Editing General American English (section)

====Rhoticity====
{{main|Rhoticity in English}}
Full rhoticity (or "R-fulness") is typical of American accents, in which {{IPA|/r/}} is pronounced in all historical environments spelled with the letter {{Angbr|r}}. This includes in syllable-final position or before a consonant, such as in ''pearl'', ''car'' and ''fort'', whereas most speakers in England do not pronounce this {{angbr|r}} in these environments and so are called non-rhotic.<ref name="Plag">{{cite book|last1=Plag|first1=Ingo|last2=Braun|first2=Maria|last3=Lappe|first3=Sabine|last4=Schramm |first4=Mareile |title=Introduction to English Linguistics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLvZHmGA8q4C|access-date=July 4, 2013|year=2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|page=53|isbn=978-3-11-021550-2}}</ref>{{sfn|Collins|Mees|2002|p=178}} Non-rhotic American accents, such as some accents of [[Eastern New England English|Eastern New England]], [[New York City English|New York City]], and [[African American Vernacular English|African-American]]s, and a specific few (often [[older Southern American English|older]] ones) spoken by [[Southern American English|Southerners]], are often quickly noticed by General American listeners and perceived as sounding especially ethnic, regional, or antiquated.<ref name="Plag" />{{sfn|Collins|Mees|2002|pp=181, 306}}<ref>Wolchover, Natalie (2012). "[http://www.livescience.com/33652-americans-brits-accents.html Why Do Americans and Brits Have Different Accents?]" ''LiveScience''. Purch.</ref>

Rhoticity is common in most American accents despite being now rare in England because, during the 17th-century British colonization of the Americas, nearly all [[dialects of English]] were rhotic, and most [[North American English|English in North America]] simply remained that way.<ref>{{cite journal|jstor=25484343 |title=Early Mainland Residues in Southern Hiberno-English |journal=Irish University Review |volume=20|issue=1 |pages=137–148 |last1=Lass |first1=Roger |year=1990 }}</ref> The North American preservation of rhoticity was also supported by waves of rhotic-accented Scotch-Irish immigrants, most intensely during the 18th century, when this ethnic group eventually made up one-seventh of the colonial population, plus smaller waves during the following two centuries. Scotch-Irish settlers spread from [[Delaware]] and [[Pennsylvania]] throughout the larger [[Mid-Atlantic region]], the inland regions of both the South and [[Northern United States|North]], and throughout the [[Western United States|West]]: American dialect areas that were all uninfluenced by upper-class non-rhoticity and that consequently have remained consistently rhotic.<ref>Wolfram, Walt; Schilling, Natalie (2015). ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=fOPLCgAAQBAJ&q=scots-irish+one+in+seven American English: Dialects and Variation]''. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 103–104.</ref> While non-rhoticity spread on the East Coast (perhaps first in imitation of early 19th-century London speech), even the East Coast has gradually begun to restore rhoticity, due to it becoming nationally prestigious since the mid-20th century.