>Don’t ask why I was surfing around the PBS site, but I found this show called Do You Speak American? What caught my eye was this page about California English.
Honestly, I didn’t think Californians had an accent like people do in New England or in the South, but clearly I am wrong. I can’t tell you how many times I say “I’m like…and then he was like…” or “I was all…and he was all…” Of course, that’s usually when I’m in a social situation. There is no way I would be taken seriously at work if I spoke that way.
By the way, if you want to tell the difference between someone from Northern California and Southern California, see if they use or have ever used the word “hella”. That’s definitely a NorCal word.
I’m confused though. If cot and caught or hock and hawk don’t sound the same, how should they sound? Aren’t they homonyms?
christhestampede 
indygirl 
Nick
>The extent to which they are homonyms depends on your regional accent. While someone listening to me casually would probably not discern the difference, I *do* pronounce cot and caught slightly differently (more “aw” in caught), as well as hock and hawk (same diff).
I first realized there was a California accent when, after living in Oregon for five or six years, I heard Jerry Brown speak and realized it was different from what I’d grown used to in Oregon.
>Hmm. I guess there is a Northwestern accent then.
I also noticed that I use the words “totally” and “dude” alot in social situations. “What the hell” is in my vernacular too, but I’m not sure that’s a regional thing or not.