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do have an accent; and, no, it is nothing like Gov. Schwartzenegger. (Isn't he originally from Massachusetts and related to the Kennedys?) One has to listen carefully to detect the West Coast accent, but it is nevertheless there. California's ancestors somehow abandoned the long "e" sound somewhere between Donner Pass and San Diego. They, did, however, recover the "r" sound abolished by their eastern and southern forebears.

Listen carefully and you will detect a few odd Californian pronunciations of common English words. For example, Californians would say, "I will yild my shild if I can build my fild on Shilds Avenue." That would translate back East as "I will yield my shield if I can build my field on Shields Avenue." (Of course, that sentence doesn't really make sense unless you're a retiring police officer in Fresno negotiating a real estate deal.)

There are other differences in the way those folks out west speak our language, but it is not so much an issue of accent as it is a question of strange usage and syntax. I am referring of course, to the famous "Valley Girl" jabber one might hear in a San Fernando mall: "Eww, lahk, I went Get yew!' And he goes Yeh, I like to play, you know, the fild.'"

The Midwestern "Hoarse Horse"

I said at the beginning of this article that we Midwesterners don't have an accent; everybody else does. I need to make two exceptions to that claim:

1. People from Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, are more linguistically related to Canadians. We Missourians, for example, don't recognize those folks as Midwesterners. This, of course, was not widely recognized until the release of the movie "Fargo." Those who have seen the movie and were embarrassed by the script, acting, and accents will understand how we feel.

2. However, we Midwesterners do pride ourselves in our distinctive pronunciation of the following words: horse and hoarse. The latter (hoarse) is pronounced "hoers"; the former (horse) is pronounced "hahrse." So, if you want to find out if someone is a Midwesterner, ask him or her how the hoarse horse is doing. (Good luck on working that sentence into a conversation. You might try showing an old episode of Mr. Ed.)

There are, of course many other regional variations of American accents. For example, I did not cover Maine, Texas, and the Northwest. In my research for this article, however, people I contacted from those areas claim they don't have an accent.

Learn more about this author, Jerry Curtis.
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