Are you sure it's not WAS?

As a fellow sufferer from Wandering Accent Syndrome, I can't help but sympathise with the Devonian Diva. Wandering Accent Syndrome (WAS) is a distressing condition caused by close proximity to Americans. A few days in their presence and I develop a noticeable TransAtlantic twang. Give me a week and I could pass for a local, left unchecked I might even forget how to pronounce the last letter of the alphabet.

I'm led to believe that the only cure lies in sending me very large amounts of money. (My colleagues contend the cure involves 'a big stick wiv a nail in the end'). Please send your generous donations to the usual address.

Y'all have a good day now y'hear?

Sad provincialism

I enjoy a good celeb-roasting as much as the next reader, but this article is just bizarre. Do you think that accents are genetic? Or perhaps imprinted at birth? Everybody picks up their accent from those around them, and many people who spend a long time abroad migrate towards the local accent. I've lived in the US for over a decade, and now my British friends think I sound very American. My American friends, on the other hand, tell me I "have hardly any accent at all" -- although inexplicably they think this is a compliment. It would be more suprising if Joss and Sheena didn't have a blend of their native and adopted home's accents. Less explicable, however, is Madonna's odd pseudo-British accent, picked up after just a few weeks in London....

huh

Who? Why does anybody care?