There most certainly are accents in ASL. Just about every feature of a spoken language is also present in ASL. While I agree with you that word choice does not mean an accent, that doesn't mean ASL signers don't have accents. Instead of the spoken English accent meaning the sounds you make when speaking, it is the ASL accent meaning the movements you make when signing. A southern drawl means sounds are drawn out, right? Well, some people might sign more slowly, or with a certain looseness, etc. Don't let your beliefs about spoken language (which is made from sounds) color your beliefs about visual language (which is made from movements) - they are still languages.
Not really...how about this?
You can call it soda, pop, cola, co-cola, coke...that's at least five words for an English concept too.
I am a VRS interpreter, so I work with people from around the United States every day. Sometimes I have to ask for clarification. It's not that big a deal. Nobody "created" sign language, so it's not "logical" - it's evolved the way all languages evolved. There are certainly many illogical things about English; why do we say "He ran to the store" instead of "He runned to the store?" It's just the way English is, we have weird things. So does ASL.
