Re: CHAT: Being taken for a furriner ...

On Sep 2, 2004, at 6:27 PM, Roger Mills wrote:
> Steg Belsky wrote:
>> When i was little, i was once at a friend's house, and one of her
>> friends said i have a strange accent.
>> Somehow she came to the conclusion that i have a Polish accent because
>> my great-grandfather immigrated to the USA from there in the 1880s.
>> Or
>> at least we thought so at the time, it turns out the town he was from
>> is actually in Belarus now, and was probably a part of the Russian
>> Empire at the time.  But he came from the 'Lithuanian' Jewish
>> culture-zone,
> It seems unlikely that after 4 generations there could still be any
> residual
> "accent", but it's possible that individual words and intonation
> patterns
> might characterize descendants of highly specific and close-knit
> immigrant groups.
> I had a good friend in Army days-- a very bright and wacky Jewish guy
> from
> Brooklyn.  Part of his job was to interview new arrivals on base.  Upon
> hearing another Brooklynite, especially another Jew, he could often
> pinpoint
> _to the street_ what part of the city they came from. He'd come up with
> things like "Hey, you must be from 65th street; I'm from 62nd..." It
> was
> amazing. Perhaps your friend's friend had a similar ability/gift, and
> was
> simply picking up on the fact that you lived in a slightly different
> area.
While your friend from the Army may have been an accent genius, i think
my friend's little friend from The Island was just weird ;) .


-Stephen (Steg)
  "bp represent!"