Vermont English
Encyclopedia
Vermont English is a dialect of English Language spoken in the U.S. state of Vermont
. Although a New England state, the variety of English spoken in most parts of the state generally has more in common with the accent spoken in nearby New York State and parts of the Midwest. Features include:
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
. Although a New England state, the variety of English spoken in most parts of the state generally has more in common with the accent spoken in nearby New York State and parts of the Midwest. Features include:
- The /æ/ in words like 'bad' and 'cat' is tensed in most environments to [eə], though rarely to the same extreme as the Inland NorthInland Northern American EnglishThe Inland North dialect of American English is spoken in a region that includes most of the cities along the Erie Canal and on the U.S. side of Great Lakes region, reaching approximately from Utica, New York to Green Bay, Wisconsin, as well as a corridor extending down across central Illinois from...
dialect. - As with Connecticut, Western Massachusetts and some Great Lakes English, glottal replacement of 't' is common. This is heavily seen in words such as "mountain", and even the state's name: "Vermont." It is pronounced, by a Vermonter, something like /vɜr'mɑ̃ʔ/ ("vermo'").
- As with Maine and New Hampshire, 'caught' and 'cot' are usually merged, in this case to [ɑ].
- Words ending in the letter 'a' are pronounced as if the word ended in 'er', for instance the word area would be pronounced 'air-ee-er'.
- deep rural Vermont speakers demonstrate similarities with dialects in South West England, for instance pronunciation of the words "cow" and "cider".