Why do the Mannings sound like they have a Different accent ??

I met my cousin from Metairie for the first time when I enrolled at Tech where she was a junior.

She was well-spoken and her elocution gave no hint of her roots.

I'd never met my uncle either. He was a Waukesha Marine Diesel VP and heavily involved in the Mardi Gras krewe scene for many years.

So, I got invited down to see Mardi Gras from an insider's point of view.

From the private parties in Lakeview to late-night work on the floats, I got to see everything.

The first time my cousin said, "Jesus-Gawd, man!" my ears perked up. Everybody was speaking in accents and dialects and using expressions I'd never heard before.

My cousin had to translate, her voice slipping easily back and forth between Yat and Redneck.

That was when I first came to appreciate the vast diversity of New Orleans and its unique dialects.