This. This is great stuff.

When one accuses a Cleveland native of having an accent, the typical Cleveland native will respond with something like this: “Nuh-uh! Clevelanders don’t have an accent. Newscasters are trained to speak like us so they don’t have an accent.”

I’m pretty sure this is something they teach us in grade school in the Cleveland area, because it’s rare to hear a native not make the non-regional dialect claim.

However.

I recognize now, as I am older and wiser (and prettier, but that’s an entry for a different day), that I say some “A” sounds “funny.” That. Happy. Dad. Chapstick. All my “A”s in such instances come with built-in long-E sounds before I get to the A. Whatever. I like it. I’m not getting rid of it.

Because I’m a total nerd, I hit the googles with “Cleveland accent” and happened upon this gem.

My favorite tidbits from the blog entry:

“The Cleveland accent’s dominant note is outrage, underscored by a sharp tang of bristly disbelief, suspicion, and distrust. To ears of pretension it might sound slightly unsophisticated, uncultivated. Not corn-fed, but rust-fed. Pierogi-and-cabbage fed. There’s a definite note of ‘fuck you and the foreign car you rode in on’ there, too, and ‘you’re not going to pull the wool over my eyes, you bigshot bastard.’“

and

“And it’s my belief that, though it may be unfashionable to talk about national or regional character, Clevelanders are smart people who are used to sifting through heady promises and lies and who simply don’t have the patience to listen to anyone’s bullshit.”

Ahhhh, so that’s where I get it!