Evolution.

Which depends on the gene pool. Thus the influx of Scandinavians to the
upper Midwest US and prairie provinces caused pronunciation and rhythm
changes which matched their original tongue. One of the charming, (but
vanishing) manifestations among our Finn population is the lack of
prepositions, resulting in "we go Green Bay watch the Packers."

Areas of less immigration, such as the hollars of Appalachia, retain basic
characteristics, as noted. Although it was longer ago than I care to
recount, I can recall areas in the prairie provinces and in Alaska where I
was fortunate to be able to speak Ukrainian or Russian, even though the
population was second generation and beyond.

Increase the current in the pool, and you'll move toward "standard " speech,
which is a result of mass communication. It's great reading about the
French Academy trying to stamp out neologisms from all the Hollywood movies.

"The French don't care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it
correctly."

Then there are survival adaptations which favor special dialect or language.
Think of Quebec, or the locker-room of an NBA team.

"LRod" wrote in message
...

The problem with all of that is how did we get such regionalized
accents in the States and how did so much of Canada get nearly the
same accent as that of our upper midwest (MN, WI, MI)? And how is it
that nearly all of Canada has roughly the same accent and we in the
States have at least four very distinct ones? (New England, Southern,
Upper Midwest, General American)

And of course, North Carolina Southern is very different from Georgia
Southern which is quite different from Coonass Louisiana Southern.

Ah, what a subject!