That’s an older generation southern accent of the educated class
A vanishing thing
Educated millennial southerners are as hipster as any other unless they choose otherwise like my kids
Anti freepers who imagine me as a Christian Identity Grand kleagle often giggle as YANKEES that they imagine I sound like Matthew McConahey in Dazed
It’s meant as. a dig by their customary self righteousness
But it’s accurate
That is my era accent which would run from South Carolina to Texas below the mid south where I now live
“Thats an older generation southern accent of the educated class”
My dad’s era. Interesting that while he grew up in Mississippi along the Alabama border that his speech is similar to those two Virginians. As is his demeanor. As you say it’s probably an educated class distinction. To know them is to see what southern gentlemen once were.
My dad told that his father never spoke with the country twang often heard in that part of the South. He was an intelligent man despite not having had the opportunity to attend college.