A fellow FReeper posted this article a while back and I found it so fascinating that I thought it was worth bringing to FR again.
That said, I will tell you that I've lived south of Mason-Dixon for 17 years (though I lived all my life prior to that in Pennsylvania) and tend to pronounce George Wallace's state as "Ala-bayama" not "Ala-bamma". Just a tendency. "Birming-hayam, Ala-bayama". :-)
On the other hand, Kristina Abernathy of the Weather Channel, who's from Albany, GA, tries her best to suppress her GA peach accent but just can't pull it off. :-)
Here are the birthplaces of the actresses and actors rattled off in the article:
Andie MacDowell: Gaffney, SC
Julia "Hairy Armpits" Roberts: Smyrna, GA (this link will take you to the main page; there, click on info, then click on biography)
Matthew McConaughey: Uvalde, TX
Kim Basinger: Athens, GA
The mailman on Seinfeld: Sorry, I never watch Seinfeld, dunno who he is, can't help you. :-/
Anyway, fawr ya'll's informashun...
foreverfree
P.S. When I was in a Family Christian Store recently, I heard a cashier who said she was from Louisiana (I think) - and sounded it. The Dixie accent is alive and well!
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To: foreverfree
Funny, I've met very few in VA that have a southern accent, including those that have lived here all of their lives. Interestingly enough it seems there is a sort of "Virginia Accent" because I've been told that my accent is sort of strange by southerners and northerners since it is distinctly not southern, northern nor is it midwestern. IMO it's just that the various accents are merging into a pan-American accent.
2 posted on
04/30/2002 7:26:07 PM PDT by
dheretic
To: foreverfree
The Yankee accent is also being lost...
To: foreverfree
My accent is safe, ya, sure, you betcha. I'm a Minnesotan doncha know.
To: foreverfree
It is because of TV - The dialects aren't isolated any more... we all hear one common speech that is pretty vanilla - accentless.
To: foreverfree
The South Carolina accent is wonderful IMO. The New England accent is still around but is an endangered species also.
6 posted on
04/30/2002 7:32:38 PM PDT by
Arkinsaw
To: Ms. AntiFeminazi; Congressman BillyBob
Then again, maybe not.
To: foreverfree
in the 60's people stopped dropping their "R"s "Dropping your R's", as it is known colloquially, is not a linguistic pattern found over the entire South. It is confined to certain regions and people groups, and has never been universal. I never hear it here in South Mississippi, though it is common among black folks and all folks in the Delta and Prairie regions.
My own premise is that Southern lingual pattersn will survive, particularly in rural areas, where they continue esentially unchangedtoday. Certainly the younger folk will sound different from the older ones, however, the unique speech patterns may not have significantly changed. I imagine the typical Yankee would find my young and middle aged neighbors to have as "hick" and countrified speech as they ever have. I've found that my own speech patterns vary: when in the company of out of state folks, I tend to drop down my accent, but when in the company of local, home folks, my accent is thick and drawling with Mississippi red clay and hot summers. (And, by the way, the hot weather has nothing to do with some Southern dialects being slower than others)
9 posted on
04/30/2002 7:36:15 PM PDT by
Cleburne
To: foreverfree
I don't know if Ozark dialect is considered Southern or not for the purpose of this discussion, but since I'm the one doing the considering, I say it is, at least for the duration of this post. I just wanted to recommend a book by Mitch Jayne, titled Home Grown Stories & Home Fried Lies. It's chock full of downhome expressions!
10 posted on
04/30/2002 7:38:15 PM PDT by
Dakmar
To: foreverfree
Well, I have been concerned about the New Yawk accent fading. All of youse mey not no-tice it, but da Asians and Yuppie kids in NYC speak like dere frum Suthen California or sumtin'.
11 posted on
04/30/2002 7:38:45 PM PDT by
Clemenza
To: foreverfree
to hawkeye's :
"My accent is safe, ya, sure, you betcha. I'm a Minnesotan doncha know." which. . . is amazingly close to blue nose land, a.k.a. the great white north!
To: foreverfree
Y'all doesn't have much place in the written language, but it wasn't until I moved to Texas a long time ago that I realized what a useful word it is in conversation.
In business, I use it to refer to "your corporation" without sounding like I have something stiff stuck somewhere painful.
13 posted on
04/30/2002 7:39:45 PM PDT by
Dog Gone
To: foreverfree
No youngster ever sounds like Strom Thurmond or Fritz Hollings anymore.
15 posted on
04/30/2002 7:40:19 PM PDT by
PJ-Comix
To: foreverfree
It's the homogenization of America. It's not a plot, just the result of mass communication and mass cultural influence. Why is there an Olive Garden in every American city? Why do kids in the suburbs dress like hip-hoppers? We're just one big 'burb now, parrotting witticisms from last night's sitcoms to one another at the office, dressing like Tommy and Ralph say we should, and pronouncing our vowels like a TV journalist. Regional differences are for comedic effect only.
To: foreverfree
I was just in Alabama a couple weeks ago and I can report that the Southern Accent is alive and well up on Sand Mountain!
To: foreverfree
23 posted on
04/30/2002 7:45:48 PM PDT by
Feiny
To: foreverfree
The people who did this study must not have visited my home town.
27 posted on
04/30/2002 7:48:46 PM PDT by
oldvike
To: foreverfree
I have to agree. Last year, my wife and I traveled from Michigan for a weekend in Charleston, SC. I figured in the heart of the south, and the birthplace of the War of the Rebellion, Speakin' Southern would be all around. We were literally there for two days before I heard my first "y'all." I even thanked the man for his correct use of "y'all." Y'all is a perfect word that needs to make its way into the common vernacular anyway. It's so much more descriptive than "you people" or the ever popular and northern redneck "yous" "Y'all've" is even better.
28 posted on
04/30/2002 7:48:48 PM PDT by
cyclotic
To: foreverfree
LOL. In Michigan, we have at least three, if not four accents.
The normal upper midwest accent that is common in the lower half of the state.
A Southern Drawl. Go to parts of Monroe County. A lot of people moved from Kentucky to Michigan in the early-mid 1900's to work in the auto factories.
North Michigan/Yoopers - Say yah to da UP, eh? It's a blend of Wisconsin and Canada.
To: foreverfree;whyisatexasgirlinpa
I still have mine y'all.But my kids don't seem to have one.
To: foreverfree
Kristina Abernathy of the Weather Channel, My very favorite weather babe!
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