Improve Your English: English in Everyday Life

Mennonite
or something. . . .

---

The Us
e of L
anguage
: Par
t II
109
MAN:
Oh, yeah.
WOMAN:
Someone said I had a Mennonite accent, and, of 
course, I don’t—I don’t hear an accent at all. So, I’m like, 
“Nope.” But I guess my accent would be from—it’s more 
a dialect—but it would be from Highlandtown 
’cause
I 
grew up in the, in the city, in east Baltimore.
MAN:
And just-just the way she says that, I say it diff er-
ently. I say Highlandtown and, which you can tell that 
there’s, but everybody has an accent.
WOMAN:
Yeah, like-like 
[
water-water 
]
.
MAN:
So the question is, “Do you have 
an accent?” “
Yeahbsolutely
!”
WOMAN:
So, I think it’s a, more a dialect.
MAN:
Right, it’s . . .
INTERVIEWER:
What about you? Do people tell you . . . ?
MAN:
Um.
INTERVIEWER:
Or how would you describe your accent?
MAN:
Yes. And I, people have said something to me and, 
um, you’ll obviously notice that if you, all you need to do 
is live somewhere else for any extended period of time 
and even where we’re going, we’ll probably get that. But, 
um, the, earlier, when I was very young and one of the 
fi rst trips I took out west was to Denver, and I was ski-
ing with a friend, and they asked me where I was from. I 
said, “Baltimore.” And he said, “Balmore? Balmore? Bald-
win? Bal? Balmore?” Th
ey didn’t know what I was say-
ing. I said, “I’m from Baltimore.” He said, “What-what’s 
Baltimore?” I s—, I said, “Uh, the Orioles play there.” And 
they go, “Oh, you mean Bal-ti-more.” “Yeah.” “Oh, yeah, 
Balmore, Baltimore, yes.” Th
at’s what they . . . So, yeah, of 

---