The most important feature in language comprehension

When first asked what the most important feature is in language, I thought vocabulary. If you don't know the words, you can't communicate, or so I thought originally. But then I went back and thought about how babies communicate and how non native english speakers communicate. At least for me, no matter how many vocabulary words a person knows, if I can't understand them, then it doesn't matter. However, someone who knows very few vocabulary words but has the proper sounds and syntax can sometimes be understood more clearly.
One thing that stuck out in my mind when thinking about this was one of my trips to Egypt. My mom does not speak Arabic, but she learned a few words, but has a very limited vocabulary. She practiced the few words she knew and learned how to enunciate them properly. She also learned the context and proper syntax of the words she knew. She would go to supermarket there and get by on those few words and communicate effectively. I do not think they same thing would be true if she just knew a lot of words, but could pronounce them properly or said them with incorrect grammar.
So, I narrowed my answer down to sounds and syntax, which I think are more important in language comprehension. Of these two, I would say sounds is the most important as evidenced by a few other examples I have seen. Often, I can understand what someone is saying, even if the grammar and syntax are awful. But, as seen in the compilation of my notebook for this introseminar, a few changes in the sound of the words sometimes makes it impossible to recognize the words being said.
In the end, I think that sounds are the most important feature of language comprehension. Without sound, I do not believe that syntax or vocabulary are entirely relevant, it begins with sounds.

What American Accent do you have? Quiz

I often wonder what kind of accent I have, and have sometimes been told I have no accent at all, but I thought that was somewhat strange. Doesn't everyone have an accent?
So I began to take the quiz with my roomate next me as I tried saying aloud the different words. We came upon many differences. I thought that cot and caught sounded the same and she did not. I also thought that merry, marry, and Mary all sounded the same as well. Dawn and don as well as collar and caller sounded identical to me, I couldn't see how some people heard a difference. Although, I thought that "feel" and "fill" and "pen" and "pin" did not sound similar at all.
After pressing submit I found that I had a "Midland Accent". It was also described as sounding like no accent at all and said that my accent would be a good TV voice, whatever that means. The quiz was right on target; I do live in the Midwest and I think I have a Midwestern accent. This quiz made me pay attention to the way I spoke and how it often differed from the people around me in ways I never recognized or even thought about. I look forward to seeing how the quiz analyzed the accents of other students in the class as well.