regional accents
Local pronunciation patterns
Regional accents are the distinctive patterns of pronunciation that mark speakers as coming from particular geographic areas.
Every speaker has an accent—the notion of "no accent" typically means the accent dominant in media or prestige contexts.
Regional accents carry social weight: Her Appalachian accent made interviewers assume she was uneducated.
They may involve vowel shifts, consonant changes, or intonation patterns specific to a region.
- phonologyScience of language sounds
- phoneticsStudy of speech sounds
- speech patternsCharacteristic speaking tendencies
- code-switchingAlternating between linguistic varieties
- sociolinguisticsStudy of language variation
migration patterns · diphthongs · Geordie · pronunciation · drawl · dialect · tongue · identity · old country · hillbilly · social stratification · inflection · native · patois · cadence · local · vowels · intonation
- French dialectsQuebecois, Cajun French, Cajun, Norman, patois
- Portuguese Dialectssouthern dialects
- Britishnesstea, London, BBC, Big Ben, royal family
- local culturedialect, local cuisine, folklore, traditions, local music
- Local Knowledgelocal customs, dialects, landmarks, local history, native plants
- local pridehometown pride, civic pride, community roots, state pride, neighborhood pride