----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 1:05
AM
Subject: [phoNet] Iowa accents.
Golly! I envy you your collection of bros-in-law. I've only acquired one
so far, and his Polish accent is not very different from mine, though that
branch of my family has settled in Canada. I'll have to digest your
descriptions before I comment, but let me just say, since Newfoundland has
been mentioned, that the dialect thereof is a very distinct variety of
English, quite different from what we know as Canadian English, with its very
own accent and even distinct stress patterns (Newf'ndLAND, LabraDOR).
Piotr
Mark wrote:
<snip> My other brother-in-law has an accent I am unable to place
in the literature. It's definitely NOT a Minnesota accent and it is not what I
associate with a Northern American accent. His father was from
Newfoundland, however, and this may count, but the underlying family accent is
definitely German (Swabian?). I've only heard this accent in this area (not
all natives have it), and since everyone here is related in some way or
another and since this particular bro-in-law has a gazillion first cousins, we
might have a 'family dialect' here
</snip>