At 4:35:09 AM on Thursday, February 19, 2009, tgpedersen
wrote:
> 1) AFAIK American English has three main dialect groups,
> New England, Southern and Standard.
The three main dialect regions are the Inland North, the
South, and the West, characterized by the Northern Cities
Shift, the Southern Shift, and the Low Back Merger,
respectively; these are large and expanding regions. A more
complete taxonomy can be seen at
<
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatFig1.GIF>,
with a map at
<
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NatMap1.html>.
The associated article is at
<
http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html>.
Brian