language

What will happen to American dialects in the future?

How would you even figure this out? Languages change due to so many factors. I suppose there will still be regional differences, but I wonder if that would change as well. Suppose a war or famine breaks out in England, and English people immigrate in masses to the US, particularly one city. They might add a new dialect as the Italians did in New York.

so do you feel that dialects are diverging or converging?

Really, I don't think CrypticTruth's question is dumb.

You may be surprised to find out, fireangel, that there is actually an area of study that these questions do fit under, and that is linguisitics. Areas such as linguistic geography, historical and soicolinguistics seem to be sub-fields that may relate to the questions CrypticTruth is asking.

Have you typed your question into google, Cryptic?

Edit: Actually, I have an idea, why not post your questions in a Linguistics forum? That is, if they do not already have a topic that covers it.

fireangel, If you thought his question was unreasonable, why not just state the reasons why you think so, without the unnecessary condecension?
If you had no real answer/constructive feedback to give him, why not just ignore the thread?

I have studied the theory behind my question and I understand the concepts and factors that affect language. With all that information I believe there is merit isn discussing the changes that are occurring.

My best friend in college studied languages. I am curious as to what she'd say.
I would wonder what you consider a dialect in America. If one goes to the Appalachian Mountains, a lot of people speak heavily accented fashion and with a number of slang phrases, bits of old Scottish Gaelic and such.
English is an Endo European Germanic language. It is also a very fluid, less structured language than some, and has borrowed much from other languages.
While all languages change over the course of time, one could argue that English is almost defined by that tendency. American English is perhaps more prone to such linguistic drift, and thus perhaps more defined by its tendency to change over a course of time that is often shorter than a single generation.
Due to that idea, and the impact that cultural trends have on such things, I would venture a guess that any meaningful prediction would ultimately prove difficult.
That being said, the trend at present seems to be moving toward PC speech or verbal puritanism.
If you're asking more generally whether or not we will see a gross homogenization of American dialects, I would have to say no. The tougher times gets, the more people appear to divide themselves and identify with in-groups. Thus, Texans will try to accentuate being Texan, accent and all, and new yorkers will do the same.
The manner in which people talk, along with style of dress are arguably the two most obvious markers of what group one belongs to (aside from race and gender obviously).
Meh, my two cents.

I think the dialects will become less extreme and more alike mostly because most stars and people on TV have a sort of midwest or socal accent which to me sounds like no accent at all.