~ (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Doug Harris]

Speaking of regional accents . . .
I was talking in Dallas on Wednesday with a local who was recounting
how difficult he'd found one of the state's insurance licensing exams
to be.
"It had 60 questions on things that hadn't been in the study material.
There a number of them on wheels, and some on estates and . . ." on
and on he went.
Having only been there a day and a half, and being in a group comprising
folks from all over the US,  my ear hadn't become attuned to the way
some Texans speak. So it took me quite a few beats (the penny didn't
drop 'til later in the day, truth be told!) to translate 'wheels' into 'wills'.
dh


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Amy West wrote:

>My understanding is that a particular regional accent (Midlands?) is
>taken to be the most neutral (most mutually intelligible?) and so is
>used as the base for the "standard" American accent (for dictionary
>prons, for broadcasting). Calling it standard doesn't change the fact
>that it is in fact a regional accent that has been privileged by
>being deemed the norm. Dictionary prons. list regional variants;
>individual broadcasters vary from the "standard."

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