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

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Thursday, September 2, 2004, 15:27
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

Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>
Benct Philip Jonsson <bpj@...>