yes but they're US southern accents, so to me they're just exotic. otoh I don't particularly like S African or NZ "iccints". Oz is just about bearable. But here, it's like listening to yer chirpy chappy cockneys ooool diiiiy!

>It could be worse. You could be listening to a southern accent everyday :o) I found this entertaining:
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>http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/prejudice/attitudes/
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>>>Does the accent make a difference today? I mean compared to years ago when an accent could get you into a club, get a better job, et al...
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>>Not so much, but being a northener, with a natural, pathological hatred for southerners, yet living in the south and having to hear this odious accent every day, I try to instill some northern into their accents (e.g "bath" not "baaaaarrrrth"). But it's the new southern accent that bugs me even more. A smidgin of Oz in it. e.g Grace says, "I'm going home". Lydia says "Oi'm gaeiouing haeioume" (just pronounce each vowel as-is, not diphthong, running into the next one) :-)
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>>>>It's interesting that my elder daughter (11) has quite a "posh" accent while my youger (7) speaks with the local southern accent (we call it "Estuary English" as in that spoken around the Thames estuary). Now I have a distinctively posher accent than my younger brother. Hmmmmm