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The Southern accent sounds nothing like any European accent, let alone any accent originating from the British Isles.
It's more black, African-American than anything else.
It depends on what southern accent your talking about the one in charlelston;and savannah comes for the richer immagrant that settled there ;they even brought hunting with the hounds with them and spread. That is called the cultured sotuhern accent. The others are a mix of irish and many others including french in Louisana, its like listening to the difference between some from new york and then bronx. Accents vary with; frankly the class system from long ago.
The official origins of the southern accent, are centered on the fact that black slave women (mammies) used to raise a lot of the white children, and they learned to talk like them.
I was born in Mississippi and moved to Virginia when I was 11 years old. Returning to Mississippi at age 51, accompanied by my Maine native wife and two friends from New Jersey, I could distinguish a number of distinct regional dialects as we travelled the state.
As a resident of Virginia, I have distinguished at least 13 diffent "Virginian" accents. Some of the most facinating are: 1) Nearly all natives of tidewater areas (from the Chesapeake to the fairly deep inland) seem to have an "aristocratic" sound, 2) in high school, I took a course in Shakespeare. The instructor required us to learn and converse in Elizabethan English prior to studying his plays and sonnets. When my father, brothers, uncle, and I went to Tangier Island (off Deltaville) to fish, the only one who could understand (and "translate") the instructions of the first-mate was me, 3) in Appalachia, I can hear accents that differ substantially from valley to valley (only a few miles apart). A group of businessmen from Marion had difficulty understanding a fellow businessman from a small town west of Abingdon (less than 45 minute drive).
Amazing!
Which southern accent? Ther southern accent in areas like Charleton and savannah heard so much derives from the rich euoropean who settle there.Its the accent you see them protrayig i mopives like midnight in the garden of good and evil.Its said that butter wouldn't melt in their mouths and when I was in the army the women everywhere love it;lucky guys.
I think anyone from the Midwest will get between the 40% to 60% range, so idk if thats a really good indicator of being Southern unless you get 90% + but interesting none the less
An old college Sociology proffessor of mine said that accents are usually caused by geographical and climate factors. Think about it: in the South, it's often hot, and oft-times the pace is slower and more laidback. Hence, the precise enunciaton and speech rythym is slowed; the vowels are stretched. Hence, ya get words like "y'all" and also the "g" is dropped from a lot of words. Like, "I'm fixin' tah go to the market."
Fast-paced Eastern cities? The speech is hurried and clipped. Cold Northern climates? Like in "Fargo." Think about how you say words if you were cold and the muslces in your face were stiffened; you'd get that sort of accent. You can go on and on and think about even foreign accents (like the French & Italian) and realize the same dynamic is at work in their respective tongues.
believe there are dialects and accents which are different. I grew up in the NC Appalachians and had the dialect educated out of me and now I have a beautiful southern accent.
But when I hear Ron Weasley character in Harry Potter movies speak, I hear the same southern accent. "Knaaaaght to Haaaach 3". I think the actor is from Somerset, so maybe that is the Carolina connection.
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I think people are forgetting the English influence in the South. Despite the number of 'Scots-Irish' in the South, Southern culture was basically English at heart (those from Ireland etc soon adopted more English-type customs) and things like r-dropping are distinctly English traits. The Irish and Scots today do not 'drop-r's', same as most Americans. That's why while Boston is a very Irish city it's accent owes more to the English of the North than the Emerald Isle itself. The Irish influence certainly is prominent in American in general, I think, but American largely reflects an amalgam of Elizabethian type English etc...partly why those areas not settled by wealthy planters educated the 'English way' like the Appalachians have more Scots-Irish influenced accents.
Modern southern has diverged alot from it's Anglo-Saxon and perhaps African roots, though, and is such a distinctive dialect/accent.
Can someone please tell me what are the origins of the southern US accent. The more I hear, the more it sounds Irish to a certain extent.
There is no one 'southern' accent.
Like in the north, it differs by culture, class, and location.
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