Lexical incidence

The Linguistic Atlas researchers identified a number of pronunciations as characteristic of the Northern dialect region. Many of these retain some currency in the Inland North today. One of the best known of these is the use of /a/ in on as opposed to the Midland and Southern . The unrounded /a/ also appears in hog, fog, and frog, while dog and log generally have . In root and roof, many Northerners use  though /u/ is also heard. The use of  in creek, traditionally very common in the North, has largely given way to /i/, and the lax vowel usage is often stigmatized.