Maryland a southern state (Baltimore, Columbia: bankrupt, exodus, small towns)

[David_J]

Originally Posted by BajanYankee

This is true. I think most people have the following view of the South:

People who walk around with no shoes
Trailer Parks
People who say "Y'aaaawl"
Families that hold hands and pray right before every meal
Church, church and more church
Stupidity and overall slowness
Racist

That's pretty much it in a nutshell. But if you go to the average shopping mall in suburban Charlotte, is it really that different from the crowd you see in Potomac Mills?

Most of what you said is false, I agree. However, it is true that most Southerners use the word "Y'all." Here's a map of the common informal words used to talk to a group of people:



Obviously, Maryland doesn't follow into this pattern, and based on my experiences, NoVA doesn't either.

Southerners aren't actually any more religious than *most* Northerners, it's just that they're more open about it. In Maryland, talking about your religion is generally frowned upon outside of church and home, unless you go to Western MD, Southern MD, or the Eastern Shore, where very few people live. Same deal with NoVA as compared to the rest of Virginia.

[westsideboy]

Here is a better map, one with shading to indicate what percent of residents use "Y'all" or "You All" and *drum roll please* Maryland is right where you would expect a border state to be. Some people use the term, some don't.



Y'all - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[David_J]

The map of just "y'all" is better, as "you all" is becoming more of a general, non-southern term. Don't really wanna start a chain of pictures so I'll just post the link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Y%27allMap.jpg

Also, the majority of people who do say "y'all" in MD live outside of the DC and Baltimore metro areas, where the population is most densely packed and where about 70 - 80% of all residents live.

While linguistics don't necessarily determine a place's culture, I've found that linguistic boundaries often correlate with cultural boundaries.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by David_J

The map of just "y'all" is better, as "you all" is becoming more of a general, non-southern term. Don't really wanna start a chain of pictures so I'll just post the link: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped...Y%27allMap.jpg

Also, the majority of people who do say "y'all" in MD live outside of the DC and Baltimore metro areas, where the population is most densely packed and where about 70 - 80% of all residents live.

While linguistics don't necessarily determine a place's culture, I've found that linguistic boundaries often correlate with cultural boundaries.

Both maps show the same the same trend. Strong use of You all or Y'all in the States of Confederacy, weaker, but consistent use in the border states, and a sharp divide at the Mason-Dixon Line and Ohio River.

Linguistic Boundaries do indeed reflect cultural boundaries, perhaps not a perfect correlation, but still very strong. These maps are good evidence of that. Maryland is a border state, the use of a Southern grammatical construction by some of our population fits the history and cultural reality.

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by David_J

Most of what you said is false, I agree. However, it is true that most Southerners use the word "Y'all." Here's a map of the common informal words used to talk to a group of people:



Obviously, Maryland doesn't follow into this pattern, and based on my experiences, NoVA doesn't either.

You can slide that red color right on up into Maryland. It is commonly heard there.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by Richard Martin

You can slide that red color right on up into Maryland. It is commonly heard there.

That's why it isn't a very useful map. It would be like trying to understand American politics by looking at a state level electoral college map for a given Presidential election. Sure, you can see who 50.1% of the population of the state voted for, but little else.

A real look at the political reality requires a map that shows county level returns, where you can see the dense pockets of blue, and the sparce expanses of red.

Same with dialect, every state on the border between linguistic regions is going to have variation and diversity. The shading on the other map shows this. Maryland clearly has speakers that use y'all and you all. Not as high a percent as VA and states to the south, but much more than PA and states to the north.

It is almost like we are on the border or something. After 1,000 posts in this thread, you would think we would have figured that out by now.

[SwampFox35]

Originally Posted by David_J

Frederick County is more suburban than Washington County and is part of the I-270 technology corridor, along with being part of the Baltimore-Washington metro area. FredCo's also more diverse. However I do understand what you're getting at, looking at the lifestyle of Frederick at Hagerstown city propers. In addition, Hagerstown doesn't really have an "appalachian" accent. But to say the two are extremely similar is a stretch.

I lived in Frederick for two years, and I don't think it is a stretch to say they are similar. Hagerstown is part of the DC metro too, all you need to do is get on 270 one afternoon if you don't believe me.

[westsideboy]

Originally Posted by SwampFox35

I lived in Frederick for two years, and I don't think it is a stretch to say they are similar. Hagerstown is part of the DC metro too, all you need to do is get on 270 one afternoon if you don't believe me.

Washington County is Frederick County 20 years ago. If you get away from the transplants, you would be hard pressed to find much difference at all, in geography, culture, or dialect. The transplants themselves aren't much different from one side of the mountain to the other. The only real difference is the proportion of the two groups. More natives in Washington County, more transplants in Frederick.

Things don't start to really changes until you are west of the Great Valley, things change even more drastically once the Potomac valley narrows and starts "the bends."

Having lived on both sides of the divide, I am confident in grouping Washington, Frederick, and Carroll Counties as one region. There are others that agree.

Catoctin Maryland Group - Sierra Club

Catoctin Center

[David_J]

Originally Posted by Richard Martin

You can slide that red color right on up into Maryland. It is commonly heard there.

Not in MoCo or southeastern FredCo. I don't hear it often in the Baltimore metro area either. There may be people who say it, but they're from less populated areas, and make up a relative minority of the people in Maryland.

FredCo is by no means similar to Carroll County. It's a lot more suburbanized here (at least based on Urbana and Frederick city, I'm not really familiar with areas west of the Catoctin mtns.), less socially conservative, there are a lot more transplants and immigrants due to the influence of nearby MoCo, etc. Geographically, Frederick city on south and east is a lot flatter than all of Washington County.

Washington County doesn't remind me of Frederick County too much. Hagerstown does have some parallels to Frederick, but it's not as densely populated (not saying that Frederick is that densely populated either, just moreso than Hagerstown) and a lot less diverse. They also root for different sports teams - Hagerstown tends to follow the trends of Pittsburgh and Western MD, though to a lesser degree.

Also, the DC metro area consists of the following counties:



Don't see Washington County there.

[BajanYankee]

Originally Posted by David_J

Also, the majority of people who do say "y'all" in MD live outside of the DC and Baltimore metro areas, where the population is most densely packed and where about 70 - 80% of all residents live.

Yeah, I don't know about that. I lived in Washington, DC for five years and I knew plenty of whites and blacks alike (and South Asians) who said "y'all." Based on the map he posted, it's impossible to tell where exactly the term is used. And if the population is heavily weighted in favor of the DC and Baltimore metros, then that means that a fair number of people say it in those areas too. It can't be a mere 20-30 percent of the population that has Maryland shaded the same exact color as Missouri, which is far more rural.