accents query

Submitted by Mohammed Waza Khiddif Id'ullah (Australia), Sep 7, 2015 at 23:31

YOu can't tell between Germans and Italians? I can. Except maybe far north Italians - who are pretty much Germanic in origin anyway.

"the second generation on we have largely lost European speech patterns, I honestly can't tell one ancestral nationality from another.>"

Don't mexican Americans speak English a certain way? 'Afro-Americans' certainly do. Easy to see that - but maybe they lose the distinction as their level of income increases , as they learn to play the game. Having an accent won't necessarilly be a plus will it - having a Texas accent is useful in Texas but maybe not in NY. Is it like that? Here there's very little regional differences though the accent may be broader inland. At least we don't strangle English like the kiwis!

"Chris Coons and Bob Casey" - a very un-PC name but I'm allowed to say it because as a complete outsider I'm culturally naieve.

"Our drought, here in western Oregon, has been going on for many months now;"

Your 'drought' is like a good summer here. Parts of Qld are looking at averages of 6" or less over the last ten years. It's been a lot better over the last 3 years but seriously , there was a period where we had clear blue, sunny skies for a couple of years on end even on the coast in Sydney - it was getting so boring. I actually prefer cloudy days. (racial memory?) Thscomng summer - 3 months away - is predicted to be a bad El Nino - so you guys can possibly look forwardd to floods while we get another 'normal' - drought inland.

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