AppfaninCAALand wrote: ↑

Sat Dec 14, 2019 7:06 pm

Fascinating read, thank you.

I took a public speaking class at App. One of my classmates had lived his whole life on Ocracoke Island, prior to college. I remember being so amazed by his speaking. It was really this first time I started to notice smaller, regional dialects.

Then right out of college, I took a job in a call center. I will never forget after spending 20 minutes helping a caller where I had spoken to him quite a bit, the caller asked me if I had grown up outside Charlotte with parents originally from Cincinnati. It was an odd question, but I told him he was nearly correct - I grew up in Greensboro and my parents were from Dayton. He said my accent was clearly a blend of southwest Ohio and NC Piedmont, and it was more likely my parents moved from Ohio to NC than the other way around, so he guess correctly.

Ever since those two experiences, I have always been fascinated by dialects and accents and always keep my ears open for little differences. For 10 years, I held a job calling on numerous locations around metro Richmond VA, and I've trained my ear enough that I can often tell if someone grew up in Richmond city, the northern suburban counties, Petersburg and the southern suburbs, or rurals counties either to the south and east or alternately the north and west. Or if they are a "come-here" like me.

So thanks again for posting this.