Is there a linguistic way to measure how different two diale

cts are, and trace their relatedness, just as in languages?

I've always considered GenAm and Aussie to be at opposite roles of the English speaking spectrum. Actually, i made a diagram of accents relative to how different to RP they were. With RP in the centre, and each other accent coming from that. Not that RP was the root accent, we don't know how that sounds.

GenAm and Aussie are so different because they pronounce 95% of words differently, their tones are so different.etc.

What do you think?

I would put Scottish way farther from American than Australian....

You'll take your car to work, I'll take my board. And when you're out of fuel, I'm still afloat.

< made a diagram of accents relative to how different to RP they were.>

Let's see it then

I remember reading an article on the internet about the common ancestor of NAE, BE, and AuE, spoken in the 1600-1700s. It was reconstructed. I think that would be the best one to use as the central dialect.