> > I'm not familiar with that one, Terri, but don't you just love the way they say those "ou" words in Virginia? Get somebody to say "There's a mouse in the house, get him out." I still crack up when I hear it. My father's family was from that area.
> > Over in Kentucky, we sometimes put an R in where it doesn't belong. Such as "warsh" for wash. I think they do that in some parts of Virginia.
> > Howard
>
> You should hear how we Finns sometimes scramble our language (wait a minute, that would mean you would have to understand Finnish - oh well, anyway). It can be that a person from western Finland (like me) doesn't understand a person from eastern Finland at all. This would be easy to understand if we were Chinese. But there are only about 5 million people in Finland. I think this is because we live in a relatively big country and the distances are long. The language spoken in Rauma, a town in West Coast, is nearly impossible to understand for anyone living outside that area. And it can even be that our cousins living in the countryside only about 40 km (about 25 miles) north from here, speak in a way that is very odd to us. They put H's in every possible and impossible place. (I think they are sort of rednecks.) By the way - that is where my father's family came from.
>
> Juho

Sometimes I think it's that bad here. I almost need to use sigh language on Cape Cod. In Hawaii, they use a form of English that's almost impossible to understand if you are from the mainland. In Louisiana, the Cajans have an accent and use words that you don't hear anywhere else. In southern Florida, you need to understand Spanish. White Americans sometimes can't understand Black Americans, especially the ones who live in mostly black, inner-city neighborhoods. But I don't knock it. It makes travel all the more interesting.
Howard