[Claud]

One of the characteristics of English that makes it the dominant language wherever it is spoken is that it doesn't form dialect forms very easily ~ if at all.

Oh that I *really* can't agree with.....American English dialectology is another hobby of mine!! :)

In the Northern Cities shift (Chicago, upstate NY, etc), the entire short vowel system is moving. American dialects are diverging further than they ever have right now.

Mutual intelligibility tests have show that we are having big problems understanding each other!

[muawiyah]

A good beatdown takes care of that problem.