> Don't know if that is general American E or just a Bushism.
George W. is an interesting example of the issues involved in
characterizing a dialect. He was born in Connecticut, went
to prep school and college in Connecticut, went to Harvard
Business School, and spent his summers in Maine. Later he
tried to run for Congress in Texas and lost because he sounded
like a Connecticut Yankee.
So he hired a Texan to teach him how to say "bidness" and
some Bible Belters to teach him how to talk "Christian".
Meanwhile, he has Karl Rove telling him what words and
phrases to use and avoid.
As a result, he sounds as if he's listening to an internal
tape in one dialect and trying to do a simultaneous translation
to another. (Some people have suggested that it's not a tape,
but an actual radio transmission from Karl Rove.)
His brother Jeb, by contrast, talks like a normal, educated
human being. Instead of running for office in Texas, Jeb
went to Florida, where a Connecticut accent is almost
indistinguishable from a southern Florida accent (as opposed
to northern Florida, which is part of the "Deep South").
John Sowa
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