Accents and Language

             My experience with different accents and language barriers the moment I left home for college and went to Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. As soon as we landed, I asked an airport worker, "Do you know 'wea' the baggage claim is?" He responded with a country twang, "You fruum New York raght?" "How did you know?" I asked, shocked by how quickly he was able to pick that up. "It's yo accint !" he said as he smiled and directed me to the baggage claim. From that point on it was very evident how different I was going to sound to Detroit and vice versa.
             Because most the African American population in Detroit are descendants of southerners who migrated up north from Mississippi, Tennessee and Alabama, there is a very pronounced southern influence to the way a Detroiter talks. I wasn't aware that I had a "New York" accent until I was hit with the culture shock of moving the Midwest. A "pen" to me, was a "pin" to them. "Men" to me, was "min" to them and a person was either from the East or West "sad" (side) of Detroit. The Detroit accent was also much more drawn out than the way I spoke because of the influence of the southern drawl. My New York accent was more abrupt, put emphasis on different syllables and letters. For example I said things like "wauta" (water) and "motha" (mother). Pretty much any word that ended with an "R" I would replace with an "A." Just hearing such a totally different way of speaking excited me because accents are such a major part of a person's culture. I knew the next couple of years were going to be amazing solely because I would be able to experience first hand the way somebody outside of my comfort zone did things.
             After being in Detroit for two years, some of the accent and slang rubbed off on me.
             ...

More Essays:

APA     MLA     Chicago
Accents and Language. (1969, December 31). In MegaEssays.com. Retrieved 08:04, March 29, 2024, from https://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/5214.html