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Which southern states would you group together based off of similarities?
I'd go with...
Louisiana/Mississippi
Alabama/Georgia
South Carolina/North Carolina
Tennessee/Kentucky
Arkansas/Oklahoma
Texas, Florida, and Virginia are so distinct because they have cosmopolitan areas which are extremely transplant-saturated while other areas are extremely rural and 110% Southern. They're really difficult to bottle into one pair. (Although North/West Texas are overtly Southern and most similar to the vast majority of Oklahoma. East Texas is akin to the Deep South and very similar to much of Louisiana.)
EDIT:
The part of West Virginia which is Southern would be most like Kentucky and southern Virginia.
Louisiana/Mississippi
Alabama/Georgia
South Carolina/North Carolina
Tennessee/Kentucky
Arkansas/Oklahoma
Texas, Florida, and Virginia are so distinct because they have cosmopolitan areas which are extremely transplant-saturated while other areas are extremely rural and 110% Southern. They're really difficult to bottle into one pair. (Although North/West Texas are overtly Southern and most similar to the vast majority of Oklahoma. East Texas is akin to the Deep South and very similar to much of Louisiana.)
EDIT:
The part of West Virginia which is Southern would be most like Kentucky and southern Virginia.
I definitely understand your point with TX and FL, but VA would be most like NC in that regard. VA has NOVA and NC has the Triangle and Charlotte as far as transplant-saturated areas. Hampton Roads has the military effect going on, and while they aren't as large, NC also has that in Fayetteville and Jacksonville.
Actually, along with North/West Texas, West Arkansas is the most culturally similar to Oklahoma in its totality. So the second poster was not that far off base if we're just looking at similarity of dialects, exceedingly high preponderance of Southern Baptist churches, food, crazed college football culture, and other norms, etc.
If we're talking topography, well that's a whole other discussion as Oklahoma has the elements of the Plains in the north part of the state, arid environment in the west, and hilly/green in the southern and eastern tiers of the state.
I'm not saying they don't have their similarities, but I don't feel they're the best pair.
I definitely understand your point with TX and FL, but VA would be most like NC in that regard. VA has NOVA and NC has the Triangle and Charlotte as far as transplant-saturated areas. Hampton Roads has the military effect going on, and while they aren't as large, NC also has that in Fayetteville and Jacksonville.
As for NC, I'd say it's definitely safe to say that NC and VA are quite similar and obviously NC and SC (especially outside the urban areas/bigger cities). However, from my experiences traveling around GA, it seems like GA and NC are very similar, also. Maybe it's just me, but I'd say NC might be more similar to GA instead of VA and SC.
Would it be crazy to assume that every Southern state is similar to another in border regions yet not so much in the interior. As in Western Tennessee to Arkansas or Eastern Tennessee to North Carolina but Central Tennessee not being similar to either state.
Louisiana/Mississippi
Alabama/Georgia
South Carolina/North Carolina
Tennessee/Kentucky
Arkansas/Oklahoma
Texas, Florida, and Virginia are so distinct because they have cosmopolitan areas which are extremely transplant-saturated while other areas are extremely rural and 110% Southern. They're really difficult to bottle into one pair. (Although North/West Texas are overtly Southern and most similar to the vast majority of Oklahoma. East Texas is akin to the Deep South and very similar to much of Louisiana.)
EDIT:
The part of West Virginia which is Southern would be most like Kentucky and southern Virginia.
Most of Arkansas doesn't even look like most of Oklahoma. South Carolina looks like many parts of Georgia. Mississippi doesn't have the same culture as Louisiana.
Outside of the panhandle and North Texas, the state of Texas really don't have much in common with Oklahoma other than the fact that these are frontier Southern states. Though it's hard to say they don't topography wise. I've only been to OKC. Tulsa I heard is hilly like Austin. I guess it's not 100% on anything.
I guess the best comparison is Mississippi and Alabama?
Oklahoma and Texas are tied together because of the oil industry. There are a gazillion Oklahomans in DFW and Houston and there are more Texans in Oklahoma than Texans are willing to admit.
This is not true with Oklahoma and Arkansas.
The Arkansas connection is soley noticable in the eastern part of the state. In the central part of Oklahoma and Western Oklahoma and southern Oklahoma there is no question that it is more closely tied to Texas. You never hear about Arkansas, nobody comes from Arkansas, and nobody moves to Arkansas or even visits (Usually Colorado and New Mexico or Dallas).
I always would have thought OK would be more connected to Texas than AR, but actually analyzing phone calls OK and AR have a ton of familial and friendship ties.
As for NC, I'd say it's definitely safe to say that NC and VA are quite similar and obviously NC and SC (especially outside the urban areas/bigger cities). However, from my experiences traveling around GA, it seems like GA and NC are very similar, also. Maybe it's just me, but I'd say NC might be more similar to GA instead of VA and SC.
GA and NC are very similar also, but I think VA and NC are more similar and this is mainly because they don't have a metro that completely dominates the state like Atlanta does GA. A more even distribution of metro areas and all that comes with it (amenities, infrastructure, educational institutions, corporate headquarters, etc.) makes for a more similar vibe and feel. And although NC took a sharp turn to the right politically recently, state politics are still more similar in NC and VA with both being swing states now. Both NC and VA's major universities are ACC schools with no SEC representation. Geographically, they are practically mirror images of each other. The largest metro in both states crosses state lines (NOVA and Charlotte), and both have one metro centered around one dominant city (Charlotte, Richmond) and two multinodal regions (NOVA [although DC is the primary city of the region, within NOVA itself there is no one dominant city], Hampton Roads; Triangle, Triad). The capitals of both NC and VA are fall line cities. The tobacco industry is big in both states, and Winston-Salem even feels like a mini-Richmond. The flagship universities of both schools are of similar caliber. And so on and so forth.
You think that Oklahoma's culture is like central, southern and the delta regions of Arkansas? How? Have you been there?
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