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The Inland North Dialect of American English was the "standard Midwestern" speech that is traditionally regarded as the basis for General American in the mid-20th Century^[1], though it has been recently modified by the Northern Cities Vowel Shift.

This area is centered on the Great Lakes, and consists of western New York State (Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse), much of Michigan's Lower Peninsula (Detroit, Grand Rapids), Cleveland, Toledo, Chicago, South Bend, Gary, and Southeastern Wisconsin (Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha).

Speakers in a corridor extending down across central Illinois from Chicago to St. Louis, Missouri show some influence from the Northern Cities Shift as well, although St. Louis is not historically in the Inland North.

This map shows the approximate extent of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift, and thus the approximate area where the Inland North dialect predominates. Note that the region surrounding Erie, Pennsylvania is excluded; the dialect spoken there more closely resembles that of Pittsburgh.

Many of the characteristics listed here are not unique to the region, but are found elsewhere in the United States, especially elsewhere in the Midwest. The Northern Cities Vowel Shift, however, is found only in the Inland North—in fact, it's the feature that defines the Inland North, for modern dialectological purposes.

• As in General American, which was based on this accent, Inland North speech is rhotic.

• The words roof and root may be variously pronounced with either /ʊ/ or /u/; that is, with the vowel of foot or boot, respectively. This is highly variable, however, and these words are pronounced both ways in other parts of the country.

• The Mary-marry-merry merger: Words containing /æ/, /ɛ/, or /eɪ/ before an "r" and a vowel are all pronounced "[eɪ]-r-vowel," so that Mary, marry, and merry all rhyme with each other, and have the same first vowel as Sharon, Sarah, and bearing. This merger is widespread throughout the Midwest, West, and Canada.

• The word on rhymes with don, not with dawn.

• The Northern cities vowel shift

Main article: Northern cities vowel shift

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Inland Northern dialects, this chain shift has been occurring in six stages:

1. The first stage of the shift is the raising and diphthongization of /æ/ to [ɪə].
2. The second stage is the fronting of /ɑ/ to [a], which occupies a place close to the former /æ/.
3. In the third stage, /ɔ/ lowers towards [ɑ].
4. The fourth stage, the lowering of /ɛ/, is not unique to this particular vowel shift.
5. During the fifth stage, /ʌ/ is backed towards [ɔ].
6. In the sixth stage, /ɪ/ is lowered and backed, although it is kept distinct from /ɛ/. This means that the pin-pen merger does not occur.

Note that this shift is in progress across the region, but that each subsequent stage is a result of the previous one(s), so that an individual speaker may not display all of these shifts, but no speaker will display the last without also showing the ones before it.

• Other characteristics

1. The starting point of /aʊ/ (for example, mouse, down) is pronounced noticeably in the back of the mouth ({{IPA/[mɑʊs]}}, [dɑʊn]), while /aɪ/ (mice, dine) is much further front. Standard American diphthongal glide /ɪ/ and word- or morph-final /ɪ/ are pronounced as a shortened [i].^[clarify]
2. The long-o of bone and goat is rounded and pronounced far back.
3. Canadian raising is found in areas close to the Canadian border.^{[citation needed]}

Note that not all of these are specific to the region.

• Faucet vs. Southern spigot.
• (Peach) Pit vs. Southern stone or seed.
• Pop for soft drink, vs. East-Coastal and Californian soda and Southern coke. In parts of Eastern Wisconsin, soda is more common.
• Shopping cart vs. Southern buggy.
• Teeter totter vs. Southern seesaw.
• Tennis shoes vs. New England sneakers.
• Drinking fountain vs. Water fountain.

Individual cities and regions also have their own vocabularies. For example, in Eastern and Southern Wisconsin, drinking fountains are known as bubblers, and in Cleveland the strip of grass between the sidewalk and the street is called a tree lawn.

• Chris Farley: Grew up in Madison, Wisconsin.
• Jami Gertz from Still Standing: Born in Chicago.
• Filmmaker Michael Moore: Hails from the Flint, Michigan area.
• Musician Bob Seger was born, and grew up in Michigan, and talks this way when he is not singing.
• John Belushi: Born in Chicago; used to be a part of The Second City. Also his brother Jim Belushi.
• Character actor Michael G. Hagerty.
• Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley.
• Sports talk radio show host Mike North.
• Actor/comedian Brian Doyle-Murray is known for his gruff take on this dialect.
• Consumer reporter and author John Stossel.

• List of dialects of the English language
• American English regional differences
• Midwest
• Buffalo English
• North Central American English
• General American

• The Northern Cities Vowel Shift
• Telsur Project Maps
• Chicago Dialect Samples
• Nick Digilio interview with Corrine McCarthy
• PBS resource from the show "Do you Speak American?"
• NPR interview with Professor William Labov about the shift

1. ^ "Talking the Tawk", The New Yorker