Although he was from Baltimore, Frank Zappa honed his articulation in Southern California, which is barely part of the US (or even of Earth
), so I take his pronunciation accordingly.
But he is my personal hero, for a number of reasons, both social and medical.
I didn't know Frank was from Baltimore! Both of my parents are from there, and I was b. there, though raised in Southern MD, which has yet a different way of talking--compared to those from Baltimore. "Baldimur" is the way most from that city pronounce the name of their city, where as everyone else really pronounces that 't' like a 't' and the more ending is pronounced as 'more'.
lol
Baltimore and Southern California, I am convinced, both share an extraterrestrial ZIP code.
Yes, New England is strange. I once knew a guy from Maine who said "TAY-co" instead of "TAH-co" when talking about Mexican food.
my husband is from MA, and his mother was born and raised in Boston. The first Christmas we spent with his parents, (and I had a very strong southern accent then), she asked me to go down to the basement and bring up some 'bowls'. I went down to her basement, couldn't find them. Came up and told her so. She sent me back down again--this continued a few more times--and finally, tired of convincing her there were NO bowls down there at the foot of the steps--I asked her to SPELL the word of what she wanted. She was telling me to go down and get the B-O-W-S.
I had a very hard time understanding most of what my mil was saying. She was the typical Bostonian--who "pawked the caw in hawvad yawd" kind of speech.
My father in law was from WV. We never had any trouble understanding each other. He always told me that it took him years to understand what she was saying too, and when they first began dating, they always double dated so their companions could help them understand each other.
A few years after moving to Vermont, I began to lose my accent, (or at least according to me and my family), though many of my neighbors in VT, still couldn't understand me when I spoke.
My husband swears I say words such as 'ham' as "ha-am". Even here in NY, where we live now, people will ask me where I come from--and when I tell them we moved here from Vermont, they are really surprised.
I do notice though, after going home to visit, or if I visit with any of my relatives/friends on the phone for a period of time--I slip right back into that "Southern MD drawl". ha-am, dog with a long 'o', and 'get' is pronounced as "git". Our mothers sister is pronounced as "Ant Mary" not the typical "Aunt", which was/is a really hard thing for me to stop saying, much to the delight of my Northern nieces and nephews.
I've have missed a lot on this thread, and am laughing as I read from my first post on. This has been a fun thread so far and now I am (aam) off to read the rest of the posts....
) is LE (as in leh) nor (as you would say north, without the th at the end) MAN(D) (the d is silent) 
