Western American English
It also generally encompasses Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, some of whose speakers are classified additionally under Pacific Northwest English.The West was the last area in the United States to be reached during the gradual westward expansion of settlement by English speakers and its history shows considerable mixing and leveling of the linguistic patterns of other regions.Although it occurs at least occasionally nationwide, T-glottalization at word boundaries, as in "right ankle", is more common in Western dialects, particularly among younger speakers and women.[14] A trend evident particularly in some speakers from the Salt Lake City, Utah, and Flagstaff, Arizona, areas, as well as in some Californian and New Mexican English, is the completion of, or transition towards, a full–fool merger.[22] Another recognizable though nonstandard trait, particularly in California and the Pacific Northwest, is raising of the short i /ɪ/ sound to an almost long ee [i] sound before ng, even when the g is dropped, such that the local pronunciation of -ing [iŋ], even with G-dropping ([in]), takes on the same vowel quality as, but remains shorter than, the rime of bean or the traditional British pronunciation of been when stressed ([iːn]).[31] Of two documented speakers in Anchorage, their cot-caught merger is completed or transitional, /aʊ/ is not fronted, /oʊ/ is centralized, the placement of /u/ is inconsistent, and ag approaches the sound of egg.[41] Aside from noting a possible full–fool merger regardless of ethnicity,[42] New Mexican English research has tended to focus on vocabulary: particularly loanwords from New Mexican Spanish, such as the word acequia [ɑˈseɪkjɑ] for a ditch;[43] canales [kɑˈnɑleɪs] for a type of rain and street gutter;[44] corazón [ˌkʰɔɹɑˈsoʊn] for sweetheart, darling, courage, or spirit;[45] nana for one's grandmother (more widely heard than elsewhere in the U.S.);[46] and vigas for rafters.
West Country EnglishWestern United StatesLanguage familyIndo-EuropeanGermanicWest GermanicNorth Sea GermanicAnglo–FrisianAnglicEnglishNorth American EnglishAmerican EnglishOld EnglishMiddle EnglishEarly Modern EnglishCalifornia EnglishPacific Northwest EnglishISO 639-3GlottologUnicodeCaliforniaNevadaArizonaNew MexicoColoradoWyomingWashingtonOregonMontanaUnited StateslevelingAmerican WestAtlas of North American Englishdiphthonglow back mergerlow-back-merger shiftstandard Canadian accentformantGeneral Americancot-caught mergerNorthernSouthern U.S. Englishfrontingallophoneshomophoneschain shiftraising before voiceless consonantsrhoticMary–marry–merry mergermergerPortland, OregonCowlitz County, WashingtonT-glottalizationSalt Lake City, UtahFlagstaff, ArizonaCalifornianfull–fool mergerfront vowelsSouthern twang-likemonophthongizationpin–pen mergerBakersfield, Californiaraisingbarrow pitbear clawAnglicizationMountain Statessoft drinkLampyridaefrontage roadSan Francisco Bay AreaNorthern CaliforniaAmerican cootMexican-American Englishdocumented speakersAnchorageMatanuska-Susitna ValleyMinnesota-like accentCalifornia Vowel Shiftfarther forwardchain movementCanadian Vowel ShiftNorthwestern variety of American EnglishCanadian EnglishHawaiian CreoleOʻahucot–caught merger/æ/ tensingnasal consonantsHispanic Englishvowel shiftCalifornia-like vowel shiftyod-droppingNew Mexican Spanishacequiastreet gutterraftersNew Mexican chile pepperCongressional RecordLDS Churchpropredicatecord-card mergerhorse-hoarse mergerarticulationMormon corridorHawaiʻi Creole EnglishPidginAmerican Indian EnglishNative American EnglishChinook Jargoncreole languageBoontlingBoonville, CaliforniaOxford University PressLabov, WilliamBoberg, CharlesMouton de GruyterDialectsaccentsModern EnglishEuropeGreat BritainEnglandCheshireCumbriaBarrow