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I have been wondering that if the Mason-Dixon line (AKA Pennsylvania's Southern border) didn't stop at Pennsylvania and continued west, cutting through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, that the Southern part of these states would "make more sense" as being rather "Southern" instead of Midwestern.
I am from Chicago. When I drive to Southern Illinois, it feels like the South. People like to say that such people don't have true Southern accents, but rural accents. I think the theory of rural people sounding Southern is such bull. Meet a rural Michigander, Wisconsinite, or Minnesotan and they do NOT sound Southern. People in the country don't possess Southern accents unless they are in the South. And the exception to this is southern parts of many Midwestern states that come south of the Mason-Dixon. But again, I think that if you stretch the Mason Dixon line into Missouri and further, the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and 90% of Missouri would actually be in the South. But because the Mason-Dixon line ends in the Southwestern tip of Pennsylvania, these areas are considered the Midwest until you hear people speak.
It could have to do with the climate transition seen near the Mason-Dixon latitude, where humid continental transitions to humid subtropical. And I hear Southerners joke about their slow paced life being affected by their very uncomfortable heat indexes. The fact that practically all areas south of Pennsylvania lie in humid subtropical (or at least transition) may say something about the fact that linguistically, the way of speaking transitions, too.
Many Southern Illinoisans joke that they are really Kentucky people, as do Cincinnati natives. I think that the fact that these areas are technically south of the Mason-Dixon line gives them that Southern feel in terms of accent, culture, and even ethnic groups (larger concentration of Scotch-Irish instead of the traditionally common German ethnicity seen in most of the Midwest). Us Upper Midwesterner people share more in common with German and Scandinavian ways of speaking rather than the English and Scotch-Irish influences seen in the Southern way of speaking.
This is a common topic around here, and I believe that the areas you're talking about are transition zones. The MO boot, S IL and S IN are about as southern as they are northern, despite what certain people who live deeper in the Southern region would have you think.
I have been wondering that if the Mason-Dixon line (AKA Pennsylvania's Southern border) didn't stop at Pennsylvania and continued west, cutting through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, that the Southern part of these states would "make more sense" as being rather "Southern" instead of Midwestern.
If you're along or north of U.S. 50, you're in the North, period.
It wouldnt make sense because Maryland is already culturally northeastern (and fits with your German ancestry point), and Kansas, California, Utah, Colorado wouldn't fit with it. It only makes a little bit of sense in the midwest.
It wouldnt make sense because Maryland is already culturally northeastern (and fits with your German ancestry point), and Kansas, California, Utah, Colorado wouldn't fit with it. It only makes a little bit of sense in the midwest.
OMG we are gonna start the Maryland debate again lol. 4th thread 2 days.
If by southern transplants you mean people from Virginia and Kentucky who settled these areas in the late 18th and early 19th century than you're right.
Something tells me that's not what you mean though.
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