The accent gives it away

I had a funny experience I wanted to share. Today at work I was minding my own business (well, other peoples' business, really) when a guy I'd never seen in my life walked in front of my desk. While I do sit in a cubicle, mine is one of those fancy ones with a window that faces the hallway. He smiled and waved. He passed by a few times until finally this afternoon he came by and introduced himself. He's one of the regional supervisors who was visiting the area seeing how things were going and he wanted to know how I was adjusting as the new kid. Right off the bat I had to chuckle because his accent gave him away. He was from New Orleans. While it is under investigation and pending a responsive text message from my mom, he may have even known her which makes it even more amusing.

I'm not sure why it is, but since moving from New Orleans and still being able to make relatively frequesnt trips back, I've grown more aware of the unique accent New Orleans natives have. I hate when people try to say that the "correct" way to say New Orleans is N'awlins. That's not true. You have to be drunk and stupid to say it like that. I did, however, have a good friend on the mission from Dallas who said frequented New Orleans and said that the best way to describe the New Orleans accent is "a New Yorker gone retarded". While I don't entirely agree with the retarded part, I would say "a very lost New Yorker". I think of one of my great aunts and an old bishop of mine who had this accent and smile because that's how it sounds to me. It has gradually become a very melodic thing to me. If anything it makes me miss New Orleans and all of her quirks and eccentric personalities.

When I first started at BYU I used to hate telling people I was from New Orleans because they would ask why I didn't have a Southern accent. While I would randomly wish I had it (when good looking guys said they liked the accent), for the most part I was proud I didn't have a Southern accent because in my mind having one had a whole bunch of negative implications with it. I was grateful for the fact that neither of my parents had distinctive accents (not even dad's Cuban accent was strong) and that I never picked up the phrase y'all or other stereotypically Southern phrases (I swear I heard it more from dorm mates from the midwest and west than from my own lips).

While it has taken me much longer to appreciate a Southern accent, I am learning that a Southern drawl doesn't necessarily mean ignorance or backwardsness. I have come accept the word y'all in its many forms (my Utah-born and raised in laws love saying "ya'lls"), and even use it every once in a while, yet my mind still corrects people when they say it ("you, not y'all, and DEFINITELY not you guys). I suppose in my pretentious mind I won't be able to move past certain prejudices.