RP · BBC English · Standard Southern British
The traditional prestige accent of southern England. Long carried by national broadcasting and higher education, but no longer dominant in everyday British speech.
General American
Also known as: Standard American English
The broad accent associated with national US broadcasting and most of the inland north and west. A reference point rather than a single regional variety.
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Frequently asked questions
What language is General American?
General American is a dialect of English.
Which region is General American associated with?
General American is part of the North America region on DialectAtlas.
Is General American known by other names?
Yes — General American is also referred to as Standard American English.
What are the other dialects of English?
English also includes Received Pronunciation, Geordie, Scottish English, Hiberno-English, Southern American English, Canadian English, Australian English, Broad Australian, Cultivated Australian, Aboriginal Australian English, Indian English, Singlish, African American Vernacular English, New York English, Eastern New England English, Appalachian English, Cajun English, Chicano English, Hawaiian Pidgin, Newfoundland English. Each variety has its own vocabulary, pronunciation, and cultural context.
Other English dialects
See on the atlas →Tyneside English
The dialect of Newcastle and the Tyneside region. Retains a number of Old English and Norse-derived features lost elsewhere in England.
The variety of English spoken across Scotland. Distinct from Scots (which is sometimes counted as a separate language) but heavily influenced by it.
Irish English
The English of Ireland, shaped by long contact with Irish Gaelic. Distinctive grammar, intonation, and vocabulary set it apart from British and American varieties.
Southern Drawl
The dialects of the US South, characterised by the Southern Vowel Shift, the pin-pen merger, and a distinct lexical tradition.
The English of English-speaking Canada. Closer to General American than to British English in most features, but with its own vocabulary and the well-known Canadian raising.
General Australian
The mainstream variety of Australian English, used by the majority of speakers nationally. The General Australian sociolect, sitting between Broad and Cultivated extremes.
Strine
The most strongly-marked sociolect of Australian English, traditionally rural and outback in association. Famously caricatured as "Strine"; recognisable by its diphthongal vowels and broad nasalisation.
The historically prestigious Australian English variety, modelled on British Received Pronunciation. Once dominant in broadcasting and law; now rare in everyday speech.
AAE
A distinct Australian English variety used widely across Aboriginal communities. Shows substrate influence from many Aboriginal languages and forms a continuum with Kriol in northern Australia.
The pluricentric variety of English used across India. Shaped by long contact with Hindi and other Indian languages, with its own pronunciation, grammar, and lexical norms.
Singapore Colloquial English
The colloquial English of Singapore, mixing English with grammatical features and lexicon drawn from Hokkien, Malay, Cantonese, and Tamil.
AAVE · Black English · Ebonics
A widespread English variety with a coherent grammatical system, including aspectual habitual "be" and the zero copula. Spoken across the African American community throughout the United States.
NYC English · New Yorkese
The English of New York City and surrounding areas. Marked by the famous tense-lax split of short-a, raised /ɔ/, and (historically) non-rhoticity.
Boston English
The traditional English of Boston and eastern New England. Non-rhotic in conservative speech, with the cot-caught merger and the famously Boston-broad short-a.
The English of the Appalachian mountains across West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and western North Carolina. Preserves several archaic Scotch-Irish features lost in other US varieties.
The English of the Cajun communities of southern Louisiana, descended from generations of French-English bilingualism. Distinguished by intonation, vowel realisations, and lexical borrowings from Cajun French.
Mexican-American English
A native English variety spoken in Mexican-American communities of the US Southwest, particularly Los Angeles. Despite its name, most speakers are monolingual English speakers.
Hawaii Creole English · Pidgin
An English-based creole that emerged on the plantations of Hawaiʻi in the late 19th century. Now native to a substantial share of the Hawaiʻi-born population, with influences from Hawaiian, Portuguese, Cantonese, and Japanese.
Newfie English
The most distinctive variety of Canadian English, descended from 17th- and 18th-century West Country and Hiberno-English settlers. Strongly divergent from mainland Canadian English in vowels and grammar.