Western American English
Dialect of American English / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Western American English (also known as Western U.S. English) is a variety of American English that largely unites the entire Western United States as a single dialect region, including the states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. It also generally encompasses Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana, some of whose speakers are classified additionally under Pacific Northwest English.
Western American English | |
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Western U.S. English | |
Region | Western United States |
Early forms | |
Dialects | |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | – |
Glottolog | west2920 Western American English |
States where Western American English and its dialects are spoken | |
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The West was the last area in the United States to be reached during the gradual westward expansion of settlement by English speakers and its history shows considerable mixing and leveling of the linguistic patterns of other regions. Therefore, since the settlement populations are relatively young when compared with other regions, the American West continues to be a dialect region in formation.[1] According to the 2006 Atlas of North American English, as a very broad generalization, Western U.S. accents are differentiated from Southern U.S. accents in maintaining /aɪ/ as a diphthong, from Northern U.S. accents by fronting /u/ (the GOOSE vowel), and from both by most consistently showing the cot–caught merger.[2] The standard Canadian accent also aligns with this definition, though it typically includes certain additional vowel differences.