I get a giggle out of it. I'm from Wisconsin and pronounce words as they do up there of course. In Wisconsin (as well as other areas) we considered people who pronounced words as they do in the South to appear 'wrong' and 'uneducated.' Not an appearance desired in the business world. Imagine my surprise to move to NC and find out that the entire business community in NC mispronounces their words! :o) Now my daughter laughs at how I pronounce words and tells me that "I" am embarassing. :o)


>>Hmm. This was interesting...
>>
>>http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~golder/dialect
>
>Veni, vidi, and still can't believe my eyes. So my old boss, who was always saying "eksetra" and "produk" is not out of the average at all.
>
>And whatever tongue-breaking I had to do while I was learning the English pronunciation (at age 10-11, while it was still easy to do) was in vain... it's not necessary at all.