New England English
Eastern New England English encompasses Boston and Maine accents, and, according to some sources, the distinct Rhode Island accent. All Eastern New England English is famous for non-rhoticity, meaning it drops the "r" sound everywhere except before a vowel: thus, in words like "car", "card", "fear", and "chowder" (). The phrase "Park the car in Harvard Yard"—dialectally transcribed —is commonly used as a shibboleth, or speech indicator, for the non-rhotic Eastern New England dialect running from Boston north to Maine, and as far west as Worcester, which contrasts with the generally rhotic dialects elsewhere in North America. In all of Eastern New England, except Rhode Island, words like "caught" and "cot" are pronounced identically (both are often rounded, thus: ), because those two vowel sounds have fully merged. A phenomenon called Canadian raising occurs throughout Eastern New England, causing "writer" to have a different stressed vowel sound than "rider", and for the verb "house" to have a different vowel sound than the noun "house". and have relatively back starting positions. The "horse"–"hoarse" distinction is still present to some extent in some areas, as well as the "Mary"–"marry"–"merry" distinction in many speakers.
American English
In 2010, William Labov noted that Great Lakes, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Western accents have undergone "vigorous new sound changes" since the mid-nineteenth century onwards, so they "are now more different from each other than they were fifty or a hundred years ago". However, a General American sound system also has some controversial degree of influence, for example, gradually ousting local accents in urban areas of the South and at least some in the Inland North. Rather than one particular accent, "General American" can be defined as any American accent that does not incorporate features associated with some particular region, ethnicity, or socioeconomic group. General American features are embraced most by Americans who are highly educated or in the most formal contexts, and regional accents with the most "General American" native features include North Midland, Western New England. and Western accents. Typical General American features include rhoticity, the "father–bother" merger, "Mary–marry–merry" merger, and pre-nasal "short "a"" tensing.