Posted on 09/19/2007 8:33:25 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
ya’all
is more precise than
you (plural).
Hey, no dirty talk here! ;o)
Yes.
I prefer “yinz”.
and “all y’all” is even more precisely plural...
You mean are Northerners losing their accents?
With every home having cable TV, it was kinda inevitable that learning and sophistication would eventually penetrate even the most backward areas of the country. ;-}
Maybe we should have a paypsee!
No paypsee! COKE!!!
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"Ahhhh ain't no ways tahhhhhhhrd..."
When she's talking to blacks she'll get to some jive talking. When she's talking to southerns she'll get the southern drawl going.
She's such a phony witch and her supporters are too stupid to see it.
This article misses that there are different Southern accents.
It matters not where a person is from, be it New York City, Jersey, the West Coast, Kansas or some foreign country. You put a CB mic in their hand and within thirty minutes, they'll be sounding like they're from south Alabama!
Now it is “Hey, like did you go to that uh, like party last night it was killer, ya know?! Uh so what’s up? Dang that guy was ho—o-t. Yeow! You know what I’m talkin’ about? Way hot!” And that is just with the 45 year olds. LOL. I haven’t even gotten into text language with the young uns. The language is mono rap with a lot of the younger crowd or party girl NY/California (established from TV and movies). Give me a southern drawl anyday!
Watched the premiere of “Kid Nation” (because of the controversy—still haven’t decided whether it was a bad idea), and it seems that regional accents (such as Southern drawls and Massachusetts.....accents) are still in existence and will be for at least a while more yet.
Actually, having ‘you’ cover both singular and plural is considered very helpful, personally.
Overall, the article tends to take a biased-against-Southern-accent slant.
I bought into Lenny Bruce’s routine about Lyndon Johnson that made much of northerners’ unwillingness to accept any sort of intellectual comment from a southerner. When I moved north to Virginia, I had to lose the Carolina drawl or be pegged for a bumpkin. As Bruce said, “They damn you for your sound.”
Very true. It wasn’t until I moved south that I realized there was so much variance. Georgia sounds nothing like East Texas, which sounds nothing at all like East Tennessee.
Another thing that seems strange to me is that some members of a family will have a strong regional accent and others won’t.
What’s up with that?
It has to do with education, what entertainment they watch (and where it’s from), and who they associate with. Also, how much they care, and who they’re speaking to.
I find myself sliding around from a flat, accentless Midwestern-type speech (in business with people not here in TX) to a light Texas drawl, to a near-British accent, depending on who I’m speaking with and where they are.
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