Dialect debate strikes a nerve

http://www.aftenposten.no/english ^

[Clemenza]

The bland, California suburban accent annoys me more than any other. “Like, oh my god!”

[ccmay]

In all fairness, English has an amazing number of accents and idioms too.

Especially in England. Traveling a hundred miles in England, you hear more change in peoples' accents than if you went from Louisiana to Brooklyn.

-ccm

[Verginius Rufus]

In the James Herriot series of books, made into the TV series All Creatures Great and Small, a vet speaking standard English settles in Yorkshire and has a very hard time understanding some of the local rural people.

Most countries have much greater dialect differences than the US, where English has only been spoken for 400 years. In Italy only 39% of the people speak standard Italian in the home, or so I've read, and elsewhere you also find local dialects that are very different from the standard language.