Accents

When Ron and Katherine returned from Missouri and Illinois last week, Katherine noted that the friendly highway patrolman who stopped them in St Louis had a funny accent. It began a conversation about accents and how we must sound to other people. I grew up all over the USA and have been told it is hard to detect from my "accent" where I am actually from. That makes sense as I feel like I have collected words, phrases, pronunciations, etc. from all over the map. However...I pronounce Missouri Missour-ee, not "ah", just like the sign says.

It is easy for me to hear a regional accent from all parts of the USA. Ron's mother could listen to anyone speak Spanish and detect not only which country they were from, but from which region in that country they were from. She earned her PhD in Linguistics. It was always fun to hear her speak Spanish with anyone we met. My friend from England can do the same with people from her area. She immediately knows if they are from the north, south, etc. by their accent and pronunciations.
Language is fascinating.Using it to build and lift is much more important that worrying about an accent.