There are generally-accepted mushes, that have become seamless through repetition, like omina, as in Omina go to the store. Do we need milk? But other mushes, that aren't instantly familiar, require extra brainpower I could be spending on the story.

I have this problem not so much with diction as with sentance structure. I realize most people understand, in speaking and listening, misplaced modifiers, but I actually spend an extra few seconds puzzling as to what the heck the person means.

I have this problem not so much with diction as with sentance structure. I realize most people understand, in speaking and listening, misplaced modifiers, but I actually spend an extra few seconds puzzling as to what the heck the person means.

I have the opposite problem in that I elide over the actual words as soon as I grasp the content of what's being said and tend to mentally hop around from foot to foot in my mind waiting to speak. Which means, that I don't listen closely enough sometimes and can miss nuance. Though I generally I have a very high rate of gist-getting.

This has turned out to be problematic talking with JZ as she's all about the extended narrative riff, with curlicues and metaphors and her word balloons can fill all the extant space between her mouth and the ceiling.

Also, she's immune to visual cues that I got it already which causes my brain to Irish jig at an even more frantic pace.

Does "A Regular Guy" still do movie reviews on WXRT? That's the classic Chicago accent.

I'm going to take a stand and say that "midwest" is not the "standard" American accent. Or at least, the Great Lakes type accent sure isn't!

I have no idea what his "real" accent is like, but I know plenty of people who retained childhood accents through a switch like that.

That reminds me of a thing from The Departed that really resonated with me, when Leo gets asked if he had two different accents growing up, because I totally did.

Well, the Regular Guy (I'm not too sure if he's still on XRT, Laga--it's been a long time since I listened to that station regularly) is an exaggerated version of the Classic Chicago Accent, like the "Da Bears" guys were on SNL. There's a good example of the more typical Chicago accent here (mp3 clip).

I'm going to take a stand and say that "midwest" is not the "standard" American accent. Or at least, the Great Lakes type accent sure isn't!

Yeah, I've heard accents in Iowa, Michigan and Kansas City.

I think originally the broadcasterese accent came from Ohio. No, I am wrong: [link] -- the answer is, a big blob that crosses the middle of the flat states. Also, there is a chart full of phonetic letters, and a fun discussion of the cot/caught thingie of which much agita in Buffistas past.

I gotta say kudos to Netflix. I moved This Film is Not Yet Rated to the top of the queue yesterday, the day it was released, and it arrived today.

Here's what I don't get:

It may therefore be the case that the accents spoken in this region are deemed the most "neutral" by Americans.

That and the accentless thing--does someone from Kentucky think someone who talks differently from them has no accent? Do they both have no accent, or does the Kentucky chick think she's the one with the accent?

I don't know... Interesting question though. But maybe it's because nobody could ever hear me talk and think "Phoenix?"