Ivan Turns Midwestern

Last Thursday, when Ivan came home from daycare, his vowels suddenly became very drawn out and flat--snaack, maat, Saaam, etc.... Out of nowhere, he's developed an accent, a mid-western accent to be precise. Then on certain words which yield themselves to that specific New Jersey pronunciation, he's embraced that accent as well. Other words come out in Southern twang.

He's been toggling back and forth between normal accent-less speech and these myriad of accents ever since.

We have noticed that as part of his speech acquisition, he often repeats the our words and sentences to assimilate what he's heard.

But we're rather perplexed where did the accent come from. He must have picked it up at daycare. But from whom? Other kids? Or teachers? Most daycare ladies are non-native English speakers--either Hispanic, Ethiopian, etc--and for some of them it's more likely that they speak little or no English rather than have an accent.

All this makes the accent even more mysterious and funny.