>As for your Northern Illinois accent. Chicago? Northern Cities Vowel Shift?
>Do you hear 'chopsticks' when someone not of your dialect says 'ChapStix'
>(ChapStix is the brand name of a lip balm).
>

The area where I live is rather unusual because we are midway between the
Northern Cities dialect region and the Plains and South-Central dialect
regions. My city, Aurora, has a rather distinct accent itself. It's enough
that I can tell whether someone's parents were from the area or not. It's
characterized by a long nasal "��", a shorter and purer "o" than most other
accents, and a semi-vocalic "r". It's so different from standard American
that Chapstick sounds like chopstick, though. The Aurora accent is becoming
more distinct with the arrival of rich people from the north and east coming
and building homes in the surrounding towns.
I myself have a somewhat softened accent myself as my family comes from
areas below the Vowel-Shift belt and I've travelled to Turkey for a year and
where no one could understand me when I spoke with an accent.

Chris
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