Like the British Received Pronunciation, General American was never the accent of the entire nation. Rather, it was derived from a generalized Midwestern accent and is spoken particularly by many newscasters[?]--in part because the national broadcasters preferred to hire people who spoke in this way. It is sometimes promoted as preferable to other regional accents: In the U.S., classes promising "accent elimination" generally attempt to teach this accent.
General American is a rhotic accent, maintaining the postvocalic /r/ in words like pearl, car, and court. Because this is a generalized accent, certain vowel mergers, including the cot/caught vowel merger between /A/ and /O/, may be found optionally at least in informal and semiformal varieties; however, the most formal varieties tend to be more conservative in preserving phonemic distinctions.
Within American English, General American and accents approximating it are contrasted with Southern American English[?], several Northeastern accents, and other distinct regional accents and social group accents like Ebonics.
See also: Standard Midwestern
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