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the hoi toider accent is the close to Shakespearean era British. You hear it the most Down East ( Down East (North Carolina) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ), but it's dying out. All along coastal NC, the cadence people talk is still about that fast, like the brits, and non-rhotic, without the traditional southern drawl. You'll also find words used like "mommick" and "dingbatter" you won't hear most other places. I grew up in coastal NC and I have to consciously slow down the cadence I speak at when talking to people east of Kinston or non-natives. If i get excited i talk real fast and get hard to understand. People not from East/Coastal NC will often say it sounds like locals are mumbling.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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With the MidAtlantic accent (Baltimore & Philadelphia), It's easy enough to find the blue collar versions on You tube, but there are middle class/upper class versions that are much milder. Those sound very, very close to many of the people in this video.
However, with the blue collar versions it's pretty easy to see some similarities to the more traditional Southern dialects, as well as some northern ones.
The Baltimore natives, speaking the blue collar accent, say their city as Bal'mer.
That's the same guy that I posted before. His MidAtlantic overview has 6 parts.
There are distinctly Southern accents in South Jersey, near Delaware Bay, which is referred to, locally, as Deep South Jersey, in Delaware, and Maryland.
While its not related to the NC discussion, the baltimore accent definitely doest sound that accentuated in the "wild". While the philly accent does have some accentuated vowels like SAE, it gets it from Baltimore region which has had its southern accent watered down a bit. The traditional baltimore is pretty close to "hoi toider". Now get outside the city and youll see some neighborhoods with a more traditional SAE. But again central MD is a HIGH yankee occupied zone and youll rarely find a native marylander, and even then alot are galvenized yankees (my brothers are a prime example of this).
As much as youre trying to push philly, south NJ and north deleware as having southern accents youre wasting your time IMHO. I have driven through these parts quite a bit on the way to my wifes family and while some blue collar dialects borrow some aspects (by way of MD) they are still not true southern accents. Really only the over accentuated "o" sound is present it seems.
*On topic*
I watched the city video and I noticed a gentleman much older then myself with a very watered down accent and while this is somewhat saddening it at least comforts me in that MD/VA arent the only ones suffering from this.
Location: The place where the road & the sky collide
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Quote:
Originally Posted by andrew_s
While its not related to the NC discussion, the baltimore accent definitely doest sound that accentuated in the "wild". While the philly accent does have some accentuated vowels like SAE, it gets it from Baltimore region which has had its southern accent watered down a bit. The traditional baltimore is pretty close to "hoi toider". Now get outside the city and youll see some neighborhoods with a more traditional SAE. But again central MD is a HIGH yankee occupied zone and youll rarely find a native marylander, and even then alot are galvenized yankees (my brothers are a prime example of this).
As much as youre trying to push philly, south NJ and north deleware as having southern accents youre wasting your time IMHO. I have driven through these parts quite a bit on the way to my wifes family and while some blue collar dialects borrow some aspects (by way of MD) they are still not true southern accents. Really only the over accentuated "o" sound is present it seems.
*On topic*
I watched the city video and I noticed a gentleman much older then myself with a very watered down accent and while this is somewhat saddening it at least comforts me in that MD/VA arent the only ones suffering from this.
I never said that. The accents are MidAtlantic & have elements of north & south. They are similar but slightly different from each other. It's the only region that calls the state that you live in Merlin, as far as I know. Deep South Jersey, southern Delaware & Delmarva as well as parts of "Merlin" do have southern accents. Go up around Woodstown & Bivalve in South Jersey.
Immigration to Delmarva was usually direct. The rest of the region had a more mixed immigration in higher volumes from more places. Also, keep in mind that until the Mason_Dixon line was done, the Penns & the Calverts had overlapping grants. The families were selling land on both sides of what became the state line, when Mr. Mason & Mr. Dixon were done.
With few exceptions, Bal'mer & Fluffya never dropped their Rs when that became the fashion in the 19th century.
I highly recommend that you read H.L. Mencken & check the University of PA linguistics site. William Labov Home Page
I'm not providing a link to Mencken because he wrote the book way before political correctness was invented.
The watered down versions of the MidAtlantic dialect most certainly have more than a passing similarity to the watered down version of the Charlotte dialect.
ETA: I have known real people who had those thick Bal'mer & Fluffya accents. Those accents were fading away, replaced by the watered down versions. Oddly enough, they're back.
Last edited by southbound_295; 05-01-2012 at 11:56 AM..
I often point people to former governor mike Easley, who was from Eastern NC, for an "educated Eastern NC" accent. In the interview here, he actually is a little more "standard" than other times I've heard the more recognizable non-rhotic ("bettah" for "better" etc) flavor. There is a little of that here ("dollahs"), but he seems to be in "TV mode" here.
Current governor Purdue is also from Eastern NC, but she seems to have "polished" her accent to more of a standard generic NC one with less of the eastern flavor.
Last edited by SunnyKayak; 05-01-2012 at 03:57 PM..
Reason: fixed the youtube url
Yeah. It isn't the Colonial Days anymore. I'm from the actual South. But, I think it's cute that you all want to be included too, though.
Not a discussion for here, but just an FYI "since" doesnt mean it stopped at that time.
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