Inland Northern American English: Difference between revisions

{{listen|filename=NPLighthouse.ogg|type=speech|title=Speech example|description=An example of a female speaker from the [[Milwaukee]] area]].}}

'''Inland Northern''' ('''American''') '''English''',<ref>Kortmann, Bernd, Kate Burridge, Rajend Mesthrie, Edgar W. Schneider and Clive Upton (eds) ({{sfnp|Gordon|2004). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id|p=mtd3a-56ysUC& A Handbook of Varieties of English].'' Volume 1: Phonology, Volume 2: Morphology and Syntax. Berlin / New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. xvi.</ref>}} also known in [[American linguistics]] as the '''Inland North''' or '''Great Lakes dialect''',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Garn-Nunn, |first1=Pamela G.; |last2=Lynn, |first2=James M. (|year=2004). ''[|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gjp3MWFuGSoC |title=Calvert's Descriptive Phonetics]''. |publisher=Thieme, p. |page=136.|isbn=978-1-60406-617-3 }}</ref> 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, New York|Buffalo]], [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]], and [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]].{{sfnp|Gordon|2004|p=297}} The dialect can be heard as far west as eastern [[Iowa]] and even among certain demographics in the [[Twin Cities, Minnesota]].<ref name="Chapman">{{cite thesis | last=Chapman, | first=Kaila (2017).| "title=The Northern Cities Shift: Minnesota's Ever-Changing Vowel Space". | publisher=Macalester College | date=2017-10-25 | url=https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/ling_honors/12/ "|quote=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" (|page=41).}}</ref> Some of its features have also infiltrated a [[St. Louis dialect|geographic corridor]] from Chicago southwest along [[U.S. Route 66 in Illinois|historic Route 66]] into [[St. Louis, Missouri]]; today, the corridor shows a mixture of both Inland North and [[Midland American English|Midland American accents]].{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|loc=Chapter 19|p=276}} 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 English|General American]]",{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=190}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Talking the Tawk |magazine=The New Yorker |date=7 November 2005 |url=https://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/11/14/051114ta_talk_seabrook |access-date=2018-04-09}}</ref> 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.<ref>Gordon,{{cite Matthewweb J.| (title=Do You Speak American? - Language Change - Vowel Shifting |year=2005).| "[website=PBS | url=http://www.pbs.org/speak/ahead/change/changin/ Vowel Shifting]". ''Do You Speak American?'' MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.}}</ref> A 1969 study first formally showed lower-middle-class women leading the regional population in the first two stages ([[Raising (phoneticssound change)|raising]] of the {{sc2|TRAP}} vowel and [[Fronting (phonetics)|fronting]] of the {{sc2|LOT/PALM}} vowel) of this shift, documented since the 1970s as comprising five distinct stages.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=190}} ButHowever, evidence since the mid-2010s suggests a retreat away from the Northern Cities Shift's features in many Inland Northern cities and toward a less [[markedness|marked]] American accent.<ref name="lansing"/><ref name="syracuse"/><ref name="Cooperstown">{{cite journal | last=Dinkin, | first=Aaron J. (2022).| "title=Generational Phases: Toward the Low-Back Merger in Cooperstown, New York". | journal=Journal of English Linguistics, | volume=50( | issue=3), 219| date=2022 | issn=0075-246.4242 | https://doi.org/=10.1177/00754242221108411. | pages=219–246| s2cid=251892218 }}</ref> Various common names for the Inland Northern accent exist, often based on city, for example: '''Chicago accent''', '''Detroit accent''', '''Milwaukee accent''', etc.

Linguists identify the "[[Midland American English#St. Louis corridor|St. Louis Corridor]]", extending from Chicago down into St. Louis, as a dialectally remarkable area, because young and old speakers alike have a Midland accent, except for a single middle generation born between the 1920s and 1940s, who have an Inland Northern accent diffused into the area from Chicago.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Friedman, |first=Lauren (|year=2015). ''|title=A Convergence of Dialects in the St. Louis Corridor''. Volume |volume=21. Issue |issue=2. ''|journal=Selected Papers from New Ways of Analyzing Variation''(NWAV). |page=43. Article 8. |publisher=University of Pennsylvania.}}</ref>

[[Erie, Pennsylvania]], though in the geographic area of the "Inland North" and featuring some speakers of this dialect, never underwent the Northern Cities Shift and often shares more features with [[Pittsburghese|Western Pennsylvania English]] due to contact with Pittsburghers, particularly with Erie as their choice of city for summer vacations.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Evanini, |first=Keelan (|year=2008). "[|url=https://repositoryciteseerx.upennist.psu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgidocument?articlerepid=1057rep1&contexttype=pwppdf&doi=a73c92687b4316bfe93a984f34d87d4c860929b6 |title=A shift of allegiance: The case of Erie and the North]". / Midland boundary |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. Volume |volume=14, Issue |issue=2.}}</ref> Many [[African Americans]] in Detroit and other Northern cities are multidialectal and also or exclusively use [[African-American Vernacular English]] rather than Inland Northern English, but some do use the Inland Northern dialect.

The dialect's progression across the Midwest has stopped at a general boundary line traveling through central Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois and then western Wisconsin, on the other sides of which speakers have continued to maintain their [[Midland American English|Midland]] and [[North Central American English|North Central]] accents. Sociolinguist [[William Labov]] theorizes that this separation reflects a political divide and a controlled study of his shows that Inland Northern speakers tend to be more associated with [[liberal politics]] than those of the other dialects, especially as Americans continue to self-segregate in residence based on ideological concerns.<ref name="discover"/> Former President [[Barack Obama]], for example, has a mild Inland Northern accent despite not having lived in the dialect region until early adulthood.<ref name="discover"/>

[[File:Southern Michigan English monophthongs chart.svg|thumb|upright=1.5|The [[monophthong]]s of [[Southern Michigan]] on a [[vowel chart]], typical of the Northern citiesCities vowelVowel shiftShift, though not to the extreme. Adapted from Hillenbrand (2003).<ref name="jipa">{{cite journal|last=Hillenbrand|first=James M.|year=2003|title=American English: Southern Michigan|journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association|volume=33|issue=1|page=122|doi=10.1017/S0025100303001221|doi-access=free}}</ref>]]

| {{IPA link|a|ɑ}}

| rowspan="2" | bl'''ah''', b'''o'''ther, f'''a'''ther, <br />l'''o'''t, t'''o'''p, wsp'''a'''sp

| rowspan="2" |{{IPA|/ɒ/}}^†

| rowspan="2" |'''a'''ll, d'''o'''g, b'''ough'''t, <br />l'''o'''ss, s'''aw''', t'''augho'''tff

A '''Midwestern accent''' (which may refer to [[Midwestern American English (disambiguation)|other dialectal accents]] as well), '''Chicago accent''', or '''Great Lakes accent''' are all common names in the United States for the sound quality produced by speakers of this dialect. Many of the characteristics listed here are not necessarily unique to the region and are oftentimes found elsewhere in the [[Midwest]].

===Northern Cities vowelVowel shiftShift===

The Northern Cities vowelVowel shiftShift or simply Northern Cities shiftShift is a [[chain shift]] of vowels and the defining accent feature of the Inland North dialect region, though it can also be found, variably, in the neighboring [[Upper Midwest American English|Upper Midwest]] and [[Western New England English|Western New England accent regions]].

The first two sound changes in the shift, with some debate about which one led to the other or came first,<ref name="McCarthy"/> are the general [[:/æ/ raising|raising and lengthening]] (tensing) of the "short a" (the vowel sound of {{sc2|TRAP}}, typically rendered {{IPA|/æ/}} in American transcriptions), as well as the [[fronting (phonetics)|fronting]] of the sound of [[father-bother merger|{{sc2|LOT}} or {{sc2|PALM}}]] in this accent (typically transcribed {{IPA|/ɑ/}}) towardstoward {{IPAblink|ä}} or {{IPAblink|a}}. Inland Northern {{sc2|TRAP}} raising was first identified in the 1960s,<ref>{{cite book|last=Fasold|first=Ralph|title=A Sociolinguistic Study of the Pronunciation of Three Vowels in Detroit Speech|location=Washington|publisher=Center for Applied Linguistics|year=1969}}</ref> with that vowel becoming articulated with the tongue beginning [[close vowel|higherraised]] than before, and then gliding back toward the center of the mouth, thus producing a [[Diphthong#Closing, opening, and centering|centering diphthong]] of the type {{IPA|[ɛə]}}, {{IPA|[eə]}}, or at its most extreme {{IPA|[ɪə]}}; e.g. ''naturally'' {{Audio-IPA|en-us-inlandnorth-naturally.ogg|[ˈneətʃɹəli]|help=no}}. As for {{sc2|LOT/PALM}} fronting, it can go beyond {{IPAblink|ä}} to the front {{IPAblink|a}}, and may, for the most advanced speakers, even be close to {{IPAblink|æ}}—so that ''pot'' or ''sod'' come to be pronounced how a [[General American|mainstream American]] speaker would say ''pat'' or ''sad''; e.g. ''coupon'' {{Audio-IPA|en-us-inlandnorth-coupon.ogg|[ˈkʰupan]|help=no}}.

The fronting of the {{sc2|LOT/PALM}} vowel leaves a blank space in Inland North speakers' pronunciation that is filled by lowering the "aw" vowel in {{sc2|THOUGHT}} ({{IPAblink|ɔ}} in General American varieties that resist the [[Cot–caught merger|''cot''–''caught'' merger]]), which itself comes to be pronounced with the tongue in a lower position, closer to {{IPA|[ɑ]}} or {{IPA|[ɒ]}}. As a result, for example, people affected bywith the shift may pronounce ''caught'' the way speakers without the shift say ''cot''; thus, withshifted bothspeakers usingpronounce the vowel {{IPA|[ɑ]}}. However, a ''cot''–''caught'' merger is robustly avoided in many parts of Inland North, due to the prior fronting ofas {{IPA|/ɑ/[kʰɑt]}}. In other words,(and ''cot'' isas {{IPA|[kʰat]}}, andas ''caught''explained is {{IPA|[kʰɒt]}}above).{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|loc=Chapter 14|p=189}} EvenIn sodefiance of the shift, however, there is a definitewell-documented scattering of Inland North speakers who are in a state of transition towardstoward a ''[[cot''–''-caught'' merger]]; this is particularly evident in northeastern Pennsylvania.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=61}}<ref>{{cite thesis|last=Herold, |first=Ruth (|year=1990). "|title=Mechanisms of Merger: The Implementation and Distribution of the Low Back Merger in Eastern Pennsylvania." |degree=Ph.D. diss., |publisher=Univ. of Pennsylvania.}}</ref> Younger speakers reversing the fronting of {{IPA|/ɑ/}}, for example in [[Lansing, Michigan]], also approach a merger.<ref name="lansing"/>

The movement of {{IPA|/æ/}} to {{IPA|[ɛə]}}, in order to avoid overlap, presumablywith initiatesthe furthernow-fronted backing,{{IPA|/ɑ/}} loweringvowel, orpresumably ainitiates combinationthe ofconsequent both,shifting with regard to the originalof {{IPA|/ɛ/}} vowel (the "short e" in {{Sc2|DRESS}}, {{IPAblink|ɛ}} in General American) towardaway eitherfrom its original position. Thus, {{IPA|/ɛ/}} demonstrates backing, lowering, or a combination of both toward {{IPA|[ɐ]}}, the [[near-open central vowel]], or almost {{IPA|[æ]}}.<ref name="lansing"/>

The next change is the movement of {{IPA|/ʌ/}} (the {{sc2|STRUT}} vowel) from {{IPAblink|ɜ}} a central or back position toward a very far back position {{IPA|[ɔ]}}. People with the shift pronounce ''bus'' so that it sounds more like ''boss'' to people without the shift.

Before {{IPA|/r/}}, only {{IPA|/ɑ/}} undergoes the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, so that the vowel in ''start'' {{IPA|/startstɑrt/}} varies much like the one in ''lot'' {{IPA|/latlɑt/}} described above. The remaining {{IPA|/ɔ/}}, {{IPA|/ɛ/}} and {{IPA|/ɪ/}} retain GenAm-like values similar to General American (GA) in this position, so that ''north'' {{IPA|/nɒrθnɔrθ/}}, ''merry'' {{IPA|/ˈmɛri/}} and ''near'' {{IPA|/nɪr/}} are pronounced {{IPA|[noɹθ, ˈmɛɹi, niɹ]}}, with unshifted {{sc2|THOUGHT}} (though somewhat closer than in GenAmGA), {{sc2|DRESS}} and {{sc2|KIT}} (as close as in GenAmGA). Inland Northern American English features the [[north-force merger]], the [[Mary-marry-merry merger]], the [[Mirror–nearer and /ʊr/–/uːr/ mergers|mirror–nearer and {{IPA|/ʊr/|cat=no}}–{{IPA|/ur/|cat=no}} mergers]], the [[hurry-furry merger]], and the nurse-letter merger, all of which are also typical of mostGA General American Englishvarieties.{{sfnp|Gordon|2004|pp=294–295}}

[[William Labov]] et al.'s ''[[Atlas of North American English]]'' (2006) presents the first historical understandingsunderstanding aboutof the order in which the Inland North's vowels shifted. Speakers around the Great Lakes began to pronounce the [[phonological history of English short A|short ''a'']] sound, {{IPA|/æ/}} as in {{Sc2|TRAP}}, as more of a [[diphthong]] and with a higher starting point in the mouth, causing the same word to sound more like "tray-ap" or "tray-up"; Labov et al. assume that this began by the middle of the 19th century.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|pp=192, 195}} After roughly a century following this first vowel change—general {{IPA|/æ/}} raising—the region's speakers, around the 1960s, then began to use the newly opened vowel space, previously occupied by {{IPA|/æ/}}, for {{IPA|/ɑ/}} (as in {{sc2|LOT}} and {{sc2|PALM}}); therefore, words like ''bot'', ''gosh'', or ''lock'' came to be pronounced with the tongue extended farther forward, thus making these words sound more like how ''bat'', ''gash'', and ''lack'' sound in dialects without the shift. These two vowel changes were first recognized and reported in 1967.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=190}} While these were certainly the first two vowel shifts of this accent, and Labov et al. assume that {{IPA|/æ/}} raising occurred first, they also admit that the specifics of time and place are unclear.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=191}} In fact, [[Real-time sociolinguistics|real-time evidence]] of a small number of Chicagoans born between 1890 and 1920 suggests that {{IPA|/ɑ/}} fronting occurred first, starting by 1900 at the latest, and was followed by {{IPA|/æ/}} raising sometime in the 1920s.<ref name="McCarthy">{{cite journal |last=McCarthy, |first=Corrine (|year=2010) "[|url=https://repository.upenn.edu/pwplhandle/vol1520.500.14332/iss2/1244736 |title=The Northern Cities Shift in Real Time: Evidence from Chicago]". ''|journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics'': Vol.|volume= 15 : Iss. |issue=2, |at=Article 12.}}</ref>

During the 1960s, several more vowels followed suit in rapid succession, each filling in the space left by the last, including the lowering of {{IPA|/ɔ/}} as in {{sc2|THOUGHT}}, the backing and lowering of {{IPA|/ɛ/}} as in {{sc2|DRESS}}, the backing of {{IPA|/ʌ/}} as in {{sc2|STRUT}} (first reported in 1986),<ref>{{cite thesis |last=Labov, |first=William (2008). "[|url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/PowerPoints/PowerPoints.html |title=Yankee Cultural Imperialism and the Northern Cities Shift]". |type=PowerPoint presentation for paper given at Yale University, |date=October 20, 2008. Online at |publisher=University of Pennsylvania. |at=Slide 94.}}</ref> and the backing and lowering of {{IPA|/ɪ/}} as in {{Sc2|KIT}}, often but not always in that exact order. Altogether, this constitutes the Northern Cities Shift, identified by linguists as such in 1972.<ref name="discover">{{cite web |last=Sedivy |first=Julie |date=March 28, 2012 |title=Votes and Vowels: A Changing Accent Shows How Language Parallels Politics |url=http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/03/28/votes-and-vowels-a-changing-accent-shows-how-language-parallels-politics/#.VqT3prerTIU |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160125232232/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2012/03/28/votes-and-vowels-a-changing-accent-shows-how-language-parallels-politics/#.VqauQS-l1pQ |archive-date=January 25, 2016 |access-date=January 24, 2016 |publisher=Discover}}</ref>

Migrants from all over the Northeastern U.S. traveled west to the rapidly industrializing Great Lakes area in the decades after the [[Erie Canal]] opened in 1825, and Labov suggests that the Inland North's general {{IPA|/æ/}} raising originated from the diverse and incompatible [[/æ/ raising]] patterns of these various migrants mixing into a new, simpler pattern.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Labov, |first=William. (|year=2007). |title=Transmission and Diffusion. |journal=Language. |volume=83. 344-387.|issue=2 p|pages=344–387 |doi=10.1353/lan.2007.0082 42 of|s2cid=6255506 [|url=http://www.ling.upenn.edu/~wlabov/Papers/TD.pdf this PDF].}}</ref> He posits that this hypothetical dialect-mixing event, which initiated the larger Northern Cities Shift (NCS), occurred by about 1860 in upstate New York,{{sfnp|Castro Calle|2017|pp=34, 48}} and the later stages of the NCS are merely those that logically followed (a "[[Chain shift|pull chain]]"). More recent evidence suggests that German-accented English helped to greatly influence the Shift, because German speakers tend to pronounce the English {{sc2|TRAP}} vowel as {{IPA|[ɛ]}} and the {{sc2|LOT/PALM}} vowel as {{IPA|[ä~a]}}, both of which resemble NCS vowels, and there were more speakers of German in the Erie Canal region of upstate New York in 1850 than there were of any single variety of English.{{sfnp|Castro Calle|2017|p=49}} There is also evidence for an alternative theory, according to which the Great Lakes area—settled primarily by western New Englanders—simply inherited [[Western New England English]] and developed that dialect's vowel shifts further. 20th-century Western New England English variably showed NCS-like {{sc2|TRAP}} and {{sc2|LOT/PALM}} pronunciations, which may have already existed among 19th-century New England settlers, though this has been contested.{{sfnp|Castro Calle|2017|p=49}} Another theory, not mutually exclusive with the others, is that the [[Great Migration (African American)|Great Migration of African Americans]] intensified White Northerners' participation in the NCS in order to differentiate their accents from Black ones.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Van Herk |first=Gerard |year=2008 |title=Fear of a Black Phonology: The Northern Cities Shift as Linguistic White Flight |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics |volume=14 |issue=2 |at=Article 19 |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol14/iss2/19}}</ref>

Recent evidence suggests that the Shift has largely begun to reverse in many cities of the Inland North,<ref name="lansing"/><ref name="syracuse"/> such as [[Lansing, Michigan|Lansing]],<ref name="lansing">{{cite journal |first1=S. E. |last1=Wagner |first2=A.| last2=Mason |first3=M. |last3=Nesbitt |first4=E. |last4=Pevan |first5=M. |last5=Savage |year=2016 |title=Reversal and re-organization of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics |url=http://msusociolinguistics.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/1/9/9319621/reversalandreorganization_nwav44.pdf |volume=22 |issue=2 |at=Article 19 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2021-06-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210623223821/http://msusociolinguistics.weebly.com/uploads/9/3/1/9/9319621/reversalandreorganization_nwav44.pdf}}</ref> [[Ogdensburg, New York|Ogdensburg]], [[Rochester, New York|Rochester]], [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]],<ref name="syracuse">{{cite journal |url=https://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol21/iss2/6/ |title=Reversal of the Northern Cities Shift in Syracuse, New York |first1=Anna |last1=Driscoll |first2=Emma |last2=Lape |journal=University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics |volume=21 |number=2 |year=2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/language-variation-and-change/article/abs/escaping-the-trap-losing-the-northern-cities-shift-in-real-time/C62D519D813560095D0EB9936A96F77C |last1=Thiel |first1=Anja |last2=Dinkin |first2=Aaron |year=2020 |title=Escaping the TRAP: Losing the Northern Cities Shift in Real Time |journal=Language Variation and Change |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=373–393 |doi=10.1017/S0954394520000137|s2cid=187646349 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Kapner, |first=J. (2019, |date=October 12)., ''2019 |title=Snowy Days and Nasal A’sA's: the Retreat of the Northern Cities Shift in Rochester, New York'' [|type=Poster presentation]. |journal=New Ways of Analyzing Variation |volume=48, |location=Eugene, OR.}}</ref> Detroit, Buffalo, Chicago, and [[Eau Claire, Wisconsin|Eau Claire]].<ref name="Cooperstown"/> In particular, {{IPA|/ɑ/}} fronting and {{IPA|/æ/}} raising (though raising is persisting before nasal consonants, as is the [[General American]] norm) have now reversed among younger speakers in these areas. Several possible reasons have been proposed for the reversal, including growing stigma connected with the accent and the working-class identity it represents.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nesbitt |first=Monica |date=2021-08-01 |title=The Rise and Fall of the Northern Cities Shift: Social and Linguistic Reorganization of TRAP in Twentieth-Century Lansing, Michigan |journal=American Speech |volume=96 |issue=3 |pages=332–370 |doi=10.1215/00031283-8791754 |s2cid=228971560 |issn=0003-1283}}</ref>

*The nucleus of {{IPA|/aʊ/}} may be more backed than in other common North American accents (towardstoward {{IPA|[ɐʊ]}} or {{IPA|[ɑʊ]}}).

*The nucleus of {{IPA|/oʊ/}} (as in ''go'' and ''boat''), like {{IPA|/aʊ/}}, tends to be [[conservative and innovative (linguistics)|conservative]], not undergoing the fronting common in the vast American southeastern super-region. Likewise, the traditionally high back vowel {{IPA|/u/}} is conservative, less fronted in the North than in other American regions, though it still undergoes some fronting after [[coronal consonant]]s.{{sfnp|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=187}} Also, {{IPA|/oʊ/}}, along with {{IPA|/eɪ/}}, can traditionally manifest as [[monophthong]]s: {{IPA|[e]}} and {{IPA|[o]}}, respectively.<ref>{{cite book | last=Boberg, | first=Charles (2017).| title=The Handbook of Dialectology | chapter=Dialects of North American English. The| Handbookpublisher=Wiley of| Dialectology,date=2017-12-04 457| isbn=978-1-118-82755-0 | doi=10.1002/9781118827628.ch26 | page=457}}</ref>

*The vowel in {{IPA|/ɛg/}} can raise toward {{IPA|[e]}} in words like ''beg'', ''negative'', or ''segment'', except in Michigan.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Stanley, | first=Joseph A. (2022).| title=Regional patternsPatterns in prevelarPrevelar raising.Raising | journal=American Speech: A| Quarterlypublisher=Duke ofUniversity LinguisticPress Usage,| volume=97( | issue=3), 374| date=2022-41108-01 | issn=0003-1283 | doi=10.1215/00031283-9308384 | pages=374–411| s2cid=237766388 }}</ref>

*Working-class [[Th-stopping|''th''-stopping]]: The two sounds represented by the spelling ''th''&mdash;{{IPA|/θ/}} (as in ''thin'') and {{IPA|/ð/}} (as in ''those'')&mdash;may shift from [[fricative consonant]]s to [[stop consonant]]s among urban and working-class speakers: thus, for example, ''thin'' may approach the sound of ''tin'' (using {{IPA|[t]}}) and ''those'' may merge to the sound of ''doze'' (using {{IPA|[d]}}).<ref>{{cite book|title=How Friendly Are the Natives? An Evaluation of Native-Speaker Judgements of Foreign-Accented British and American English|last=van den Doel|first=Rias|year=2006|publisher=Landelijke onderzoekschool taalwetenschap (Netherlands Graduate School of Linguistics)|pages=268–269|url=http://dspace.library.uu.nl/bitstream/handle/1874/13381/Doel-13-completetext.pdf}}</ref> This was parodied in the ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' comedy sketch "[[Bill Swerski's Superfans]]," in which characters hailing from Chicago pronounce "[[Chicago Bears|The Bears]]" as "Da Bears."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Salmons, |first1=Joseph; |last2=Purnell, |first2=Thomas (|year=2008 draft)|chapter-url=https://www. "[brisbristol.ac.uk/german/hison/reading/salmonsandpurnell.pdf |chapter=Contact and the Development of American English]". ''|title=Handbook of Language Contact, ed. |editor-first=Ray |editor-last=Hickey. |publisher=Blackwell.}}</ref>

*''Caramel'' is typically pronounced with two syllables as ''carmel''.<ref name="The Harvard Dialect Survey">{{cite web |last1=Vaux, |first1=Bert and |first2=Scott |last2=Golder. |year=2003. [|url=http://dialect.redlog.net/ |title=The Harvard Dialect Survey] {{Webarchive|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160430083828/http://dialect.redlog.net/ |archive-date=2016-04-April 30, }}.2016 |location=Cambridge, MA: |website=Harvard University Linguistics Department.}}</ref>

Note that not all of these terms, here compared with their counterparts in other regions, are necessarily unique only to the Inland North, though they appear most strongly in this region:<ref name="The Harvard Dialect Survey"/>

**The "soda/pop line" has been found to run betweenthrough Western New York State (Buffalo residents say "''pop"'', Syracuse residents whosay ''soda'' now but used to say "''pop"'' until sometime in the 1970s now say "soda", and Rochester residents say either. Lollipops are also known as "suckers" in this region. Eastern Wisconsinites around Milwaukee and some Chicagoans are also an exception, using the word ''soda''.)

*''[[Devil's Night]]'', particularly in Michigan, for the night before [[Halloween]] (not Northeastern ''[[Mischief Night]]'')<ref>{{cite book | last=Metcalf, Allan| first=A. (2000)A. ''| title=How We Talk: American Regional English Today''. | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p| year=2000 | isbn=978-0-618-04362-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsMUCl5j8X4C&pg=PA104 | page=104.}}</ref>

*''treelawn'', in [[Cleveland]] and [[Michigan]]; ''devilstrip'' or ''devil's strip'' in [[Akron, Ohio]];<ref>Metcalf,{{cite Allanbook A.| (2000).last=Metcalf ''[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780618043637 <!--| quotefirst="devil's strip"A.A. -->| title=How We Talk: American Regional English Today]''. | publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.| pyear=2000 | isbn=978-0-618-04362-0 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SsMUCl5j8X4C&pg=PA97 | page=97.}}</ref> and ''right-of-way'' in Wisconsin and ''parkway'' in Chicago for the [[road verge|grass between the sidewalk and the street]]

*''yous(e)'' or ''youz'', in [[northeastern Pennsylvania]] around its urban center of Scranton, for ''you guys''; in this sub-region, there is notable self-awareness of the Inland Northern dialect (locally called by various names, including "Coalspeak").<ref>{{cite web|last1=Feather|first1=Kasey|title=NEPAisms overlooked in new dictionary entries|url=http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/nepaisms-overlooked-in-new-dictionary-entries-1.1688884|website=The Times-Tribune|date=May 19, 2014 |publisher=Times-Shamrock Communications|access-date=27 November 2016}}</ref> ''Youse'' is also found in Chicago and its hinterland, utilized as a second-person plural pronoun (similar to "[[y'all]]").

* [[Jimmy Dore]] – "I think that Chicago comics like Jimmy Dore bring my Wisconsin/Chicago accent back with a vengence."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kashian |first1=Jackie |title=TDF Ep 6 - Jimmy Dore and Matt Knudsen |url=https://tdf.libsyn.com/jimmy-dore-and-matt-knudsen |website=Uncut |access-date=27 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221127022859/https://tdf.libsyn.com/jimmy-dore-and-matt-knudsen |archive-date=27 November 2022}}</ref>

* [[Rahm Emanuel]] – "more refined (if still very Chicago)"<ref>{{cite web|last=Moser|first=Whet |url=http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/March-2012/Where-the-Chicago-Accent-Comes-From-and-How-Politics-is-Changing-It/|publisher=Chicago Mag|date=March 29, 2012|title=Where the Chicago Accent Comes From and How Politics is Changing It|access-date=December 27, 2015|archive-date=2016-01-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160105122111/http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/The-312/March-2012/Where-the-Chicago-Accent-Comes-From-and-How-Politics-is-Changing-It/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

* [[Chris Farley]] – "beatific Wisconsin accent"<ref>{{cite web|last=Desowitz|first=Bill |url=http://www.awn.com/animationworld/fantastic-mr-fox-goes-london|publisher=Animation World Network |title='Fantastic Mr. Fox' Goes to London|date=October 16, 2009|access-date=January 7, 2016 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140227054050/https://www.awn.com/animationworld/fantastic-mr-fox-goes-london | archive-date=February 27, 2014 | url-status=live }}</ref>

* [[BillDennis LipinskiKucinich]] – "Ia couldshining liveexample onlyof 100Cleveland's milesversion fromof the gentlemanInland from Illinois (Mr. Lipinski) and he would have anNorth accent and I do not"<ref>{{cite bookweb|url=https://bookswww.googlecleveland.com/books?id=KCR3Vw0pUJkC&q=dan+lipinski+accent&pg=PA23867 tipoff/2017/01/clevelanders_probably_think_th.html|title=CongressionalClevelanders Record,probably V.think they 150don't have an accent, Pt.but we 17do, Octoberand 9so todo Novemberothers 17,in 2004the Midwest|last=McIntyre|first=Michael K.|date=January November13, 20092017|isbnwebsite=9780160844164[[Cleveland.com]]|publisher=Advance Local|access-date=2018-04-09|last1=CongressFebruary |first1=U. S.23, 2024}}</ref>

* [[Michael Symon]] – "Michael Symon's local accent gives him an honest, working-class vibe"<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-food-next-food-michael-symon-winner-story.html|title=Michael Symon: 2007 winner of 'The Next Iron Chef'|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|year=2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405104423/https://www.chicagotribune.com/sns-food-next-food-michael-symon-winner-story.html|archive-date=April 5, 2023}}</ref>

* [[Lily Tomlin]] – "Tomlin's Detroit accent"<ref>{{cite news |last=Maupin, |first=Elizabeth (|year=1997). "|title='Signs': Still Briming With Intelligent Life." ''|newspaper=Orlando Sentinel''.}}</ref>

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*[http://www.nycbbb.com/features/buffaloenglish.htm The Guide to Buffalo English]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100915171831/http://www.nycbbb.com/features/buffaloenglish.htm|date=2010-09-15}}.

*[http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast/ncshift/ncshift.html The Northern Cities Vowel Shift]. {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051120232510/http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~lsp/Northeast/ncshift/ncshift.html |date=2005-11-20 }}.

*[http://www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab/TEXTARCHIVES/buffalobibliography.html Select Annotated Bibliography On the Speech of Buffalo, NY]. {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119055556/http://www.bigorbitgallery.org/soundlab/TEXTARCHIVES/buffalobibliography.html|date=2012-11-19}}.

[[Category:Culture of theAllentown, Midwestern United StatesPennsylvania]]