A silly question about accents (Lexington, Louisville: live in, agriculture, pine)

[censusdata]

Lexington defiantly has more of a Midwestern feel, very similar to Cincinnati or Columbus. The surrounding counties have more of an upland South feel to them

[missymomof3]

Lexnigton's spring break week we had tons of people from there visit the zoo. They were rude, snobby and impatient. Please tell me they do not represent the whole town.

[CatFox]

Thanks to everyone for your responses on my inquiry about Lexington, KY accents. The video especially helped. I didn't mean any disrespect if anyone took it that way but I am portraying Mary Todd Lincoln in a play and wanted to sound authentic. (as opposed to uneducated- Mary Todd was better educated than most women of her time.) I also read that early Kentucky accents (ie, 1850's and before) were thicker and more pronounced than today, due to modern blending of cultures and accents from transplants from other parts of the country. I read that the accent came from the Scottish ancestors and indeed, the Todds were of Scottish decent. My play starts with Mary Todd just after she moved to Springfield, IL fresh from Lexington at age 20, in 1839. I colored it liberally with the Kentucky accent (as I hear it). As the play progresses in time, she loses some of that accent. By the time she gets to the White House (or the "Hwat Haowse") it is not as pronounced but it is still there. I used Laura Bush's accent as a model. I will soon have a You-Tube video posted. You can check it out and tell me if I got it right. I didn't find any reference to her accent in any of my research and I didn't watch any videos of her because I didn't want to be influenced by other people's interpretation of her. I did find an audio recording of a professional, modern day woman who claims to be a decendent of Mary Todd. I used that as well in my portrayal. (By the way, I'm from St. Louis and in the city we have a standard midwestern accent, but in the surrounding small towns it is Ozarkian-country.)

[JimmyJohnWilson]

Originally Posted by censusdata

Lexington defiantly has more of a Midwestern feel, very similar to Cincinnati or Columbus. The surrounding counties have more of an upland South feel to them

no it doesnt, thats just plain untrue. lexington has all the characteristics of the bluegrass region, southern accents, southern food (ever been to ramseys?), holding the doors for others, people being polite. obviously with a university in town you get out of staters, but thats hardly "the feel" of the town. go into some residential neighborhoods and youll think otherwise.

seriously, what are you basing this off of? ive been to ohio, it aint lexington. not at all. how is it "similar" to columbus at all?

perhaps you are mistaking the downtown "artsy" scene, typical most college towns regardless of region, for "midwest". but thats hardly the "feel" of lexington.

[JimmyJohnWilson]

Originally Posted by ColorsOfMe

The way you say you hear it, I'm wondering if you've been listening to some old farts in a grocery store. The version I hear (or did when I lived in Kentucky) is that of 'purty girlies' with high-pitched voices.

no from a young girl i met from there

[ColorsOfMe]

Yeah, well I've met many people from Pikeville, KY (happens when you're in marching band and go to competitions all over the state) and the version I heard was "p-eye-k-veel". We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

As far as whether Lexington feels like Cincinnati (let alone Columbus), no way, no way. Lexington has that just-glad-to-get-out-of-the-country feeling to it, but there is no denying that it's still "southern".

[JimmyJohnWilson]

Originally Posted by ColorsOfMe

Yeah, well I've met many people from Pikeville, KY (happens when you're in marching band and go to competitions all over the state) and the version I heard was "p-eye-k-veel". We'll just have to agree to disagree on this one.

As far as whether Lexington feels like Cincinnati (let alone Columbus), no way, no way. Lexington has that just-glad-to-get-out-of-the-country feeling to it, but there is no denying that it's still "southern".

the way ive heard pikeville pronounced is kind of how i hear danville pronounced (DAN vull), big emphasis on the first syallabul. from what youve written it sounds like people say pikeville the way a lot say nashville (although ive heard nashville pronounced NASH vull) as well

[kathy Evans]

I find this conversation very interesting. I moved from western Ky to Arizona in the early fifties. I was 10 yrs old. So as you now know I am an 'older' woman. The first day of school in Az the teacher asked each child to stand by their desk and read out loud from a book she had placed on each desk. When it was my turn I began reading. About 30 seconds later the teacher said---in a very irritated tone " Set down", I can't understand a word you're saying." Later when we went out for recess I said something to a couple of the girls on the playground and they busted out laughing, looked at each other and said "What did she say?" By the time I reached middle school two teachers took me aside and offered to give me a ride home from school each day, and teach me how to speak properly in the process. As a result of these various reactions I became obsessed with how to speak 'properly'. I'm sure there is a significant difference between eastern Ky and western Ky, but back in the fifties there must have been a fairly strong accent even in western Ky (as compared to the west). I really believe that tellevision has had an affect on the way people from various parts of the country speak, evening out the differences considerably. I know this is a very lengthy comment, but I would like to mention one more thing. One of the primary differences was not so much an accent, as it was the way words were pronounced. Examples: In my family, the words 'steering wheel' was pronounced 'stern' wheel. People from Ireland were referred to as the 'Arsh people'. Rather than an accent there was just a slurring together of the words that when put together in a sentence resulted in a fairly distinctive speech pattern.

[kathy Evans]

I find this conversation very interesting. I moved from western Ky to Arizona in the early fifties. I was 10 yrs old. So as you now know I am an 'older' woman. The first day of school in Az the teacher asked each child to stand by their desk and read out loud from a book she had placed on each desk. When it was my turn I began reading. About 30 seconds later the teacher said---in a very irritated tone " Set down", I can't understand a word you're saying." Later when we went out for recess I said something to a couple of the girls on the playground and they busted out laughing, looked at each other and said "What did she say?" By the time I reached middle school two teachers took me aside and offered to give me a ride home from school each day, and teach me how to speak properly in the process. As a result of these various reactions I became obsessed with how to speak 'properly'. I'm sure there is a significant difference between eastern Ky and western Ky, but back in the fifties there must have been a fairly strong accent even in western Ky (as compared to the west). I really believe that tellevision has had an affect on the way people from various parts of the country speak, evening out the differences considerably. I know this is a very lengthy comment, but I would like to mention one more thing. One of the primary differences was not so much an accent, as it was the way words were pronounced. Examples: In my family, the words 'steering wheel' was pronounced 'stern' wheel. People from Ireland were referred to as the 'Arsh people'. Rather than an accent there was just a slurring together of the words that when put together in a sentence resulted in a fairly distinctive speech pattern.

[censusdata]

Originally Posted by JimmyJohnWilson

lexington has all the characteristics of the bluegrass region

There are very few areas that are treeless farmland in the South, it's almost all covered with pine forests for paper production. All the horse, cattle, and hay/ grain farms in the BG are more similar to what you would find in the Great Plains/ Midwest IMO