The Southern drawl – is it spreading?

Christian Science Monitor ^ | September 20, 2007 | Patrik Jonsson

[Lorianne]

Some believe that the Southern drawl has expanded to the point where, arguably, more than half of all Americans now glide their diphthongs and hush their R's like modern-day Rhett Butlers. Some professionals who travel around even adopt different regional dialects as they go, knowing it's one of the best ways to get ahead.

But other experts believe mass communications and urbanization are cutting away at the distinctiveness of the Southern voice, resulting in a more mono-pitch America.

[Mr. Blonde]

I admit to using like a lot. And I do it and then get angry at myself for doing it. I can’t stand it when others do it, and then here I am doing it. It just doesn’t sit right.

I h8 txt talk. I can’t bring myself to do it in text messages. Having a full keyboard has made it easier to avoid.

[GOP Poet]

Hey, I hear you. In college I used to say "Ya know" A LOT!! Basically every sentence. One day I was in a professor's office and he said, "No. I don't know. What do you mean?" I fa-areaked! LOL. I didn't have the least idea how to describe what I meant as I had been talking that way for so long and no one ever challenged me. They either said, "Yeah," shook their head yes, or said nothing.

Since then I have learned to articulate myself much more precisely but it took awhile and as you mentioned it is not always blessedly free of ums, likes, yeahs, hmmms but one thing I rarely ever say, if ever, is "Ya know." :-).

[Daffynition]

Listen to Kentucky fried Hillary: Hillary Adopts Southern Drawl In Church Service

"I just want to begin by giving praise to the Lord Almighty," said Mrs Clinton, 59, with a Southern twang not normally detectable in her speeches, as she announced she had come as "a sister in worship and a grateful friend and beneficiary of what happened in Selma 42 years ago".

Remember a few years ago when she tried to talk "black" to the NAACP?"I just want to begin by giving praise to the Lord Almighty," said Mrs Clinton, 59, with a Southern twang not normally detectable in her speeches, as she announced she had come as "a sister in worship and a grateful friend and beneficiary of what happened in Selma 42 years ago".