This map shows, with red circles, the exact cities identified within the Inland North dialect region, according to Labov et al.'s (2006) ANAE.
Speech example
An example of a female speaker from the Milwaukee area.
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Speech example
An example of a male speaker from the Buffalo area.
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This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
Inland Northern (American) English,[1] also known in American linguistics as the Inland North or Great Lakes dialect,[2] is an American English dialect spoken primarily by White Americans in a geographic band reaching from the major urban areas of Upstate New York westward along the Erie Canal and through much of the U.S. Great Lakes region. The most distinctive Inland Northern accents are spoken in Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse.[3] The dialect can be heard as far west as eastern Iowa and even among certain demographics in the Twin Cities, Minnesota.[4] Some of its features have also infiltrated a geographic corridor from Chicago southwest along historic Route 66 into St. Louis, Missouri; today, the corridor shows a mixture of both Inland North and Midland American accents.[5] Linguists often characterize the western Great Lakes region's dialect separately as North-Central American English.
The early 20th-century accent of the Inland North was the basis for the term "General American",[6][7] though the regional accent has since altered, due to the Northern Cities Vowel Shift: its now-defining chain shift of vowels that began in the 1930s or possibly earlier.[8] A 1969 study first formally showed lower-middle-class women leading the regional population in the first two stages (raising of the TRAP vowel and fronting of the LOT/PALM vowel) of this shift, documented since the 1970s as comprising five distinct stages.[6] However, evidence since the mid-2010s suggests a retreat away from the Northern Cities Shift in many Inland Northern cities and towards a less marked American accent.[9][10][11] Various common names for the Inland Northern accent exist, often based on city, for example: Chicago accent, Detroit accent, Milwaukee accent, etc.
^Gordon (2004), p. xvi.
^Garn-Nunn, Pamela G.; Lynn, James M. (2004). Calvert's Descriptive Phonetics. Thieme. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-60406-617-3.
^Gordon (2004), p. 297.
^Chapman, Kaila (October 25, 2017). The Northern Cities Shift: Minnesota's Ever-Changing Vowel Space (Thesis). Macalester College. p. 41. 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
^Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 276, Chapter 19.
^ abLabov, Ash & Boberg (2006), p. 190.
^"Talking the Tawk". The New Yorker. November 7, 2005. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
^"Do You Speak American? - Language Change - Vowel Shifting". PBS. 2005.
^Cite error: The named reference lansing was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Cite error: The named reference syracuse was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Dinkin, Aaron J. (2022). "Generational Phases: Toward the Low-Back Merger in Cooperstown, New York". Journal of English Linguistics. 50 (3): 219–246. doi:10.1177/00754242221108411. ISSN 0075-4242. S2CID 251892218.
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