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The Southern Accent: We're Losing It
Website of Rhodes College, Memphis, TN ^ | unknown | Rob Marus

Posted on 04/30/2002 7:12:45 PM PDT by foreverfree

The Southern Accent: We're Losing It

By Rob Marus

The Moose Is Loose

Have you ever noticed that people in our generation seem to be losing their Southern accents? "Hold on," most of y'all are now thinking, "I haven't noticed any lack of Delta drawls or backwoods twangs here at Rhodes."

But stop for a second and listen very closely to the inflections of your peers. Now compare their accents with, say, your father's (or, if you're from the North, your roommate's father's). See the difference? And his accent is even a little milder than your grandmother's, isn't it? She probably still drops her "R"s.

Linguists tell us that, more rapidly than ever before, English-speaking Americans are losing their distinctive regional accents and dialects.

You're much less likely today to find an Atlantan using the word "supper" in reference to the evening meal than you were 30 years ago. By the same token, you're less likely to find a Bostonian pronouncing the word "can't" like a Kennedy would.

But this phenomenon is most widespread and insidious in the South, the linguists and sociologists tell us, and particularly on college campuses. Each generation has gotten a little bit farther away from the previous generations' adherence to a Southern accent; in the 60's people stopped dropping their "R"s (a la Scarlett O'Hara); in the 70's, they stopped using "that-a-way" and "over yonder" as directional aids; in the 80's they stopped saying "fixin' to" and replaced it with "about to."

And now, here we are in the 90's, and our generation in particular is dropping the last vestiges of our accents-a lot of us won't even drawl out our long "I"s or use "y'all" anymore.

But why are we doing this? What's the point? People used to relish, even nurture their Southern accents. Why has our generation chosen to do the very opposite - eradicate the very last vestiges of it? I'll tell you the main reason: classic Yankee imperialism.

Hollywood, Wall Street, and Madison Avenue have pelted us, in this "Information Age" (which, if you ask me, is a misnomer that could be more accurately replaced with "Misinformation Age"), with a barrage of images and sound bytes that not only set up a nondescript, sterilized accent as the normative pattern of American speech (think about the way most TV journalists talk), but also create stereotypes that completely disdain Southern accents as purely the domain of hillbillys, rednecks, and racists.

Think about it; recall what you've watched on television or in the movies in the past week. Almost invariably the character with the thickest Southern accent in any movie, television show is one of two things. In drama, he (rarely are women portrayed in these roles) is the "bad guy": the KKK leader, the escaped convict, the philandering preacher, the corrupt government agent trying to cover up a UFO landing. In comedy, he (once again, women are rarely presented in these roles) is invariably the ignorant yokel: the trailer-park trash, the bumbling small-town sherriff, the provincial good-ol'-boy politician.

If a woman is ever portrayed with a Southern accent, she is either the passive, abused, blue-collar wife or the manipulative Southern belle. And, for the most part (with the major exceptions of shows set in New York City), that sterilized TV-news-anchorperson non-accent is the standard pattern of speaking for the "serious" characters and "good" characters that Hollywood gives us.

But in English there is no such thing as a "non-accent." The pattern of speech that Hollywood has set up as normative is no more than a Midwestern dialect. Any Englishman or Englishwoman would not hesitate to say that Tom Brokaw and Diane Sawyer have definite accents.

To be any sort of famous actor or actress the first thing you must do is learn how to sound like someone from Iowa. Nowadays, if you maintain your Southern accent, you're not very likely to find a job in Hollywood. You'll probably be surprised to know that Andie MacDowell, Julia Roberts, Matthew McConaughey, Kim Basinger, and even the guy who plays the mailman on Seinfeld are all native Southerners. To be a TV journalist you have to do the same thing (unless you're a complete bad-ass, like Bill Moyers).

Therefore, it's understandable that we, as open-minded, free-thinking young people who are trying to be urbane, sophisticated, and worldly-wise, should have difficulty accepting our inherited accents as something we shouldn't hide. After all, our generation is the one most shaped by the Northern media.

You see it all the time at Rhodes; think about all the people who come here from a small town and then begin to lose their drawl over the months beause they hang out with accentless folks from places like Dallas and Atlanta (two cities absolutely overrun by Northern immigrants in recent years).

So don't conform, dammit! Don't let the Northern establishment grind you beneath its heel; stand up to the attacks of Yankee capitalism and commercialism upon who you are as a person. Just because you speak differently than the mass-media norm does not mean that you are inherently inferior. If the South would just give up its inferiority complex, I think we could come a long way in solving some of our social problems.

Young Southerners, take the first step towards respecting yourselves as a people and don't assume that your accent means you are a redneck. And do it now, before it's too late. God forbid we end up a nation of people who all sound like Roseanne Barr.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; US: Alabama; US: Arkansas; US: Delaware; US: Florida; US: Georgia; US: Kentucky; US: Maryland; US: Mississippi; US: Missouri; US: North Carolina; US: Oklahoma; US: South Carolina; US: Tennessee; US: Texas; US: Virginia; US: West Virginia
KEYWORDS: accents; dixie; language; regionalaccents; yall
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To: Clemenza
Aw ringe and Flawrida, from my neck of Boston.
61 posted on 04/30/2002 8:28:00 PM PDT by knarf
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To: Corin Stormhands
It is just a fun little site, notice that you can submit additional phrases, make suggestions (at the bottom of each page, there is an email). Maybe you should forward your thoughts! :)
62 posted on 04/30/2002 8:29:11 PM PDT by RightOnGOP
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To: Senator Pardek
BillyBob was right. lol.
63 posted on 04/30/2002 8:29:36 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: foreverfree;whyisatexasgirlinpa
I still have mine y'all.But my kids don't seem to have one.
64 posted on 04/30/2002 8:29:50 PM PDT by SeeRushToldU_So
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To: RightOnGOP
Thanks, I didn't notice that. I'll check back with it later.
65 posted on 04/30/2002 8:30:05 PM PDT by Corin Stormhands
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi
You Texans are so flavorful! I love the good-ole-boy dialect and bravado. I'd love to visit sometime. Is there a way to become an honorary Texan? I'd like to use some of the expressions, too. Indiana is so boring. While Dubya is "smokin' 'em out" and all we have to offer is "Hoosier Hospitality."
66 posted on 04/30/2002 8:30:19 PM PDT by Samwise
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To: foreverfree
Kristina Abernathy of the Weather Channel,

My very favorite weather babe!

67 posted on 04/30/2002 8:33:08 PM PDT by buccaneer81
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To: RightOnGOP ; riley1992
LOL. Clicked on Detroit.

The Big Two and a half
GM, Ford & whoever bought the other one

The Other Big 3
Little Ceasars(Caesars), Domino's and Hungry Howie's

Bad Boys Used to be our basketball team

Windsor Ballet
Strip clubs across river in Windsor

The Motor City
Who we are

U Per (Actually, it's Yooper)
Michigan upper peninsula resident

Cone GOOSE Toe (I don't know this one)
Fun Spanish for "with pleasure." (con gusto) Didn't know you could speak a foreign language? Try www.funixbook.com. A breakthrough for learning a foreign language which you may find hilarious.

Da Dead Wings (I always used the term Dead Things)
Our hockey team when they lose (which ain't often, Jack)

At the Joe
At the Joe Louis arena

Out- State
Areas outside of Metro Detroit

In the Thumb
Area in Michigan near Saginaw Bay City (Actually it's the rural areas east of there.)

Trolls
Inhabitants south of the Mackinaw bridge

Pontiac Pussycats (Bwhahahahaha)
Our football team when they lose

Down River
Areas south of Metro Detroit

The Bo Hat (Bo Scumbuckler....)
Michigan Block M baseball cap

68 posted on 04/30/2002 8:33:41 PM PDT by Dan from Michigan
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi
I appreciate the compliment. Since you beat me at hand wrestling, let's take it to the court, Kareem ;)
69 posted on 04/30/2002 8:33:42 PM PDT by Senator Pardek
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To: Samwise
Is there a way to become an honorary Texan?

Maybe if you move here for the rest of your days and buy land then get buried on it. First, you have to stop calling President George W. Bush "Dubya".

70 posted on 04/30/2002 8:36:22 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Senator Pardek
I've done lived here in 'Bama pret'near 14 years now. I don't know what part of the south y'alls referring to 'zactly, but I'm here to tell you that the southern speech ain't gone nowheres. And yes, we're fixin to have supper.

Actually, I worked darn hard to ensure my children don't have a southern accent (being born a yank and all). Never know if they'll grow up to replace Rather or Brokaw after the revolution.

71 posted on 04/30/2002 8:38:32 PM PDT by ImaGraftedBranch
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi
What's lunch?

Here in Kaintuck' it's breakfast, supper and dinner.

72 posted on 04/30/2002 8:38:57 PM PDT by Fred Mertz
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To: Senator Pardek
Since you beat me at hand wrestling, let's take it to the court, Kareem ;)

Sigh. Am I going to have to put you down again?! Remember, Spud Webb went to college in my hometown. hehe.

73 posted on 04/30/2002 8:39:23 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Ms. AntiFeminazi
First, you have to stop calling President George W. Bush "Dubya".

Why? I thought it signified affection or admiration.

74 posted on 04/30/2002 8:39:49 PM PDT by Samwise
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To: foreverfree
I can say this in all honesty--I'm doing my part to maintain an accent.

I think every word is entitled to at least two syllables.

75 posted on 04/30/2002 8:40:51 PM PDT by lonestar
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To: Fred Mertz
Wow, really? I have never heard that before. hm.

Lunch is something we "do" around here.

76 posted on 04/30/2002 8:40:52 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: RightOnGOP
Great Link. Two things that are said to be "South Jersey" are actually North Jersey. My father, for example is from "Nork" (Newark to everyone else) in North Jersey. Second, NOBODY, North or South, says JOISEY. The only people I hear say Joisey are "movie: New Yorkers and wise-ass southerners who think they are making fun of a Yankee accent.
77 posted on 04/30/2002 8:42:56 PM PDT by Clemenza
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To: Samwise
It is disrespectful. The only person in Texas who I can think of that might actually call him that would be Ann Richards. She never knew respect.
78 posted on 04/30/2002 8:43:57 PM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: Samwise
It does in my book.
79 posted on 04/30/2002 8:45:39 PM PDT by lonestar
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To: foreverfree; crasher
I spoke to several Oklahomans today. None sounded like me. Accents are eroding, but they are definitely still there.
80 posted on 04/30/2002 8:47:55 PM PDT by Torie
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