North American English Dialects

North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns

This is just a hobby of mine, that I thought might be interesting to a lot of people. Some people collect stamps. Others collect coins. I collect dialects. - Rick Aschmann.

Small-Scale Dialect Map

The small map below is the same as the Full-Scale Dialect Map that follows, but shows the entire width of the map (on most monitors). Click on any part of this map to move to the equivalent part of the Full-Scale Dialect Map.

Full-Scale Dialect Map Instructions

For many of the cities or towns on this map, you can listen to an audio or video sample of speech of a native (more specifically, someone who was raised there, though not necessarily born there, and whose dialect clearly represents that place). All of the cities or towns with a green center have such an audio or video sample that can be listened to. So far there are over 900 samples listed, more and more of which are from contributors!

The cities and towns with a large dot are those which are larger or more important in each state or province. Use the scroll bars to move around on this map, or, even simpler, start at the tiny map above and click the country (U.S. or Canada) that you want to look at.

Help! For many places I haven't found an audio sample yet. If you know of an audio or video sample on the Internet that features a speaker who was raised in a particular place, and whose dialect clearly represents that place, please let me know! Although many of the people in these samples are prominent people, I actually prefer ordinary local people, but anyone at all will do, as long as their pronunciation represents the local dialect.

Data from the Atlas of North American English (ANAE)

I am grateful to the Atlas of North American English (ANAE) by William Labov, Sharon Ash, and Charles Boberg, for a good part of the data on which this map was based. However, the names of a number of the dialects are my own, and I have made many adjustments to their borders (especially Inland and Lowland South, West Midland, and Allegheny Midland). Also, a lot of the data is from my own research and analysis. - Rick Aschmann

Map Notes

1. Pin-pen merger: This is the only feature in which I find myself in significant disagreement with the ANAE: I have found that the pin-pen merger area is much larger than they show, especially in the west.
2. Long /o/ [oʊ] fronting: The boundary between central-back and central-front was used by the ANAE to define the boundary between North and Midland, but this line then extends into the West.
3. R-dropping: R-droppers are also called non-rhotic English speakers. There are two types of r-droppers, which I call Systematic R-droppers and Simple R-droppers. Systematic R-droppers are found in the northeastern U.S., in much of England, and in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.