southern accent

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Some of my ancestors were on the same boat with the slaves. We had to work knee-by-knee with them, and there wasn't a lick of difference between them and us. We've got old family friends "of color," even to this day. As soon as they had a chance, they went into foresty, and they've never looked back. The heavier the accent, by the way, the more likely it is that their ancestors were just as horribly oppressed as the slaves. Think about that before forming your prejudices.

The real vermin are the ones who have that pretentious "upper-class" accent. You know which one I mean? If you hear someone pop that crap, bust 'em in the chops for their ancestors being pretentious, slimeball idiots and sending my ancestors off to fight their dumbass, profit-motivated war. We'd just as soon have picked the tobacco ourselves as fight their dumbass war. They've got a lot of nerve continuing to pull that sleazy "accent." They don't have any god-damned "accent." It was affected when their ancestors started it, and it's affected now. They should be kicked in the balls for keeping that crap up. It's bullhockey on top of bullhockey.

"I'm from the south...................the deep south!! !!

You can't forget to mention the huge influence of the Scotch and Irish accents on the South as well.

Stephen Colbert worked on not having an accent when he was young because he didn't like how people with souhern accents were portrayed as ignorant in movies.

Highland Scot! Father's paternal line! WOO! I could join my great-uncle's clan if I wanted to! There's enough of it in me, after all!

*whips out his bagpipes and starts playing some marching tune on them*

Yeah it's pretty bad when you have to end up internalizing that kind of thing.

I have a staff person who speaks with a generic northern accent most of the time, but when she's waitressing she says she gets better tips if she uses her natural (southern) accent. The rest of the time, she says, she gets stereotyped as stupid and ignorant.

And she's a pre-med student, by the way.

Oh, do we have accents up here!

People from Brooklyn, Long Island, and most of the rest of New York, as well as Massachusetts (especially Boston), Rhode Island and Maine all have thick, distinctive accents.

Interestingly, northerners can easily identify northern regional differences, whereas most southern accents sound pretty much alike to many of us!

As a closet linguistics freak, I just wanted to say I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter. This was FASCINATING to me. I never thought about a "French connection" before. I always chalked it up to the English/Irishness...wow.

Aye, me too!

I'm sick of Southern accents, and I've only been here in Atlanta for a bit over a week. Everytime I hear a huge thick one I cringe. It's like nails on a chalkboard.

Now I like stereotypes. They're funny. But they're not always correct, boy.

Have you ever heard a Cajun when they're angry? That's the fastest talking, well yelling indecipherable bad words, I've ever heard.

The city of New Orleans is also an anomaly because some people from the city of New Orleans actually have a Northern accent that is very similar to the Brooklyn accent.



Although some people do have that assumption, some southerners actually capitalize on it. Southern lawyers are noted for exaggerating their southern accent when in a case against a non-southern lawyer. It sometimes gets the non-southern lawyer overconfident because the accent makes them think the southern lawyer is ignorant. The southern lawyer waits for the perfect moment then swiftly destroys the case of the other when they're least expecting it.



Can you tell the difference between a Texas drawl and a southern accent?

We frequently do the same thing though. Down south we usually categorize northern accents as either the Brooklyn or the Boston accent.

I find accents fascinating. I have noticed in my travels through the southern US that there is no "one" southern accent, that people in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Florida definitely do not sound alike! (I found the Tennessee accent hardest to understand). The Indiana "southern accent" is called the Hoosier Apex and it is found from Terre Haute south, and the reason is that a lot of Kentuckians came up US Highway 41 to find work in Indiana. In fact there was a saying that in western Kentucky they taught the 4 R's, Reading, 'Riting, 'Rithmetic and Route 41 North. You will also hear a lot of southern-type accents in lower Michigan as well.

It is true that Northern accents don't get as much publicity but there are definitely regional accents. Chicago has its own accent, and I can definitely tell if a person is from Wisconsin as opposed to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, even though the two may sound alike to someone from outside the region. Actually, there are two dialects of "Yoopanese" as we call it--one is Canadian-based and the other is Scandinavian/Finnish-based. I am originally from the UP and though I don't think I have much of an accent, I have had people tell me that there is a touch of Canadian in my speech from the way I say certain words.

I am not sure that accents are dying out so much as they are changing. I would not be surprised if in a few decades American English started evolving a Spanish sound, even in areas far from Mexico. All I need to do is go to my local flea market to hear proof of that! By the way, I am told that New Mexicans of Hispanic ancestry sound different from Mexican nationals, so that Border Patrol is easily able to tell who's who just by talking to them.

A friend of mine from Texas tried to teach me the difference, so I might still be able to do it, but originally, no, never. Texas, Lousiana, Missippi, etc., all sounded the same to me.

But I could tell you in a second the difference between a Brooklyn, Staten Island or Long Island accent!

i'm from Long Island, my dad is from Brooklyn, my mom is from Queens, and yes, i can tell the difference between all those accents.

and i've gone through the whole, "can you tell the difference between marry, merry, and mary?" thing. (i can.)

but, ironically, i don't have an accent. people don't believe me when i tell them i'm from Long Island.

if i've been talking to my mom i'll pick up a slight one at the time, but it quickly goes away.

it was interesting to read that not having the accent of your region is an aspie trait. i'm sure it didn't help my friend making ability when everyone thought i must have been putting on some hoity-toity non-NY accent on purpose. (i really wasn't, i swear!)

Acadian French they just sound like other french up here, I like hearing Cajun, its so different to our Quebecois french, most of the Quebec side of my family has Acadian roots

There's a heck of a difference between Texas, the South-East, the rest of the South-West, and some various states that I've yet to figure out where they belong (Mississippi, Louisiana, ect). I've never considered the Carolinas to be southern states; their culture is too different. (I came from Georgia, planning on going back late next year.)

I can hear some differences between northern accents, but not too many. Maine has its own distinct one, as does New York; everyone else sounds about the same, as far as I can tell.

I lost my southern accent pretty much entirely a while back, which I consider to be unfortunate. I'll probably pick it back up eventually, but still.