How Much Northeasterners Pick up the Southern Attitude and Southern Accent (Forsyth: metro, county)

[nibseysgirl]

Originally Posted by maggiemay

Regarding the accent: I think it's a personal thing, based on how well you hear nuance in voice and language. I'm terrible with names and faces, but I can remember someone's voice even after meeting only once and pick them out if I hear them one aisle over in the supermarket. Coincidentally, I also pick up particular accents easily and can mimic others' speech. I think that's why my French is decent (for a Southern girl) and my husband's French sounds like a bad movie parody.

Regarding the manners and attitude: My husband is in the miliary so we move often. Wherever I go I carry my Southern traditions (ALWAYS bring a hostess gift. ALWAYS send a thank you note, even after a back yard cookout, Dropping by with "just because" gifts of food or flowers from the garden, etc.) I find that the people I meet start doing the same thing, and really start enjoying that level of courtesy and thoughtfulness. By the time we leave, everyone RSVPs to events, shows up with flowers, and sends a thank you note the next day. Lovely. Sometimes, though, people who move down South don't realize that is what is expected so they skip the thank you note for a casual Friday night supper (It was just meatloaf--no need for a note. ). I always wonder if those are the people who show up on these threads and report that Southerners are "cliquish" and "just aren't friendly". When in Rome...

I love the way you express yourself and how your true southern hospitality comes across...that is what I am looking forward to the most when I move to GA...southern hospitality and welcoming people...Take Care...Lisa

[PaisleyChic]

Originally Posted by gt6974a

While bhs119 is somewhat correct, I find it pretty easy picking out where people are from. Especially Yanks, there's no mistaken it and from my experience they don't lose it, not all of it. My g/f's parents moved from Long Island 20 years ago and while her Dads' is not as obvious, her Mother's clearly is.

My mother is from Malden, MA and has been here in GA for the past 50 years. She still has her accent.

[Michelle DeRepentigny]

My in laws are from the Boston, MA area and have lived in Georgia about 25 years now. My father in law still has a very pronounced northern accent; you only hear it in my mother in law's voice when she is excited or mad! My husband, who was a teenager when they moved here, doesn't sound like a New Englander, but doesn't have a drawl either...we tell him he has no accent, lol.

It's funny how some people pick up what is around them and some don't.

[cotton]

I like Maggiemae's contribution. This is the land of the unlocked door, neighborhood children and summer suppers. Growing up, no one ever locked their doors, why the grocery boy could just walk right in and put your groceries on the kitchen table. If you weren't home, he would put your cold stuff in the refrigerator or freezer for you. If it started to rain while the milkman was delivering your milk, he would take the time to help you get your clothes in off the line. Is it still that way? Pretty much.

Even in our subburb, the neighborhood children play all over the neighborhood. The older kids look after the younger ones. Every parent is everybody's parent and the kids mind them too! Kids take off their shoes at the back door. It's the law of the land and every single one obeys it. As a parent you scold, feed, wipe and hug the neighbor children just like you do your own.

And, if you are the first one in the neighborhood to fire up the grill, you may have an onslought of folks for supper. Everyone brings his own supper, cooks his own meat and shares whatever else he has.

[nibseysgirl]

Originally Posted by cotton

I like Maggiemae's contribution. This is the land of the unlocked door, neighborhood children and summer suppers. Growing up, no one ever locked their doors, why the grocery boy could just walk right in and put your groceries on the kitchen table. If you weren't home, he would put your cold stuff in the refrigerator or freezer for you. If it started to rain while the milkman was delivering your milk, he would take the time to help you get your clothes in off the line. Is it still that way? Pretty much.

Even in our subburb, the neighborhood children play all over the neighborhood. The older kids look after the younger ones. Every parent is everybody's parent and the kids mind them too! Kids take off their shoes at the back door. It's the law of the land and every single one obeys it. As a parent you scold, feed, wipe and hug the neighbor children just like you do your own.

And, if you are the first one in the neighborhood to fire up the grill, you may have an onslought of folks for supper. Everyone brings his own supper, cooks his own meat and shares whatever else he has.

Hi there,
I love your post and I want to live where you live. I remember an actual milkman and having ppl just drop in for a chat or a cookout...I remember alot of the things you mention and I would love to live in that type of carefree, friendly and neighborly kind of community again and raise my daughter to truley respect and feel connected and cared for by neighbors not just so and so in 21 Main Street so to speak.....Thanks for the post..I really enjoyed it and I am envious....Lisa

[nonstamped]

Originally Posted by atlantagreg30127

But if you do talk to them don't assume that direct and abrupt is "rude", either, which is a common misconception here.

I'm originally from middle West Virginia which isn't really what some might call "Northern" but it's definately not deep South, either. In my particular area we actually have a very monotone accent and when I first moved down here people guessed at my being from Wisconsin or some place like that. We do however, speak more quickly than folks down here, and get to the point much quicker (much shorter conversations).

I remember when I first came here it seemed (to me) like it took the natives here forever to get to the point. I was used to going from point A to point B in 15 seconds or less, but here I'd have conversations with people who would stop-off at points D, F, M, and P on their WAY to B. LOL. My first couple of years talking to people here involved me talking to myself in my head while they were speaking... "c'mon.. c'mon... oh dear god get to the POINT already!". I have a coworker now who's originally from South Georgia and I swear to god it takes him 22 minutes to say "excuse me" in whatever way he does it. People usually fall asleep listening to him try to spit out a paragraph. At the same time, a guy who works in our warehouse is from Boston and everyone has to go, "huh? what'd he say? what was that???", as he speak so fast.

I've now been here 20 or so years and when I get home my friends and family can definately hear a slight "twang" here and there with certain words, and I do talk more slowly (compared to them). So while SOME things have rubbed of on me, I still don't and never will sound like a native to here, though. Likewise, you could take someone from Brooklyn New York and stick them in lower Alabama and go back 25 years later and while they won't have the same harsh accent they had originally, they too still will not sound like a native to the new area.

ATLANTAGREG you got straight to the point....I'm a NY'er and clearly notice the accents when I visit ATL just as they notice mine. They speak slow, we speak fast rarely slowing down. The yada-yada-yada is sickening, just get to the point!

[goodbyenyc]

There Is No Mistakin When I Open My Mouth To Speak... People Are Taken Aback By My New "yawker" Accent... I Have Lost Count I Think Almost Everyone I Come In Contact With Comments On My Accent, And They Consinder Me Very Cut And Dry. Some Due Tend To Perceive It As Rude And I Am More Aware Of How I Present Myself Now.

Real Deep Southern Accents, Wow! It's Almost Like A Different Language To Me. Lol!!

[roanoker 4]

Growing up in the mid atlantic, I can differentiate where the northern and southern accents intersect. In Virginia, north of Charlottesville the dialect gets faster. Around Roanoke and the mountainous areas a much slower southern accent. Richmond has so many transplants, I can't discern southern accents any longer. But in VA, the southern accent is disappearing like it is all over the south, due to t.v. and transplants. VA was always a conservative republican state, now it is democratic. I watch Paula Deen on t.v. from Georgia and her accent reminds me of many people that I grew up with in VA. It is so different and friendly, it is refreshing! I recently came back from Tennessee where being a "hillbilly" is nothing to be ashamed of. The people in east TN are proud of their heritage, music, culture. Its too bad in a big country like America, everyone is trying to be the same. Oddly, the many newly arrived immigrants to America are proud of their history, culture, traditions while native born Americans are always trying to be like everyone else.

[nadinethehowlingdemocrat]

Dialects have one thing in common. We all split verbs.

[fsinga]

I moved to Savannah from the northern New Jersey suburbs of New York City in June of '04. That was three years ago. Some of the people I have made friends with here, still complain that I speak too fast. And one insists I do not listen for him to end his conversation. Generally speaking (pardon that dumb pun), northerners pick up their end of a conversation at the first pause in a conversation not picked up on by anyone else present. This conversational habit is more of a problem for me here than the rapidity of my speech. Of course, I have only lived in the city of Savannah and what I say must be taken in that context. I find half the people I speak with in this city do not have a southern accent and it seems, upon questioning, most of those are not native Savannahians. Then too, I find there are several different "southern accents" in Savannah. There is the very southern accent and manner of speech, such as Paula Deen affects (probably for entertainment purposes, at this point), there is a milder form of that displayed by the wealthier, more educated city folk and then there is a country southern accent, to which I have to listen carefully to comprehend every word uttered.

I would imagine a person from Georgia moving north would notice minor differences in vocabulary, phrasing, speed and sound if they moved to any other part of the country.

None of this is unusual given the size of the country and the various origins of the people who inhabit it. England, a much smaller country, speaking the same 'mother tongue' has a number of different sounding accents and then there is the Australian accent.

No one dialect or accent is better than the other; they are just different.

As to traditions of hospitality, they abound around the world. I was born and reared in Jersey City, New Jersey by the children of Irish and German immigrants. Even as a male, I was taught decent manners; the matter of gifting a host or hostess and the kindness, the appreiciation and respect of a 'thank you' note. I have traveled and met people in a number of European countries, Mexico and even Asia minor. I generally find most people politie and considerate and appreciative of those who are also. The only exception I encountered to the opposite was one incident in Paris.