I left about 6 am this morning for some contract work, selection evals, waaaaay far out in the Illinois boonies. So far out, people speak with a different accent. I'm not sure what you'd call it, but it isn't a Chicago accent.
On one long stretch of road, I saw large factories, lots of small churches, and so-called gentlemen's clubs. The last two might seem an odd fit, but they're yin and yang—impulse and control—can't have one without the other.
Okay, you can, but it wouldn't be pretty.
Has anyone done a study on how some people have the ability to notice speech mannerisms. I'm feeling inadequate.
I'm a PA transplant to NWI Indiana during the steel mill heydays in the 60s - 70s, when they hired college kids for the summer to take of the grass on all three shifts! We rotated giant pumps at night to water the acres of grass and harass the RR engineers with misaligned sprinker heads. This particular finishing plant was along the shore in Portage, IN. One summer they actually sprayed a dune with green dye for some aerial shots but we never had to mow the sand.
30 years later I walked into an auto dealership and a same age employee readily identified my PA accent. Huh? The first time that ever happened. He was also from PA and migrated for the same reason with the family decades earlier. What is a PA accent !!
Posted by: Mike Rebate | January 19, 2012 at 05:52 PM
Mike,
I don't if anyone has studied that, but I do know there are people who study and catalog regional accents. Here's an accent archive created by a prof at George Mason University.
Posted by: Dr X | January 19, 2012 at 06:06 PM