MELISSA BLOCK, host:
And now, your comments.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
Many of them came in response to my interview last week with linguist William Labov. Labov studies regional American accents, and we asked him to analyze the speech of both vice presidential candidates.
BLOCK: He said that Governor Sarah Palin's accent is representative of speakers from Alaska, some of whose dialects he's captured in a linguistic atlas. But that explanation didn't ring true with many of our Alaskan listeners.
SIEGEL: William Labov needs to get his head out of his map when he claims Palin has an Alaskan accent.
BLOCK: That's from Nate Murphy (ph).
SIEGEL: Murphy continues, I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska. During 20 years there, I never heard an Alaskan with an accent resembling Sarah Palin's.
BLOCK: Betsy Longenbove (ph) of Douglas, Alaska agrees. As a life-long Alaskan who travels throughout the state regularly, I can assure you any Alaska accent more commonly reflects the soft sounds of our indigenous population. Where Sarah Palin got her accent is a mystery to pretty much everyone I know.
SIEGEL: Well, many of you think the governor's accent is more like those found in the upper Midwest. Mark Demarts (ph) is a native of California who now lives in Wisconsin, and he offered this less than scientific explanation for that northern dialect.
BLOCK: Go outside on a negative 10-degree day with a chronically stuffy nose and say the phrase, Oh, its cold out here, you know? You should have the accent just about perfect.
SIEGEL: You bet ya.
(Soundbite of laughter)
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