  Spatial linguistic surveys often reveal well defined geographical zones where
certain linguistic forms are dominant over their alternatives. It has been
suggested that these patterns may be understood by analogy with coarsening in
models of two dimensional physical systems. Here we investigate this connection
by comparing data from the Cambridge Online Survey of World Englishes to the
behaviour of a generalised zero temperature Potts model with long range
interactions. The relative displacements of linguistically similar population
centres reveals enhanced east-west affinity. Cluster analysis reveals three
distinct linguistic zones. We find that when the interaction kernel is made
anisotropic by stretching along the east-west axis, the model can reproduce the
three linguistic zones for all interaction parameters tested. The model results
are consistent with a view held by some linguists that, in the USA, language
use is, or has been, exchanged or transmitted to a greater extent along the
east-west axis than the north-south.
