Article: Prof puts the accent on clear speech // Lake County expert helps erase dialects

The late Mayor Richard J. Daley probably would have pronounced this lan sentence as follows:

Da late Mare Richard J. Daley prob'ly woulda pernounced dis sentence as follas.

The famed South - or Sout' - Sider's mispronunciations never held him back, but because an accent makes it hard for many people to get jobs or promotions - even housing.

Some get help from Tommie Ems.

She's a speech professor at the College of Lake County in Grayslake who gives classes and private lessons on reducing foreign accents and regional dialects.

"What good is it to read, write and understand English if others can't understand you?" she asks.

Ems said the problem may be the tongue - the one in the ...

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