In the late 60’s, after getting out of the Air Force, I went to the Atlanta School of Radio & TV Broadcasting to prepare for a career in radio. Being a Georgia boy, I had to work on my accent a little for the job. I had to learn to say “ahn” for word “on”, as opposed to “own”. Work was needed on my word endINGs, and words like “oil”, “foil” and such.
While commuting I would speak into a portable tape recorder, and listen back to it for self-critique.
I didn’t get it perfect, but it was good enough to get me through 20 years of daily air time.
However, I found that when not on the air, I reverted to my southern accent, bu as soon as the mic came on, I was as accent-neutral as I could be.
It was like learning a foreign language in a way, and reverting back to your native tongue when you didn’t need it.
But, I wasn’t trying to sound like a Yankee, replacing all my “R’s” with “H’s”, and saying “youse” instead of “you”.
In the service I was around people from all over, and heard just about every accent you could imagine. I am not a trained linguist, but I take a great interest in the way people talk. Bad grammar irks me more than any accent does.
I spent 10 years trying to get my ex-wife (a German) to say “this, that ot them”, and not “dis, dat, and dem”. The “th” sound is a lisp in the German language and she was naturally resistant to doing. She’s been in America since 1968 and still says “dis, dat and dem”.
But I love the southern accent. Around Atlanta - with the influx of northerners in the past 20 years, finding a genuine southern accent is getting more difficult. The advent of TV, cable, movies, etc, has also influenced the accent to a degree.
But for the Feds to declare jihad on southern talk is outrageous. No one is working on the black accent, which is usually unintelligible even to southerners. Many of them still asy “dis, dat, and dem”, and they were born here.
Accents that need work are everywhere, from illegal aliens to tech support people in India.
I’m retired, no longer on the air, and I speak southern. 20 years in broadcasting followed by 20 years in corporate management have no changed that fact one iota. If I need to speak accent-neutral, I can, otherwise my native tongue is southern English.
The Yankee elites in government who are tring to make it a one-size-fts-all world can bite me.
I hope y’all understand!
“I spent 10 years trying to get my ex-wife (a German) to say “this, that ot them”, and not “dis, dat, and dem”. The “th” sound is a lisp in the German language and she was naturally resistant to doing. She’s been in America since 1968 and still says “dis, dat and dem””
My mom’s family is from Minnesota an ders nuttin wrong whit da way she speaks. “Tree” is what comes affer two, an dat’s duh trute.