seems like a good read

Quote :

"Across the fast-growing South, accents are under assault, and not just from the modern-day Henry Higginses of academia. There's the flood of transplants from other regions, notions of Southern upward mobility that require dropping the drawl, and stereotypes that "y'alls" and "suhs" signal low status or lack of intelligence."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051123/ap_on_re_us/southern_identity_accents

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 5:09 PM. Reason : asdasdsad]

11/23/2005 5:07:03 PM

Now if they could only get rid of the rest of the disease that is redneck

11/23/2005 5:09:43 PM

Fuck what everyone else thinks. I'm not from the south (I'm not even from the country) but an accent or dialect is an expression of you and where you come from. If someone thinks any less of you for the way you speak, then they are judgemental idiots and it shows that their opinion means nothing.

11/23/2005 5:10:11 PM

^agree

11/23/2005 5:11:11 PM

^^concur,

11/23/2005 5:14:52 PM

^^^ [/thread]

11/23/2005 6:08:39 PM

im from raleigh

i only have a southern accent when im drunk

11/23/2005 6:11:57 PM

people not from the south (the ones i know at least) think a thick southern accent does make you sound really dumb

11/23/2005 6:32:40 PM

I think people who have Boston accents sound mentally retarded.

11/23/2005 6:38:00 PM

Quote :

"Now if they could only get rid of the rest of the disease that is redneck"

but there's a BIG difference in being Southern and being redneck/country

11/23/2005 7:01:17 PM

Quote :

"North Carolina State University linguist Walt Wolfram said it's a misconception among Southerners that Yankee newcomers are stamping out traditional speech. More likely, he said, is that newcomers pick up local speech patterns. "When people move here and don't think they've changed at all, they go home and people say, 'Wow. You've turned Southern.' They pick up enough to be identified as Southern. So it's still there, still strongly identified with the South," Wolfram said. "

11/23/2005 7:55:34 PM

i think new jersey accents make people sound more stupid than southern accents do

11/23/2005 8:02:21 PM

youse guys sound funny

11/23/2005 8:04:11 PM

i gots to agree with that. youse is perfectly alright.

11/23/2005 8:34:18 PM

maybe its just their guido meathead attitude

11/23/2005 8:40:32 PM

Quote :

""When people move here and don't think they've changed at all, they go home and people say, 'Wow. You've turned Southern.' They pick up enough to be identified as Southern. So it's still there, still strongly identified with the South," Wolfram said. ""

I lived in NC for 13 years. When I say I'm from there people say, "Where is your accent?"

11/23/2005 8:42:14 PM

Quote :

"maybe its just their guido meathead attitude"

youse got a frickin problem with me?

11/23/2005 8:45:33 PM

Quote :

"but there's a BIG difference in being Southern and being redneck/country"

Thats right, but there is also a difference between redneck and country.

It's usually something like: Southern= you can be from a city and still be southern-anywhere beneath the Mason/Dixon line.
Country= sub-urbs outwards to rural, farms, wooded "forests"
Redneck= "back woods", un-intelligent (sometimes, somewhat)


I forgot where I read the break down at...of course, someone's opinion or thoughts of the differences. But, I think it's logical.
It's really up to the person or their raising as to the degree of their accent. I love mine!

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 11:39 PM. Reason : x]

[Edited on November 23, 2005 at 11:53 PM. Reason : dang it!!]

11/23/2005 11:37:26 PM

i love girls with a southern accent

11/23/2005 11:51:52 PM

Quote :

"North Carolina State University linguist Walt Wolfram said it's a misconception among Southerners that Yankee newcomers are stamping out traditional speech. More likely, he said, is that newcomers pick up local speech patterns. "When people move here and don't think they've changed at all, they go home and people say, 'Wow. You've turned Southern.' They pick up enough to be identified as Southern. So it's still there, still strongly identified with the South," Wolfram said."

hell yeah... that's pretty weird
I'm citing Wolfram's paper on Dialect Acquisition in a linguistics paper that I'm writing tomorrow

didn't realize Wolfram was at NCSU

11/24/2005 1:34:37 AM

GUIDO VS BUBBA

FIGHT!

11/24/2005 1:40:39 AM

nothin wrong with havin a Southern accent

11/24/2005 3:28:29 AM

the south will rise again and stuff

11/24/2005 3:44:03 AM

I tend to agree that yankees pick up the local southern dialect. "Y'all" for instance is quickly picked up.

11/24/2005 9:44:30 AM

^ That's because as much as people from the north don't want to admit it, you need a word to express the second person plural.

11/24/2005 9:55:20 AM

they've got it in the Pittsburgh area

you'ens (or somesuch spelling)

pronounced "yins"

11/24/2005 11:49:23 AM

ive lived in NC all my life and people ask me if im from the UK,

what the fuck?

11/24/2005 12:04:43 PM

I've lived in NC my whole life, but I don't have an accent

I grew up in Durham, my parents are Yankees, and I went to school with a bunch of other kids whose parents are Yaknees.

I kind of wish I had an accent though. The way it is, I feel like I have no identity. The South is my home, but I don't quite belong.

11/24/2005 12:33:11 PM

i'm originally from New Jersey, but i've lived in NC for the past 12-13 years.....i my accent is basically just watered down Yankee fastspeak.

11/24/2005 5:00:02 PM

^^i've always thought you had a slight southern accent...

11/24/2005 5:26:13 PM

another interesting article about the south/southern
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051124/ap_on_re_us/southern_identity

Quote :

"CARY, N.C. - The joke around here is that this town's name is really an acronym for "Containment Area for Relocated Yankees." As far as Vernon Yates is concerned, they haven't been contained well enough. "

Quote :

"Holding court near a potbellied stove, the 69-year-old man in the suspenders and NASCAR shirt laments that his old customers have been replaced by fast-talking, SUV-driving Northerners who don't seem to be able to read a STOP sign. "

hahah this is so fungy

11/24/2005 5:30:41 PM

im from raleigh

i only have a southern accent when im drunk

11/24/2005 5:34:48 PM

i'm from pittsburgh.

it's spelled either yins or y'ins.

I especially shudder when I hear yinses.

11/24/2005 6:56:20 PM

i say "you guys"

word

11/24/2005 7:55:42 PM

Quote :

"^^i've always thought you had a slight southern accent..."

hmmm. Whenever I go out West or up North they say, "where's your accent"

11/24/2005 8:30:03 PM

Quote :

"I tend to agree that yankees pick up the local southern dialect. "Y'all" for instance is quickly picked up. "

yeah, and this guy from ny that i used to work with picked up the habit of using "got" in the place of "was," e.g. "My daughter got born." it's pretty funny to hear the transition.

i more or less got rid of my southern accent until i moved out of nc. now, strangely, i speak with a drawl. guess you never really get rid of it.

11/24/2005 8:59:08 PM

Quote :

"ive lived in NC all my life and people ask me if im from the UK, what the fuck?"

I'm from the UK (England) and I have had people ask me if I was Scottish, Irish, French (I didn't like that one), Russian, Australian, and New Yorkish.

11/24/2005 10:43:55 PM

you guys tend to put too much faith in people knowing which accent comes from where. think of the beginning of dumb and dumber...

i'm from the north, but i've lived here 2/3 my life, and i don't have an accent. once or twice i've been known to slip out something southern, but for the whole, i don't sound like i'm from any particular place. but i do speak spanish with a german accent, oddly enough.

but it is true that most people associate a thick southern accent with severe stupidity.

oh, and i hate southern accents.

11/24/2005 11:22:32 PM

i've lived in apex since I was 4 - and have never had a southern accent (per se) - it used to come out when I was around people with one, or when I was drunk.

Now I have an English accent when i'm drunk - and I sound like a fucking idiot.

11/24/2005 11:31:06 PM

having any kind of accent does not make you sound like an idiot

speaking like an idiot makes you sound like an idiot

for instance:

Quote :

"My daughter got born"

11/25/2005 12:05:49 AM

I've run into some absolute geniuses with almost indecipherably thick southern accents. As it happens I don't really have much of one even though I've lived here my whole life, probably because my dad's from Illinois and so I got used to hearing a neutral one.

Still though, with enough alcohol or in right company, it comes out.

11/25/2005 12:22:04 AM

Quote :

"having any kind of accent does not make you sound like an idiot speaking like an idiot makes you sound like an idiot "

i'll agree with that

11/25/2005 2:19:11 AM

I was born and raised in the south, but lived in Philly for over two years. I started college there and one of my first classes was public speaking. Our first presentations were video taped and my accent was very thick, but not with a drawl, so most of the class liked it. I listen to myself now and there is a drastic difference, with only a slight southern accent noticable. I have never tried to purposely loose my accent and I am glad it remains, as it is a part of my heritage. I think the various accents in this country are great!

11/26/2005 11:06:27 AM

I'll always remember the Simpsons episode when Lisa grew up to be stupid and to symbolize that they gave her a Southern drawl. "Cleetus, get Momma's pryin' bar." Wow.

Because of this type of prejudice in the media, it takes time for someone who has never been around Southerners to realize that, damn, some of these people are REALLY smart.

11/26/2005 11:12:57 PM

I love how people first attack those attacking the southern accent, and then say they sound southern when they are drunk.

11/26/2005 11:38:59 PM