Estimated reading time: 2 minutes, 34 seconds

Native / Non-Native accents. My father’s mother was born in Oklahoma and a member of the “Daughter’s of the American Revolution” but seemed to have the same Native drawl that my mother born in Scotland had after living in California from around age 12. I think they adopted each other’s pattern’s of speech out of mutual regard. With over half the population of this small northern Canadian town where I live being Muslim and descendants of the “original families” that came from Lebanon over 125 years ago, there seem to be specific “family accents”. Working for a few years with two of the Abougouche sisters it was noticeable they spoke with a New York emphasis which is definitely not a local accent but a branch of their family is located in New York.

One advantage to living in the “oil patch” in Alberta is the diversity of people coming to live here. And the chances to make mistakes. For instance, a teller at the local bank covers her hair and appears to be from the local Lebanese families and I never have bothered to ask her where she was “from” when actually she moved here from Edmonton 5 years ago following her husband who works at the College.