I am curious, since there seem to be many linguists in this thread, could anyone place Ken Schwaber's (one of the co-creators of scrum) accent? The most noticeable characteristic about it is that his /æ/ in words like "have", "past", "perhaps", "backlog" sounds very narrow/high. The /ei/ in "take" is also more narrow/high than usual. Is this something characteristic of any of the American dialects?
Google says he was born in 1945 in Wheaton, Illinois. Is this typical of that area?
Sounds like southern Wisconsin influenced. Wheaton is not far so perhaps he moved there or had family there (or the Wisconsin accent extends into wealthier Chicago suburbs)
Google says he was born in 1945 in Wheaton, Illinois. Is this typical of that area?
Speech example: https://youtu.be/xm4X7Hv_GOs?t=711