I live in a section of the US where the accent is Standard American English. It's considered to be "accentless" and stretches in a line about 160 miles wide from Bloomington-Normal, Illinois to Omaha, Nebraska. Any further North and the accent morphs into how Chicagoans and Wisconsin folks speak; any further South and Dixie starts creeping in. It's a section of the US where a lot of call centers are located and many newscasters are from.

One of my hobbies is accents, especially British accents. Most of my working life has been spent in call centers, so I hear different people and accents all the time. One time I shocked a Brit by telling him what county he was from (Wiltshire, I believe) and his response? "I didn't know Americans could do that."

As for the Magnificent Hugh Laurie... my experience was the same as others. I saw him on a talk show and went all WTF? LOL!

Brynna

With your arms around the future, and your back up against the past
You're already falling
It's calling you on to face the music.

The Moody Blues

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