Western New England English refers to the varieties of New England English native to Vermont, Connecticut, and the western half of Massachusetts;[1] New York State's Hudson Valley (from Albany to Poughkeepsie) also aligns to this classification.[2][3] Sound patterns historically associated with Western New England English include the features of rhoticity (full pronunciation of all r sounds), the horse–hoarse merger, and the father–bother merger, none of which are features traditionally shared in neighboring Eastern New England English.[4] The status of the cot–caught merger in Western New England is inconsistent, being complete in the north of this dialect region (Vermont), but incomplete or absent in the south (southern Connecticut),[5] with a "cot–caught approximation" in the middle area (primarily, western Massachusetts).[6]
Western New England English is relatively difficult for most American laypersons and even dialectologists to identify by any "distinct" accent when compared to its popularly recognized neighbors (Eastern New England English, New York City English, and Inland Northern U.S. English),[7] meaning that its accents are typically perceived as unmarked "General American" varieties.[8] Linguistic research, however, reveals that Western New England English is not simply one single or uniform dialect.[9] Linguist Charles Boberg proposes that it be most generally divided into a Northwestern New England English (a standalone "Vermont" accent) and a Southwestern New England English (a less advanced subdialect of Inland Northern English);[10] however, even Boberg lists the possibilities of several distinct accent divisions of Western New England.[11]