20-06-2013, 12:36 AM
I am not versed in American dialectology and thus would not pronounce (pardon the pun) on his accent. One thing which always jumped out at me from this clip, however, is his use of the metathetical form of "ask": "aksed me that question".
There is some dispute over whether in English this is idiolectal (i.e., some individuals have problems with that cluster), or dialectal, but with reference to the latter possibility it has been noted that it is a common accepted usage in some cockney, West Indian and African American English. It may be a remnant of an Old English form of the verb, "acsian" (or "ahsian"), alternate form of "ascian".
I don't know whether this can suggest anything about where the speaker actually learned English, though I would not think offhand it supports (by itself, at least) an Eastern European origin.
There is some dispute over whether in English this is idiolectal (i.e., some individuals have problems with that cluster), or dialectal, but with reference to the latter possibility it has been noted that it is a common accepted usage in some cockney, West Indian and African American English. It may be a remnant of an Old English form of the verb, "acsian" (or "ahsian"), alternate form of "ascian".
I don't know whether this can suggest anything about where the speaker actually learned English, though I would not think offhand it supports (by itself, at least) an Eastern European origin.