[Welsh Rabbit]

others sound almost like they're from Brooklyn.

They're from old neighborhoods that have the same ethnic (mainly Irish) makeup of many of the old neighborhoods of NYC and New Jersey and arrived in NO roughly at the same time. There's an explanation about this in the intro of the great novel A Confederacy of Dunces. I'd post it here, but I lent my copy out.

[elbucko]

Thanks for your post regarding the origins of accents in the South. I have a more than passing interest in accents and their origins and appreciate your reference to a resource.