New England English is, collectively, the various distinct dialects and varieties of American English originating in the New England area. Most of eastern and central New England once spoke the "Yankee dialect", some of whose accent features still remain in Eastern New England today, such as "R-dropping" (though this feature is now receding among younger speakers). Accordingly, one linguistic division of New England is into Eastern versus Western New England English, as defined in the 1939 Linguistic Atlas of New England and the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE). The ANAE further argues for a division between Northern versus Southern New England English, especially on the basis of the cot–caught merger and fronting (applying twice, for example, in the phrase Park the car). The ANAE also categorizes the strongest differentiated New England accents into four combinations of the above dichotomies, simply defined as follows: Northeastern New England English shows non-rhoticity, the cot–caught merger, and strong fronting. It centers on Boston, Massachusetts, extending into New Hampshire and coastal Maine. Southeastern New England English shows non-rhoticity, no cot–caught merger, and no strong fronting. It centers on Providence, Rhode Island and the Narragansett Bay. Northwestern New England English shows rhoticity, the cot–caught merger, and strong fronting. It centers on Vermont. Southwestern New England English shows rhoticity, no (or a transitional state of the) cot–caught merger, and no strong fronting. It centers around the Hartford–Springfield area of Connecticut and western Massachusetts. Overview Phonology Distinctions New England English is not a single American dialect, but a collective term for a number of dialects and varieties that are close geographic neighbors within New England, but which differ on a spectrum that broadly divides New England English into a unique north versus south (specifically, a northern merger of the and vowels, versus a southern merger of the and vowels), as well as a unique east versus west (specifically, an eastern pronunciation of the "r" sound only before vowels, versus a western pronunciation of all "r" sounds). Regarding the former feature, all of northern New England (most famously including Boston, but going as far southeast as Cape Cod and as far north as central Maine) historically merges the open and open-mid back rounded vowels (so that, for instance, pond and pawned are pronounced the same, which is commonly called the cot–caught merger), while southern coastal New England (including Rhode Island) historically maintains a noticeable distinction between these