[open-linguistics] Is there an American English?

[William Waites]

I have learned from the ANC web site that as a Montrealer,
particularly as one who has lived abroad for a considerable
period of time, I am not a native speaker of American English.
So be it, actually I would tend to agree.

But this brings to mind an interesting question: is it
reasonable to draw an arbitrary line along the 49th parallel?

I have travelled extensively in the States and I have the
strong impression that it is culturally not one country but
four or five, and this, in my experience, extends to language.

I suspect that, apart from spelling, the speech of a
Vancouverite is closer to that of someone from Seattle than
it is to a Newfoundlander. The English of someone from the
Appalachians is very different from that of a Texan. Despite
the French influence, an anglophone Montrealer will likely
be closer to a New Yorker than the latter to someone from
rural Louisiana. Not to mention Newfoundland English which
is different from everything else on the continent.

As in Europe, but perhaps less pronounced, there seems to
be a language continuum with East-West and North-South
dimensions and still preceptible dialect regions that 
correspond to historical migrations. So is the 49th parallel
really so significant?

Cheers,
-w
-- 
William Waites                <mailto:ww at styx.org>
http://eris.okfn.org/ww/         <sip:ww at styx.org>
9C7E F636 52F6 1004 E40A  E565 98E3 BBF3 8320 7664