Having lived in WV and KY, I will attest (a) that people in different parts of those states have different accents; (b) that eastern KY is more like western WV than it is like western KY; and (c) that eastern WV is more like VA.
I will also attest that accents are not a permanent feature of one's speech. When I came back to Indiana for the Christmas/New Year's holidays, my family twitted me for "talking southern." And after my sister moved to TX (and had been in Houston for a couple of years), we twitted her about "sounding Texan," (And, of course, accents vary across the stare of TX as well...right, Bill?)
My mother has a sort of neutral American accent, but I've seen her drop into an Alabama accent just by calling her family there.
I seem to have some sort of accent exclusive to me. I grew up in Texas and people there seem to I was from Britain. I've never had a British person think I was British though. Mind you, I lived pretty much all over Texas with it's regional accents as a child and moved to Colorado during High School. Add that to my Dad coming form Illinois (he'd often mention how his relatives from certain parts sounded Southern, more so than his mother from Tennessee) and my mom is from Alabama so it may be a mix off all that.
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Which leads me to wonder what an Oregon accent, or a Pacific Northwest accent might be.
Having lived in WV and KY, I will attest (a) that people in different parts of those states have different accents; (b) that eastern KY is more like western WV than it is like western KY; and (c) that eastern WV is more like VA.
I will also attest that accents are not a permanent feature of one's speech. When I came back to Indiana for the Christmas/New Year's holidays, my family twitted me for "talking southern." And after my sister moved to TX (and had been in Houston for a couple of years), we twitted her about "sounding Texan," (And, of course, accents vary across the stare of TX as well...right, Bill?)
Yes, west Texas accents aren't quite the same as east Texas accents.
I had a Southern accent when I lived there, and a New York accent after moving north. I wasn't even trying.
My mother has a sort of neutral American accent, but I've seen her drop into an Alabama accent just by calling her family there.
I seem to have some sort of accent exclusive to me. I grew up in Texas and people there seem to I was from Britain. I've never had a British person think I was British though. Mind you, I lived pretty much all over Texas with it's regional accents as a child and moved to Colorado during High School. Add that to my Dad coming form Illinois (he'd often mention how his relatives from certain parts sounded Southern, more so than his mother from Tennessee) and my mom is from Alabama so it may be a mix off all that.
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