In the US, pronunciation of the word, "and" falls on a spectrum from "eye-nd" to "ah-nd".
I have an intuitive feeling about what that spectrum is that has proved acurate for me as I listen to what folks have to say rather than just how they say one word, but I can't seem to put into words what it says about a person. And I guess people could consciously manipulate their accent.
Recordings could be analyzed and the "and" pronunciation could be displayed on a graph as a political classification.
The "ind" party.
Of course people would start faking it. But if that intuition can be reduced to a measurement of the pronunciation of one word, more complex intuitions maybe could be developed, for instance if someone is faking it or not.
Come to think of it, I trust bad actors much more than good actors because at least you know they are not faking it. I guess you could fake bad acting. But maybe the machine could tell the difference. Its got to be just statistics.-- JesusHChrist, Aug 27 2013 Would this lead to a spectrum ranging from "in-vade" through "e-vade" to "a-void"?-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 27 2013 got a laugh the other day talking to cable tech support: one call went to India where the guy spoke English rather well: I only had to ask him to repeat himself a couple times. The other call went to Texas where my side of the conversation was mostly "What ?" "Could you say that again ?"
(for balance' sake, the Texas call was the useful one: the Indian guy was a twat who wasted my time)-- FlyingToaster, Aug 27 2013 Having grown up speaking only Latin at home (my parents were sociolinguists with a sick sense of humor), I consistently pronounce “and” as “et”. What can I say—consuetudinis magna vis est.-- ytk, Aug 27 2013 My entire state, currently split red/blue like the steal your face skull, would become unilateral members of the 'n' party.-- Alterother, Aug 28 2013 If the country's leaders fail to unify these new parties, could you accuse them of poor ahnd-eyend coordination?-- nick_n_uit, Aug 28 2013 //acurate//-- MaxwellBuchanan, Aug 28 2013 random, halfbakery