How can you normally tell if some some one has southern US accent ? And what parts of the south has the strongest accent (live)

[sweat209]

Note I got some replies here of late that I posted some videos claiming they have no accent of south and they in fact do.


Okay I know the basic give away is the southern drawl and over pronunciation of words and the long i sound and the dropping of g in ing like walking is wakin and going is goin and baking is bakin.


I also read on the internet is the vowel sounds and the letter R is main giveaway too and the letter t would get change to the d so butter- budder in the south so on .

I know many of the cities will have less of accent because so many people moving there and towns and country the strongest .Some cities and states may have more of accent where other cities and states less of accent.


I was also reading on wikipedia but cannot understand some of the reading see below.It is written really bad and hard to understand.



Southern American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lack of yod-dropping, thus pairs like do/due and toon/tune are distinct. Historically, words like due, lute, and new contained a diphthong similar to /juː/[7] (as RP still does),

Tell me if I'm right but I think they are saying some one from the south can distinct the words do/due and toon/tune where some one NOT from the south cannot

report that the only Southern speakers who make a distinction today use a diphthong /ɪu/ in such words.

No idea what is iu sound.

The distinction between /ær/, /ɛr/, and /er/

Again no idea what /ær/, /ɛr/, and /er/ is .

in marry, merry, and Mary is preserved by some older speakers, but few young people make a distinction

Again believe they are saying people from south can distinct the words marry, merry, and Mary .

Most speakers exhibit this feature at the ends of words and before voiced consonants but not before voiceless consonants; some in fact exhibit Canadian-style raising before voiceless consonants, so that ride is [raːd] and wide is [waːd], but right is [rəɪt] and white is [ʍəɪt]. Some speakers throughout the South exhibit backing to [ɑːe] in environments where

I cannot really understand what they are saying in bold.

Others monophthongize /aɪ/ in all contexts, as in the stereotyped pronunciation "nahs whaht rahs" for nice white rice; these speakers are mostly found in an Appalachian

I think what they may be saying is they put in h sound so nice is nihce and rice is rihce.

The "Southern Shift", a chain shift following on as a result of the Southern Drawl: the nuclei of /ɛ/ and /ɪ/ move to become higher and fronter, so that, for example, instead of [ɛjə], /ɛ/ becomes a tenser /ejə/. This process is most common in heavily stressed syllables. At the same time, the nuclei of the traditional front upgliding diphthongs are relaxed: /i/ moves towards [ɪi] and /eɪ/ moves towards [ɛi] or even lower and/or more retracted.

I have no idea what they are trying say here.

The back vowels /u/ in boon and /oʊ/ in code shift considerably forward.

Again no idea what they are trying to say.

The distinction between the vowels sounds of words like caught and cot or stalk and stock is mainly preserved. In much of the South, the vowel found in words like stalk and caught has developed into a diphthong [ɑɒ], although some words like all may be pronounced with an unrounded vowel [ɑːɫ].

I was also reading some place in the south drop the letter R and don't say the letter R. Some place in the south river sounds like revel and liver sounds like livel. They don't say er at the end.


I also read the states of Texas and south part of Florida have less of accent these days.

Anyways others here from the south or know more about this can reply and explain this better the wikipedia is hard to understand.Also say what cities and states have the strongest accent and what cities and states where it getting harder to find now.