[Preechr]

Not to agree too much with Fartin, but my own experience leads me to believe that accents... and tonality, I suppose... are intentional more often then not at and past the point of fluency. I'm no international man of mystery, but I've known at least a few folks from other parts of the world with plenty of experience speaking English... When asked, and I have, they admit freely that their imperfections are meant as a presentation of themselves to friends and strangers.

That being said, I live in the Deep South. Most of my customers are black folks, and I live in a community where I am the minority by far(I'm pretty much white, btw.) I've heard very few blacks get offended at the idea that people can tell their skin color from their voice, say over a phone. It happens, but it's rare. This is all just my observation, so I'm not speaking from any sort of scientific basis.... but I would say there's a physical and thus probably genetic "tonality" to black voices. I don't believe that noticing that is any more racist than observing that a darker toned person is physically lighter toned than you are.

I have, though, been treated as a racist when I commented on a person's "improved skin color" after his having been sick. I'm not sure why that was offensive, as he had been sort of pale while ill and had regained his former, darker, color... but I guess that falls into the race is better left alone bucket. I'm wondering, now, what the point of this was... Are you that isolated from others, or are you just looking for some Renaissance Man points?