Homestead mailing list

["Robert Walton" <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

> His accent is Texan, not Yankee.

Like I said, somehow he ended up with a distinct Texas accent. More
distinct than his brothers or daughters.

He by the way was born in New Haven, Connecticut of Connecticut
people. He was raised by those people in Texas. His accent is
certainly Texan, not something that a Connecticut Yankee just picks
up, IMO. This is one of the first reasons I never trusted Bush when he
was running for office.

>
>
>>> And James, Obama's Yankee accent and pronunciation does not him an
>> elitist make.
>>
>
> Doesn't matter.  The same as souless Yankees view Southerners as dull or 
> slow
> because of their speech, get annoyed at the pronunciation of such words as
> 'nuclear' , just like that Obama's accent makes him sound elitist.
>

Don't call me a Yankee, please. I'm not and it's not necessary. You
don't like being pointed out as wrong even on the smallest, most
insiginificant point. But, James on this small, most insignificant
point you are. It's not a Southern thing.

Here is an explanation from an article in Slate.com:
http://www.slate.com/id/2071155/

"Changing "nu-clee-ar" into "nu-cu-lar" is an example of what
linguists call metathesis, which is the switching of two adjacent
sounds. (Think of it this way: "nook le yer" becomes "nook ye ler.")"

It goes on to say that it is even common among Canadian and British
speakers. To me, it's just nice to have the leader of the free world
be able to pronounce the word of something over which he holds codes
to that could obliterate us all. False sense of security, but I feel
better.


> Yes, it's a paraphrase but speaking in a elitist voice and talking down to 
> us
> rubes, that's exactly the way it sounds.

And you will never get past it, so I say, "Why bother".

Rob - Va