɾɨd]}} and ''minus'' {{IPA|[ˈmaɪnɨs]}}).{{sfnp|Wells|2008|p=xxi}} (Despite phonetic variation within the latter vowel, the symbol {{angbr IPA|ɨ}} is used consistently on this page.){{refn|Though analyses may differ, the choice to use the symbol {{angbr IPA|ɨ}} here dates back to a tradition starting in the 1950s from linguist [[George L. Trager]] and others.<ref>Flemming & Johnson, 2007, pp. 83-4.</ref>}}

===Vowels before R===
====R-colored vowels====
The [[lexical set]]s {{sc2|NURSE}} and lett{{sc2|ER}} are merged as the sequence {{IPA|/ər/}}, a [[schwa]] vowel plus {{IPA|/r/}}, which can also be analyzed as a simple [[syllabic consonant|syllabic]] {{IPA|/r/}}, though often phonetically transcribed as the [[R-colored vowel|R-colored schwa]] {{IPAblink|ɚ|audio=y}}. Therefore, ''perturb'', pronounced {{IPA|/pəˈtɜːb/}} in British [[Received Pronunciation]] (RP), is {{IPA|/pərˈtərb/}} ([[Phonetic_transcription#Narrow versus broad; phonemic versus phonetic|phonetically]] {{Audio-IPA|En-us-perturb.ogg|[pɚˈtɚb]}}) in General American pronunciation. Similarly, the words ''forward'' and ''foreword'', which are phonologically distinguished in RP as {{IPA|/ˈfɔːwəd/}} and {{IPA|/ˈfɔːwɜːd/}}, are [[homophone|homophonous]] in GA: {{IPA|/ˈfɔrwərd/}} (or phonetically {{IPA|[ˈfɔɹwɚd]}}).{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=121}} Moreover, what is historically {{IPA|/ʌr/}}, as in ''hurry'', merges to {{IPA|/ər/}} in GA as well, so the historical phonemes {{IPA|/ʌ/}}, {{IPA|/ɜ/}}, and {{IPA|/ə/}} are all [[Phonemic merger|neutralized]] before {{IPA|/r/}}. Thus, unlike in most English dialects of England, {{IPA|/ɜ/}} is not a true phoneme in General American but merely a different notation of {{IPA|/ə/}} for when this phoneme precedes {{IPA|/r/}} and is stressed—a convention preserved in many sources to facilitate comparisons with other accents.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=480–1}}

====Vowel mergers before R====
Most North American accents are characterized by the mergers of certain vowels when they occur before [[intervocalic]] {{IPA|/r/}}. The only exceptions exist primarily along the [[East_Coast_of_the_United_States|East Coast]].
*[[Mary-marry-merry merger|''Mary–marry–merry'' merger]] in transition: According to the 2003 dialect survey, nearly 57% of participants from around the country self-identified as merging the sounds {{IPA|/ær/}} (as in the first syllable of ''parish''), {{IPA|/ɛr/}} (as in the first syllable of ''perish''), and {{IPA|/ɛər/}} (as in ''pear'' or ''pair'').<ref>Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder (2003). "[http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_15.html How do you pronounce Mary / merry / marry?]" The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.</ref> The merger is largely complete in most regions of the country, the major exceptions being much of the Atlantic Coast and southern [[Louisiana]].{{sfnp|Kortmann|Schneider|2004|p=295}}
*[[hurry-furry merger|''Hurry–furry'' merger]]: The pre-{{IPA|/r/}} vowels in words like ''hurry'' {{IPA|/ʌ/}} and ''furry'' {{IPA|/ɜ/}} are merged in most American accents to {{IPA|[ɚ]}} or a syllabic consonant {{IPA|[ɹ̩]}}. Roughly only 10% of American English speakers acknowledge the distinct ''hurry'' vowel before {{IPA|/r/}}, according to the same dialect survey aforementioned.<ref>Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder (2003). "[http://dialect.redlog.net/staticmaps/q_12.html fl''ou''rish] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711123931/http://dialect.redlog.net/staticmaps/q_12.html |date=2015-07-11}}". The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.</ref>
*[[Mirror–nearer merger|''Mirror–nearer'' merger]] in transition: The pre-{{IPA|/r/}} vowels in words like ''mirror'' {{IPA|/ɪ/}} and ''nearer'' {{IPA|/i/}} are merged or very similar in most American accents. The quality of the historic ''mirror'' vowel in the word ''miracle'' is quite variable.<ref>Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder (2003). "[http://www4.uwm.edu/FLL/linguistics/dialect/staticmaps/q_17.html the first vowel in "m''i''racle"]". The Harvard Dialect Survey. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.</ref>
*Americans vary slightly in their pronunciations of [[R-colored vowel#Rhotacization|R-colored vowels]] such as those in {{IPA|/ɛər/}} and {{IPA|/ɪər/}}, which are sometimes monophthongized towards {{IPA|[ɛɹ]}} and {{IPA|[ɪɹ]}} or [[tenseness|tensed]] towards {{IPA|[eɪɹ]}} and {{IPA|[i(ə)ɹ]}} respectively. That causes pronunciations like {{IPA|[pʰeɪɹ]}} for ''pair''/''pear'' and {{IPA|[pʰiəɹ]}} for ''peer''/''pier''.{{sfn|Wells|1982|pp=481–482}} Also, {{IPA|/jʊər/}} is often reduced to {{IPA|[jɚ]}}, so that ''cure'', ''pure'', and ''mature'' may all end with the sound {{IPA|[ɚ]}}, thus rhyming with ''blur'' and ''sir''. The word ''sure'' is also part of the rhyming set as it is commonly pronounced {{IPA|[ʃɚ]}}.
* [[Horse–hoarse merger|''Horse–hoarse'' merger]]: This merger makes the vowels {{IPA|/ɔ/}} and {{IPA|/o/}} before {{IPA|/r/}} homophones, with homophonous pairs like ''horse/hoarse, corps/core, for/four, morning/mourning, war/wore,'' etc. homophones. Many older varieties of American English still keep the sets of words distinct, particularly in the extreme Northeast, the South (especially along the Gulf Coast), and the central Midlands,{{sfn|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=52}} but the merger is evidently spreading and younger Americans rarely show the distinction. This merger is also found in most modern varieties of [[British English]].
* [[Mergers of /ɒr-/ and /ɔːr-/|"Short ''o''" before ''r'' before a vowel]]: In typical North American accents (both U.S. and Canada), the historical sequence {{IPA|/ɒr/}} (a short ''o'' sound followed by ''r'' and then another vowel, as in ''orange'', ''forest'', ''moral'', and ''warrant'') is realized as {{IPA|[oɹ~ɔɹ]}}, thus further merging with the already-merged {{IPA|/ɔr/–/oʊr/}} ([[horse–hoarse merger|''horse''–''hoarse'']]) set. In the U.S., a small number of words (namely, ''tom{{under|orr}}ow, s{{under|orr}}y, s{{under|orr}}ow, b{{under|orr}}ow,'' and ''m{{under|orr}}ow'') usually contain the sound {{IPA|[ɑɹ]}} instead and thus merge with the {{IPA|/ɑr/}} set (thus, ''sorry'' and ''[[sari]]'' become homophones, both rhyming with ''starry'').{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=476}}
{{English -or- table|header=General American {{IPA|/ɑr/}} and {{IPA|/ɔr/}} followed by a vowel, compared with other dialects|hidden=yes}}

=== Lists of monophthongs, diphthongs, and R-colored vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Pure vowels ([[monophthong]]s)
|-
! [[Help:IPA/English|Wikipedia's<br/> IPA<br/> diaphoneme]]
! [[John C. Wells|Wells's]] <br />GenAm <br/>phoneme
! GenAm <br/>realization
! Example <br/>words
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/æ/}}
| {{IPAblink|æ}} {{Pronunciation|near-open front unrounded vowel.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| b'''a'''th, tr'''a'''p, y'''a'''k
|-
| {{IPA|[eə~ɛə]}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=180}}{{sfnp|Thomas|2004|p=315}}{{sfnp|Gordon|2004|p=340}}
| b'''a'''n, tr'''a'''m, s'''a'''nd (pre-nasal [[/æ/ tensing]])
|-
| {{IPA|/ɑː/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɑ/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɑ}}~{{IPAplink|ɑ̈}}]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-ah.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=476}}
| '''ah''', f'''a'''ther, sp'''a'''
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɒ/}}
| b'''o'''ther, l'''o'''t, w'''a'''sp ([[Father bother merger|father–bother merger]])
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɔ/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɑ}}~{{IPAplink|ɒ}}~{{IPAplink|ɒ|ɔ̞}}]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-awe.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=476}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=145}}
| b'''o'''ss, cl'''o'''th, d'''o'''g, '''o'''ff ([[lot-cloth split|lot–cloth split]])
|-
| {{IPA|/ɔː/}}
| '''a'''ll, b'''ough'''t, fl'''au'''nt ([[cot-caught merger|cot–caught variability]])
|-
| {{IPA|/oʊ/}}
| {{IPA|/o/}}
| {{IPA|[oʊ~ɔʊ~ʌʊ~{{IPAplink|o̞}}]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-o.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}<ref name="Heggarty" />{{sfnp|Gordon|2004|p=343}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=104}}
| g'''oa'''t, h'''o'''me, t'''oe'''
|-
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɛ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɛ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-Open-mid front unrounded vowel.oga|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| dr'''e'''ss, m'''e'''t, br'''ea'''d
|-
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|/eɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[e̞ɪ~eɪ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-a.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| l'''a'''ke, p'''ai'''d, f'''ei'''nt
|-
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|/ʌ/}}
| {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ʌ|ʌ̟}}~ʌ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-uh2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| b'''u'''s, fl'''oo'''d, wh'''a'''t
|-
| colspan="2" rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ə/}}
| {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ə}}~{{IPAplink|ɐ}}~{{IPAplink|ʌ}}]}}{{sfnp|Wells|2008}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-uh2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| '''a'''bout, '''o'''blige, '''a'''ren'''a'''
|-
| {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɨ}}~{{IPAplink|ɪ}}~{{IPAplink|ə}}]}}<ref>Flemming, Edward; Johnson, Stephanie. (2007). "Rosa's roses: Reduced vowels in American English". Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 37(1), 83–96.</ref> {{Pronunciation|Close-mid_central_unrounded_vowel.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| ball'''a'''d, foc'''u'''s, harm'''o'''ny ([[weak vowel merger]])
|-
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|ɪ}}~{{IPAplink|ɪ|ɪ̞}}]}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=486}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-Near-close near-front unrounded vowel2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| k'''i'''t, p'''i'''nk, t'''i'''p
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/iː/}}
| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/i/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|i}}]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-Close front unrounded vowel2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| b'''ea'''m, ch'''i'''c, fl'''ee'''ce
|-
| happ'''y''', mon'''ey''', part'''ie'''s ([[happy tensing|happ{{sc2|Y}} tensing]])
|-
| colspan="2" | {{IPA|/ʊ/}}
| {{IPAblink|ʊ|ʊ̞}} {{Pronunciation|near-close near-back rounded vowel.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=486}}
| b'''oo'''k, p'''u'''t, sh'''ou'''ld
|-
| {{IPA|/uː/}}
| {{IPA|/u/}}
| {{IPA|[{{IPAplink|u|u̟}}~ʊu~ʉu~ɵu]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-ooh.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=154}}{{sfnp|Gordon|2004|p=343}}{{sfnp|Boberg|2004b|p=361}}<ref name="Heggarty">{{cite web|title=Accents of English from Around the World|editor=Heggarty, Paul|display-editors=etal|year=2015|url=http://www.soundcomparisons.com/|access-date=2016-09-24|archive-date=2011-04-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429190515/http://www.soundcomparisons.com/}} See under "Std US + 'up-speak'"</ref>
| g'''oo'''se, n'''ew''', tr'''ue'''
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ [[Diphthong]]s
! [[Help:IPA/English|Wikipedia's<br/> IPA diaphoneme]]
! GenAm realization
! Example words
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/aɪ/}} 
| {{IPA|[äːɪ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-eye.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}<ref name="Heggarty" />
| br'''i'''de, pr'''i'''ze, t'''ie'''
|-
| {{IPA|[äɪ~ɐɪ~ʌ̈ɪ]}} {{Pronunciation|Nl-ai.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}<ref>{{cite book|first=Charles|last=Boberg|author-link=Charles Boberg|publisher=Cambridge University Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uW2rM_6I3gMC&q=does%20occur%20in%20eastern%20New%20England|title=The English Language in Canada: Status, History and Comparative Analysis|year=2010|page=156|isbn=978-1-139-49144-0}}</ref>
| br'''igh'''t, pr'''i'''ce, t'''y'''ke ([[Canadian raising|price raising]])
|-
| {{IPA|/aʊ/}}
| {{IPA|[aʊ~æʊ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-ow.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| n'''ow''', '''ou'''ch, sc'''ou'''t
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɔɪ~oɪ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-oi2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4}}
| b'''oy''', ch'''oi'''ce, m'''oi'''st
|}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ [[R-colored vowel]]s{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=263–4, 266}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=121, 481}}
|-
! [[Help:IPA/English|Wikipedia's<br/> IPA diaphoneme]]
! GenAm realization
! Example words
|-
| {{IPA|/ɑːr/}}
| {{IPA|[ɑɹ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-r2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| b'''ar'''n, c'''ar''', p'''ar'''k
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɛər/}}
| {{IPA|[ɛəɹ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-air2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| b'''are''', b'''ear''', th'''ere'''
|-
| {{IPA|[ɛ(ə)ɹ]}}
| b'''ear'''ing
|-
| {{IPA|/ɜːr/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPAblink|ɚ}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-er2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| b'''ur'''n, f'''ir'''st, m'''ur'''der
|-
| {{IPA|/ər/}}
| murd'''er'''
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɪər/}}
| {{IPA|[iəɹ~ɪəɹ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-ear2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| f'''ear''', p'''eer''', t'''ier'''
|-
| {{IPA|[i(ə)ɹ~ɪ(ə)ɹ]}}
| f'''ear'''ing, p'''eer'''ing
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ɔːr/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|[ɔəɹ~oəɹ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-or.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}{{sfnp|Wells|1982|pp=483}}
| h'''or'''se, st'''or'''m, w'''ar'''
|-
| h'''oar'''se, st'''ore''', w'''ore'''
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/ʊər/}}
| {{IPA|[ʊəɹ~oəɹ~ɔəɹ]}} {{Pronunciation|En-us-oar2.ogg|listen|(|help=no}}
| m'''oor''', p'''oor''', t'''our'''
|-
| {{IPA|[ʊ(ə)ɹ~o(ə)ɹ~ɔ(ə)ɹ]}}
| p'''oor'''er
|}

== Terminology ==
=== 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 "[[American West|Western]]" but "not local in character".{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|p=124}} In 1930, American linguist [[John Samuel Kenyon]], who largely popularized the term, considered it equivalent to the speech of "the North" or "Northern American",{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|p=124}} but, in 1934, "Western and Midwestern".{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|p=125}} Now typically regarded as falling under the General American umbrella are the regional accents of the [[Western American English|West]],{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=146}}{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|p=130}} [[Western New England English|Western New England]],{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=128, 130}} and the [[Midland American English|North Midland]] (a band spanning central Ohio, central Indiana, central Illinois, northern Missouri, southern Iowa, and southeastern Nebraska),{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=129–130}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=268}} plus the accents of highly educated Americans nationwide.{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=257}} Arguably, all [[Canadian English]] accents west of [[Quebec]] are also General American,{{sfnp|Boberg|2004a|p=159}} though [[Canadian raising|Canadian vowel raising]] and certain other features may serve to distinguish such accents from U.S. ones.<ref>Harbeck, James (August 2015). "[http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20150820-why-is-canadian-english-unique Why is Canadian English unique?]" ''BBC''. BBC.</ref> [[William Labov]] et al.'s 2006 ''[[Atlas of North American English]]'' presented a [[scattergram]] based on the [[formant]]s of vowel sounds, finding the Midland U.S., the Western U.S., Western Pennsylvania, and Central and Western Canada to be closest to the center of the scattergram, and concluding that they had fewer [[markedness|marked]] dialectical features than other regional accents of North American English, such as New York City or the Southern U.S.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|pp=162–3}}

The [[Philadelphia English|Mid-Atlantic United States]],{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=128–9}} the [[Inland Northern American English|Inland Northern United States]],{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=470}} and [[Western Pennsylvania English|Western Pennsylvania]]{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=128–9}} were regarded as having General American accents in the earlier twentieth century but not by the middle of that century. Many younger speakers within the Mid-Atlantic region,<ref>Fruehwald, Josef (2013). "[https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2020&context=edissertations The Phonological Influence on Phonetic Change]". Publicly Accessible University of Pennsylvania Dissertations. p. 48. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210816002812/https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2020&context=edissertations|date=August 16, 2021}}.</ref> the Inland North,<ref name="syracuse">{{cite journal | url = https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol21/iss2/6/ | title = Reversal of the Northern Cities Shift in Syracuse, New York | first1 = Anna | last1 = Driscoll | first2 = Emma | last2 = Lape | journal = University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics | volume = 21 | number = 2 | year = 2015}}</ref><ref>Dinkin, Aaron (2017). "[http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~dinkin/NWAV46handout.pdf Escaping the TRAP: Losing the Northern Cities Shift in Real Time (with Anja Thiel)]". Talk presented at NWAV 46, Madison, Wisc., November 2017.</ref><ref name="lansing">{{cite journal | url = http://msusociolinguistics.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/1/9/9319621/reversalandreorganization_nwav44.pdf | first1 = S. E. | last1 = Wagner | first2 = A. | last2 = Mason | first3 = M. | last3 = Nesbitt | first4 = E. | last4 = Pevan | first5 = M. | last5 = Savage | year = 2016 | title = Reversal and re-organization of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan | journal = University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 22.2: Selected Papers from NWAV 44 | access-date = October 21, 2019 | archive-date = June 23, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210623223821/http://msusociolinguistics.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/1/9/9319621/reversalandreorganization_nwav44.pdf | url-status = dead}}</ref> and many other areas, however, appear to be retreating from their regional features towards a more General American accent. The regional accents (especially the [[Rhoticity in English|''r''-dropping]] ones) of [[Eastern New England English|Eastern New England]], [[New York City English|New York City]], and the [[Southern American English|Southern United States]] have never been labeled "General American", even since the term's popularization in the 1930s.{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=123, 129}} In 1982, British phonetician [[John C. Wells]] wrote that two-thirds of the American population spoke with a General American accent.{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=34}}

=== Disputed usage ===

[[English studies|English-language scholar]] William A. Kretzschmar 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 referring especially to speech associated with the vaguely defined "[[Midwestern United States|Midwest]]", despite any historical or present evidence supporting this notion. Kretzschmar argues that a General American accent is simply the result of American speakers suppressing regional and social features that have become widely noticed and stigmatized.<ref>{{harvp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=262}}: 'The term "General American" arose as a name for a presumed most common or "default" form of American English, especially to be distinguished from marked regional speech of New England or the South. "General American" has often been considered to be the relatively unmarked speech of "the Midwest", a vague designation for anywhere in the vast midsection of the country from Ohio west to Nebraska, and from the Canadian border as far south as Missouri or Kansas. No historical justification for this term exists, and neither do present circumstances support its use... [I]t implies that there is some exemplary state of American English from which other varieties deviate. On the contrary, [it] can best be characterized as what is left over after speakers suppress the regional and social features that have risen to salience and become noticeable.'</ref>

Since calling one variety of American speech the "general" variety can imply [[Linguistic prescription|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.{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|p=257}} However, the term "standard" may also be interpreted as problematically implying a superior or "best" form of speech.<ref>{{harvnb|Kretzschmar|2004|p=257}}: "''Standard English'' may be taken to reflect conformance to a set of rules, but its meaning commonly gets bound up with social ideas about how one's character and education are displayed in one's speech".</ref> The terms '''Standard North American English''' and '''General North American English''', in an effort to incorporate Canadian speakers under the accent continuum, have also been suggested by sociolinguist [[Charles Boberg]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Boberg|2004a}}</ref><ref>Boberg, Charles (2021). ''Accent in North American film and television''. Cambridge University Press.</ref> Since the 2000s, '''Mainstream American English''' has also been occasionally used, particularly in scholarly articles that contrast it with [[African-American English]].<ref>[[Barbara Zurer Pearson|Pearson, B. Z.]], Velleman, S. L., Bryant, T. J., & Charko, T. (2009). Phonological milestones for African American English-speaking children learning mainstream American English as a second dialect.</ref><ref>Blodgett, S. L., Wei, J., & O'Connor, B. (2018, July). Twitter universal dependency parsing for African-American and mainstream American English. In Proceedings of the 56th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics (Volume 1: Long Papers) (pp. 1415–1425).</ref>

Modern language scholars discredit the original notion of General American as a single unified accent, or a [[standard English|standardized form of English]]{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=118}}{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=263}}—except perhaps as used by [[television network]]s and other [[mass media]].{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=470}}<ref>Labov, William (2012). ''Dialect diversity in America: The politics of language change''. University of Virginia Press. pp. 1–2.</ref> Today, the term is understood to refer to a continuum of American speech, with some slight internal variation,{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=118}} but otherwise characterized by the absence of "[[markedness|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,{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|p=129}} the term persists mainly as a reference point to compare a baseline "typical" American English accent with other [[World Englishes|Englishes around the world]] (for instance, see [[Comparison of General American and Received Pronunciation]]).{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=118}}

== Origins ==
===Regional origins===
Though General American accents are not commonly perceived as associated with any region, their [[phonology|sound system]] does have traceable regional origins: specifically, the English of the non-coastal [[Northeastern United States]] in the very early 20th century, which was relatively stable since that region's original settlement by English speakers in the mid-19th century.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=190}} This includes western [[New England]] and the area to its immediate west, settled by members of the same dialect community:{{sfnp|Bonfiglio|2002|p=43}} interior [[Pennsylvania]], [[Upstate New York]], and the adjacent "[[Midwestern United States|Midwest]]" or [[Great Lakes region]]. However, since the early to mid-20th century,{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=470}}<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/14/051114ta_talk_seabrook|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|title=Talking the Tawk|year=2005|publisher=Condé Nast}}</ref> 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 North|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 American English|North Central accent]] (often associated with [[Minnesota]], [[Wisconsin]], and [[North Dakota]]).

===Theories about prevalence===
Linguists have proposed multiple factors contributing to the popularity of a [[rhoticity in English|rhotic]] "General American" class of accents throughout the United States, largely focused on the first half of the twentieth century. However, a basic General American pronunciation system 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 language in England|English dialects of England]] or [[German dialects|German dialects of Germany]]).<ref>{{cite book|last=McWhorter|first=John H.|author-link=John McWhorter|year=2001|title=Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English|publisher=Basic Books|isbn=978-0-7867-3147-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfcovMPyLjEC&q=%22american+english+dialect+that+diverges%22}}</ref>

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.{{sfnp|Kretzschmar|2004|pp=260–2}} 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 traveled around the country in the mid-twentieth century, spreading the high status of their accents.{{sfnp|Bonfiglio|2002|pp=69–70}} 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.{{sfnp|Bonfiglio|2002|pp=4, 97–98}} 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.{{sfnp|Van Riper|2014|pp=123, 128–130}}

Kenyon, author of ''American Pronunciation'' (1924) and pronunciation editor for the second edition of ''[[Webster's Dictionary|Webster's New International Dictionary]]'' (1934), was influential in codifying General American pronunciation standards in writing. He used as a basis his native Midwestern (specifically, northern Ohio) pronunciation.{{sfnp|Seabrook|2005}} Kenyon's home state of [[Ohio]], however, far from being an area of "non-regional" accents, has emerged now as a crossroads for at least four distinct regional accents, according to late twentieth-century research.<ref>Hunt, Spencer (2012). [https://web.archive.org/web/20210928135157/https://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2012/11/18/dissecting-ohios-dialects.html "Dissecting Ohio's Dialects"]. ''The Columbus Dispatch''. GateHouse Media, Inc. Archived from [http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/science/2012/11/18/dissecting-ohios-dialects.html the original] on September 28, 2021.</ref> Furthermore, Kenyon himself was vocally opposed to the notion of any superior variety of American speech.<ref name="Hampton">Hampton, Marian E. & Barbara Acker (eds.) (1997). ''The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice.'' [[Hal Leonard Corporation]]. p. 163.</ref>

== In the media ==
General American, like the British [[Received Pronunciation]] (RP) and [[Prestige (sociolinguistics)|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 non-coastal [[Northern American English|Northern U.S.]] rhotic pronunciations for their "General American" standard.<ref>{{cite web |last=Fought |first=John G. |date=2005 |url=http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/southern/ |title=Do You Speak American? {{!}} Sea to Shining Sea {{!}} American Varieties {{!}} ''R''ful Southern |publisher=PBS |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161208194238/http://www.pbs.org/speak/seatosea/americanvarieties/southern/ |archive-date=2016-12-08 |url-status=live}}</ref> The entertainment industry similarly shifted from a [[rhoticity in English|non-rhotic]] standard to a rhotic one in the late 1940s, after the triumph of the [[Second World War]], with the patriotic incentive for a more wide-ranging and unpretentious "[[Heartland (United States)|heartland]] variety" in television and radio.<ref>{{cite book |last=McWhorter |first=John H. |author-link=John McWhorter |year=1998 |title=Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English |publisher=Basic Books |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Edt7yUD6PkMC&q=%22this%20accent%20passed%20out%20of%20fashion%22 |page=32 |isbn=0-73-820446-3}}</ref> Newscaster [[Walter Cronkite]] exemplified the rise of General American in broadcasting during the mid-20th century.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Babbel.com |last2=GmbH |first2=Lesson Nine |title=The United States Of Accents: Announcer Voice And Other Radio Accents |url=https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/announcer-voice#:~:text=It%20was%20Walter%20Cronkite%20who,sentences%20were%20spoken%20with%20emphasis. |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=Babbel Magazine |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fallows |first=James |author-link=James Fallows |date=2015-06-08 |title=That Weirdo Announcer-Voice Accent: Where It Came From and Why It Went Away |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/06/that-weirdo-announcer-voice-accent-where-it-came-from-and-why-it-went-away/395141/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20231204084437/https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2015/06/that-weirdo-announcer-voice-accent-where-it-came-from-and-why-it-went-away/395141/#selection-1949.562-1949.566 |archive-date=4 December 2023 |access-date=2025-05-11 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref>

General American is thus sometimes associated with the speech of North American radio and television announcers, promoted as prestigious in [[List of television stations in North America by media market#TMAs|their industry]],<ref name="freshair1" /><ref name="60minutes" /> where it is sometimes called "Broadcast English",<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/is-there-a-place-in-america-where-people-speak-without-accents|title=Is There a Place in America Where People Speak Without Accents?|last=Nosowitz|first=Dan|date=2016-08-23|website=Atlas Obscura|language=en|access-date=2019-10-12}}</ref> "Network English",{{sfnp|Wells|1982|p=470}}<ref name="Cruttenden">{{cite book |last1=Cruttenden |first1=Alan |title=Gimson's Pronunciation of English |date=2014 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-0-41-572174-5 |page=87 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2nMAgAAQBAJ&q=%22general+american%22+%22network+english%22}}</ref><ref name="Melchers & Shaw">{{cite book |last1=Melchers |first1=Gunnel |last2=Shaw |first2=Philip |title=World Englishes |date=2013 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-44-413537-4 |pages=85–86 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6AsVAgAAQBAJ&q=%22general+american%22+%22network+english%22}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Lorenz |first1=Frank |title=Basics of Phonetics and English Phonology |date=2013 |publisher=Logos Verlag Berlin |isbn=978-3-83-253109-6 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nY0Thjq2-J8C&q=%22general+american%22+%22network+english%22}}</ref> or "Network Standard".{{sfnp|Kövecses|2000|pp=81–82}}{{r|Melchers & Shaw}}<ref>{{cite book |last1=Benson |first1=Morton |last2=Benson |first2=Evelyn |last3=Ilson |first3=Robert F. |title=Lexicographic Description of English |date=1986 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |isbn=9-02-723014-5 |pages=179–180 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_T5CAAAAQBAJ&q=%22sometimes+called+the+network+standard%22}}</ref> Instructional classes in the United States that promise "[[accent reduction]]", "accent modification", or "accent neutralization" usually attempt to teach General American patterns.{{sfnp|Ennser-Kananen|Halonen|Saarinen|2021|p=334}} Television journalist [[Linda Ellerbee]] states that "in television you are not supposed to sound like you're ''from'' anywhere",<ref name="Burner">{{cite web |last=Tsentserensky |first=Steve |title=You Know What The Midwest Is? |url=http://www.thenewsburner.com/2011/10/20/you-know-what-the-midwest-is |website=The News Burner |date=2011-10-20 |access-date=2018-12-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181118205803/http://www.thenewsburner.com/2011/10/20/you-know-what-the-midwest-is/ |archive-date=2018-11-18 |url-status=dead}}</ref> and political comedian [[Stephen Colbert]] says he consciously avoided developing a [[Southern American accent]] in response to media portrayals of Southerners as stupid and uneducated.<ref name="freshair1">{{cite web|url = https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4464017|title = A Fake Newsman's Fake Newsman: Stephen Colbert|first = Terry|last = Gross|author-link= Terry Gross|work= [[Fresh Air]]|publisher = [[National Public Radio]]|date = 2005-01-24|access-date = 2007-07-11}}</ref><ref name="60minutes">{{cite web|url = http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/60minutes/main1553506.shtml|title = The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's 'Fake' Newsman|first = Morley|last = Safer|author-link= Morley Safer|publisher = [[60 Minutes]]|date = 2006-08-13|access-date =2006-08-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060820141728/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/27/60minutes/main1553506.shtml|archive-date=2006-08-20|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{colbegin|colwidth=25em}}
* [[List of dialects of the English language]]
* [[List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas]]
* [[Accent reduction]]
* [[African-American English]]
* [[American English]]
* [[California English]]
* [[Chicano English]]
* [[English phonology]]
* [[English-language spelling reform]]
* [[Hawaiian Pidgin]]
* [[Northern Cities Vowel Shift]]
* [[Received Pronunciation]]
* [[Regional vocabularies of American English]]
* [[Standard Written English]]
* [[Mid-Atlantic accent (disambiguation)|Transatlantic accent]]
{{colend}}

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{reflist}}

=== Bibliography ===
{{refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book
|last1=Baker
|first1=Adam
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{{refend}}

== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{Cite web
|last=Jilka
|first=Matthias
|title=North American English: General Accents
|place=Stuttgart
|publisher=Institut für Linguistik/Anglistik, University of Stuttgart
|url=http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/mitarbeiter/jilka/teaching/dialectology/d10_GAGC.pdf
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421051053/http://ifla.uni-stuttgart.de/institut/mitarbeiter/jilka/teaching/dialectology/d10_GAGC.pdf
|archive-date=2014-04-21
}}
{{refend}}

== External links ==
{{commons category}}
* [http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/research/gsound/Eng/Database/Phonetics/Englishes/Home/HomeMainFrameHolder.htm Comparison with other English accents around the world]

{{English dialects by continent}}
{{Language phonologies}}

[[Category:American English]]
[[Category:Standard languages]]
[[Category:Standard English]]