CC observed:
Not too long ago I was able to meet some genuine FoLCs. Real people with faces and voices, if you can imagine such a thing. Therefore, many different accents.
And the one that really stood out for me was that MidWestern 'Oh, we don't have any accent at all' accent.
Yeah, right. Then where's your 'A', people? Hmmmmm?
ROTFL! /me hides behind a big box of
caramel corn to escape the glare. <bg>
I must say, though, this thread has taught me one thing -- I have never been able to spell caramel correctly because it's not how I say it. But I think after this, that's one typo I won't make any more. <g>
About accents and pronounciations -- Webster's Online has audio clips of the US standard (aka "unaccented" ) pronounciations of most common words. For some words, like caramel, they have two. The first little red speaker icon has the two-syllable pronounciation. The second has the three-syllable version.
LOL! Oh, Paul, I could kiss you. Two was first ... heh heh heh.
Wendy remembered:
"Don't you think we have the same accent?" Lynn asked us of Kathy and herself. "Um... you each sound completely different," replied we non-North Americans.
LOL, I remember you saying that, and I've been dying to ask ... *how* do we sound different?? (And yes, I know that's probably an impossible question to answer. I mean, how does one describe an accent?)
And Anna, in an American restaurant, you could also ask for a "beverage" -- that's usually what that part of the menu is labeled. But "soft drink" is the generic term here for things like Coke, Sprite, Root Beer, etc.
Kathy
