I Have Discovered a New Regional US Accent!

my own image taken by ??? camera.

Yes, I think I have discovered a brand new American accent.

I was in rehab for seven years, a nice nursing home/rehab center, for seven years. Then, in 2021, I returned to the Independent living facility where I used to live.

As soon as I began to visit coffee shops, I quickly noticed this new accent. At first, this accent seemed to occur with only women, then only a year ago I overheard it among men also.

I live in Tallahassee, Florida. There are maybe over 70,000 college students here, from the three colleges. Most come from populous central and southern Florida.

Today, you all, I sat in a coffee shop for about 40 minutes, and for about 30 minutes of my time, I overheard the accent, spoken by a maybe 20-year-old guy server, talking with a lady customer. He did most of the talking, but she also had this accent as well.

I sat there somewhat benumbed! Somewhat shocked. I did not understand a SINGLE word! Not one. Not even one standard American TV English word emerged from this talk.

My hearing is that of an 85-year-old set of ears. Yes, some loss in the upper frequencies. However, I can understand very well the “TV accent” that I hear everywhere. No problem. Southern accent, mostly no problem either.

I sat there trying to think out a written description of just what this accent sounds like. One of my 300+ hobbies is linguistics. Thus, I noticed this new accent real good! Here is what it sounds like, in type.

Take a sentence, maybe 5 to 18 words. Then remove all of the inner letters on each word, then copy-paste these into like a one-word “sentence” and then make sure that there are no spaces between each of these letters.

“As soon as I began to visit coffee shops, I quickly noticed this new accent.”

— -remove inside letters-

To make

“AsasIbtvcsIqntna.”

Each letter is pronounced with ZERO spacing between each!

Then maybe even each sentences are shmused together too. Ran together. One word per sentence, and sometimes many sentences run together.

[think “Alvan the Chipmunk” but not in a high-pitched tone!

All run together. His customer could understand his 30 minutes perfectly. I could not even understand one word!

“Blhabliptaptin” …one maybe breath worth of speech.

They ALL sound like this, these here people!

Usually young college-age kids, but increasingly now older people. I go to coffee shops a lot, and I hear this accent every day.

Why?

At first, I wonder if this accent is due to the Hispanic influences of Central and South Florida?

However, since now I hear the beginnings of it in indie videos, I think another influence is at work here.

Influences. Probably texting and other social media influences.

I do note that if I talk with one of these people, they slow down a bit so I can understand maybe 70% of what is being said.

My own accent has lately “gone South”! Literally! My own childhood Upstate New York [Northern accent zone] has done melted into drawl, twang, and other pronunciations. I recently read that researchers in North Carolina had detected 105 distinct accent zones within that state. Who know were my “zone” lies! The Twilight Zone, maybe. But of course I was born in the twilight zone!

Really!

Rod Serling is buried in the town Cemetery. He lived there. Interlaken, New York. “Interlaken Productions” appeared at the end of the credits roll, at the end of each show.

I have digressed!

Anyway.

I wonder if this new accent will be our American accent ten or so years away? One can communicate SO MUCH in this shorthand of tongue. Say, ten Ideas in two minutes? Would take me maybe 30 minutes to talk out even two ideas! So this here new accent fits our increasingly quickening way of life real good! No slow cooking, little reflection. A skipping stone on a quiet pond, penetrating 1/10 of an inch deep into the water, going at 15 mph! Like that high-level executive I once watched from shore doing power power water skiing.

[Not water skiing. Not power water skiing. Doing power power water skiing. That is 80 to 90 miles per hour!]

That was/is his relaxation.