The world of accents begins with our mother tongue: regional dialects in the United States from down home Maine to the Pacific Northwest and British accents from Standard Upper Class to Cockney to the outposts of the Commonwealth. Next comes European accents that include Germanic, Slavic and Romance languages, among others, followed by the accents of the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Certain basic principles apply in learning all these accents and they are explained in the opening section of the book, which lays the groundwork for everything that follows.