Article on accents

[Steve K.]

On Wed, 27 Sep 2000, Bob Fitzke wrote:

> ADS member Dennis Preston and others quoted in a Wed. Detroit Free Press
> article ""Accent? What Ay-ack-cent?" See it at  www.freep.com

This is so true. I never considered myself as having an accent, and
growing up it seems everyone said our speech was accentless. I didn't even
notice it when I moved to Chicago. After I moved to Boston, lived here for
a while, and then visited Michigan, I was astounded to hear how my family
and my teachers talked. I don't have a Boston accent at all, but my vowels
have lost some of the extreme diphthonginess, and I don't palatalize k and
g like I used to.

The weirdest thing was when I first saw Fargo when it came out, I detected
some of the accent, but when I saw it again this year, it sounded so much
more alien -- the first time I was only picking up on distinctions
between Minnesota and Michigan, and the second time, I picked up on the
full range. It was like watching a different movie.


--- Steve K.