I've really enjoyed reading all these posts about the various accents. Someone (sorry, I can't remember who) expressed surprise that there were accents within American accents. Often, there are many within a single state - I just love the variety in Louisiana. There is one in particular that I think is unique to New Orleans that almost sounds like a Brooklyn accent. What is that called? Paz?
I'm born and raised in Texas and according to non-Texans, I have a Texas accent. When I was in high school, I went on a student trip to Europe, and one of the countries we visited was the Soviet Union. Now, this was about 1970, so everyone was kinda jumpy. Back then, no one we encountered spoke English other than our guides, so talking to the average Russian was impossible. But, one day while touring a museum in Moscow, my little group of 10 or so noticed we were being discreetly followed and eavesdropped on by a young woman. She finally got up her courage and introduced herself to us. She was an English teacher on holiday in Moscow, and she had been listening to our English trying to keep up with the conversation, but she was having difficulty. She said she realized we were American, but she seemed to be baffled by our "phonetics". It took us a minute to realize that she meant the Texas drawl!! We tried to explain as best we could that there were regional accents in the U.S., but I don't think she got it. Sybil _________________________________________________________________ Join the worlds largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
