South Texas VS West Texas (Houston, Dallas: transplants, travel, work)

[NOTAM]

i just want to smell feedlots.........that is what makes me happy! thats why i loooooooooove Amarillo area!

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by bellestaroftexas

Ya know why? cuz i guess i have somewhat a Texas drawl or twang...which DOES NOT EXIST HERE! so another reason i dont fit in.

I just did some research on George Strait and found he was born and raise in Poteet TX, about 30 miles south of San Antonio. Later in life he went to college in San Marcos TX about 40 miles northeast. He definitely has some twang (Texan?) in his speech and songs.

I'm confused...

[NOTAM]

believe me.........SO AM I.........i swear to God......you come work with me, spend 12 hours on my shift, and see if you find anyone speaking in any thing resembling a Texan or southern-in-any-way accent. It's FREAKIN WIERD. they all have that accent of ...i dont know how to explain it...like mexicans who speak fluent English but still have that 'accent' and it actually sounds pretty much the same way that locals in Hawaii sound!!!!!!! i am not hearing things! i am young and have good hearing.
I WAS MADE FUN OF AT WORK WHEN I ASKED SOMEONE "IS THAT WHERE YOUR KINFOLK COME FROM?"
and the person who laughed at me is a born and bred South Texan. i asked him why he laughed, he said that he had not heard the word "kinfolk" since he spent one week in East Texas with some old friends!!!
I am tellin ya. I aint makin this up. This is NOT THE TEXAS I THOUGHT I KNEW and THE TEXAS I HAVE LIVED IN MOST OF MY LIFE! This is a WHOLE DIFFERENT COUNTRY. boy what a difference 8 hours south makes. by the way, i thought George Strait was from Pearsall........which by the way is still in my neck of the woods!

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

I just did some research on George Strait and found he was born and raise in Poteet TX, about 30 miles south of San Antonio. Later in life he went to college in San Marcos TX about 40 miles northeast. He definitely has some twang (Texan?) in his speech and songs.

I'm confused...

[NOTAM]

oh and by the way, i cant even listen to COUNTRY music at work.....all the nurses here listen to HIP HOP AND RAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and most have never even been to a RODEO.
the TEXAS i come from, the majority listen to country music, and when they are not at work, wear Carhartt jackets, cowboy boots, wrangler jeans, drive pickup trucks, rope and ride, never miss a rodeo or a high school football game.
they think i am WIERD here when i tell them i listen to Texas country.......and when i tell them that country music is very popular in Texas, they say "Honey, you are in SOUTH Texas now"..........

i am VERY confused.
i feel like i got dropped off on another planet.
i just dont get it.
i had no idea.

[spursfan]

yeah even san antonio is like that primarily..there are a few country types..but with a big Mexican influence and alot of transplants...there really is no accent and north San Antonio can feel like any suburban area in the US

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by spursfan

yeah even san antonio is like that primarily..there are a few country types..but with a big Mexican influence and alot of transplants...there really is no accent and north San Antonio can feel like any suburban area in the US

Funny... I've met some guys who live and work in San Antonio who were originally from Indiana. They had thick southern drawls reminiscent of guys I met from Jacksonville, FL; a place supposedly known from pretty thick southern accents.

Another reason I'm confused is in a Texas Travel Guide I got mailed to me, (from the late 90's) for the Rio Grande Valley area they had on the cover page "Bienvienido Y'all."

They did mention soft Spanish sounds mixed in with everyday English. I guess I pictured a hybrid of Spanish and a Texas drawl kind of sound.

Is "Y'all" common all over Texas, even in areas that don't sound "Texan?"

[ColdCanadian]

Originally Posted by bellestaroftexas

by the way, i thought George Strait was from Pearsall........which by the way is still in my neck of the woods!

Stranger still... It was a CMT website that told me he grew up in Poteet.

[NOTAM]

i've never heard any thick Southern accents in Jacksonville FL..but then again, lots of transplants there, plus lots of active duty Navy there and their families....just like Savannah GA where i lived for 3 years, just an hour and half north of Jacksonville.......barely heard a southern accent there...though some ole timey folks did have a sloooooooooow southern Georgia drawl..which is SO different than the Texas twang......
i dunno, maybe America is becoming so diluted with transplants that geographical accents are dying? who knows........
all i know is that the Texas i am from, we talk country.
regarding George Strait, i aint googled him and CMT might be right on target with him being from Poteet..dont know why Pearsall is in my mind, maybe he has just hunted down that way or something...or remember a friend of mine mentioning how he's been spotted down in Pearsall during hunting season.

[spursfan]

Originally Posted by ColdCanadian

Funny... I've met some guys who live and work in San Antonio who were originally from Indiana. They had thick southern drawls reminiscent of guys I met from Jacksonville, FL; a place supposedly known from pretty thick southern accents.

Another reason I'm confused is in a Texas Travel Guide I got mailed to me, (from the late 90's) for the Rio Grande Valley area they had on the cover page "Bienvienido Y'all."

They did mention soft Spanish sounds mixed in with everyday English. I guess I pictured a hybrid of Spanish and a Texas drawl kind of sound.

Is "Y'all" common all over Texas, even in areas that don't sound "Texan?"

There is always some with a Texas accent in SA, but it is far less than Dallas or Houston. And yes y'all is pretty common for everyone in Texas, twang or not.

[lifertexan]

regarding George Strait, i aint googled him and CMT might be right on target with him being from Poteet..dont know why Pearsall is in my mind, maybe he has just hunted down that way or something...or remember a friend of mine mentioning how he's been spotted down in Pearsall during hunting season.

GS was born in Poteet, but grew up in Pearsall. He moved to San Marcos to go to college at SWT.