Off-topic question: In the news I've seen a lot of NO public officials and citizens interviewed, and none have that distinctive, cliche Louisiana accent. Are those people filtered out by the media? Or is that accent a cliche with little basis in reality?
I was wondering about the lack of accents, too.
various accents around the state from Cajun to New Orleans, to Baton Rouge to N La,,
Watching press conf,,Mary Landrieu looks unhinged, she is smilling, face twitching, looks destroyed.
"Or is that accent a cliche with little basis in reality?"
Which accent? If you listen real closely, the mayor has a tinge of the N.O. accent. The cajun accent, however, is different and is not heard often in N.O. It's certainly out there in the bayous.
"Are those people filtered out by the media?"
I think the last thing the media has time to do right now is filter out people with "unacceptable" accents.
That's the "Cajun" accent. You'll hear that more in West Louisiana, home to the Acadians, or "Cajuns."
Mary Landrieux has a light cajun accent; you can hear it in words like "water" ("waduh"). My wife is from Lake Charles, La., and worked to overcome it. But, when she talks to her family, she slips into her cajun, and she's not even aware she's doing it until I start laughing!