Yup, I'm like Tep. I still have a drawl from my year and a bit that I spent in college in Tennessee. I bring it out mostly to fuck with people, though. If I move back there, I'll need to cut it out, probably!

My sister is really susceptible to picking up the accents of the people she's talking to, but when she actively tries to speak with a given accent it ends up being a mess.

Yup, me too.

Our Utah cousins are coming to town for a visit soon. Mildly dreading the political discussions that might ensue. I'm predicting that the one is voting for Hillary and the other is voting for Trump, but I guess we'll see.

My son got into the same magnet as his sister, although that was considered pretty much a given. But hey, they'll both be at the same school again! For a year, then it's off to high school. Yipes!

I also have a weird accent that I use when I sing, and I have no idea where it's coming from.

My son got into the same magnet as his sister, although that was considered pretty much a given. But hey, they'll both be at the same school again!

Yay!

For a year, then it's off to high school. Yipes!

Yikes!

It used to make me giggle a bit, these British rockers singing with a forced blues-southern accent, mimicking their musical heroes. As if that's the way lyrics *must* be pronounced.

It always perks up my ears a bit when an actor pulls out a legitimate regional south accent rather than fake generic "southern." And though I have soft consonants and the occasional slurred vowel, I don't think I have as area-specific an accent as I grew up with. But my ears do snap to attention when I hear rural NC on my teevee. Such as Leon Rippy on Saving Grace. Or the occasional NC LEO interviewed on national news.

I pick up a hint of a Southern accent when talking to my dad's family or a couple of very country friends, and one time found myself adopting elements of a Boston accent when talking to a group of strangers from there at a tailgate party in North Carolina. But I seem to be immune to picking up Texas, West Coast, and Chicago accents as well as those from other countries.

When I was in middle school a friend who'd moved here from New York said I was the only person in our class he could understand at first—somehow I grew up speaking like a newscaster from the Midwest rather than either of my parents or pretty much anyone I was exposed to as a young child.

After years on the phones, I'm finally able to tell some of the Southern accents apart. I really love a true Georgian/South Carolina drawl. Texas just sounds harsh. I don't hear many Cajun, and Kentucky/Tennessee doesn't quite ping me. Maybe it's because of the Southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia I grew up with.

I got a lot of "Are you English?" when I went to college, but I've lost a lot of it from 30 years in Utah. When I'm tired or in a really good mood, though, the old accent comes back.

This is me! And the same holds when speaking to my friends and relatives on the phone. If I am looking at them I can grasp what they are saying, but on the phone it is hopeless.

This is me too! I hate talking on the phone to anyone but people I know well. I can't parse half of what they're saying, especially if they have a strong accent. And of course the majority of my authors who want to call me instead of email have accents I can't penetrate. *sob* Why don't they just use email?

But my ears do snap to attention when I hear rural NC on my teevee.

It's soothing to my ears to hear a Tennessee accent.

I need to finish my self-eval today. shrift, you finished yours, right? I'll take that as inspiration.

I did. I probably could have made more of an effort, but I'm not going up for promotion, so I decided to conserve my energy. Congrats on finishing yours!

I was feeling better on Tuesday, that clearly was a 'one step forward, two steps back' situation. I was out sick yesterday and I'm working from home today.