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Not everyone; especially the young people nowadays. A lot of people would be surprised to find that in even the tiniest, slow-as-molasses, one-horse town in the Deep South, there might be some people who's accents aren't thick at all.
What do you mean no accent? Do you mean they sound like they're from the West Coast?
I don't know about other states, but in Texas, generally if you are within most of the large cities (city limits) you won't have a Southern accent at all. I don't know anybody with a southern accent who lives/was raised in one of the big four TX cities honestly.
I don't know about other states, but in Texas, generally if you are within most of the large cities (city limits) you won't have a Southern accent at all. I don't know anybody with a southern accent who lives/was raised in one of the big four TX cities honestly.
Many, if not most, native Houstonians, Dallasites, and Fort Worthians have southern accents. It depends on which part of town you're from.
Someone mentioned that the lower classes in the south tend to have thicker accents than the upper classes. I grew up in an exurb of Atlanta, that was still pretty southern, and I found this to be true. Of course everybody who was older had an accent regardless of class, but it was certainly pronounced with people my age. Anybody know why this is?
I don't really know how you can determine a percentage, but I only know a couple native southerners under the age of 30. One was born and raised in NC and lived there until he was 20 I think. He still has a thick southern accent. The other is from Alabama I think and he talks like Forrest Gump so yeah he's got quite the thick accent.
So thick that my northern self can't understand a word they say sometimes.
For me one of the main hallmarks of a true southern accent is saying 'ah' for 'I'. Do most in the big cities not pronounce it this way?
Most people in south central Appalachia still do this pretty heavily. If you travel through southwest va, eastern ky, eastern Tennessee, southern wv, or western nc you will here the "ah" for I a lot. As well as holler for hollow and warsh for wash.
Many southerners use the short "a" sound as in "cat" when pronouncing a long I.
The "ah" version sounds pleasant. The "cat" version less so, at least to my ears.
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