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Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,552,695 times
Reputation: 5785
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Escondudo
But what southern flavor does Baltimore have?
Lived there 6 years, IMO not much. If you ask Kode Blue he'll give you a different take.
I mean Baltimore has it's historical southern roots yes. There are some remnants still, but to me Baltimore is a product of being in it's exact location that it is. A NE corridor city with lots of Black people, and a few white ethnic enclaves, Hispanics sprinkled in small number, and more Northern leaning than Southern. DC is the middle ground. Mostly in the Beltway it's not Southern nowadays, but once you get 40 miles South of it you can tell the difference. By the time you get to Richmond it's clear you are in the South, but not anything like the deep south or even Carolinas.
The point I was making about the accents are that to me the MD-VA regional "black accent" isn't to my ear as country sounding as (some) in Black Chicago. There you hear people say "Awww" when pronouncing "All" things like that, you don't hear that in DC, Baltimore, and maybe not even in Richmond.
There were people living in the present day National Capital region prior to DC becoming a planned city however. Those people already had local dialect and accents. DC was just carved out of VA/MD when made official. But to your point in it's entirety the natives in the region spanning up to 150 miles north-south does display some level of Tidewater accent. Baltimore has the least of this though, and there is a different nuance in each of the three major cities.
I'll also say this, the "Tidewater" accent isn't deeply Southern to me, it's just kind of middle ground. I don't think the speech of most people in this part of the country is very Southern sounding (white or black), and I've been to every state in the Census designated South except Texas. It's a very generic sounding accent to me, and this is without even adding in all the Northern transplants here that further dilute any "southernness" here.
These are good points. The Tidewater accents have the odd Canadian rise and has less twang on average than accents further south of the area. I definitely see your point when I'm in places from Bmore to Hampton Roads.
East and West of the Baltimore metro area is Delmarva and the Southern Appalachians respectively, and no one can deny their southern-ness. Eastern Maryland & Southern Delaware, and Western Maryland.
Baltimore seems like the largest southern city historically, excluding New Orleans which declined earlier on. Why wouldn't it be in the south? Must the south be rural by definition? Seems like a representative southern black city.
Baltimore seems like the largest southern city historically, excluding New Orleans which declined earlier on. Why wouldn't it be in the south? Must the south be rural by definition? Seems like a representative southern black city.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,552,695 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by Hums
Baltimore seems like the largest southern city historically, excluding New Orleans which declined earlier on. Why wouldn't it be in the south? Must the south be rural by definition? Seems like a representative southern black city.
I don't know what this map represents, but if you're looking carefully enough the orange and yellow begin literally in the middle counties of the Baltimore-Washington region. By the time you get to the mountains west of the metro it's green. As I've stated time and time again you can move one county or two in each direction and get a different dynamic. As a whole it's pretty ambiguous in determining how Southern the area is. Why is SE Michigan red? What does this map represent?
I don't know what this map represents, but if you're looking carefully enough the orange and yellow begin literally in the middle counties of the Baltimore-Washington region. By the time you get to the mountains west of the metro it's green. As I've stated time and time again you can move one county or two in each direction and get a different dynamic. As a whole it's pretty ambiguous in determining how Southern the area is. Why is SE Michigan red? What does this map represent?
It’s a word mapper of where the word dawg is mostly said. I wouldn’t use that word to determine if a city is Southern or not. But that’s me. If you go by that map, Memphis is barely Southern and forget about it if you’re Nashville.
Location: That star on your map in the middle of the East Coast, DMV
8,128 posts, read 7,552,695 times
Reputation: 5785
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade
It’s a word mapper of where the word dawg is mostly said. I wouldn’t use that word to determine if a city is Southern or not. But that’s me. If you go by that map, Memphis is barely Southern and forget about it if you’re Nashville.
Lmao, wow. How is something like that even quantified accurately?
Baltimore (black Baltimore) does not say "Dawg". They say "Dug". Everyone knows that.
Lmao, wow. How is something like that even quantified accurately?
Baltimore (black Baltimore) does not say "Dawg". They say "Dug". Everyone knows that.
Exactly!
People here say "dug." I had to make a conscious effort of not saying "dug" back in the day. No other region says "dug," or "tew, dew, yew..etc."
If they have Baltimore in the Red, then you have to throw out the validity of that map entirely.
Black people in Chicago have more of a stereotypical southern accent than Baltimore. I don't know where the hell our (Baltimore) accent came from. It doesn't sound like anywhere else, not even it's closest neighbors DC and Philly.
What's a "stereotypical" southern accent? I swear Hollywood does a "stereotypical" southern accent in every movie based somewhere in the south and most of the time they always get it wrong. I will say Chicago's accent is more blatantly southern influenced probably because Chicago's Black population migrated from fewer southern states at a later period of time in history in comparison to Baltimore's Black population.
Baltimore had Blacks migrating from multiple southern states and the Appalachians by and large. So Baltimore has a more diverse Black migration. Also there was a small population of Blacks established in Baltimore in the late 1700's to the early 1800's whereas Chicago's black population was even much smaller in the mid to late 1800's. Mostly from runaways and freedman from the Upper South.
With that said, I've never heard any Black folks pronounce to, do, you like Black Baltimore folks. That's definitely different but I do hear some slight similarities in dialect with Black people in the Southeast. It's certain words I hear Baltimore people pronounce that remind me of the Southeast. It's not as pronounced as say Chicago and Mississippi accent similarities but I can hear it.
I also think Chicago's Black accent has evolved from sounding exactly like a stereotypical Mississippi accent imo. You definitely hear the similarities with their dialect but it's some slight differences. Like I can tell the difference between a Black Mississippi accent and a Black Chicago one. You put Big Krit in Chicago and his accent will stand out.
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