southern accent

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Joined: 4 Mar 2008
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07 Apr 2008, 8:43 pm

for two years going on three I've lived in the south-east, I used to live in arizona, and I try to test myself to see if I've developed an accent, I don't think I have but maybe I've been here for so long that I don't notice anymore, nothing against southerners I want to move back west someday and I don't want to go back and face stupid southern jokes from people on top of the joke I have to deal with already.

smheath
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07 Apr 2008, 10:49 pm

I've noticed on a lot of linguistic maps, Charleston is left out of the "Southern accent" region. Why is that?

NewportBeachDude
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08 Apr 2008, 1:27 am

CentralFLM wrote:

The people in the south have country accents because they started to talk a lot slower (or thought they had to) during the slavery years for their black slaves to understand. This started to be picked up by everybody in the community and continues to this day. This is not a joke by the way. Think about it.

Dude, that can't be true because most Whites did not come into contact with slaves at all. Unless you owned slaves or worked directly in the trade, you would never come into contact with slaves. Slaves were private property and they were kept on the property. They weren't walking around among the population having conversations.

I thought edcuation had a lot to do with it, but I could be wrong. The educated elite stayed in the Northeast and the King's language was prized. That's why you see so many of our oldest universities are pretty much all in the northeast.

NewportBeachDude
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08 Apr 2008, 1:33 am

Rainstorm5 wrote:

CentralFLM wrote:

Wrong, wrong, wrong.... Now linguistics IS something I know a good bit about.

Southerners 'sound like' they speak slowly because they stretch their vowels and occasionally drop consonants while talking. Why? Because in the early days when America was settled, a lot of French made their homes in this area (southeastern U.S. and also in the 'deep southern' states like Louisiana and Mississippi especially). When English has been infused by French inflection and then 'mutates' over a period of 150+ years, you get the Southern drawl you hear today. Where the French influence is still more predominant is in the 'Cajun' speech found in LA, MS and AL. They slur their vowels together when not speaking in Cajun French.

And, FYI, only the RICH, land-owning southerners owned slaves. The other 75% of Southerners couldn't afford them and worked as sharecroppers or indentured servants themselves.

Makes sense. Also, Spain colonized quite a few southern states, too, and Spanish really emphasizes vowels more than English. French, really emphasizes.

ChatBrat
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08 Apr 2008, 1:51 am

Lightning88 wrote:

I'm originally from the south (Houston, TX) but I never picked up a southern accent. Everyone here in Indiana seems to say that I sound like I'm from California instead. I guess it's from watching all those TV shows and movies made in California...

IMO, I don't consider Houston "the south", myself. The town is just TOO far south central and TOO big and TOO progressive to lend itself to the likability of southernisms.

Catalyst
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08 Apr 2008, 4:04 am

I read somewhere that the climate has some effect of it... that in warmer climes the language slows down.

I do agree with the "robotic attention" bit... I am from Alabama, but people cannot tell. Sometimes I develop a slight accent when I am talking to someone with an accent, or am very tired.

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anbuend
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08 Apr 2008, 8:28 am

Catalyst wrote:

I read somewhere that the climate has some effect of it... that in warmer climes the language slows down.

If that's true, what on earth is up with Mexico?

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ChatBrat
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09 Apr 2008, 11:34 am

anbuend wrote:

Catalyst wrote:

I read somewhere that the climate has some effect of it... that in warmer climes the language slows down.

If that's true, what on earth is up with Mexico?

LMAO! I'm having a mental picture of the Mexican cartoon mouse called Speedy Gonzales. ¡Ándale! ¡Ándale! ¡Arriba! ¡Arriba!

RRguy
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09 Apr 2008, 3:47 pm

These kids on my bus make fun of me by saying that i have a southern accent, even though i live in the north.

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JerryHatake
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09 Apr 2008, 5:46 pm

I'm born in Northern VA so my accents is very hard to pick up. Plus I have Northern born parents so I might actually have a northerner accent vs a southerner accent.

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AV-geek
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09 Apr 2008, 8:01 pm

There are different "sub accents" to the southern accent. Much of the West Virginia, Eastern Tennessee, and Western Carolina have a distinctly different accent than that of Alabama/Georgia/Missippi area.

This is because of the original settlement patterns when the country was founded. The areas of Appalachia were primarily inhabited by Scots and other highlanders, so the accent is largely an offshoot of a highland accent. As these folks moved farther south into Georgia & Alabama and other Gulf states and the French started settling in the area too, the French language influenced the highland accent, and it even had some Spanish influence as well as one gets closer to Texas.

I enjoy listening to thick Appalachian accents...it's definitely different than the typical "redneck" accent that is always mocked on TV and other media. To me, I when I hear an Appalachian accent, I think the person ought to be wearing Scottish garb!

weather1man
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09 Apr 2008, 10:40 pm

CentralFLM wrote:

What utter BS. It was the different British and Irish accents that came here. Drawing out vowels has nothing to do with "slaves". Learn your history.

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