Coastal accents are different from tidewater to outer banks to Gullah to Naples Florida
Different linguist stimuli
Charleston sounds southern to me
But not country
Younger college educated all of America sound alike now mostly
They are all ashamed of the accents of their ancestry
Pity
My wife is Charleston raised and has cotton state accent
Dah-lynn
I used to think there was “a southern accent.” That’s before I lived and traveled in the South and discovered there are a WHOLE BUNCH of southern accents.
With exception of NE, the rest of the country sounds pretty much the same to my ear. But southerners are wildly diverse, though possibly not as much as they used to be.
I remember taking this test or something very like it.
I was amazed at how it picked up where I grew up (south of Washington DC) and it also picked up where my parents are from in two distinct parts of the South.
Oddly enough every so often I get asked if I’m from Canada. Apparently my residual Tidewater Virginia accent shares a few words with the Canucks- we both say “out” and “about” a bit funny.