California English

California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. As California became one of the most ethnically diverse U.S. states, English speakers from a wide variety of backgrounds began to pick up different linguistic elements from one another and also developed new ones; the result is both divergence and convergence within California English.^[1] Overall, linguists who studied English before and immediately after World War II tended to find few, if any, patterns unique to California.^[2][3] While California English continues to evolve, today it still falls within a General or Western American accent; however, alternatively viewed, California accents, due to unconscious linguistic prestige, may themselves be serving as a baseline to define accents around the U.S. that are perceived as "General American". In fact, several California-like accent features are spreading across the nation, according to 21st century research.