New research shows that the equivalent of "accents" are developing in the Twitterverse just as in spoken word, suggesting that a lot of communicating via Twitter is done regionally. Muffy Siegel, a linguist at Temple, says sites such as Twitter have given those who study language a treasure trove of information to sift through and analyze. "Social media have proved a bonanza to linguists, because it gives us access to people writing and speaking in a very natural way," she said. "We didn't have access to people's social interactions this way before without sneaking up on them with tape recorders."