An exmple of a North American dialect

North American dialects: Northern Central (Minnesota and the Dakotas)

* Phonologically long and rounded [o] vowels. Probably from Scandinavian influence (and these features are strongest in the most Scandinavian areas)
*Periodic “eh”? at the end of sentences, although this is more prevalent in the upper peninsula of Michigan and Wisconsin
*Lexical frequency differences (frequency of use rather than a strict unique lexical set): “ya, sure, you betcha.” “no problem”
*Different words: “hot dish” instead of “casserole”, “dinner” and “supper” not synonymous (as they are in some other US dialects, but not all); dinner is what I called lunch
*Norwegian influences words: uff-da (expression of suffering or sympathy), and also the name of some distinctive dishes: lutefisk and lefse are the best known. Lutefisk is dried fish soaked in water, then in lye, then in water
Lefse is like potato crepes
* This dialect has been made known through the movie Fargo and the writings and radio shows of the humorist Garrison Keilor.

Swen, Ole, and Lena jokes:
"Ole lay dying in his bedroom. He began to revive as he smelled the aroma of fresh lefsa wafting through the house. Ole managed to gather is strength and crawled out to the kitchen. Just as he reached for a sample of his loffy Lena's lefsa she slapped his hand and said, "No Ole, don't you know that's a for the funeral"

Some of these are obviously modern coinages:
"Yew have yust received da Sven and Ole Computer Virus. Because ve don't know how to program computers, dis virus verks on da honor system. Please delete all d files on yewr hard drive manually and forward dis message to everyvon on yewr mailing list. Tank yew fer yewr cooperation. Sven and Ole." (also the Amish virus joke)

The curious thing is that these jokes are mostly told and invented by Norwegian Americans. They would seem to be denigrating, like “Polack” jokes, but they have claimed the jokes as their own. This is an example of what Fennell calls “covert prestige,” perhaps—the sense of group identity that telling such jokes imparts overcomes the supposed negative portrayal of the Norwegian Americans. Irish Paddy and Mikey jokes work the same way.

AAVE
*This joking dynamic changes when you have powerfully disenfranchised dialects and groups of people, such as many speakers of AAVE. The existence of the AAVE dialect arouses disgust, rather than gentle humor, in many establishment listeners. Films that use it for humorous effect are therefore much more political in their attitude toward the speakers of that dialect
*It has also led to questions of whether or not AAVE has diverged enough from the standard American dialects to warrant EFL instruction for speakers of it.
*The dialect has features that advertisers, particularly, work to exploit—“The odds be with you” was a tagline of the Missouri lottery for a while. In standard English, this is expressing a subjunctive—a wished-for state. In AAVE (and some other local dialects), this statement is indicative—and misleading.
*AAVE is a valid English dialect—remember, no dialect is superior to another. But it poses difficulties for teachers who need to balance the need for group identity with the need to enable their students to succeed.