GenAm revisited

Introduction

In North America it is along the Atlantic coast that we find the sharpest regional and social differences in speech. This is where the earliest European settlements were established. This is where the thirteen colonies were which came together in 1776 to constitute the United States. The inland areas, including the vast tracts of the mid west and then the far west, were settled from the east. Hence we find that the important isoglosses in North America tend to run horizontally, east to west. The principal speech areas can be seen as essentially horizontal bands stretching across the country. In the long-settled east they are sharply distinguished from one another; as we move towards the recently settled west they become progressively more confused and intermingled.

Following Kurath (1949) dialectologists usually recognize three principal speech areas in the east. This tripartite division rests mainly on differences of vocabulary, although it is claimed as valid for morphology and syntax and also for pronunciation as well. The north comprises New England and New York State; it extends from Maine through the Yankee heartland down to northern New Jersey. It includes New York City and Boston, Massachusetts. The midland area extends inland from the Middle Atlantic states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and includes Philadelphia. The south extends southwards from about Washington, DC, and includes Virginia and the Carolinas, with the cities of Richmond, Norfolk, and Charleston.