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

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.

Replies