most distinct regional dialect

Cajun is certainly unique, but that accent doesn't seem quite as pervasive in New Orleans as the accent is among New Englanders.

 

You talk about, says the son of a man who grew up in New Iberia.

 

There is nothing Cajun about New Orleans, except what you see in the tourist traps (and in a few well-intentioned but misguided movies).

Whole different world of accents in the Crescent City. Can I get a witness, FB?

 

OK. Then if we are talking Cajun and mean Lafayette/New Iberia -- I'll go with that. Pretty small area, though.

 

Well, the Cajun dialect is sprinkled from the Lake Charles area on south, down along the coast and around Lafayette/New Iberia, still further south and east over toward Thibodaux/Houma and in the Cutoff area, down to the mouth of the Mississippi. You can find it scattered throughout the state, but its concentration areas are Acadiana and the bayou parishes. Despite LSU's use of the word "geaux," Baton Rouge is not Cajun. Neither is New Orleans, as I've said. And, sadly, Cajun is dying. CODOFIL teaches real French in Louisiana schools. The Cajun dialect is fading ...

 

Population-wise, but square miles that area is bigger than Bahstan or Noo Yawk.

 

I think the Chicago accent is pretty distinct. It's infectious, too. I've been to Chicago several times and everytime I'd come home, I'd end up talking like I had lived there for my entire life.

I'm from the mid-south, so I'd get made fun of pretty hard core until I'd slip back into a little bit of the twang again.

 

The right Southern twang from the right Southern girl is irresistible.

 

That's what I hear. The last time I left the south and went north, I went back and the twang never REALLY manifested itself as it had before. I think I was more concious of it this time so I was trying to avoid it.

 

Crunk. YEAH! WHAT? OKAY!

 

I know a girl from Atlanta who now lives in the Northeast. She's got some kind of cross-regional voice that is interesting and adorable, and every now and then I detect the slightest hint of Georgia peach in her words, and it's so cute.

 

The right Southern twang also proved irresistable to a couple of Northeast Ohio lovelies (is that an oxymoron?) when PD spent a week in the Brunswick/Strongsville area during college. 'Cause Lord knows an accent was about all I had going for me in those days.