On 21/08/2011 6:26 PM, notbob wrote:
> On 2011-08-21, Ema > wrote:
>
>> There are people in my family who sound very much like Paula Deen. She
>> may exaggerate her accent somewhat, y'all, but I believe it is real.
>
> I lived in TN for two years. Some guy's accents were so pronounced, I
> couldn't fully understand them when they talked. Worse, when I was
> discharged and came home to CA, some of my friends asked why I was
> speaking with a Southern accent. Yikes!! It's contagious.



I used to deal with a lot of American truck drivers and there were a
number of them who simply could not understand. It is interesting to
see how people pick up accents. I had some good friends who moved to
Texas about 30 years ago. She picked up the accent but he didn't. He was
hard of hearing. When my son was 19 he went to Uganda to work, He came
back for a month after 4 months and then went back for another 4 months.
On his return he called me from London and I was surprised to hear his
accent. He had been hanging out with South Africans and had picked up
their accent. It was gone within a week of his return.