 The focus of this e-lecture of the series about English is North America. There are several ways of defining the English spoken on the North American continent, but before we discuss the various options and the terminology involved and maybe the question of whether there's a reference dialect and what its phonology is, let's look at the historical details first. The first permanent English settlement in North America began with the arrival of England's second exhibition in 1600 and 7. The first one, led by Sir Walter Rawley, who arrived in 1585 in North America, had been forced to return to England as a consequence of conflicts with the native North American people. The new southern colonists came mainly from England's west country. Their tidewater accents still exist in some isolated valleys. They're said to be the closest to the sound of Shakespeare's English. Then in 1620, the first group of Puritans arrived on the Mayflower, the famous ship called Mayflower. These people didn't want to return to England. What these pilgrim fathers had in common was their search for a land where they could found a new religious kingdom which should be free from persecution. Then later in 1681, new shiploads of immigrants came to North America, Quakers from the north of England and the North Midlands, who settled in Pennsylvania, so on the east coast. Later, there was a vast wave of immigration from Northern Ireland and Scotland to this area. And by the time when the independence was declared in 1776, one in seven of the colonial population was Scots-Irish. Today, North America exhibits a mixture of phonological dialects. They can be grouped in various ways. For example, we can group them according to ethnic parameters, in which case we could define something like African American English. Some people would add the term vernacular here or American Indian English, the English spoken by the indigenous inhabitants of North America. Another possibility is a grouping in terms of regional varieties, in which case we would define the English spoken in the northeast, the English spoken in the south of the United States, and we would include Canadian English in the northern part of the North American continent. The head term for all these varieties is North American English. So all these are called North American or subsumed under the heading of North American English. That is all the varieties of English that are spoken on the North American continent. A special term relates to the United States. For example, these two here, they would be listed under the heading of American English, or simply AME. Now American English comprises a set of major regional dialects of English used mostly in the United States. A special term in this context is the term general American, GA, or some people call it a standard American English. Now the question arises whether this major accent of American English can be defined as a reference dialect. Well, just like with RP, general American refers to a pronunciation of English characterized by the lack of obvious regional traits. It is usually considered as the accent with the highest degree of acceptance and here is the problem. Just like with RP we have to ask is general American, whatever it is, really the accent with the highest prestige? In the e-lecture RP and beyond we saw that in England we have something like estuary English which may be defined as a possible regional alternative to RP. Is there a regional equivalent in the United States or even in North American English? Well, in a telephone interview a few years ago, William Labov, this is Bill Labov, one of the leading sociolinguists in the world, he said to us, if you have to select a reference variety among the North American varieties it will probably be a conservative variety of what you might call Northern American English. That is the type of English spoken or used around the Great Lakes. This is what you hear from most TV and radio announcers. So let's look at this phonological dialect in more detail. The Northern region varies considerably from Wisconsin to Maine. So this is the Northern region, Northern American English. It can be defined by the existence of some conservative phonological features. For example, the relatively high resistance towards the low back merger. So there's no real low back merger. So words such as caught and caught, this is my British version, are kept distinct. Also, the variety is known to use diphthongel A. So words such as made and say involve some sort of off glide. And finally, there's a relatively high resistance towards the fronting of O. So instead of saying go, people say go and low in the North. In the phonological dialect spoken in the North, we can define a total of 40 phonemes. In particular, we have 13 monothongs, 3 diphthongs and 24 consonants. Well, and the Northern reference variety is highly rotic. Since the post-vocalic are in words like farm or far is always pronounced. So linking as in father and son is a standard feature. However, and this is quite important, the Northern variety, just like many other varieties spoken in North America, is resistant to the use of the intrusive R as in British India and China or law and order. Let's now look at the monothongs and the diphthongs and consonants in detail. And I will show and demonstrate to you these systems on the basis of a speaker from Milwaukee in Wisconsin. And you can access these details in the VLC Language Index. So here is the Vocalic System. Now the vowels are normally subdivided into long and short. So C, we have 2, so. You see here the relative resistance to the fronting of O. Now here are the two low back vowels. Cut, cut. They're almost identical, but there's a slight audible difference. And so you see this speaker is almost there in merging these two, but many other speakers of the Northern varieties don't do, don't merge these two back vowels. Quite interesting, and you should bear this in mind for other e-lectures, especially for the Northern city shift, is this one. That. Which is relatively high value of this low front vowel. Okay, so much for the monophthongs. Let's now look at the diphthongs. Well, here they are. And as you can see, there are only three true diphthongs in this reference variety of American English. They're all up gliding. Bye. Now. Boy. Now in up gliding diphthongs, the second element is always higher than the onset. In contrast to RP, there are no in gliding or centering diphthongs. Words like here, there, and sure involve combinations of a simple vowel plus R due to the high degree of roticity in American English. Let's listen. Near. There. Sure. Okay, roticity. Let's finally look at the consonants. And here they are. Now in the VLC unit, the sound system of present day English or consonant phonemes of RP and North American English, including their alophones can be accessed. In fact, the phoneme inventory of consonants is identical with that of RP. However, alophonically, there are several interesting differences. The first one concerns the use of the R itself. Red. Now, the type of R that is used in North American English is retroflex, where the tip of the tongue is curled back a bit more than in British English, where you use the alveolar approximate. Now, another interesting element is the alveolar lateral, which in North American English, even in the initial position, can be realized as a dark L with a high degree of velarization. As you can see over here in the transcription. Now, finally, it should be mentioned that the T alveolar plosive T has an alophone which can at the same time be an alophone of its voiced counterpart, D. And these occur in contexts such as betting or betting, where you can even use an alveolar flap instead of the alveolar plosive. Let us summarize. Just like in England, we have no uniform dialect situation in the United States, let alone in North America. However, the phonological dialect used in the North, where we find the big industrial centers, is the accent that most learners of American and North American English would use as a reference model for their pronunciation. Two questions have to be solved in future e-lectures. The first one concerns the question whether there are any ongoing sound changes in North America that somehow unify these areas which are geographically distinct. And a second question concerns the transcription. How can we most efficiently transcribe the vowel system of North American English taking into account the binary character of North American English vowels? Well, these issues will be addressed in further e-lectures belonging to this series. So, stay tuned.