>>I sometimes wonder how any non-native English speakers can understand us in the South. Even listening to radio talk shows it is embarrassing to hear southerners speak. You very often hear things similar to:
>>
>>"We was..."
>>"He be..."
>>"We run down to the store..."
>
>It's not their grammar that gives me problems. It's the pronunciation. Last syllable often omitted, last consonant of the remainder barely audible, most of the time any "t" in the middle of a word may sound like a "d"... and the last consonant in a word almost always absent. My neighbors on both sides speak like that, and sometimes I get into the tune, sometimes it just flies through my ears, one way. And they aren't the same color; the pronunciation problem, however, is.

I agree. Some words are simply impossible to pronounce correctly, unless you have heard someone say it before. My "favourite" is the word "though". Add a "r" and you get "through", remove a "h" and you get "tough", and finally add a "t" and you get "thought". OK, the "ought" ending is consistent, as far as I know, but the "ough" ending is completely different, depending on the first part of the word. Very confusing, in deed.

I find town names to be a real nightmare also. Can anyone tell me the logic of saying "feenix" for Phoenix? And "lester" for Leicester?