ABSTRACT
The type of American English that I shall describe here is what I shall call standard American English (abbreviated SAE, with apologies to the Society of American Engineers). In terms of pronunciation, SAE occurs in many varieties; the one thing that these varieties have in common is the fact that none of them is socially stigmatised. Just as an example, speakers of quite different varieties of SAE have in recent decades been elected to the highest office in the land, that of President of the United States: Ronald Reagan (not easily localised), Jimmy Carter (clearly southern), Lyndon B. Johnson (definitely Texas), John F. Kennedy (mostly Boston).
