Swoooper @bulldogkennel.com wrote:

> Tell me Tom. On my many sojourns to the States, I soon learnt not to
> acknowledge/comment regarding an "accent" for many Americans, as they
> would quite harshly respond. "I don't have an accent...you do". I
> started to pick a NY'er from a mid westerner, a southerner etc etc,
> but it seemed to me many americans took to the suggestion they had an
> accent (or as I said, we ALL have accents) as an insult. Any
> comments?

Dunno, Swoop. In my experience, most people don't think they have an
accent until they travel far enough from home to hear others speaking
with a _different_ accent. However, Californians (and most West
Coasters) often buy in to the "no accent" business because they sound
like what they hear on TV (for the most part). As a youngster, I was
once told by a Midwesterner that I had the _strongest_ California accent
that he'd ever heard -- that threw me for a loop! Personally, I think
that regional accents are wonderful, and I decry their diminishment in
this age of cultural homogeneity and pervasive televsion.

Mark Lipton