“The Miami dialect is not a second-language accent, like you’d hear from a Cuban immigrant whose first language is Spanish. It is an American English dialect … spoken by native-born Americans. Which doesn’t stop the accent from seeming foreign to others: [FIU linguist Phillip] Carter says that his students will sometimes find themselves in a neighboring county, only to be asked what country they’re from.” Dan Nosowitz looks at the ingredients in this sancocho of speech patterns.