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That is a good map. I can hear the Northern cities vowel shift when I go to Cleveland, which isn't that far away from southwest PA/Pittsburgh.
Erie, PA sits between Cleveland and Buffalo but somehow, the NCVS is not noticeable there.
Yes, this is a good observation. I grew up in the northeast corner of Ohio (Ashtabula County) near the PA border, and people there do not have that NCVS accent. It seems that Erie and a few other counties along that stretch of Lake Erie are an anomaly for not having the NCVS accent. People where I grew up just seem to have a generic PA accent, but if you go west to the next county into Cleveland's eatern suburbs you will definatrly start to hear the NCVS. Head southwest past Youngstown and the Pittsburgh accent is present. Funny how all this changes in such a small area.
Very detailed map. But DC and Northern Virginia have absolutely no trace of a Southern accent. This map needs to be amended.
You think not? When my family moved from NE PA to Frederick, MD everyone sounded so southern. After we lived there a while, we didn't even notice the southern accent. It's mild, in that area, but it's there. DC and NOVA are a little south of Frederick.
You think not? When my family moved from NE PA to Frederick, MD everyone sounded so southern. After we lived there a while, we didn't even notice the southern accent. It's mild, in that area, but it's there. DC and NOVA are a little south of Frederick.
Frederick has absolutely no Southern accent. Maybe if you said the Eastern Shore or even Southern MD it wouldn't be so bad, but Frederick?! The rural parts of Frederick county have a rural country "hickish" accent (no offense) like in the WV Panhandle, SW PA, and Western MD, but it's definitely not Southern. People all too often think rural=southern.
Quote:
Originally Posted by back2dc
Very detailed map. But DC and Northern Virginia have absolutely no trace of a Southern accent. This map needs to be amended.
Not in Arlington or Fairfax, and definitely not in DC or the MD suburbs, but go to Prince William County to places like Fredericksburg, it's the most Southern suburban county in the DC Area. Plus the rural Virginian counties considered part of the Area, and maybe even some parts of southern Charles County in MD.
Frederick has absolutely no Southern accent. Maybe if you said the Eastern Shore or even Southern MD it wouldn't be so bad, but Frederick?! The rural parts of Frederick county have a rural country "hickish" accent (no offense) like in the WV Panhandle, SW PA, and Western MD, but it's definitely not Southern. People all too often think rural=southern.
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You don't have to agree with me, but I'm very familiar with Frederick County and I know (and prob anyone else living there will tell you) that they don't have Southern accents. Most people in Frederick city and downcounty suburbs (Urbana most notably) don't even have a distinct accent. The accent that you think is Southern is more like an Appalachian type accent common in Hagerstown, Western MD, the WV Panhandle, all the way up to Gettysburg, PA, and other nearby areas.
Actually if you look at the map that the OP posted on the first page posted it shows this as well. Frederick County is in the yellow "East Midland" area.
I am quite confused by the map.
It is really hard to tell the borders.
I was hoping the map would show the extent of Bawlmorese and Pittsburgherse.
Instead I can barely tell were one begins and ends.
Also...I think it is inaccurate.
Consider...if we believe the map...we then assume Eastern Long Island Islanders sound the same as Rhode Islanders and Eastern CTers.
This is not the case...Long Island has an NY accent.
In fact Long Island has a distinct accent from the NY accent.
It has nothing in common in with New England.
They do not drop thah ahs in annoying fashion.
Further...this map shows the Maryland accent goes all the way up into Philly and way past South Jersey into North Jersey.
Wrong.
New Jersey has a very strong accent all the way down the Jersey Shore.
There is NO Maryland similarities and certainly not all the way up to the Raritan river.
Absurd blasphmy.
That is an insult to everybody in NJ to state they share their speech with a mid-atlantic state like MD.
Yuck.
I would agree that some of the SW PA accent is a bit southern. "Hah hills" for "high heels", "Stillers" for "Steelers", etc.
PGH may produce "stiller" and "iggle" but the southern version would sound more like "stale-er" and "aygle"
Growing up at the Shore in Central Jersey I always thought that South Jersey accents sounded southern (and there are some similarities) but when I moved to Philly after living in Charleston for a year it didn't sound southern in the slightest.
I was in London once with a girl with a very thick South Jersey accent (particularly when drinking) and she was mistaken for Australian on several occasions.
I think when a lot of people are casually assessing someone's accent they get caught up in the cadence and not the actual way that the sounds are being pronounced.
Fun reading. I agree, a Long Island accent is more like that of NY City or NJ, not CT or RI. The small area of CT that's near New York can sound a lot like NY but most of CT does not. CT has the western MA accent that goes up into Vermont, except for east of the CT River where they talk more like Bostonians.
Also, Canadians sound different but to be sure, just wait until they say, "about." LOL. It's a dead giveaway. Aboot--could be a Scottish influence?
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