Well, I live in NJ and I think you're in PA, so I think you're familiar with the fact that the greatest divergence over smaller areas is on the East Coast. I think the point of the book was that if the regions had remained 'completely' isolated that we essentially would be speaking barely mutually intelligible dialects; rather than mostly mutually intelligble regional accents. Somebody on the east coast will pick up that I am from NY metro; when I go to California, all they pick up on is that I am from 'back east'

With respect to looking up words that you don't know how to spell that would be absolutely infuriating. Particularly if the word has a silent letter or if it has a French origin. While a 6-10 year old probably knows the word 'beauty' - if you didn't know how to spell it and were looking it up, you'd most likely start with b-u and you'd be there for quite some time.

The only reason why I mentioned it was because when I went to college I happened to do a double major in German. As I progressed in the courses, many of the courses became literature courses and the students remaining were all first generation German/Austrian/Swiss Americans whose parents spoke German as a first language and would send their kids to 'German school' so their proficiency was so much higher than mine (and I was conversationally fluent, could understand the TV and radio); nevertheless reading the equivalent of say 'Moby Dick' in German was still diffficult and it would get even more difficult if it was the equivalent of say, Shaekespeare - so being in class I would ask what a word meant and the teacher, who happened to be the dean, would explain it in German.

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