OK - I'm from Brooklyn and when I moved to Florida (pronouned Fla-rida by me and Floor-ida) by most others, I got a bit of ribbing about my accent. I have lost the most intense part of my accent living outside of NY now for 15 years (I have learned to pronounce the "r" at the end of words! LOL!) but still backslide when I'm with my family or very comfortable with someone or very angry. I have my college degree in English and am a good writer, understanding the finer points of punctuation and such but I also believe that spoken English is very different from written. I would like to see folks take more care with their written English, but I absolutely LOVE accents and enjoy talking to people from other places and hearing how they speak. My former husband was from Ireland and he and his friends and relatives had me enraptured with their accents and use of words. I think that's the only reason I married him!!!!

Cut people some slack about their language use when they talk and enjoy the differences. . .it's really cool! One thing that does make me a bit nuts though is th use of "heigth" instead of "height". It's just plain incorrect and makes even the most intellegent person sound dopey. I hear that a lot in FL where I live. I even yelle at one of my bosses once when he said it repeatedly throughout the day and drove me crazy!

Cheers!
Cathy (formerly of Brooklyn, New Yawk)