Phonological systems

The phonological inventory is essentially the same as in other forms of North American English. Many Southerners distinguish the TRAP and BATH classes, though this distinction is disappearing. A number of distinctions, most notably those between NORTH and FORCE, between MARY and MERRY, and between W and HW (as in witch and which), persisted longer in the South than in most other parts of North America. The prosody of white Southern English follows patterns similar to that of white English in other parts of North America, albeit with a few special, interrelated features collectively called the “Southern drawl.”