I grew up using that accent in the Philadelphia area because my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles used it.
After I took an Italian course in college, and I figured, well, this is the real Italian. My family must’ve been speaking some kind of Americanized version of the words.
But now, according to this article, they were speaking an older version of Italian words from a particular region (?). Very interesting.
Another thing we grew up saying was “man-i-gawt” for manicotti.
Yep. And "bazilligawt" for "basilico" (basil).