Editing English language (section)

=== North America ===
{{Main|American English|General American|African American Vernacular English|Southern American English|Canadian English|Atlantic Canadian English}}
{{listen|filename=Emery Emery Voice.ogg|title=Speech example|description=An example of a [[Midwestern United States|Midwestern U.S.]] male with a [[general American]] accent ([[Emery Emery]]).}}
{{listen|filename=George W. Bush speech on homeland security (June 6, 2002).ogg|title=Speech example|description=An example of a [[Texan English|Texan]] male with a [[Southern American English|Southern U.S. accent]] ([[George W. Bush]]).}}
{{listen|filename=Margaret atwood bbc radio4 front row 27 07 2007 b007tjpb.flac|title=Speech example|description=An example of an [[Ontario]] woman with a [[Standard Canadian English|standard Canadian accent]] ([[Margaret Atwood]])}}
[[File:Non-RhoticityUSA.png|thumb|left|[[Rhoticity in English|Rhoticity]] dominates in [[North American English]]. ''[[The Atlas of North American English]]'' found over 50% ''non''-rhoticity, though, in at least one local white speaker in each U.S. metropolitan area designated here by a red dot. Non-rhotic [[African American Vernacular English]] pronunciations may be found among [[African Americans]] regardless of location.]]

North American English is fairly homogeneous compared to British English. Today, American accent variation is often increasing at the regional level and decreasing at the very local level,{{sfn|Labov|2012}} though most Americans still speak within a phonological continuum of similar accents,{{sfn|Wells|1982|page=34}} known collectively as [[General American]] (GA), with differences hardly noticed even among Americans themselves (such as [[Midland American English|Midland]] and [[Western American English]]).{{sfn|Rowicka|2006}}{{sfn|Toon|1982}}{{sfn|Cassidy|1982}} In most American and Canadian English dialects, [[rhoticity in English|rhoticity]] (or ''r''-fulness) is dominant, with non-rhoticity (''r''-dropping) becoming associated with lower prestige and social class especially after World War II; this contrasts with the situation in England, where non-rhoticity has become the standard.{{sfn|Labov|1972}}

Separate from GA are American dialects with clearly distinct sound systems, historically including [[Southern American English]], English of the coastal Northeast (famously including [[Eastern New England English]] and [[New York City English]]), and [[African American Vernacular English]], all of which are historically non-rhotic. [[Canadian English]], except for the [[Atlantic provinces]] and perhaps [[Quebec]], may be classified under GA as well, but it often shows the [[Canadian raising|raising of the vowels]] {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} and {{IPAc-en|aʊ}} before [[voiceless consonants]], as well as distinct norms for written and pronunciation standards.{{sfn|Boberg|2010}}

In [[Southern American English]], the most populous American "accent group" outside of GA,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/|title=Do You Speak American: What Lies Ahead|access-date=15 August 2007|publisher=[[PBS]]|archive-date=14 September 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070914172319/http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/|url-status=live}}</ref> rhoticity now strongly prevails, replacing the region's [[older Southern American English|historical non-rhotic prestige]].<ref>{{citation|title=Rural White Southern Accents|first=Erik R.|last=Thomas|publisher=[[Mouton de Gruyter]]|work=Atlas of North American English (online)|year=2003|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|page=16|access-date=11 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222004531/http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|archive-date=22 December 2014|url-status=dead}} [Later published as a chapter in: Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (eds) (2004). ''A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool.'' New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 300–324.]</ref>{{sfn|Levine|Crockett|1966}}{{sfn|Schönweitz|2001}} Southern accents are colloquially described as a "drawl" or "twang,"{{sfn|Montgomery|1993}} being recognised most readily by the Southern Vowel Shift initiated by [[monophthong|glide-deleting]] in the {{IPA|/aɪ/}} vowel (e.g. pronouncing ''spy'' almost like ''spa''), the "Southern breaking" of several front pure vowels into a gliding vowel or even two syllables (e.g. pronouncing the word "press" almost like "pray-us"),{{sfn|Thomas|2008|page=95–96}} the [[pin–pen merger]], and other distinctive phonological, grammatical, and lexical features, many of which are actually recent developments of the 19th century or later.{{sfn|Bailey|1997}}

Today spoken primarily by working- and middle-class [[African Americans]], [[African-American Vernacular English]] (AAVE) is also largely non-rhotic and likely originated among enslaved Africans and African Americans influenced primarily by the non-rhotic, non-standard [[older Southern American English|older Southern dialects]]. A minority of linguists,<ref name="Word on the Street">{{cite book|title=Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a "Pure" Standard English|last=McWhorter|first=John H.|author-link=John McWhorter|publisher=Basic Books|year=2001|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Edt7yUD6PkMC|page=162|isbn=978-0-7382-0446-8|access-date=22 November 2015|archive-date=30 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200630231501/https://books.google.com/books?id=Edt7yUD6PkMC|url-status=live}}</ref> contrarily, propose that AAVE mostly traces back to African languages spoken by the slaves who had to develop a [[pidgin]] or [[Creole English]] to communicate with slaves of other ethnic and linguistic origins.{{sfn|Bailey|2001}} AAVE's important commonalities with Southern accents suggests it developed into a highly coherent and homogeneous variety in the 19th or early 20th century. AAVE is commonly stigmatised in North America as a form of "broken" or "uneducated" English, as are white Southern accents, but linguists today recognise both as fully developed varieties of English with their own norms shared by a large speech community.{{sfn|Green|2002}}{{sfn|Patrick|2006b}}