Exploring the Linguistic Roots of the Southern Drawl

Word Smarts ^ | 01/10/2025 | Jennifer A. Freeman

[Inyo-Mono]

this linguistic merger makes “caught” and “cot” sound alike

You mean they are supposed to be pronounced differently?

[Charles Martel]

Of possible interest...

[packagingguy]

When I moved to Tidewater Virginia years ago there was a guy who needed a translator. He spoke English but used an Elizabethan grammar and accent.

Plants were “plunts”. Stance was “stonce”, etc.

Later in life I learned that’s how people talked in the 1600’s as the colonies originally started.

You’ll hear this also in North Carolina.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“America’s various accents are particularly pronounced”

As if they aren’t in England. I visited South Yorkshire several times for business in the mid 80s for a research project. I swear those people were speaking anything BUT English. You needed an interpreter.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“If speakers drop the final “r,” that’s called “non-rhotic” as opposed to “rhotic,” wherein the “r” is pronounced.”

What about people who ADD an “r”? As in “I’m going to warsh my clothes.” Is that “neu-rhotic”?

[FamiliarFace]

*** Call it a drawl or a twang, but one of the primary hallmarks of Southern American English (SAE) is a melodic, relaxing quality. A marketing firm conducted a survey of global English accents, and the Southern accent was voted the most pleasant.***

Last summer I was visiting family in my hometown (Gainesville, FL), but we stayed at a nearby hotel because it is a large family, and no longer room to hold all of us. As I exited one day, I was chatting with a gentlemen while my husband pulled the car around for us. He told me that I had a very pleasant accent, and wanted to know where I was from. He was very surprised when I said, “Here!” I guess my Southern accent has become a blend of Southern and Midwestern. Still, he said it was most pleasant, and it very much seemed genuine when he said so.

Siri still doesn’t understand me though, so I don’t often use voice to text. Too many corrections need to be made.

(Oh, and check my tagline.) ;-)

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

Bookmark

[FamiliarFace]

Also, my husband is from Long Island, and he insists these words are all pronounced differently: merry, marry, and Mary. For me they are all pronounced the same. When he says them, they do sound slightly different. He can tell which one I mean based on context.

It’s a funny thing, but we just agree to disagree on this.

[Macho MAGA Man]

I speak Cajun!

[SunkenCiv]

• White House Has 'No Idea' About Kamala Harris's Use of Southern-Fried Drawl [09/04/2024]
• Kamala Harris Deploys Fake Southern-Fried Twang with Michigan Auto Workers [08/09/2024]
• Why do Southerners have a drawl? [09/18/2015]
• Hillary is in a South Carolina 'chicken and waffles' joint -- and sounding like it -- [05/28/2015]
• Hillary Brings Back Southern Twang for South Carolina Visit [05/27/2015]
• Hey y'all, what's wrong with a drawl? [08/02/2014]
• Curfew considered after massive brawl in downtown Greensboro [07/02/2013]
• Country music gets its day at the White House; Obamas to showcase legends, contemporary stars [11/20/2011]
• The Southern drawl -- is it spreading? [09/19/2007]
• US In Thrall To Southern Drawl (Fred Thompson) [06/10/2007]
• Cows also 'Have Regional Accents' [08/24/2006]
• Grand Ole Opry pre Christmas Show was EXCELLENT (repeats today) [12/18/2005]
• Top Five Country & Western Songs of All Time (Shamelessly Shameless Vanity) [08/25/2005]

[Deaf Smith]

The article starts off with the natives of Massachusetts speaking differently.

It is not a Massachusetts accent but a form of ebonics parents teach their kids.

Learned this during my time there studying the natives.

Found a way to make them speak perfect english and it pisses them off.

[Pythion.net]

I grew up in a sort of crossroads of Southern culture, language, and cuisine. My father from one end of the spectrum and my mother from the other. My mother to her dying day had a full on non-rhotic Southern drawl, while my father kept very little of his redneck accent and had what you might call a "cosmopolitan" Southern accent.

My daughter tells me I sound like a redneck, so I somehow absorbed more from my father than my mother.

In college there was this couple I knew. The wife was from England, but had been in the South long enough that her British accent had melded with a Southern accent. Her voice was like music to my ears, LOL. It was just so lovely to listen to.

[Yardstick]

As with “pen” and “pin,” this linguistic merger makes “caught” and “cot” sound alike...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I definitely merge “pen” and “pin”. Also “caught” and “cot”... but this one seems pretty common outside of the South.

[Tired of Taxes]

Some say Southern accents are closest to those of the original colonists. On the other hand, Northeastern/Mid-Atlantic accents seem to have been influenced more by later immigrants.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I’m from Pittsburgh, my wife is from the mountains of north Alabama. When our oldest daughter was little she had loads of fun mocking both of our accents - she would say a word like I say it then like mom says it and just laugh (dog....dawg). Funny thing - she’a a high school English teacher now.

[SamuraiScot]

A person from Boston speaks differently than [??????] a person from New York City. . .

You go back and look at the byline again and scratch your head:

Word Smarts ^ | 01/10/2025 | Jennifer A. Freeman

Smarts?

Try again. It's "differently from . . ."

Every time.

Got that?

[lurk]

People in Iowa and Missouri speak the most straight up American.

[FamiliarFace]

Is it pronounced Mi-zur-ah, or Mi-zur-ee?

[rellic]

Born and raised in southern California.
No accent what so ever.
Stationed in the South I picked up the “Drawl”.
I can pick it up whenever.
I can understand most every accent in the USA.
Including Canadian or South American.
If you speak English I’ll figure it out.
English is one of the most difficult languages
in the world to learn as it has so many roots.
That is probably why we talk so slow.
We have to think about what we say.
It takes a lot of words to say in English, what a single word in Mandarin conveys.