In article ,
Emery Davis wrote:

More seriously, a lot of their usages are merely preservations of 17th
and 18th century English. An educated English speaker can understand
almost all of educated American, but not conversely.
The New York Yiddish dialect is pretty inscrutable, even to most
Americans, and Ebonics is more so.

As a New Yorker born and just returned from there, I couldn't be happier
to be back on this side of the pond. The funny thing with American's in
general is you never know what you'll get: on the one hand incredible
provincialism sometimes even among the very educated, on the other we met
a shoe salesman who knew Paris and London extremely well, down to
Bertrand and Boris.

Especially in California, where they are all bonkers! I worked
there for a bit and was amused by how socialist it was, and quite
flabberghasted at the mental variation. In my corridor, we had
(non-disabled) people who complained bitterly when the close-in
car park had to be resurfaced because it meant walking an extra
200 yards, and one who seriously thought that a 50 mile run was
just the thing to do on a Sunday morning!


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.