418 E D WA R D F I N E G A N

Navajo – the most vital among these languages – are spread across 47 of the 50 states. Despite great diversity and despite pockets particularly of French in Canada and of Spanish in the USA, English continues to predominate throughout most of North America.

One often reads that regional and ethnic dialects of NAE are disappearing. While it is too early to judge how much linguistic levelling national television broadcasts may promote, evidence suggests that American regional dialects remain vital. ‘In spite of the intense exposure of the American population to a national media with a convergent network standard of pronunciation . .

. the local accents of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, and San Francisco are more different from each other than at any time in the past’ (Labov & Ash, 1997: 508). Some regional dialect features are new, but they do not spread independently of traditional dialect boundaries. Likewise for features such as preterit had in African American English. Social dialects gain and lose particular features, but the dialects remain. Canadian English is more homogeneous than American English, and younger speakers in Newfoundland are absorbing features of the national standard, but their dialect is not disappearing. Characteristic features of regional and social dialects may evolve, but for a long time to come the dialects of North American English are expected to survive.

Appendix: abbreviations of US state-names