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Every so often in the endless "Are Maryland and Delaware Southern states" threads I see reference to a native New Jersey "southern accent" around the Cape May area. I have tried to listen for various samples of this accent but never hear it. The only accents Ive heard from the state are the "Tony Soprano" type and GenAm.
Does anyone know of a site where I could hear a sample of this native New Jersey "southern accent". Im fascinated by this.
Every so often in the endless "Are Maryland and Delaware Southern states" threads I see reference to a native New Jersey "southern accent" around the Cape May area. I have tried to listen for various samples of this accent but never hear it. The only accents Ive heard from the state are the "Tony Soprano" type and GenAm.
Does anyone know of a site where I could hear a sample of this native New Jersey "southern accent". Im fascinated by this.
The apparent NJ southern drawl is not present in Cape May, but in the extreme SW portion of the state, near the Delaware Bay - apparently. I have never heard it myself, and apparently it is a very small number of people who speak like this in a very small area that is already lower in population compared to the northern part of the state. I'll believe it when I hear it.
Maybe others know more than I do?
About those threads you speak of, yes I have seen people make these same claims. NJ suddenly becomes southern (perhaps more so than MD! ) because South Jerseyans have a distinctly southern drawl. Yeah right. Maybe southern-ish, but no one hear speaks like it's the middle of Alabama. What can you learn from claims like these? Some people on this site are completely nuts.
The apparent NJ southern drawl is not present in Cape May, but in the extreme SW portion of the state, near the Delaware Bay - apparently. I have never heard it myself, and apparently it is a very small number of people who speak like this in a very small area that is already lower in population compared to the northern part of the state. I'll believe it when I hear it.
Maybe others know more than I do?
About those threads you speak of, yes I have seen people make these same claims. NJ suddenly becomes southern (perhaps more so than MD! ) because South Jerseyans have a distinctly southern drawl. Yeah right. Maybe southern-ish, but no one hear speaks like it's the middle of Alabama. What can you learn from claims like these? Some people on this site are completely nuts.
Cape May is cosmopolitan and developed. You will find some funny accents in Salem/Cumberland Counties and back road neighborhoods in the Pine Barrens. Not quite southern, but you'll hear a little drawl.
I have seen Confederate flags on staff poles in these areas.
Cape May is cosmopolitan and developed. You will find some funny accents in Salem/Cumberland Counties and back road neighborhoods in the Pine Barrens. Not quite southern, but you'll hear a little drawl.
I have seen Confederate flags on staff poles in these areas.
You'll see confederate flags in any "country" rural area. Today, they're more a symbol of country music than anything else. I'd be willing to bet you'd find confederate flags in rural Maine.
I just was out driving and saw a pickup truck with Jersey plates in my Union County town, license place cover said the truck came from Flemington, and it had a bumper sticker on it that said "born a Yankee, always a rebel" or something like that with the confederate flag.
I don't doubt the south Jersey accents are different, but some posters in General US have basically been claiming south Jersey is the south. Completely false, ridiculous statement to make - especially when in the same breath they're arguing DE and MD are northern.
You'll see confederate flags in any "country" rural area. Today, they're more a symbol of country music than anything else. I'd be willing to bet you'd find confederate flags in rural Maine.
I just was out driving and saw a pickup truck with Jersey plates in my Union County town, license place cover said the truck came from Flemington, and it had a bumper sticker on it that said "born a Yankee, always a rebel" or something like that with the confederate flag.
I don't doubt the south Jersey accents are different, but some posters in General US have basically been claiming south Jersey is the south. Completely false, ridiculous statement to make - especially when in the same breath they're arguing DE and MD are northern.
I wouldn't say it's the actual South but it's something unique. Looks like the South but at the same time distinctly Northern.
Every so often in the endless "Are Maryland and Delaware Southern states" threads I see reference to a native New Jersey "southern accent" around the Cape May area. I have tried to listen for various samples of this accent but never hear it. The only accents Ive heard from the state are the "Tony Soprano" type and GenAm.
Does anyone know of a site where I could hear a sample of this native New Jersey "southern accent". Im fascinated by this.
OMG - you've never heard it? I went to college with students from Gloucester County and you would seriously think they were from the 'south'- not VA, more like Alabama! Here is an example - when my friend kept asking me for a "tail" I had no clue what she wanted, so I made her spell it. She actually wanted a t-o-w-e-l. Its definitely a south west NJ thing; I think its kind of cute - both my male/female friends from that area had the same accents
OMG - you've never heard it? I went to college with students from Gloucester County and you would seriously think they were from the 'south'- not VA, more like Alabama! Here is an example - when my friend kept asking me for a "tail" I had no clue what she wanted, so I made her spell it. She actually wanted a t-o-w-e-l. Its definitely a south west NJ thing; I think its kind of cute - both my male/female friends from that area had the same accents
Have friends from Gloucester and Salem/Cumberland counties and have NEVER heard the accent. Philly yes (my IL's have it), Southern twang? No way.
Have friends from Gloucester and Salem/Cumberland counties and have NEVER heard the accent. Philly yes (my IL's have it), Southern twang? No way.
Sorry you haven't heard it but do you think I'm lying or making it up? Just b/c you haven't experienced something does not mean it does not exist!! So YES - "WAY"
Here is a post from a Southern NJ person on a different thread about this same thing:
I grew up in South Jersey with what I learned later was a severe South Jersey accent. I went to college in central NJ, and got bombarded with the horrible North Jersey/ NY accents, and mellowed out by the eastern PA (non-Philly) accents.
My dorm was called Wolfe, and my friends noticed I called it "Woof." I was like "yeah, woof, like the wild dawgs that live in the wuds."
I met people from a town in central NJ called Howell. If I said "He's my pal from Howell" you can be sure that "pal" and "Howell" rhymed exactly. I also carried my "tal" to the shower so I could dry off.
To us South Jerseyans, the word "folk" had a silent "L". So you might decorate with some "foke art." People in my parents' generation called their parents their "fokes." My neighbors drove a "Vokeswagon."
I worked at the Gap all through college, and I'd transfer back and forth depending on whether it was a break or college was in session. At the time, stone washed jeans were big. At my central NJ Gap, I was able to called them "stone washed" and talk about the pumice stones used in the process. When I got down to South Jersey, I went right back to "stewns" and "stewn-washed." Oh, and I didn't go back "down" to South Jersey, but more like "dailn" to Salth Jersey. (with Salth sounding more like "pal" not "salt.")
After 4 years in school, I had eliminated my accent, but then I got made fun of when I went home to visit. It's now years later, and if I'm down there for over an hour, I totally get it back.
Does anyone know of a site where I could hear a sample of this native New Jersey "southern accent". Im fascinated by this.
This is a video that was was taken at the Tuckerton Decoy and Gunning Show (held at the Tuckerton Seaport Museum) some years back. The guy who is interviewed starting at 2:49 is probably representative of the accent you're talking about. No one in New Jersey has a "southern accent" by any stretch-what you hear in South Jersey is a combination of the accent that dominates Philadelphia and it's surrounding area (South Jersey, Southeast Pennsylvania, Eastern Maryland, Delaware, etc...)-NJ Person's post does a good job of some of the idiosyncrasies of it. One of the main differences left out is that people from North Jersey say "WATER" or "WATTA," while people from South Jersey say "WOODER."
The Philadelphia accent alone does not explain the perception of a "southern" accent though. Clearly, if you're talking to the guy next to you at the "Iggles" game who is from Bristol, he doesn't sound like he just fell off the turnip truck from Alabama. However, if you take that type of accent, and give it a kind of rural sensibility (dropped Gs, various rural slang terms, and rural speech patterns-"ain't", "t'werent", double negatives like "ain't no", etc...), it sounds to the uninitiated like a "southern" accent:
My grandmother, who was raised on a farm in Northern Burlington County and only finished up to the 8th grade probably sounds like a southerner to some people, but the only time she's ever spent in the south were the times her and my grandfather went to Florida.
This is a video that was was taken at the Tuckerton Decoy and Gunning Show (held at the Tuckerton Seaport Museum) some years back. The guy who is interviewed starting at 2:49 is probably representative of the accent you're talking about. No one in New Jersey has a "southern accent" by any stretch-what you hear in South Jersey is a combination of the accent that dominates Philadelphia and it's surrounding area (South Jersey, Southeast Pennsylvania, Eastern Maryland, Delaware, etc...)-NJ Person's post does a good job of some of the idiosyncrasies of it. One of the main differences left out is that people from North Jersey say "WATER" or "WATTA," while people from South Jersey say "WOODER."
The Philadelphia accent alone does not explain the perception of a "southern" accent though. Clearly, if you're talking to the guy next to you at the "Iggles" game who is from Bristol, he doesn't sound like he just fell off the turnip truck from Alabama. However, if you take that type of accent, and give it a kind of rural sensibility (dropped Gs, various rural slang terms, and rural speech patterns-"ain't", "t'werent", double negatives like "ain't no", etc...), it sounds to the uninitiated like a "southern" accent:
My grandmother, who was raised on a farm in Northern Burlington County and only finished up to the 8th grade probably sounds like a southerner to some people, but the only time she's ever spent in the south were the times her and my grandfather went to Florida.
None of the people in the video really have any accent to me - not like the one I'm talking about........
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) because South Jerseyans have a distinctly southern drawl. 
Yeah right. Maybe southern-ish, but no one hear speaks like it's the middle of Alabama. What can you learn from claims like these? Some people on this site are completely nuts.
