美国英语的方言(2)北、西、中等方言大区

标签:
美国英语方言 |
分类: 英语教育 |
除了前面说的南方方言大区,其他几个主要方言区如下。
The English of the northern United States (Northern AmE, also
rendered as northern American English) is a broad class of the
English dialects. Among the oldest and most pervasive of American
English patterns, it is particularly used in New England, New York,
New Jersey, and northeastern Pennsylvania, and the dialects extend
beyond the Mississippi across northern Iowa, Minnesota, and the
Dakotas. Canadian English is believed by some scholars to have
originated from northern American English,
North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the variety of the English
language of North America, including that of the United States and
Canada. Because of their shared histories[1] and the similarities
between the pronunciation, vocabulary and accent of American
English and Canadian English, the two spoken dialects are often
grouped together under a single category.
Due to historical and cultural factors, Canadian English and American English retain numerous distinctions from each other, with the differences being most noticeable in the two languages' written forms. Canadian spellings are primarily based on British usage as a result of Canada's long-standing connections with the United Kingdom. Canadians are generally tolerant of both British and US spellings, with British spellings being favoured in more formal settings and in Canadian print media. Spellings in American English have been highly influenced by lexicographers like Noah Webster, who sought to create a standardized form of English that was independent of British English.[5] Despite these differences, English as it is spoken in both Canada and the United States is similar, with the United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution having had a large influence on the early spoken form of Canadian English.
The Western dialect of American English is a single regional
English dialect that largely unites the entire western half of the
United States, including California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New
Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. It also broadly encompasses
Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, which are sometimes
separated into their own Pacific Northwest sub-dialect. The west
was the last area in the United States to be reached during the
gradual westward expansion of English-speaking settlement and its
history shows considerable mixing of the linguistic patterns of
other regions. As the settlement populations are relatively young
when compared with other regions, Western American English is a
dialect area in formation.
Labov, Ash, and Boberg (The Atlas of North American English, 2006), based solely on phonology and phonetics, defined the Midland area as a buffer zone between the Inland North and the South; this area essentially coincides with Kurath and McDavid's North Midland, the "South Midland" being now reckoned as part of the South. Indeed, while the lexical and grammatical isoglosses follow the Appalachian Mountains, the accent boundary follows the Ohio River.
The Upper Midwest (or North-Central) dialect of American English regionally includes the Upper Midwestern United States, while excluding the dialect of the geographically overlapping Inland North region and areas to its east. This dialect region includes North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, parts of Iowa, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and eastern Montana.
Its pronunciation quality is popularly (though narrowly) called a Minnesota accent. It is spoken by about 12 million people in the Upper Midwest and the northern portion of the central United States bordering Canada. It is considered a residual region, distinct from the neighboring regions of the West, the North, and Canada.
The Inland North (or Great Lakes) dialect of American
English is spoken in a region that includes most of the
cities along the Erie Canal and on the U.S. side of the Great Lakes
region, reaching approximately from Herkimer, New York to Green
Bay, Wisconsin. The dialect is most famously associated with the
cities of Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio;
and Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, New York.
This dialect had been the model of standard American pronunciation in the early 20th century,though it has since been modified by an innovative vowel shift known as the Northern Cities Shift which has altered its character,leaving a region to the south and west of the Great Lakes to become the home of the General American dialect.
New York City English is a regional dialect of the English language that is spoken by many people in New York City and much of its surrounding metropolitan area. Pioneer variationist sociolinguist William Labov describes it as the most recognizable variety of North American English.
The English spoken in northern New Jersey and the English spoken in all but the east end of Long Island are typically considered varieties or sub-dialects of New York City English, while Hudson Valley English is distinct from, yet has much in common with, New York City English.The dialect of Philadelphia has some distinctive similarities with New York City (such as a raised /ɔ/ vowel, as in coffee, and a phonemic split in /æ/, as in mad); but they differ in other respects and are considered different dialect regions. In contrast, in central and western New York State, Inland Northern American English predominates.
资料整理自维基百科