I think all should notice that we have several different pronunciations that are peculiar to different regions of the country. While - unfortunately - those are disappearing all too rapidly, as genealogy buffs, we should remember and key this info into our research wherever sounds come from different early American sources. Those are, a) the New England sounds that arrived here with the very early New England settlers, especially the Pilgrims from the eastern counties of Old England; b) the mid-Atlantic sounds from early New Jersey, MD, DE and far North VA and carried with them some German sounds; c) the Tidewater pronunciations of VA, NC, SC and GA, these sounds being readily identified as arriving in the 17th Century with the immigrants from the West of England; d) the Acadian (Cajun) sounds that came to the area of S. Louisiana, SW MS, SW AL, and typical of New Orleans and that area; e) the E TN, W NC, and SW VA sounds that were brought by the Scots-Irish; f) the Scandinavian influences that dominate the language of MN, WI, eastern ND and E. SD; g) the mixture that may be called the truly American sounds of SW IL, S. IN northwest KY, all mixtures of the sounds of all the others who migrated down the Mississippi from MN, WI, etc., boated down the Ohio and then the Mississippi River from W. PA and E, OH, came up with trade from Cajun country along with our people who migrated NW from VA, NC, SC, etc. One last comment; while there is arising a SW US mixture of Latino and W US sounds that likely will never come to be distinct sound because we travel and communicate so freely now, and did not in the early years. So, like it or no, my cousins, there ain't no such thing as a "Southern accent" or a "Northern accent". ----- Original Message ----- From: To: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 5:48 PM Subject: Re: [DRAKE] DNA articles in the news When I worked for a company that required a great deal of travel, one of my partners was a very southern gentleman with a very distinct (to me) southern accent. I always got a charge out of him ordering ice tea for us when we would be down south. "A sweet tea and one without sugar.", he'd drawl. It never failed that the server would give me the ice tea without sugar and he would get his sweet tea. I didn't even have to say a word and they would know which was which. My favorite, to this day, was when he was involved in a terrible accident and ended up in the Roanoke hospital for almost three months. I would drive down on the weekends to visit him and stay at the Holiday Inn close to the hospital. One night, I got in late and decided to order a pizza for dinner. I called the local pizzeria, gave them my order and room number. A delightful young girl delivered the pizza. I paid her and she didn't leave. She wanted to know if she could ask me a question. I said yes, and she asked where I was from. I told her New York. She got a great big grin on her face and said they had a bet at the pizza shop. Some knew I was from 'up north' because I ordered anchovies on my pizza. Bea