<P> Compared with English as spoken in England, North American English is more homogeneous, and any North American accent that exhibits a majority of the most common phonological features is known as "General American ." This section mostly refers to such widespread or mainstream pronunciation features that characterize American English . </P> <P> Studies on historical usage of English in both the United States and the United Kingdom suggest that spoken American English did not simply deviate away from period British English, but retained certain now - archaic features contemporary British English has since lost . One of these is the rhoticity common in most American accents, because in the 17th century, when English was brought to the Americas, most English in England was also rhotic . The preservation of rhoticity has been further supported by the influences of Hiberno - English, West Country English and Scottish English . In most varieties of North American English, the sound corresponding to the letter ⟨ r ⟩ is a postalveolar approximant (ɹ̠) or retroflex approximant (ɻ) rather than a trill or tap (as often heard, for example, in the English accents of Scotland or India). A unique "bunched tongue" variant of the approximant r sound is also associated with the United States, and seems particularly noticeable in the Midwest and South . </P> <P> Traditionally, the "East Coast" comprises three or four major linguistically distinct regions, each of which possesses English varieties both distinct from each other as well as quite internally diverse: New England, the New York metropolitan area, the Mid-Atlantic states (centering on Philadelphia and Baltimore), and the Southern United States . The only traditionally r - dropping (or non-rhotic) regional accents of American English are all spoken along the Atlantic Coast and parts of the Gulf Coast (particularly still in Louisiana), because these areas were in close historical contact with England and imitated prestigious varieties of r - dropping London (a feature now widespread throughout most of England) at a time when they were undergoing changes. . Today, non-rhoticity is confined in the United States to the accents of eastern New England, New York City, older speakers of the former plantation South, and African - American Vernacular English (though the vowel - consonant cluster found in "bird", "work", "hurt", "learn", etc. usually retains its r pronunciation, even in these non-rhotic accents). Other than these few varieties, American accents are rhotic, pronouncing every instance of the ⟨ r ⟩ sound . </P> <P> Many British accents have evolved in other ways compared to which General American English has remained relatively more conservative, for example, regarding the typical southern British features of a trap--bath split, fronting of / oʊ /, and H - dropping, none of which typical American accents show . The innovation of / t / glottaling, which does occur before a consonant (including a syllabic coronal nasal consonant, like in the words button or satin) and word - finally in General American, additionally occurs variably between vowels in British English . On the other hand, General American is more innovative than the dialects of England, or English elsewhere in the world, in a number of its own ways: </P>

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