Is the Southern Accent discriminated against?

[mississippijay238]

Of course. I grew up in Brookhaven and inherited the "classical southern" accent (according to the map that was posted earlier, and I do drop my "r"s frequently) and I know that I probably won't be the first callback for an interview if the position I'm applying for includes interaction with people in other states or countries. I'm a redneck by no means and I actually consider myself an articulate Southerner, but a Southerner nonetheless. I have a Master's and two Bachelor's degrees, but that won't stop certain people from assuming something about me when I open my mouth. You just learn to deal with it. Like GrandviewGloria said, it relegates you to one area of the country (and even one area of the South, I live in Arkansas at the moment and catch it for how 'different' I sound) for employment. But hey, there are worse places in the world to be "stuck" in.

[mississippijay238]

Originally Posted by Em11

There's a southern accent, and then there's just plain ol' redneck country talk. There's a difference. A southern accent still uses proper English and grammar. A country redneck accent does not. Too many people think southern means country and redneck, but that couldn't be further from the truth. A country/redneck accent can be found all over the United States, but a southern accent is region specific, and even then there are variations state to state.

Very good point. It's sad that Southern is automatically associated with "redneck," but when Duck Dynasty and Honey Boo Boo are the reference points, then it's not a shock that we get the short end of the stick when it comes to assumed intelligence.

[Ivory Lee Spurlock]

I always wondered when the Southern accent became Southern. George Washington was from Virginia but I believe his parents or grandparents came from England, so GW was not too far removed from England. Did George Wahington have a Southern accent? Or an English accent? Or back during his day, did the regions of the country have similar accents or totally different accents? How different was the accents of the Founding Fathers and the accents of Americans today? When did the Americans stop speaking with English accents and devlop Southern and Northeastern accents and the flat accents like guys that report the evening news. It's really too we don't have any recordings of the FF's speaking. A thousand years from now, even 10,000 years from now there will be recrodings and videos of people and life as it is from our era on Earth. I think that would be a cool thing to see.

[Neshomamench]

Originally Posted by Ivory Lee Spurlock

I always wondered when the Southern accent became Southern. George Washington was from Virginia but I believe his parents or grandparents came from England, so GW was not too far removed from England. Did George Wahington have a Southern accent? Or an English accent? Or back during his day, did the regions of the country have similar accents or totally different accents? How different was the accents of the Founding Fathers and the accents of Americans today? When did the Americans stop speaking with English accents and devlop Southern and Northeastern accents and the flat accents like guys that report the evening news. It's really too we don't have any recordings of the FF's speaking. A thousand years from now, even 10,000 years from now there will be recrodings and videos of people and life as it is from our era on Earth. I think that would be a cool thing to see.

There are a lot of writings that describe how people sounded such as George Washington. If we combine that with all the writings on the exact pronunciation of words, we can get a pretty good idea of what a person sounded like.

Another place people can look to really understand an accent is the poetry of an era. We can see which words rhyme, which can change with accent. Academic writings combined with poetry can help us understand what even ancient languages like Latin sounded like, as spoken, in Roman times.