Posted on 07/31/2014 4:26:21 AM PDT by SoFloFreeper
A nuclear lab in Tennessee has canceled a "Southern accent reduction" class after employees raised heck about what they saw as a slap in their Southern faces, the class instructor said Tuesday.
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
I can understand that the traditional Southern drawl and certain words sound strange to people who grew up in other states. What I find difficult to grasp is the tendency of Damned Yankees, you know, the ones who come and stay, to have the audacity to move to the South and then comment on how their neighbors, “talk so funny”. That is just one of their annoying ways. I have been in many states and have never known a Southerner to go to New York and comment to the natives on how strange the people sound to him. Why is it that so many Northerners cannot pronounce the word “saw” anyway? That is just one example I could mention. I have spoken to people in every state on the telephone and some of those who are the most difficult to understand are in New York City. Many of them sound as if they are trying to decide just how to commit suicide, people in West Virginia or even in prison sound happier. One in about five hundred will say that he cannot understand me and that is usually someone who makes Marlon Brando as the godfather sound like Ronald Reagan by comparison so it is hard to say whether he said, “I can’t understand you” or Mary had a little lamb. On the other hand I have had many comments such as, “Where are you calling from, you have such a great voice and I love your accent.” Personally I think everyone is beginning to sound the same and I hate it, I like regional accents.
I don’t talk funny, YOU hear funny.
A Bahstahn accent is the worst to me.
That could very well be.
ping to a fellow Bubba
#8
American White Southerners have been under attack for decades.
I’m stunned they finally took a stand to be honest.
It is Bawstun.
There is the Southern Accent, which indeed is musical, and then there is that gap-tooth hic accent, which is like listening to soda cans being crushed.
We are racist hicks with good manners. :)
“So what accent were they going to replace it with?”
Well, according to half of this country’s messiah...
In the United States, Eid also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy, Obama said.
Soooooo Arabic, followed by Spanish, and possibly ebonics...anything but English.
You say Bawstun, I say Basston.
At ain't rite!
Northern bigotry agin the South grew out of the envy and greed which led to the War of Northern Aggression. A war which off loaded the substantial wealth of the region back to where it belongs, namely up Nawth.
In the late 60’s, after getting out of the Air Force, I went to the Atlanta School of Radio & TV Broadcasting to prepare for a career in radio. Being a Georgia boy, I had to work on my accent a little for the job. I had to learn to say “ahn” for word “on”, as opposed to “own”. Work was needed on my word endINGs, and words like “oil”, “foil” and such.
While commuting I would speak into a portable tape recorder, and listen back to it for self-critique.
I didn’t get it perfect, but it was good enough to get me through 20 years of daily air time.
However, I found that when not on the air, I reverted to my southern accent, bu as soon as the mic came on, I was as accent-neutral as I could be.
It was like learning a foreign language in a way, and reverting back to your native tongue when you didn’t need it.
But, I wasn’t trying to sound like a Yankee, replacing all my “R’s” with “H’s”, and saying “youse” instead of “you”.
In the service I was around people from all over, and heard just about every accent you could imagine. I am not a trained linguist, but I take a great interest in the way people talk. Bad grammar irks me more than any accent does.
I spent 10 years trying to get my ex-wife (a German) to say “this, that ot them”, and not “dis, dat, and dem”. The “th” sound is a lisp in the German language and she was naturally resistant to doing. She’s been in America since 1968 and still says “dis, dat and dem”.
But I love the southern accent. Around Atlanta - with the influx of northerners in the past 20 years, finding a genuine southern accent is getting more difficult. The advent of TV, cable, movies, etc, has also influenced the accent to a degree.
But for the Feds to declare jihad on southern talk is outrageous. No one is working on the black accent, which is usually unintelligible even to southerners. Many of them still asy “dis, dat, and dem”, and they were born here.
Accents that need work are everywhere, from illegal aliens to tech support people in India.
I’m retired, no longer on the air, and I speak southern. 20 years in broadcasting followed by 20 years in corporate management have no changed that fact one iota. If I need to speak accent-neutral, I can, otherwise my native tongue is southern English.
The Yankee elites in government who are tring to make it a one-size-fts-all world can bite me.
I hope y’all understand!
The worst accent to me is the “Joisy.” Not quite Brroklyn, not quite Bronx, not quite English.
Although a heavy Philly accent is grating too.
Fortunately, I’m from the Midwest, where we have no accent. [/s]
You do know that in Virginia as in most of the Southern States each region has its own accent, don’t you? The Tidewater accent is different from the Western region and the mid-state has another distinct sound.
A Virginia accent is the most gentile, I think, of all the Southern sounds.
Then there is the Outer Banks of North Carolina whose speech is almost unitelligible to me because it is Old English, very close to what was spoken during the discovery period.
I visit NYC a lot and find the accents there grate on my last nerve.
“I can understand that the traditional Southern drawl and certain words sound strange to people who grew up in other states.”
I lived in TN for 2 years and only once did I have a problem understanding someone. A friend and I were driving to Memphis for a hunting trip and we pulled over at a convenience store and I jump out to ask directions. The guy behind the counter had a drawl so thick I asked him to repeat the directions. I thanked him and went back to the car. My friend asked “what did he say” and I answered, “I have no idea”.
Southern belles and their accents are lovely.
It is, no doubt, a good thing that you effected an escape to your native soil. Other people’s prejudices are always far less tolerable than one’s own.
Tennesseans have more of a raw twang.....(I can say this because I am one)
Unfortunately, in my young, stupid years I worked at losing my accent......and was successful....and deeply regret it.
However, it is somewhat restored when I return home.......and Tennessee willl always be home.
To me, there is nothing sweeter than a genuine Southern accent.....
......and for sure, they vary from state to state or even different parts of a state
One of my personal favorite senators.....Jeff Sessions of Alabama.....is plenty sharp, a real patriot and works toward our behalf.......and I love to hear him speak,
I lived in Charleston, SC for 3 years, and the Scottish brogue was prevalent among the old timers...wonderful sounding speech.
Then I moved to Beaufort, SC, and heard Gullah for the first time. Now, that was an interesting sound.
- Jeff Foxworthy
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