Cage, who was born in Long Beach, California, my hometown, speaks a dialect that has sometimes been called broad, General American or North Midland. This North Midlnad dialect has spread in a long, expanding swath from a narrow band running from ... We hvae no ercordings of anyone speaking English before the 1880s and precise, or narrow, phonetic trasncription, was still esveral centuries ahead. We can only guess as to ohw anyone in the past actually soundde. ...