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— ‘cabin’); bohereen — ‘narrow road’ (from Irish bothar —
‘road’); mearacaun — ‘thimble’ (from Irish mear — ‘finger’); etc.
Some of these suffixes may even be added to English bases, as in
girleen, dogeen, squireen (squirrel), etc. Some specifically
dialectal derivatives are formed from standard English stems with
the help of standard English affixes, e.g. Scot. flesher — ‘butcher’,
suddenty — ’suddenness’.
A great number of words specifically dialectal appeared as a
result of intense borrowing from other languages, others are words
that have disappeared from the national literary language or
become archaic, poetical, such as gang — ‘go’,; bairn — ‘child’,
OE bearn, etc. Thus, the lexical differences between the English
national language and its dialects are due to the difference in the
spheres of application, different tempoes of development, different
contacts with other peoples, and deliberate elaboration of literary
norms.
The English language in the United States is characterised by
relative uniformity throughout the country. One can travel three
thousand miles without encountering any but the slightest dialect
differences. Nevertheless, regional variations in speech
undoubtedly exist and they have been observed and recorded by a
number of investigators.
The following three major belts of dialects have so far been
identified, each with its own characteristic features: Northern,
Midland and Southern, Midland being in turn divided into North
Midland and South Midland.
The differences in pronunciation between American dialects
are most apparent, but they seldom interfere with understanding.
Distinctions in grammar are scarce. The differences in vocabulary
are rather numerous, but they are easy to pick up. Cf., e.g., Eastern
New England sour-milk cheese, Inland Northern Dutch cheese,
New York City pot cheese for Standard American cottage cheese
(творог).

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