Re: KV, Humans, and Political Divisions

In a message dated 3/12/00 9:39:57 PM Central Standard Time, 
laserlight@quixnet.net writes:

<< >As for your points about us Americans and Aussie vs. NZ
 accents, I must
 >plead guilty, though I am learning.  Similarly, I've met very
 few Aussies or
 >Kiwis who could tell an American from a Canadian very easily,
 especially if
 >the American was from say, Michigan or Minnesota or Wisconsin
 or the
 >Dakotas, and if the Canadian was from southern Ontario or BC or
 anywhere
 >near the US border, yet we have a fairly easy time making those
 >distinctions.  Your point is well made.
 
 
 Further, not only can we tell a Canadian from an American, we
 distinguish between, for example, a damyankee and a Southerner.
 And if you have experience, you can distinguish accents from
 smaller areas.  In the job I just left, our customers came from
 Georgia, North and South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia,
 Tennessee, and Alabama.  I could often tell by the accent what
 state, and sometimes what part of the state, a caller was from.
 
  >>
In Texas, you can often tell from what part of the state a person was
from by 
their accents, West Texans have a thicker accent, East Texans often have
a 
little Louisiana in their accent, those from the southern areas of
Texas, 
near the border, often have a spanish lilt to their phrasing, etc. This
is 
not unusual, as I've seen this in many other parts of the US as well.

John
JohnDHamill@aol.com