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Inland Northern (American) English, also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect, is an
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is ...
spoken primarily by
White Americans White Americans are Americans who identify as and are perceived to be white people. This group constitutes the majority of the people in the United States. As of the 2020 Census, 61.6%, or 204,277,273 people, were white alone. This represented ...
in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of
Upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York (state), New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York metropolitan area, New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upsta ...
westward along the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...
and through much of the U.S.
Great Lakes region The Great Lakes region of North America is a binational Canadian–American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin along with the Canadian p ...
. The most distinctive Inland Northern accents are spoken in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
,
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...
,
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
, Buffalo,
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
, and
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
. The dialect can be heard as far west as eastern
Iowa Iowa () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wiscon ...
and even among certain demographics in the
Twin Cities, Minnesota Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...
.Chapman, Kaila (2017). "The Northern Cities Shift: Minnesota's Ever-Changing Vowel Space". Macalester College: "The satisfaction of the three NCS measures was found only in the 35-55 year old male speakers. The three male speakers fully participating in the NCS had high levels of education and strong ties to the city" (41). Some of its features have also infiltrated a geographic corridor from Chicago southwest along
historic Route 66 U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) was one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The h ...
into St. Louis, Missouri; today, the corridor shows a mixture of both Inland North and Midland American accents. Linguists often characterize the western Great Lakes region's dialect separately as
North-Central American English North-Central American English (in the United States, also known as the Upper Midwestern or North-Central dialect and stereotypically recognized as a Minnesota accent or Wisconsin accent) is an American English dialect native to the Upper Midwe ...
. The early 20th-century accent of the Inland North was the basis for the term "
General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
", though the regional accent has since altered, due to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift: its now-defining
chain shift In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds as well. The soun ...
of vowels that began in the 1930s or possibly earlier. A 1969 study first formally showed lower-middle-class women leading the regional population in the first two stages ( raising of the vowel and fronting of the vowel) of this shift, documented since the 1970s as comprising five distinct stages. Evidence in the mid-2010s has suggested a reversal of some features of the Northern Cities Shift in certain locations.


Geographic distribution

The dialect region called the "Inland North" consists of western and central
New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. sta ...
( Utica,
Ithaca Ithaca most commonly refers to: *Homer's Ithaca, an island featured in Homer's ''Odyssey'' *Ithaca (island), an island in Greece, possibly Homer's Ithaca *Ithaca, New York, a city, and home of Cornell University and Ithaca College Ithaca, Ithaka ...
,
Syracuse Syracuse may refer to: Places Italy * Syracuse, Sicily, or spelled as ''Siracusa'' * Province of Syracuse United States *Syracuse, New York **East Syracuse, New York ** North Syracuse, New York * Syracuse, Indiana *Syracuse, Kansas *Syracuse, M ...
,
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
, Buffalo,
Binghamton Binghamton () is a City (New York), city in the United States, U.S. state of New York (state), New York, and serves as the county seat of Broome County, New York, Broome County. Surrounded by rolling hills, it lies in the state's Southern Tier reg ...
, Jamestown, Fredonia, Olean); northern
Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...
(
Akron Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...
,
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
, Toledo),
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
's Lower Peninsula (
Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
,
Flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
,
Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...
,
Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, maki ...
); northern
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...
( Gary, South Bend); northern
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rock ...
(
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
, Rockford); southeastern
Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...
(
Kenosha Kenosha () is a city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the seat of Kenosha County. Per the 2020 census, the population was 99,986 which made it the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin. Situated on the southwestern shore of Lake Michigan, Kenosh ...
,
Racine Jean-Baptiste Racine ( , ) (; 22 December 163921 April 1699) was a French dramatist, one of the three great playwrights of 17th-century France, along with Molière and Corneille as well as an important literary figure in the Western traditi ...
,
Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...
); and, largely,
northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Car ...
's
Wyoming Valley The Wyoming Valley is a historic industrialized region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. The region is historically notable for its influence in helping fuel the American Industrial Revolution with its many anthracite coal-mines. As a metropolitan ...
/
Coal Region The Coal Region is a region of Northeastern Pennsylvania. It is known for being home to the largest known deposits of anthracite coal in the world with an estimated reserve of seven billion short tons. The region is typically defined as compris ...
(
Scranton Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...
and
Wilkes-Barre Wilkes-Barre ( or ) is a city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Luzerne County. Located at the center of the Wyoming Valley in Northeastern Pennsylvania, it had a population of 44,328 in the 2020 census. It is the s ...
). This is the dialect spoken in part of America's chief industrial region, an area sometimes known as the
Rust Belt The Rust Belt is a region of the United States that experienced industrial decline starting in the 1950s. The U.S. manufacturing sector as a percentage of the U.S. GDP peaked in 1953 and has been in decline since, impacting certain regions an ...
. Northern Iowa and southern Minnesota may also variably fall within the Inland North dialect region; in the Twin Cities, educated middle-aged men in particular have been documented as aligning to the accent, though this is not necessarily the case among other demographics of that urban area. Linguists identify the " St. Louis Corridor", extending from Chicago down into St. Louis, as a dialectally remarkable area, because young and old speakers alike have a Midland accent, except for a single middle generation born between the 1920s and 1940s, who have an Inland Northern accent diffused into the area from Chicago.
Erie, Pennsylvania Erie (; ) is a city on the south shore of Lake Erie and the county seat of Erie County, Pennsylvania, United States. Erie is the fifth largest city in Pennsylvania and the largest city in Northwestern Pennsylvania with a population of 94,831 ...
, though in the geographic area of the "Inland North" and featuring some speakers of this dialect, never underwent the Northern Cities Shift and often shares more features with
Western Pennsylvania English Western Pennsylvania English, known more narrowly as Pittsburgh English or popularly as Pittsburghese, is a dialect of American English native primarily to the western half of Pennsylvania, centered on the city of Pittsburgh, but potentially ap ...
due to contact with Pittsburghers, particularly with Erie as their choice of city for summer vacations. Many
African Americans African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...
in Detroit and other Northern cities are multidialectal and also or exclusively use
African-American Vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urb ...
rather than Inland Northern English, but some do use the Inland Northern dialect.


Social factors

The dialect's progression across the Midwest has stopped at a general boundary line traveling through central Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and then western Wisconsin, on the other sides of which speakers have continued to maintain their Midland and North Central accents.
Sociolinguist Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on language. It can overlap with the sociology of l ...
William Labov theorizes that this separation reflects a political divide and a controlled study of his shows that Inland Northern speakers tend to be more associated with liberal politics than those of the other dialects, especially as Americans continue to self-segregate in residence based on ideological concerns. President
Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
, for example, has a mild Inland Northern accent.


Phonology and phonetics

A Midwestern accent (which may refer to other dialectal accents as well), Chicago accent, or Great Lakes accent are all common names in the United States for the sound quality produced by speakers of this dialect. Many of the characteristics listed here are not necessarily unique to the region and are oftentimes found elsewhere in the
Midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
.


Northern Cities Vowel Shift

The Northern Cities Vowel Shift or Northern Cities Shift is a
chain shift In historical linguistics, a chain shift is a set of sound changes in which the change in pronunciation of one speech sound (typically, a phoneme) is linked to, and presumably causes, a change in pronunciation of other sounds as well. The soun ...
of vowels and the defining accent feature of the Inland North dialect region, though it can also be found, variably, in the neighboring
Upper Midwest The Upper Midwest is a region in the northern portion of the U.S. Census Bureau's Midwestern United States. It is largely a sub-region of the Midwest. Although the exact boundaries are not uniformly agreed-upon, the region is defined as referring ...
and Western New England accent regions.


Tensing of and fronting of

The first two sound changes in the shift, with some debate about which one led to the other or came first, are the general raising and lengthening (tensing) of the "short a" (the vowel sound of ), as well as the fronting of (the sound of and in this accent). Inland Northern raising was first identified in the 1960s, with coming to be articulated so that the tongue starts from a position that is closer than it used to be, and then often glides back toward the center of the mouth, thus producing a
centering diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
of the type or or at its most extreme ; e.g. ''naturally'' . As for fronting, it can go beyond to the front , and may, for the most advanced speakers, even be close to —so that ''pot'' or ''sod'' come to be pronounced how a mainstream American speaker would say ''pat'' or ''sad''; e.g. ''coupon'' .


Lowering of

The fronting of leaves a blank space in Inland North speakers' pronunciation that is filled by lowering (the "aw" vowel in ), which comes to be pronounced with the tongue in a lower position, closer to or . As a result, for example, people affected by the shift may pronounce ''caught'' the way speakers without the shift say ''cot'', with both using the vowel . However, a ''cot''–''caught'' merger is robustly avoided in many parts of Inland North, due to the prior fronting of . In other words, ''cot'' is and ''caught'' is . Even so, however, there is a definite scattering of Inland North speakers who are in a state of transition towards a ''cot''–''caught'' merger; this is particularly evident in northeastern Pennsylvania. Younger speakers reversing the fronting of , for example in
Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...
, also approach a merger.


Backing or lowering of

The movement of to , in order to avoid overlap, presumably initiates the further movement of the original vowel (the "short e" in ) towards either , the
near-open central vowel The near-open central vowel, or near-low central vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , a rotated lowercase double-barrelled letter a. ...
, or almost . As the vowel is pronounced with the tongue farther back and lower in the mouth than in the sound , this change is called "lowering and/or backing".


Backing of

The next change is the movement of from toward a very far back position . is the "short u" vowel in . People with the shift pronounce ''bus'' so that it sounds more like ''boss'' to people without the shift.


Backing or lowering of

The final change is the backing and lowering of , the "short i" vowel in , toward the schwa . Alternatively, is lowered to , without backing. This results in a considerable phonetic overlap between and , although there is no phonemic merger because the weak vowel merger is not complete ("Rosa's" , with a morpheme-final mid schwa is distinct from "roses" , with an unstressed allophone of that is phonetically near-close central ).


Vowels before

Before , only undergoes the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, so that the vowel in ''start'' varies much like the one in ''lot'' described above. The remaining , and retain GenAm-like values in this position, so that ''north'' , ''merry'' and ''near'' are pronounced , with unshifted (though somewhat closer than in GenAm), and (as close as in GenAm). Inland Northern American English features the north-force merger, the Mary-marry-merry merger, the mirror–nearer and – mergers, the
hurry-furry merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vo ...
, and the nurse-letter merger, all unremarkable in most of the US. Those mergers ban and from ever occurring before .


History of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift

William Labov et al.'s ''
Atlas of North American English ''The Atlas of North American English: Phonetics, Phonology and Sound Change'' (abbreviated ANAE; formerly, the ''Phonological Atlas of North America'') is an overview of the pronunciation patterns (accents) in all the major regional dial ...
'' (2006) presents the first historical understandings about the order in which the Inland North's vowels shifted. Speakers around the Great Lakes began to pronounce the short ''a'' sound, as in , as more of a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
and with a higher starting point in the mouth, causing the same word to sound more like "tray-ap" or "tray-up"; Labov et al. assume that this began by the middle of the 19th century. After roughly a century following this first vowel change—general raising—the region's speakers, around the 1960s, then began to use the newly opened vowel space, previously occupied by , for (as in and ); therefore, words like ''bot'', ''gosh'', or ''lock'' came to be pronounced with the tongue extended farther forward, thus making these words sound more like how ''bat'', ''gash'', and ''lack'' sound in dialects without the shift. These two vowel changes were first recognized and reported in 1967. While these were certainly the first two vowel shifts of this accent, and Labov et al. assume that raising occurred first, they also admit that the specifics of time and place are unclear. In fact, real-time evidence of a small number of Chicagoans born between 1890 and 1920 suggests that fronting occurred first, starting by 1900 at the latest, and was followed by raising sometime in the 1920s.McCarthy, Corrine (2010)
The Northern Cities Shift in Real Time: Evidence from Chicago
. ''University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics'': Vol. 15 : Iss. 2, Article 12.
During the 1960s, several more vowels followed suit in rapid succession, each filling in the space left by the last, including the lowering of as in , the backing and lowering of as in , the backing of as in (first reported in 1986), and the backing and lowering of as in , often but not always in that exact order. Altogether, this constitutes a chain shift of vowels, identified as such in 1972, and known by linguists as the "Northern Cities (Vowel) Shift" or NCS: the defining pattern of the current Inland Northern accent.


Possible motivations for the Shift

Migrants from all over the Northeastern U.S. traveled west to the rapidly industrializing Great Lakes area in the decades after the
Erie Canal The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing ...
opened in 1825, and Labov suggests that the Inland North's general raising originated from the diverse and incompatible
/æ/ raising In the sociolinguistics of the English language, raising or short-''a'' raising is a phenomenon by which the "short ''a''" vowel , the vowel (found in such words as ''ash, bath, man, lamp, pal, rag, sack, trap,'' etc.), is pronounced with a ...
patterns of these various migrants mixing into a new, simpler pattern. He posits that this hypothetical dialect-mixing event, which initiated the larger Northern Cities Shift (NCS), occurred by about 1860 in upstate New York, and the later stages of the NCS are merely those that logically followed (a " pull chain"). More recent evidence suggests that German-accented English helped to greatly influence the Shift, because German speakers tend to pronounce the English vowel as and the vowel as , both of which resemble NCS vowels, and there were more speakers of German in the Erie Canal region of upstate New York in 1850 than there were of any single variety of English. There is also evidence for an alternative theory, according to which the Great Lakes area—settled primarily by western New Englanders—simply inherited
Western New England English Western New England English refers to the varieties of New England English native to Vermont, Connecticut, and the western half of Massachusetts; New York State's Hudson Valley (from Albany to Poughkeepsie) also aligns to this classification. S ...
and developed that dialect's vowel shifts further. 20th-century Western New England English variably showed NCS-like and pronunciations, which may have already existed among 19th-century New England settlers, though this has been contested. Another theory, not mutually exclusive with the others, is that the Great Migration of African Americans intensified White Northerners' participation in the NCS in order to differentiate their accents from Black ones.


Reversals of the Shift

Recent evidence suggests that the Shift has begun to reverse in at least some of the Inland North, such as
Lansing, Michigan Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...
, and Ogdensburg,
Rochester Rochester may refer to: Places Australia * Rochester, Victoria Canada * Rochester, Alberta United Kingdom *Rochester, Kent ** City of Rochester-upon-Medway (1982–1998), district council area ** History of Rochester, Kent ** HM Prison ...
, and
Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, Yonkers, and Rochester. At the 2020 census, the city' ...
, in particular with regard to fronting and raising (though raising is persisting before nasal consonants, as is the
General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
norm). Several possible reasons have been proposed for the reversal, including growing stigma connected with the accent and the working-class identity it represents.


Other phonetics

* Rhoticity: As in
General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or so ...
, Inland North speech is rhotic, and the ''r'' sound is typically the retroflex or perhaps, more accurately, a bunched or molar . *
Canadian raising Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
: Two phenomena typically exist, corresponding with identical phenomena in
Canadian English Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the varieties of English native to Canada. According to the 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or 58.1% of the total population; the remainder spoke French ( ...
, involving tongue-raising in the nuclei (beginning points) of gliding vowels that start in an open front (or central) unrounded position: **The raising of the tongue for the nucleus of the gliding vowel is found in the Inland North when the vowel sound appears before any
voiceless consonant In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, thus distinguishing, for example, between ''writer'' and ''rider'' by vowel quality (). In the Inland North, unlike some other dialects, the raising occurs even before certain
voiced consonant Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to ref ...
s, including in the words ''fire,'' ''tiger,'' ''iron'', and ''spider''. When it is not subject to raising, the nucleus of is pronounced with the tongue further to the front of the mouth than most other American dialects, as or ; however, in the Inland North speech of Pennsylvania, the nucleus is centralized as in General American, thus: . **The nucleus of may be more backed than in other common North American accents (towards or ). *The nucleus of (as in ''go'' and ''boat''), like , remains a back vowel , not undergoing the fronting that is common in the vast American southeastern super-region. Similarly, the traditionally high back vowel tends to be conservative and less fronted in the North than in other regions, though it still undergoes some fronting after
coronal consonant Coronals are consonants articulated with the flexible front part of the tongue. Among places of articulation, only the coronal consonants can be divided into as many articulation types: apical (using the tip of the tongue), laminal (using the ...
s. *Working-class ''th''-stopping: The two sounds represented by the spelling ''th''— (as in ''thin'') and (as in ''those'')—may shift from
fricative consonant A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
s to
stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), li ...
s among urban and working-class speakers: thus, for example, ''thin'' may approach the sound of ''tin'' (using ) and ''those'' may merge to the sound of ''doze'' (using ). This was parodied in the ''
Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...
'' comedy sketch "
Bill Swerski's Superfans "Bill Swerski's Superfans" was a recurring sketch about Chicago sports fans on the American sketch comedy program ''Saturday Night Live''. It was a prominent feature from 1991 to 1992, and its characters have made various other appearances sinc ...
," in which characters hailing from Chicago pronounce " The Bears" as "Da Bears." *''Caramel'' is typically pronounced with two syllables as ''carmel''.Vaux, Bert and Scott Golder. 2003
The Harvard Dialect Survey
. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Linguistics Department.


Vocabulary

Note that not all of these terms, here compared with other regions, are necessarily unique only to the Inland North, though they appear most strongly in this region: *''boulevard'' as a synonym for ''island'' (in the sense of a grassy area in the middle of some streets) *''crayfish'' for a freshwater crustacean *'' drinking fountain'' as a synonym for ''water fountain'' *''expressway'' as a synonym for ''highway'' *'' faucet'' for an indoor water tap (not Southern ''spigot'') *''goose pimples'' as a
synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...
for ''
goose bumps Goose bumps, goosebumps or goose-pimples are the bumps on a person's skin at the base of body hairs which may involuntarily develop when a person is tickled, cold or experiencing strong emotions such as fear, euphoria or sexual arousal. The ...
'' *''pit'' for the seed of a peach (not Southern ''stone'' or ''seed'') *''pop'' for a sweet, bubbly soft drink (not Eastern and Californian ''soda'', nor Southern ''coke'') **The "soda/pop line" has been found to run between Western New York State (Buffalo residents say "pop", Syracuse residents who used to say "pop" until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda", and Rochester residents say either. Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region. Eastern Wisconsinites around Milwaukee and some Chicagoans are also an exception, using the word ''soda''.) *''sucker'' for a ''
lollipop A lollipop is a type of sugar candy usually consisting of hard candy mounted on a stick and intended for sucking or licking. Different informal terms are used in different places, including lolly, sucker, sticky-pop, etc. Lollipops are ava ...
'' (hard candy on a stick) *''teeter totter'' as a synonym for '' seesaw'' *''tennis shoes'' for generic athletic shoes (not Northeastern ''sneakers'', except in New York State and Pennsylvania) Individual cities and sub-regions also have their own terms; for example: *''bubbler'', in a large portion of Wisconsin around Milwaukee, for ''water fountain'' (in addition to the synonym '' drinking fountain'', also possible throughout the Inland North) *''cash station'', in the
Chicago area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hin ...
, for '' ATM'' *'' Devil's Night'', particularly in Michigan, for the night before
Halloween Halloween or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve) is a celebration observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Saints' Day. It begins the observan ...
(not Northeastern ''
Mischief Night Mischief Night is an informal holiday on which children, teenagers and adults (both young and old) engage in jokes, pranks, vandalism and/or parties. It is known by a variety of names including Devil's Night, Gate Night, Goosey Night, Moving Nig ...
'') *''doorwalls'', in Detroit, for '' sliding glass doors'' *''gapers' block'' or ''gapers' delay'', in Chicago, Milwaukee and Detroit; or ''gawk block'', in Detroit, for
traffic congestion Traffic congestion is a condition in transport that is characterized by slower speeds, longer trip times, and increased vehicular queueing. Traffic congestion on urban road networks has increased substantially since the 1950s. When traffic de ...
caused by
rubbernecking Rubbernecking is a derogatory term primarily used to refer to bystanders staring at accidents. More generally, it can refer to anyone staring at something of everyday interest compulsively (especially tourists). The term ''rubbernecking'' derive ...
*''gym shoes'', in Chicago and Detroit, for generic athletic shoes *''
party store In the United States, a party store is a store that sells supplies for parties. Merchandise may include: * Balloons and streamers * Wrapping paper, greeting cards * Cake decoration items * Seasonal holiday items (Christmas, Hanukkah, July 4th, Hall ...
'', in Michigan, for a liquor store *''rummage sale'', in Wisconsin, as a synonym for ''
garage sale A garage sale (also known as a yard sale, tag sale, moving sale and by many other namesSome rarely used names include "attic sale," "basement sale," "rummage sale," "thrift sale," "patio sale," "lawn sale," and "jumble sale".) is an informal ...
'' or ''yard sale'' *''treelawn'', in
Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the United States, U.S. U.S. state, state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along ...
and
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
; ''devilstrip'' or ''devil's strip'' in
Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city ...
; and ''right-of-way'' in Wisconsin and ''parkway'' in Chicago for the grass between the sidewalk and the street *''yous(e)'' or ''youz'', in
northeastern Pennsylvania Northeastern Pennsylvania (NEPA) is a geographic region of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania that includes the Pocono Mountains, the Endless Mountains, and the industrial cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre, Pittston, Hazleton, Nanticoke, and Car ...
around its urban center of Scranton, for ''you guys''; in this sub-region, there is notable self-awareness of the Inland Northern dialect (locally called by various names, including "Coalspeak")


Notable lifelong native speakers

* Joe Biden - "Notable Scranton accent" *
Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...
– "playing down her flat Chicago accent" *
Joan Cusack Joan Mary Cusack (; born October 11, 1962) is an American actress. She received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her roles in the comedy-drama '' Working Girl'' (1988) and the romantic comedy '' In & Out'' (1997 ...
– "a great distinctive voice" she says is due to "my Chicago accent... my A's are all flat" *
Richard M. Daley Richard Michael Daley (born April 24, 1942) is an American politician who served as the 54th mayor of Chicago, Illinois, from 1989 to 2011. Daley was elected mayor in 1989 and was reelected five times until declining to run for a seventh term ...
– "makes no effort to tame a thick Chicago accent" *
Jimmy Dore James Patrick Anthony Dore (born July 26, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, podcaster, and YouTube personality. He is the host of '' The Jimmy Dore Show'', a comedic talk show on YouTube where he interviews guests of ...
- "I think that Chicago comics like Jimmy Dore bring my Wisconsin/Chicago accent back with a vengence." *
Kevin Dunn Kevin Dunn (born August 24, 1956) is an American actor who has appeared in supporting roles in a number of films and television series since the 1980s. Dunn's roles include White House Communications Director Alan Reed in the political comedy '' ...
– "a blue-collar attitude and the Chicago accent to match" *
David Draiman David Michael Draiman ( he, דוד מיכאל דריימן; born March 13, 1973) is an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distorted, operatic, baritone voice and percussive singing style, he is best known as the lead vocalist of the h ...
– "distinct Chicago accent" *
Rahm Emanuel Rahm Israel Emanuel (; born November 29, 1959) is an American politician and diplomat who is the current United States Ambassador to Japan. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served two terms as the 55th Mayor of Chicago from 2011 ...
– "more refined (if still very Chicago)" * Dennis Farina – "rich Chicago accent" *
Chris Farley Christopher Crosby Farley (February 15, 1964 – December 18, 1997) was an American actor and comedian. Farley was known for his loud, energetic comedic style, and was a member of Chicago's Second City Theatre and later a cast member of the ...
– "beatific Wisconsin accent" *
Dennis Franz Dennis Franz Schlachta (; born October 28, 1944), known professionally as Dennis Franz, is an American retired actor best known for his role as NYPD Detective Andy Sipowicz in the ABC television series ''NYPD Blue'' (1993–2005), a role that e ...
– "tough-guy Chicago accent" *
Sean Giambrone Sean Giambrone (born May 30, 1999) is an American actor. His on-screen roles include Adam F. Goldberg in the sitcom '' The Goldbergs'' and Ron Stoppable in the Disney Channel film ''Kim Possible''. His voice acting credits include Yumyulack Solar ...
– "Sean, whose Chicago accent is thick enough to cut with a knife" *
John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, ...
– "Goodman delivered a completely authentic Inland North accent.... It wasn't an act." * Susan Hawk – "a Midwestern truck driver whose accent and etiquette epitomized the stereotype of the tacky, abrasive, working-class character" *
Bill Lipinski William Oliver Lipinski (born December 22, 1937) is an American politician and lobbyist who was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from 1983 to 2005, representing a district in Chicago. Life and career Pre-cong ...
– "I could live only 100 miles from the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) and he would have an accent and I do not" * Jim "Mr. Skin" McBride – "a clipped Chicago accent" *
Michael Moore Michael Francis Moore (born April 23, 1954) is an American filmmaker, author and left-wing activist. His works frequently address the topics of globalization and capitalism. Moore won the 2002 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature for ' ...
– "a Flintoid, with a nasal, uncosmopolitan accent" and "a recognisable blue-collar Michigan accent" *
Bob Odenkirk Robert John Odenkirk (; born October 22, 1962) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker best known for his role as Saul Goodman on ''Breaking Bad'' (2008–2013) and its spin-off '' Better Call Saul'' (2015–2022). For the latter, he has ...
*
Suze Orman Susan Lynn "Suze" Orman ( ; born June 5, 1951) is an American financial advisor, author, and podcast host. In 1987, she founded the Suze Orman Financial Group. Her work as a financial advisor gained notability with ''The Suze Orman Show'', which ...
– "broad, Midwestern accent" *
Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the " Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band The Stooges, who w ...
– "plainspoken Midwestern accent" *
Paul Ryan Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American former politician who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the vice presidential nominee i ...
– "may be the first candidate on a major presidential ticket to feature some of the Great Lakes vowels prominently" * Michael Symon – "Michael Symon's local accent gives him an honest, working-class vibe" *
Lily Tomlin Mary Jean "Lily" Tomlin (born September 1, 1939) is an American actress, comedian, writer, singer, and producer. She started her career as a stand-up comedian as well as performing off-Broadway during the 1960s. Her breakout role was on the varie ...
– "Tomlin's Detroit accent"Maupin, Elizabeth (1997). "'Signs': Still Briming With Intelligent Life." ''Orlando Sentinel''.


See also

*
List of dialects of the English language Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialects can be def ...
*
List of English words from indigenous languages of the Americas This is a list of English language words borrowed from indigenous languages of the Americas, either directly or through intermediate European languages such as Spanish or French. It does not cover names of ethnic groups or place names derived f ...
* American English regional differences * North Central American English *
Western New England English Western New England English refers to the varieties of New England English native to Vermont, Connecticut, and the western half of Massachusetts; New York State's Hudson Valley (from Albany to Poughkeepsie) also aligns to this classification. S ...


References


Sources

* * *


External links


Chicago Dialect SamplesNPR interview with Professor William Labov about the shiftPBS resource from the show "Do you Speak American?"
{{Languages of the United States American English Culture of the Midwestern United States Culture of Buffalo, New York Culture of Chicago Culture of Cleveland Culture of Detroit Culture of Milwaukee Culture of Rochester, New York Culture of Syracuse, New York Illinois culture Indiana culture Michigan culture New York (state) culture Ohio culture Languages of Pennsylvania Wisconsin culture Culture of Grand Rapids, Michigan Culture of Madison, Wisconsin Culture of Green Bay, Wisconsin Culture of Toledo, Ohio Culture of Scranton, Pennsylvania Culture of Allentown, Pennsylvania