Accents

I grew up in North Georgia and learned the North Georgia accent from birth. As I got into High School I came to recognize the differences between North Georgia, Middle Georgia, and South Georgia accents. And yes they are distinctive.

I have no musical ability whatsoever, despite having been in graded choir programs at First Baptist Church Canton, GA from first grade through High School. I can, for whatever reason, distinguish most accents. When I hear a British accent, I can often (not 100%) identify where in England they originated. Often I can guess Middle-Eastern accents. Of course the hardest accents are blended ones, wherein a person was born in one locale, but emigrated to a different one early in life and maybe have lived in another accent region for long periods as an adult.

Brenda and I, and our kids have all noticed that when spend time back in North Georgia our original accent become much stronger.

I have taken a lot of abuse as a result of my strong southern accent. I recently quoted a Hebrew prayer and my seminary-trained-Hebrew friends commented on my Hebrew-with-a-southern-accent. Thanks guys!

Despite the abuse, I am still proud to be from the deep southern USA. We have had our problems, but you seldom hear of a southerner who retires and moves north. Our weather is hot in July and August and into the first two weeks of September--but it is nice otherwise. And southern people tend towards being friendly and helpful.

See y'all later.