I cannot tell the difference between scent, sent, cent, they sound the same.
This reminded me of my ex though - his name was Don and down here the boy name Don and the girl name Dawn sound the same. This made him so mad because where he came from (also in the US) they sounded completely different. He pronounced the girl name Dawn almost like "Dwan" and the boy one Dahn, sort of nasally.
So I can believe they sound different in different places but it would not be related to the volume or pitch. Rising pitch at the end of a phrase makes it a question so it has meaning in that way, and some words can change based on which syllable gets the accent - object, content, project as examples.


I grow them! Stokes Purple. They are the best because they are not as gluey as other types of sweet potato. They even grow in our hot summer weather.
ETA: it's resource intensive but my favorite way to prepare them is freeze then bake, and I like them with olive oil, goat cheese, pepitas and salt & pepper.