You can tell a lot about someone from the way they speak. On today’s edition of Please Explain we’ll look at the different accents found around the United States and find out where they come from and why they persist. Joining us are Natalie Schilling-Estes, Associate Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University, and Kara Becker, of the Department of Linguistics at New York University.

Clips of the Brooklyn and Atlanta accents are from George Mason University's Speech Accent Archive.