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General American

Definition:

General American is a sociolinguistic concept referring to a perceived “neutral” or “standard” variety of American English — one without the salient regional features associated with Southern, New England, or New York City speech. The term was coined by linguist George Philip Krapp in 1925 to describe the English spoken across the Midwest and West, which he contrasted with the more marked regional accents of the East and South. Despite its widespread use in language education, media, and popular culture, General American is not a natural dialect in the same sense as Southern or Boston English — it is better understood as a prestige ideology, a socially constructed idea of what “standard” or “correct” American English sounds like.

In-Depth Explanation

Origin and early use:

Krapp (1925) proposed dividing American English into three zones: General American (the vast middle and West), New England, and Southern. “General American” was his name for the unmarked remainder — the English of most of the country by area, if not by historical distinctiveness. The term was adopted uncritically in pronunciation guides, acting manuals, and foreign language instruction throughout the 20th century.

Why linguists reject it as a natural category:

By the 1960s–80s, dialectologists increasingly pointed out that:

  1. The “General American” region is not phonologically uniform — it includes the Northern Cities Vowel Shift (Chicago, Detroit), the Upper Midwest accent (Minnesota, Wisconsin), the Pacific Northwest variety, the Western variety, and rural Great Plains speech, among others
  2. There is no single region where people have no dialect — every regional variety has features
  3. The concept reflects social bias: what counts as “unaccented” is whatever resembles the speech of culturally dominant groups at a given time

Peter Trudgill has argued extensively that “General American” is “a concept with no linguistic reality” — it describes a social valuation of certain accents (midwest, west) as neutral by default, not a homogeneous dialect region.

What “General American” features look like:

Despite its contested status, “General American” in practical terms typically refers to speech that:

  • Is rhotic (r is pronounced after vowels: “car,” “butter,” “bird”)
  • Has the cot-caught merger (LOT and THOUGHT vowels merged — “cot” and “caught” are homophones)
  • Lacks the dramatic raising/tensing of /æ/ (no NCVS or Boston-style raising)
  • Has no dramatic monophthongization of /aɪ/ (no Southern vowel shift)
  • Has no r-dropping (non-rhoticity)

Rhoticity in particular became the defining feature: American broadcast media, from the 1940s onward, strongly preferred rhotic speech, and actors/newscasters from non-rhotic backgrounds (New England, NYC) were trained to adopt rhotic pronunciation. This institutionalization of rhoticity as “standard” is a key part of what General American ideology means in practice.

Broadcast standard:

The major practical application of General American ideology has been in radio, television, and journalism education. American broadcast speech standards through the 20th century systematically excluded non-rhotic speech, Southern speech, and New York City features. This institutionalized specific Midwestern/Western features as the norm. Today, broadcast media is more accepting of regional accents, and the “broadcast standard” prescription has significantly weakened.

Use in L2 and pronunciation instruction:

English pronunciation courses worldwide often specify “General American” as the target pronunciation — particularly American-English targeted courses. These materials often mean: rhotic, with the cot-caught merger, without NCVS or Southern features. Linguists point out that this is teaching a socially preferred variety, not a linguistically coherent single dialect, and that intelligibility across American varieties should be the real goal.

“Standard American English” vs. General American:

Standard American English (SAE) is a related but distinct concept — it refers to the prestige written and formal spoken register, not a regional dialect. A speaker from Georgia who uses standard grammar and vocabulary but has Southern vowels speaks SAE. General American originally referred to a geographic region; SAE refers to a stylistic register. The two concepts are frequently conflated.

Related Terms

Sources

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