Anybody got any thoughts on why Charleston, SC natives have no southern accent? To hear a southern accent in SC you have to head up-state. My brother has lived in Charleston for 40 years and he’s the only one in his family that still has a Southern accent. He’s originally from Eastern, North Carolina and still has the accent, the way I do. His sons and daughters, born and raised in and around Charleston talk real fast, more Yankee than anything else. Certainly not Southern.
I’ve never been to Charleston. (With a Walmart right up the street, I hardly even go to Charlotte ;-).
Teachers from up north, maybe? I’ve read that’s why natives of New Orleans talk like New Yorkers.
Typical for the East Coast where different cities have very different accents. Supposedly, it’s the “Coastal Southern” dialect which is different from Inland Southern dialects. It’s speculated that a Tidewater planter like George Washington wouldn’t have sounded much like much like what we’ve come to understand as a “Southern accent.”