The Southern Accent: We're Losing It

Website of Rhodes College, Memphis, TN ^ | unknown | Rob Marus

[foreverfree]

A fellow FReeper posted this article a while back and I found it so fascinating that I thought it was worth bringing to FR again.

That said, I will tell you that I've lived south of Mason-Dixon for 17 years (though I lived all my life prior to that in Pennsylvania) and tend to pronounce George Wallace's state as "Ala-bayama" not "Ala-bamma". Just a tendency. "Birming-hayam, Ala-bayama". :-)

On the other hand, Kristina Abernathy of the Weather Channel, who's from Albany, GA, tries her best to suppress her GA peach accent but just can't pull it off. :-)

Here are the birthplaces of the actresses and actors rattled off in the article:

Andie MacDowell: Gaffney, SC

Julia "Hairy Armpits" Roberts: Smyrna, GA (this link will take you to the main page; there, click on info, then click on biography)

Matthew McConaughey: Uvalde, TX

Kim Basinger: Athens, GA

The mailman on Seinfeld: Sorry, I never watch Seinfeld, dunno who he is, can't help you. :-/

Anyway, fawr ya'll's informashun...

foreverfree

P.S. When I was in a Family Christian Store recently, I heard a cashier who said she was from Louisiana (I think) - and sounded it. The Dixie accent is alive and well!

[dheretic]

Funny, I've met very few in VA that have a southern accent, including those that have lived here all of their lives. Interestingly enough it seems there is a sort of "Virginia Accent" because I've been told that my accent is sort of strange by southerners and northerners since it is distinctly not southern, northern nor is it midwestern. IMO it's just that the various accents are merging into a pan-American accent.

[Chad Fairbanks]

The Yankee accent is also being lost...

[Hawkeye's Girl]

My accent is safe, ya, sure, you betcha. I'm a Minnesotan doncha know.

[HairOfTheDog]

It is because of TV - The dialects aren't isolated any more... we all hear one common speech that is pretty vanilla - accentless.

[Arkinsaw]

The South Carolina accent is wonderful IMO. The New England accent is still around but is an endangered species also.

[Senator Pardek]

Then again, maybe not.

[Arkinsaw]

Minna-SOH-tah. I love hearing that.

[Cleburne]

in the 60's people stopped dropping their "R"s

"Dropping your R's", as it is known colloquially, is not a linguistic pattern found over the entire South. It is confined to certain regions and people groups, and has never been universal. I never hear it here in South Mississippi, though it is common among black folks and all folks in the Delta and Prairie regions.

My own premise is that Southern lingual pattersn will survive, particularly in rural areas, where they continue esentially unchangedtoday. Certainly the younger folk will sound different from the older ones, however, the unique speech patterns may not have significantly changed. I imagine the typical Yankee would find my young and middle aged neighbors to have as "hick" and countrified speech as they ever have. I've found that my own speech patterns vary: when in the company of out of state folks, I tend to drop down my accent, but when in the company of local, home folks, my accent is thick and drawling with Mississippi red clay and hot summers. (And, by the way, the hot weather has nothing to do with some Southern dialects being slower than others)

[Dakmar]

I don't know if Ozark dialect is considered Southern or not for the purpose of this discussion, but since I'm the one doing the considering, I say it is, at least for the duration of this post. I just wanted to recommend a book by Mitch Jayne, titled Home Grown Stories & Home Fried Lies. It's chock full of downhome expressions!

[Clemenza]

Well, I have been concerned about the New Yawk accent fading. All of youse mey not no-tice it, but da Asians and Yuppie kids in NYC speak like dere frum Suthen California or sumtin'.

[bandlength]

to hawkeye's : "My accent is safe, ya, sure, you betcha. I'm a Minnesotan doncha know."

which. . . is amazingly close to blue nose land, a.k.a. the great white north!

[Dog Gone]

Y'all doesn't have much place in the written language, but it wasn't until I moved to Texas a long time ago that I realized what a useful word it is in conversation.

In business, I use it to refer to "your corporation" without sounding like I have something stiff stuck somewhere painful.

[Feiny]

It depends on which part of Virginia you are in. I am coming home next week & fully expect to regain my drawl.

[PJ-Comix]

No youngster ever sounds like Strom Thurmond or Fritz Hollings anymore.

[Cleburne]

Yes, but not all folks in the South watch TV all the time. Certainly, many do, though it is uncertain how much TV affects speech (I feel that it does), but in rural Southern towns the vast majority of speech is tinged with distinct dialect. And you find it as strong in middle aged and younger folks as you do in the older generation. And with the rise of the Internet, which does not involve much listening, I expect our dialects to be further preserved.

[Fifth Business]

It's the homogenization of America. It's not a plot, just the result of mass communication and mass cultural influence. Why is there an Olive Garden in every American city? Why do kids in the suburbs dress like hip-hoppers? We're just one big 'burb now, parrotting witticisms from last night's sitcoms to one another at the office, dressing like Tommy and Ralph say we should, and pronouncing our vowels like a TV journalist. Regional differences are for comedic effect only.

[Clemenza]

It is because of TV - The dialects aren't isolated any more... we all hear one common speech that is pretty vanilla - accentless.

For this New Yorker, the most "vanilla" accent belongs to the people who prounounce "Orange" as OOr-enge, rather than Are-ange, as we in New York (and those in the UK) do. Remember, its not FlOOrida, its FlA-rida.

[bandlength]

pahk the cah in the back yahd

[SamAdams76]

I was just in Alabama a couple weeks ago and I can report that the Southern Accent is alive and well up on Sand Mountain!