You're dead-on Jazzy. I'm hard-core mid-west and not more than 2 hours from my wife's home "tahn" just north of Pittsburgh. Funny how close and yet so far. We've gone west and we still hold our unique "accents".
On Sundy moornins She likes to prop up d'pillah and look out d'windah while yinz'r fixin tahst b'fore gahwin' up d'church.
She's in denial but it's unmistakable and comforting so far from "home".
I'll admit, I've got an accent to some and I'm sure it grates on them.
Nonetheless, as we look forward to the new movie Rocky Balboa, I see Rahky and she sees Rawcky.

Ahhh! Kennywood! Love the memories of that park (Logjammer was my favorite ride). But I digress.... ;) I say MonongeHAYla and LaTROBE. I put "jimmies" on ice cream and "jaggers" are those painful things on bushes. Oh, and how can I forget the one my hubby and stepkids constantly make fun of: GUMBAND!!!! Let's see how many non-Burghers know what that means. :D

Here's a true story for you all (yinz): About a year ago I was on a business call with someone here in Phoenix I'd never talked with before. We chatted about PR stuff for about 20 minutes when I finally said, "You know, I hate to interrupt but you sound like you're from my hometown." He said, "I'm from Pittsburgh, but I haven't lived there in 30 years." He STILL HAD THE ACCENT! We talked about nothing but Pittsburgh neighborhoods for the next HOUR. No lie. That pretty much cemented our happy business relationship. :)

Accents may reflect our different origins and be a source of jokes/ridicule, but they can certainly bring us together like it did above (and on this thread, too).