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Comment by scottlamb | Hacker News Reader

> he has worked to revive and reorganize the study of a region that sometimes forgets it has a history, a culture, or even, famously, an accent. (Pronounce that first syllable through your nose.)

Huh? My parents are both from Boone, in the center of that map. I'm from Iowa City. My mom says "warshed", which is distinctive, [1] but I don't think any of us say the first syllable of "accent" through our noses. Anyone know what this is talking about?

[1] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/articles/why-do-people-say...

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I believe that's a reference to the northern vowel shift.[1] Your family might have been too far west.

There is some "Warshington" out here in the PNW, but I never encountered that growing up in Michigan.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northern_American_Engli...

I grew up in Michigan. My 9th grade English teacher, who was very strict about grammar, nearly caused me to fall out of my chair one day when she said “warshed” instead of “washed”. It was very unusual both for our part of the country and for this woman who was such a stickler about our use of the language. (All 9th grade me could think is, “What a fucking hypocrite to constantly criticize us over such nitpicky things and she can’t even pronounce the word ‘washed’!”)

..big difference between grammar (definite rules) and pronunciation (born in the wrong place?). Being from the uk - i say 'bath', my sister 'barth'.

Grammar is far from a definite set of rules, and can be modeled just as descriptively as accent.

I think the best explanation comes from singing. Say "crayon" and "offer". "Crayon" is a brighter, more nasally sound, whereas 'offer' is generally further back in the vocal cavity (referred to as a darker tone). I don't necessarily like "through the nose" but I think this is what it is describing.

Anecodtal of course but I have family that says warsh (Warshington DC) in southern Appalachia. I always assumed it was a hillbilly sort of thing. No connections to the midwest/"midlands" that I'm aware of.

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