North American English Dialects

Here are some links about North American regionalisms grouped by region and state/province. :-)

General North America

Atlas of North American English FYI, This site probably hasn't been updated since 2005-- it's a little broken.

North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns A SUPER cool site by linguist Mr. Rick Aschmann, with the main attraction being a very huge, very detailed dialect map of North America. It's so so cool, check it out!!

Pop vs Soda is a web-based project to plot the regional variations in the terms used to describe carbonated soft drinks in North America. You can help by filling out the survey!

United States

AmeriSlang: expressions of our American ancestors (Archived)

Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE)

Do You Speak American? A PBS page all about American English and its dialects.

Harvard Dialect Survey Maps and Results

The Linguistic Atlas Project

You Have An Accent Even On Twitter A NPR article about how there's a regional variation even in how we talk on social media!

The North

American Accent Undergoing Great Vowel Shift A 2006 NPR interview with Professor William Labov about the shift of vowel sounds in the inland northern cities.

Maine

The Wicked Good Guide to Mainah English (Archived)

Vermont

Talking Country phrases from the border between Vermont and Quebec.

Vermont Accent: Endangered Species? (Archived)

Massachusetts

The Wicked Good Guide to Boston English (Archived)

Boston Local Lingo (Archived)

Rhode Island

Talking the talk in Rhode Island (Archived)

New York

New Yawk Talk NPR interview of William Labov on his 40-year study of the various accents of New York City.


The Mid-Atlantic

Pennsylvania

CoalSpeak - The Official CoalRegion Dictionary

Dialects Changing, But Not Disappearing In Philadelphia A 2013 NPR report about changes in the Philly dialect.

The Original Lingo of Northeast PA (Archived)

Philly Tawk (Archived)

Pittsburghese

Maryland

Lexicon of Bawlamarese Baltimore, MD

Youz in Maryland talk funny... The "Merlin" Dialect

Baltimorese (Archived)


Appalachia

Appalachian English

Inside Appalachia: Do We Talk Funny? "Ap-pal-atch-un" vs "Ap-pal-ay-shun"

Smoky Mountain Speech

West Virginia

Hillbonics: Speak Like a Southern West Virginian (Archived)


The South

A Glossary of Quaint Southernisms

Southern Dialect (Archived)

Southern Sayings

Virginia

Virginia's Many Voices

Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia

ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots' (Archived) Article about the "Tidewater Voices" project

A Place Called Guinea: In Gloucester County, a centuries-old culture with its own dialect endures

Local Expressions from Bygone Times in the Piedmont and Lower Shenandoah Valley

The Tiny US Island With a British Accent Tangier Island, VA

Understanding Delmarva’s ‘whole-nother’ way of speaking

North Carolina

‘Talkin’ Tar Heel’ Explores Dialects

6 Expressions Say it All: Language Variation in the Tar Heel State

A Dialect Dictionary of Lumbee English (Archived)

Louisiana

A Lexicon of New Orleans Terminology and Speech

Oklahoma

Oklahoma Dictionary (Archived)

Florida

A new South Florida dialect is forming in real time NPR interview of Philip M. Carter, professor of linguistics at Florida International University, about a new Spanish-influenced dialect of English being spoken in Southern Florida.


The Midwest

"Canadian" raising in the Northern Midwest of the United States (Archived)

Missouri

Saving A French Dialect That Once Echoed In The Ozarks An article by NPR about Pawpaw French, a dialect once commonly spoken in an isolated mining region in Southeastern Missouri.

Wisconsin

Wisconsin English

Speak 'Scansin (Archived)


The West

American West/Cowboy – Vocabulary and Slang

Cool Western Slang

Utah

Utah's Colloquialisms (Archived)

California

The California Central Coast Online Dictionary (Archived) (The website still comes up in search results, but won't load-- I'm not sure if the website is down temporarily, or permanently. You can't search or view the archived dictionary, so try visiting http://cccod.calpoly.edu, maybe it's up now.


Canada

An American's Guide to Canada: Canadianisms (Archived)

Canadian English (Archived)

Canadian Raising and Other Oddities (Archived)

Ontario

Ottawa Valley Expressions (Archived)

New Brunswick

Carleton County Colloquialisms