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not to be a bit*h or anything, but what does the fact that she was black have to do with your story?
kinda reminds me of the commercial back in the early 70's with the kid and his grandfather on the fishing boat. who remembers it?
Maybe I should have mentioned it but it was because, even though she was black, we both shared an idiom (y'all, fixin to, etc) that made me probably understand her better than I did most of the whites in the area!
Maybe I should have mentioned it but it was because, even though she was black, we both shared an idiom (y'all, fixin to, etc) that made me probably understand her better than I did most of the whites in the area!
I can't say I remember the commercial though...
gotcha - thanks
and, i LOVE YOUTUBE! i found the commercial - a PSA from 1980, not the early 70s
Here's my proposal--these count as the South:
-Tennessee (more than 20 minutes south of Kentucky)
-North Carolina (in towns and rural areas with fewer than 75,000 people)
-Florida (north of I-10 then the Gulf Coast west of Panama City)
-Arkansas (south of I-30/I-40 east of Little Rock)
-South Carolina
-Georgia
-Alabama
-Mississippi
-Louisiana
Do not count:
-Texas: it's so great, it's its own region and country. It's like eight states in one with ten different cultures and types of topography.
-Virginia: It is now a mid-Atlantic state.
-West Virginia: hillbilly and country doesn't mean southern. And, they say "pop." More industrial in history, like the northeast and upper midwest.
-Kentucky: They say "pop," don't know what grits and sweet tea are, and it doesn't have a great deal of that Southern hospitality. Ever been to Louisville, Lexington, and Owensboro?
-Arkansas: western Arkansas is more like Oklahoma and east Texas.
-Florida: south of I-10, it's now New York South
I started to say, if it had been in the 70's, I probably would have remembered it!
I don't want to get off topic or anything but, I don't quite agree with everything in it. There are times, IMHO, it IS relevant to mention a friend's race or religious affiliation. For instance, I am a big Texas/Southern history buff and very proud of my Confederate heritage and ancestry (I guess my moniker TexasReb might indicate it, huh? LOL). I have a very good friend who is black and he has no problem with it, even if he might not agree with everything I think, and tells me that many black people feel the same way. So, when the subject comes up as to how different demographic groups may percieve the Confederate Flag, it IS related to the discourse when I mention this particlar friend AND the fact he is black.
Of course, to make a point of telling people you have a friend of another race and/or ethnic group just to prove how "tolerant" you are, strikes me as more silly than anything else.
Anyway, again, I don't want to get off the subject of this thread, except to note all that in passing. I really have a much bigger problem with people who find "racism" in everything (and I hasten to add, I am NOT suggesting you are one of these).
Oh maybe so- but thats the funny thing. When northerners move South, they seem to keep their yankee twangs. But when southerners move north they lose their drawls right fast. At least most do. It surprises me how quickly a southerner can lose their native tongue.
I had a girlfriend who spent a summer in Chicago and she came home with such a heavy nasal Chicago accent. I told her knock that stuff off around me.
That being said, a person can actually make a concious effort to change their accent. Its not set in stone.
But it takes such effort and consistancy over time to change that most people don't bother.
My family moved to central Florida from Alabama when I was in elementary school and stayed until I turned 20. I had an Alabama accent before we moved to Florida, but pretty much lost it when we moved back to Alabama. My friends and about everyone I knew was from a northern state and most of the Florida natives do not have southern accents. My father retained his accent and my mother's accent was still southern, but not as southern once we left Florida.
I have been back in Alabama for several years, but I still sound like I do when I left Florida. I became very aware of different accents and how some are perceived after living in Florida and spending a short time in Ohio. I also travel thoroughout the country and people have a hard time guessing where I was born. When I say Alabama, they are stunned!
Some people have thought I wasn't from Virginia in my native state . When I told them I was a native of Virginia, they said " oh it sounds much further south". When ironically, its probably the closest thing you'd hear to a real Virginia accent. And I never was aware of this. But I also was home schooled so I didnt spend a lot of time with my peers my age or watch a whole lot of tv. I hung around older people. My grandmother lived with me and she had a very deep Richmond accent that is rare to hear these days.
But most of these people I encounter are not from Virginia originally, or only used to the much lighter version of Virginia that you hear from our local tv announcers I suppose.
My accent is weird though because I grew up in northern virginia but my father is from kentucky and my mother is from Richmond and I spent my early summers with my older relatives from Tidewater and Richmond. I also had a lot of friends from the Shenandoah Valley so that rubbed off on me. I'm a walking hybrid of stuff.
I was up in the Winchester, VA area (a part of northern VA, but a little distance from DC) and I heard southern accents in that part of the state. Further up the road in Martinsburg, WV, I heard more of a north/soouth mixture, but I think that's due to commuters fleeing DC for the state's eastern panhandle. It was obvious who the natives were though. In Hagerstown, MD, where one my uncle lives, I heard a mixture there too for the same reason as Martinsburg. By the time I got to Chambersburg, PA, all traces of a southern accent were gone. It's amazing that in such a short stretch of highway (about 70 miles from Winchester to Chambersburg), the accent and even the landscape changed so much.
Yes:
Alabama
Mississippi
Louisiana
North Carolina
South Carolina
Tennesee
Kentucky
Arkansas
Not:
Virginia
West Virginia
Texas
Florida
If it involves "contemporary" definitions of the South, I go with that outlined in the map on the "Southern United States" Wikepedia page. This reflects, after MUCH discussion, "degrees" of "Southerness" as applies to the individual states as a whole. ( In fact, to some "degree" the "order" of listing them contains a certain POV! )
Always/Almost always considered Southern:
Mississippi
Alabama
Georgia
South Carolina
North Carolina
Tennessee
Arkansas
Usually considered Southern (much more Southern than not):
Texas
Kentucky
Virginia
Florida
Sometimes/occasionally considered Southern (by some sources, but, at least as often as not, excluded. Some more than others):
Oklahoma
West Virginia
Missouri
Maryland
Delaware
And I don't mean to sound like a broken record BUT, there is something to be said about "The South" being the 11 Old Confederate States as well (plus Kentucky, at the least, to a considerable extent). This one is also "mapped" on Wikepedia. In the realm of history and tradition and emotion, the South remains the Old Confederacy. But then again, that is just IMHO.
I agree with Texreb! The disscussion surrounding this topic on Wikipedia has led the editors to create a map of what most people see as the modern day definition of the South. This is to me one of the most accurate maps on the web.
State's in Dark red almost always included in the South's definition.
State's in light red usually/more than likely included in the South's defintion
Stiped states are sometimes ocassionally included.
John Shelton Reed Percent who say their community is in the South (percentage base in parentheses) Alabama 98 (717) South Carolina 98 (553) Louisiana 97 (606) Mississippi 97 (431) Georgia 97 (1017) Tennessee 97 (838) North Carolina 93 (1292) Arkansas 92 (400) Florida 90 (1792) Texas 84 (2050) Virginia 82 (1014) Kentucky 79 (582) Oklahoma 69 (411) West Virginia 45 (82) Maryland 40 (173) Missouri 23 (177) Delaware 14 (21) D.C. 7 (15)
Percent who say they are Southerners (percentage base in parentheses) Mississippi 90 (432) Louisiana 89 (606) Alabama 88 (716) Tennessee 84 (838) South Carolina 82 (553) Arkansas 81 (399) Georgia 81 (1017) North Carolina 80 (1290) Texas 68 (2053) Kentucky 68 (584) Virginia 60 (1012) Oklahoma 53 (410) Florida 51 (1791) West Virginia 25 (84) Maryland 19 (192) Missouri 15 (197) New Mexico 13 (68) Delaware 12 (25) D.C. 12 (16) Utah 11 (70) Indiana 10 (208) Illinois 9 (362) Ohio 8 (396) Arizona 7 (117) Michigan 6 (336) All others less than 6 percent.
This study has been conducted for over a decade by UNC and is still being conducted.
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