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American English: North American English
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North American English has undergone some sound changes not found in Britain, especially not in its standard varieties. Many of these are instances of phonemic differentiation and include:
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In many ways, compared to British English, American English is conservative in its phonology. It is sometimes claimed that certain rural areas in North America speak "Elizabethan English," and there may be some truth to this, but the standard American English of the upper Midwest has a sound profile much closer to 17th century English than contemporary speech in England. The conservatism of American English is largely the result of the fact that it represents a mixture of various dialects from the British Isles. Dialect in North America is most distinctive on the East Coast of the continent; this is largely because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of British English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes. The interior of the country was settled by people who were no longer closely connected to England, as they had no access to the ocean during a time when journeys to Britain were always by sea. As such the inland speech is much more homogeneous than the East Coast speech, and did not imitate the changes in speech from England.
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Most North American speech is rhotic, as English was everywhere in the 17th century. In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter "R" is a retroflex semivowel rather than a trill or a tap. The trilled or tapped 'r' was a sound change that took place in England in the eighteenth century, and in which most current North American varieties did not participate. The loss of syllable-final r in North America is confined mostly to parts of New England, New York City, and the southern coast of the United States. In England, lost 'r' was often changed into
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In many ways, compared to English English, North American English[2] is conservative in its phonology. Some distinctive accents can be found on the East Coast (for example, in Eastern New England and New York City), partly because these areas were in contact with England, and imitated prestigious varieties of English English at a time when those varieties were undergoing changes[3]. In addition, many speech communities on the East Coast have existed in their present locations longer than others. The interior of the United States... was settled by people from all regions of the existing U.S. and, as such, developed a far more generic linguistic pattern.
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Regionally oriented research before 1940 distinguished three main regional dialects of Standard American English, each of which has several subdialects. The Northern (or New England) dialect is spoken in New England and New York State; one of its subdialects is the “New Yorkese” of New York City. The Midland (or General American) dialect is heard along the coast from New Jersey to Delaware, with variants spoken in an area bounded by the Upper Ohio Valley, West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and eastern Tennessee. The Southern dialect, with its varieties, is spoken from Delaware to South Carolina. From their respective focal points these dialects, according to this theory, have spread and mingled across the rest of the country.
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[I]f you want to learn the way Americans speak on Fox News with the complete r accent (except in the New England states), then go to the United States and enroll in an English language school there. You just need the right visa to do so. But if you cannot be in the United States physically, then a Spain-based English language school ... offers video conferences with American natives who are paid by the school to tutor you how to speak English the American way. By the way, this is charged against your tuition as an extra but you will never regret including this feature in your enrollment. Who knows, you’ll migrate to North America someday.
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North American English