accenting the negative
So one of the reasons I stick to my home territory with such tenacity is, I'm maybe more conscious than most folks of language and dialect and what not. And when you combine that with overwhelming desire to appear to know what I'm doing (which in the case requires fitting in linguistically), I'm pretty much stuck in the neighborhood where I grew up. Only problem is, now that I'm five minutes away in Arlington store clerks and people keep asking me if I just moved here and if I'm from England or something.
Now, part of that is the different between Lexington and Arlington speech, which sure does exist. But also, the other thing about listening to language and thinking about it means that I tend to pick up all sorts of odd locutions and accents that happen to catch my fancy. So between Lexington, that, and living in Santa Monica for months, I guess I'm just spoiled for Arlington. I might as well head off to Newfoundland, then! But I guess Leah wouldn't like that, though.
I'm watching a PBS show called 'Do You Speak American' as I type this. It has its moments, but if I had that kind of money do so a program on dialect in the United States you can be sure I'd do a better job!