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How is it that as southern cities grow with people form outside the region, those areas are regarded as less southern, but as southerners went north/west, those areas haven't been considered less northern/western?
Yes, from what I've heard Richmond is a very southern city, at least culturally and the way people live. I think part of the reason is Virginia folk - southern or not - are more established than say those in Texas who might have only lived in the area for 150 years, as opposed to 250+ in Virginia.
There are 250-year-old people living in Virginia??
That is AWESOME. The more I learn about the South, the more impressive it sounds. We definitely don't have that in the North.
I'd say the Ohio River at Cincinnati. Separating the very cosmopolitan midwestern city of Cincinnati from the towns in Kentucky across the river.
Another contender would be the Iowa/Missouri state line on the east bank of the Missouri River. Northwestern Missouri, north of St. Joseph, is very, very southern, right up to the Iowa line---probably the most southern part of Missouri.
Are you kidding me? The Iowa/Missouri state line? Not even close. Northwestern Missouri north of St. Joseph is midwestern to the core. All of the Northern half of Missouri is unquestionably Midwestern. St. Louis and Kansas City are solidly Midwestern. The North-South divide to me is sharpest below Joplin and Springfield in Missouri, basically right around the latitude of where the Ohio flows into the Mississippi.
You could almost say that the larger metro areas in the south, Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh Durham, Nashville, Dallas, Houston have become less southern so that you would have a stutter step all across the region.
How is it that as southern cities grow with people form outside the region, those areas are regarded as less southern, but as southerners went north/west, those areas haven't been considered less northern/western?
Not to me. It sounds more like a Southern Midwest accent to me. Very different from Kentucky and Virginia at least to my trained ear.
I've heard numerous references to the 'southern Midwest' accent. Are there any famous people who speak with this accent? 'cause I'm curious to hear what it sounds like now...
I've heard numerous references to the 'southern Midwest' accent. Are there any famous people who speak with this accent? 'cause I'm curious to hear what it sounds like now...
Not sure about famous people, but you will definitely hear it in Missouri and at least 3/4 of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. It's basically a Midwestern accent with a Southern twang is how I would describe it. It's called a Midland accent, which is bounded on the south by the Ohio River and something like the southernmost quarter of Missouri. You will hear it in St. Louis, Indianapolis, Columbus, Cincinnati, and Kansas City. Much of the Ozarks in Missouri exhibit this accent too. Numerous dialect maps confirm this. I guess if you wanted one example, you could try Mike Shannon, a famous KMOX announcer for St. Louis. John Goodman might be someone else. However, there are many perfectly Iowa-flat accents found in this region too. The Upper Midwest usually features the "Great Lakes accent", but in places that don't touch the lakes such as Iowa and Nebraska, accents are usually perfectly flat, though there is a slight Midwest nasal twang.
I've heard numerous references to the 'southern Midwest' accent. Are there any famous people who speak with this accent? 'cause I'm curious to hear what it sounds like now...
You must be talking about the south "midland" dialect, which would run concurrent with the Ohio River.
Now that you mention it, I've come across something interesting concerning accents in this part of the country. I've noticed that the dialects in the Upper Midwest seem to be less reliant on location but rather on social class. Many poorer whites who never left for the suburbs of the industrial cities of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan have maintained what could be described as a slightly Southern-sounding accent through the years. This is probably due to their proximity to the Blacks who maintained their accents and their relatives who migrated north from southern states in search for work.
In relative terms, this is by far the most accurate depiction of regional dialects I've seen:
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