@alan Hmm!! I definitely do not think poor people in St. Louis (Missouri, that weird prong of "North" dialect stretching down into just the City) speak a Chicago dialect. It's much closer to a Memphis drawl, some eclectic Ozark and French affectations, with a little of the clipped Chicago surliness. Our upper crust does put on Chicago airs, lol.

(Well, to my #ActuallyAutistic ear, anyway. I love the English language and all the ways it can be spoken - I look forward to visiting the Northeast someday and hearing "movie accents" as they're spoken irl.)