Well said. That's the one thing that never turns up on these threads (which are posted every week or two).
There are some "Northern accents" that would get you thrown out of a country club in suburban Boston, New York, Philadelphia or Chicago in under an hour -- or at least shown to the tradesmen's entrance.
It must be the same for some Southern accents. Surely there are some accents that are like a howling cat or screeching on a chalkboard to people in Buckhead or the Garden District.
We know that some of the assumptions that we're told "Northerners" make about "Southerners" aren't so very different from those the Southern gentry makes about back country or common Southerners, but all we hear about is the North vs. South thing.
Very well put. Indeed, there is a huge difference between the way my country cousins, south Georgia farmers, and I in Atlanta speak.
There's a certain affectation in the voices of the women in the country club set in Columbus, GA where I grew up.
I work with a woman from Louisiana who has the typical southern cultered voice. Her accent is yet different from mine, my south Georgia cousins, and my friend in Columbus.
And the SMART northerner is the one who will distinguish between the country and the cultured southerner.