Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why do Southerners have a drawl?
http://deltafarmpress.com/ ^ | 9/14/15 | David Bennett

Posted on 09/18/2015 9:57:02 AM PDT by chasio649

The other day, my son asked why there are such a variety of accents in the country. Why does a fellow from Mississippi have a twang that’s different from a fellow in Texas?

Long ago, I asked my father a similar question. He pointed out that it isn’t just in America – a wide range of dialects and accents are common for French, Arabic, whatever.

In recent days, some interesting pieces have appeared online. One in Slate has a list of the top slang terms from every state. Here’s what was included for the Mid-South:

Arkansas: “tump” -- to tip over or dump out. Louisiana: “banquette” – sidewalk. Mississippi: “nabs” -- peanut butter crackers. Tennessee: “whirlygust” -- a strong wind. The words from Arkansas and Mississippi are familiar. Not so those from Louisiana and Tennessee.

Humans are so inventive, language doesn’t have to be spoken words. Slate has posted a video shot in a mountainous region of Turkey where residents whistle long range conversations when their shouts won’t carry. Some 10,000 people still use this method of communication.

And if you want to get into some truly odd language characteristics, head down to northwest Brazil. There, the Piraha people speak a language unrelated to any other. Christian missionaries have spent agonizing decades trying to learn the intricacies of the Piraha’s tongue and culture.

A 2007 profile in the New Yorker says Piraha is “based on just eight consonants and three vowels, (and is) one of the simplest sound systems known. Yet it possesses such a complex array of tones, stresses, and syllable lengths that its speakers can dispense with their vowels and consonants altogether and sing, hum, or whistle conversations.”

Further, the Piraha, “have no numbers, no fixed color terms, no perfect tense, no deep memory, no tradition of art or drawing, and no words for ‘all,’ ‘each,’ ‘every,’ ‘most,’ or ‘few.’”

Why has this group been able to resist modernity? Largely because they “consider all forms of human discourse other than their own to be laughably inferior, and they are unique among Amazonian peoples in remaining monolingual.”


TOPICS: Society
KEYWORDS: accent; accents; drawl; south; southern; southerners
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-152 next last
To: HotHunt

Castilians have a lisp.


61 posted on 09/18/2015 10:42:54 AM PDT by ichabod1 (Spriiingtime for islam, and tyranny. Winter for US and frieeends. . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: The Ghost of FReepers Past
All areas have regional accent. In the same way you learn language, you learn accent.

When I was in the Middle East, I worked with a Texan that had grown in up Scotland and had a thick Scottish accent.

He had previously spent 8 years in Saudi and was fluent Arabic.

The contractor had mostly Lebanese and Palestinian Foreman and leaders. They were making fun of his accent. When I asked about if the Scottish was bleeding into his Arabic, he said no, they think I sound like a Saudi.

62 posted on 09/18/2015 10:43:36 AM PDT by thackney (life is fragile, handle with prayer)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

Since the slaves would have had to learn english from their masters, and not vice versa, it seems more likely the drawl was present in the speech before the slaves learned it.


63 posted on 09/18/2015 10:43:52 AM PDT by sparklite2 (Voting is acting white.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: aquila48

I also think geography has a lot to do with it. My favorite is a Texan accent. Unfortunately I have a touch of philly and new york but say, “eh?” and “y’all” every once in a while. I don’t say wooder for water though.

Have fun!

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=1&;


64 posted on 09/18/2015 10:46:58 AM PDT by huldah1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Cecily

Love Brother Dave.

“James Lewis, get away from the wheel-barrow!
You knows you doesn’t know nothin’ about machinery!”


65 posted on 09/18/2015 10:49:22 AM PDT by sparklite2 (Voting is acting white.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]

To: sparklite2

Love him too.

“Is you gon’ be here when John gets here?”

“Man, if you ain’t John, I’m gone!”


66 posted on 09/18/2015 10:55:15 AM PDT by Cecily
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: chasio649

Here is a short but interesting explanation; and it has nothing to do with African influences.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwwffKlvfOY


67 posted on 09/18/2015 10:55:27 AM PDT by JGT
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: thackney

My wife is from the Philippines...raised speaking Visayan and English...since being in the south for so long...her English has a southern accent....many Filipinos laugh when we travel....she’s says ya’ll and has a heavy southern/Visayan accent....can be comical at times.


68 posted on 09/18/2015 11:01:32 AM PDT by chasio649 (The GOPe can never seem to remember who brought them to the dance)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 62 | View Replies]

To: chasio649
Mother and I visited a friend's mother and she said to me "You sound like a Lima hillbilly!"

I repaired my enunciation on the spot.

69 posted on 09/18/2015 11:03:32 AM PDT by W. (I piss on your stupid, violence-provoking koran!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tet68
Most southerners put their awl in th' crankcase.

That's why they're always tellin' their daughters ta 'Check yer awl!'

70 posted on 09/18/2015 11:05:06 AM PDT by uglybiker (nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-nuh-BATMAN!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: W.

I repaired my enunciation on the spot.


Why?


71 posted on 09/18/2015 11:05:40 AM PDT by chasio649 (The GOPe can never seem to remember who brought them to the dance)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 69 | View Replies]

To: chasio649

“Louisiana: “banquette” – sidewalk. “

I’ve seen this word in writing once in the 25 years I’ve lived here, and have never actually heard it said. This must be isolated to the roughly 17,000 people who still know how to speak Cajun French.


72 posted on 09/18/2015 11:08:09 AM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: chasio649

Why do New Yorkers literally talk out of the side of their mouth??


73 posted on 09/18/2015 11:08:51 AM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: The Ghost of FReepers Past

“”Resist modernity.” Translation: remain bone-in-the-nose, grass-hut-dwelling barbarians. Not exactly a noble goal.

And their minimalist language is nothing compared to the Tralfamidorians, who communicate by farting and tap-dancing.


74 posted on 09/18/2015 11:09:14 AM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

You’re about as dumb and ignorant as a fence post.


75 posted on 09/18/2015 11:10:13 AM PDT by CodeToad (If it weren't for physics and law enforcement I'd be unstoppable!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 50 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

I once heard a sermon on the radio by the original Bob Jones. I tuned in about half-way through and I figured the preacher was black until the announcer mention Jones’ name at the end.


76 posted on 09/18/2015 11:11:49 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: chasio649

“Tump” — now that’s one I haven’t heard for a while. We had some transplanted Arkansans where I grew up in southern Illinois, and I used to hear it all the time.


77 posted on 09/18/2015 11:16:06 AM PDT by Southside_Chicago_Republican (If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DesertRhino

The Southern accent I knew as a small child no longer exists anywhere that I know of. It was restricted mostly to people sixty and over back then and it came mainly from old English influences, not from the black people. The black people I was around then may have used many of the same words but pronounced them differently and they had words that they used that were not used by white people and vice versa. I have to struggle to try to speak in that way now. Oddly enough, I grew up in South Carolina just South of the North Carolina line and midway on an East to West axis but I have been told many times that I sound like a Texan. I did some telephone work which involved calling a lot of people in the Eastern half of Texas and some of them would ask what part of TEXAS I am from, they assumed from my speech pattern that I was born and raised somewhere in Texas.

Do you have any idea how comical some Northern accents sound to Southerners?


78 posted on 09/18/2015 11:16:28 AM PDT by RipSawyer (Racism is racism, regardless of the race of the racist.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 35 | View Replies]

To: Southside_Chicago_Republican

Tump is British....southerners use it in a slightly different way...including me.


79 posted on 09/18/2015 11:21:35 AM PDT by chasio649 (The GOPe can never seem to remember who brought them to the dance)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 77 | View Replies]

To: chasio649
".they spoke too fast with too much slang."

After studying Spanish on my own for a number of years and four semesters in college, I am able to understand a fair amount of Spanish spoken on documentaries. The Spanish speakers on the docs tended to speak at a reasonable pace and enunciate well.

However when trying to understand Mexican soap operas, I was/am almost completely lost. Los actores hablan demasiado rapido.

80 posted on 09/18/2015 11:22:37 AM PDT by driftless2 (For long term happiness, learn how to play the accordion)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 17 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 141-152 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson