English language in England
There are many different accents and dialects throughout England and people are often very proud of their local accent or dialect. However, accents and dialects also highlight social class differences, rivalries or other associated prejudices—as illustrated by George Bernard Shaw's comment:
Western New England English
Southwestern New England English is centered primarily around Hartford, CT and Springfield, MA. Its older speakers show more instances of universal tensing of the short "a" , while younger speakers show the more General American feature of tensing this vowel only before nasal consonants. "The Atlas of North American English" confirms that this raising phenomenon is highly variable in the region, though studies agree that raising always occurs strongest before nasal consonants.