Midwestern American English

E11703

Midwestern American English is a major regional dialect of American English often associated with a relatively neutral or "standard" U.S. accent used in national media and broadcasting.


Statements (51)
Predicate Object
instanceOf regional dialect of American English
variety of English
associatedWith General American English
characterizedBy /oʊ/ monophthongization tendencies in some Midland areas
/u/ fronting in many speakers
Northern Cities Vowel Shift in some northern urban areas
T-flapping between vowels (e.g., ladder vs. latter merger in pronunciation)
alveolar realization of /ŋ/ in -ing for some informal speech
distinctive short-a system in Inland North subvariety
lack of non-rhoticity typical of some East Coast dialects
relatively flat intonation compared to some other U.S. dialects
relatively merged cot–caught vowels in many areas
rhotic pronunciation
yod-dropping in words like news and student for many speakers
hasPerception often considered close to Standard American English
often used as model accent for U.S. broadcasters
hasSubvariety Chicago English
Inland North American English
Midland American English
Minnesotan English
North Central American English
Northern Cities Vowel Shift region English
St. Louis English
Upper Midwestern English
Wisconsin English
languageFamily Anglic languages
Germanic languages
Indo-European languages
West Germanic languages
lexicalFeature use of garage sale or yard sale for household sales
use of kitty-corner or catty-corner for diagonally across
use of pop for carbonated soft drink in many northern areas
use of soda in some Midwestern subregions
use of you guys as second-person plural pronoun
use of yous or youse in some urban Midwestern communities
notableInCity Chicago
Cleveland
Detroit
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Milwaukee
Minneapolis–Saint Paul
St. Louis
partOf American English
perceivedAs relatively neutral American accent
spokenIn Midwestern United States
United States
studiedInField dialectology
sociolinguistics
usedIn broadcasting in the United States
national media in the United States

Referenced by (11)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
Midwestern American English ("Inland North American English")
Midwestern American English ("Midland American English")
Midwestern American English ("St. Louis English")
Midwestern American English ("Minnesotan English")
hasSubvariety
American English
American English ("Inland North American English")
hasVariant
Canadian English ("General American English")
closelyRelatedTo
Western American English ("Inland North American English")
contrastedWith
BBC English ("General American accent")
distinctFrom
Wisconsin English ("Midwestern English")
influencedBy
Chicano English ("General American English")
isMutuallyIntelligibleWith

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