North American English

North American English encompasses the English language as spoken in both the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations, vocabulary, and grammar of U.S. English and Canadian English, linguists often group the two together. Canadian English generally is tolerant of both British and American spellings; however, certain words always take British spellings and others American spellings.
Dialects of English spoken by United Empire Loyalists who fled the American Revolution have had a large influence on Canadian English from its early roots. Some terms in North American English are used almost exclusively in Canada and the United States. Although many English speakers from outside North America regard those terms as distinct Americanisms, they are just as common in Canada, mainly due to the effects of heavy cross-border trade and cultural penetration by the American mass media. The list of divergent words becomes longer if considering regional Canadian dialects, especially as spoken in the Atlantic provinces and parts of Vancouver Island where significant pockets of British culture still remain.
There are a considerable number of different accents within the regions of both the United States and Canada. In North America, different English dialects of immigrants from England, Scotland, Ireland, and other regions of the British Isles mixed together in the 17th and 18th centuries. These were developed, built upon, and blended together as new waves of immigration, and migration across the North American continent, developed new dialects in new areas, and as these ways of speaking merged with and assimilated to the greater American dialect mixture that solidified by the mid-18th century.

Dialects

American English

General American

Ethnic American English

Regional American English

Canadian English

Table of accents

Below, several major North American English accents are defined by particular characteristics:

Accent name	Most populous city	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Cot–caught merger	Pin–pen merger	/æ/ raising system	Other defining criteria
African-American								pre-nasal	African-American Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-fronting
Atlantic Canadian	Halifax							various	Canadian raising
General American								pre-nasal
Inland Northern U.S.	Chicago							general	Northern Cities Vowel Shift
Midland U.S.	Indianapolis							pre-nasal
New Orleans	New Orleans							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Non-rhoticity / Th-stopping / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable horse-hoarse distinction / Canadian Raising / L-vocalization
New York City	New York City							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / L-vocalization / Th-stopping / Variable Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
North-Central (Upper Midwestern) U.S.	Fargo							pre-nasal & pre-velar
[Eastern New England English#Northeastern New England English\|]	Boston							pre-nasal	Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Father-bother distinction / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
Philadelphia	Philadelphia							split	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / L-vocalization / Northeastern /-ɒr-/ / Merry–Murray merger
[Eastern New England English#Rhode Island English\|]	Providence							pre-nasal	Mid-Atlantic Back Vowel Shift / Variable non-rhoticity / Canadian raising / Northeastern /-ɒr-/
Southern U.S.	San Antonio							pre-nasal	Southern drawl / Southern Vowel Shift / Variable wine-whine distinction
Standard Canadian	Toronto							pre-nasal & pre-velar	Canadian raising / Low Back Merger Shift
Western U.S.	Los Angeles							pre-nasal	Low Back Merger Shift
Western Pennsylvania	Pittsburgh							pre-nasal
Accent name	Most populous city	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Strong fronting	Cot–caught merger	Pin–pen merger	/æ/ raising system	Other defining criteria

Phonology

A majority of North American English includes phonological features that concern consonants, such as rhoticity, conditioned T-glottalization, T- and D-flapping, L-velarization, as well as features that concern vowel sounds, such as various vowel mergers before , raising of pre-voiceless , the weak vowel merger, at least one of the vowel mergers, and yod-dropping. The last item is more advanced in American English than Canadian English.