Is there a rocky mountain accent? Other than the New England area and the cheese heads, I don't pick up regional accents at all. I have friends who are refugees from Iowa and I can't detect any mid-western accent.
"what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?" Mary Oliver
I had a college professor tell me I had one of the most "godawful" New England accents he had ever heard. I do know that I use R's after vowels very sparingly.
I’m from Michigan, suburban Detroit. I’m told I have the Michigan twang and even after almost 30 years in the Chicago area, I still have it. I definitely don’t sound like the folks born here, even those from the suburbs.
I can pick up accents from different areas of Texas. Fort Worth twang is quite different from other regions. Other than saying y'all every once in a while, my long time in Texas left no clue. Old timer western Coloradans also have a particular way of speaking which I like.
If you live long enough, you can notice shifting patterns too. Especially when you’ve been away from an area. It seems to me that Chicago-speak has been gradually colonizing Southern Wisconsin over the last thirty years or so.
Considering the small size of the Northeast relative to the rest of the country, we do have a surprising number of detectable accents. Besides the obvious rosa/Boston accent(s), There's a Maine/New Hampshire accent (I was in the play Our Town, so I know), and there is a separate Vermont accent. Everyone knows the NJ accent which thank God my kids never picked up, and New Yawk/Lawn Geyeland and then there's a PA/MD accent ("on" is "awn").
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it--every, every minute?" Emily Webb, Our Town
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