When the Olympics were in Atlanta in 1995, my sister and I drove downtown, and I would say "Hi, Ya'll" to everyone. My sister was so very embarrassed.
There's a difference between a Southern country accent and a Southern cultured accent. I'm working on the cultured thing, but it's hard to say "Hi, ya'll" and sound cultured.
Don't try to change your accent. The "country" sound is charming. :-)
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.