Chicago is country (Part 2)

[DoneWithDallas]

Originally Posted by rparz

I grew up in near the SW side and when I get really excited (yelling) this is how I start to sound.
Product of the environment I guess.

Or, more accurately, think Bill Swerski's Superfans.

I know once I have a beer or two my Texan twang really starts to show. Definately a product of the environment.

[LakeShoreSoxGo]

Originally Posted by Lorielicious

Ha! I say "y'all" too even though it grates endlessly on the nerves of my New Englander dad. Sorry, dudes, but "y'all" is the only acceptable way to pluralize "you." And don't give me any of this same-singular-as-plural crap, because I won't have it.

Y'all come back now, ya hear?

[pajones3]

Utkid the up & coming rapper that you presented possibly grew up in Tupelo, MS. I have lived in Chicago for 68 years & there is a vast amount of Black people who moved here to visit or live in the city.

[pajones3]

Well said "most inhabitants in Chicago are not from the south originally." Thank you 55 degrees. As a 68 year resident of Chicago I can say that I do not know where Utkid formed his opinion that Blacks or Whites in Chicago are country or that most or many migated from Mississippi. MtjinMemphis, no disrespect to the residents of Chicago or Memphis, but the long time residents of either city and I have visited Memphis often enough during my youth an beyond enough to say, that residents' dialogue, accents, mannerisms are as different as night is to day. Quick assumptions can be misleading and the observers would benefit from a longer observation, more intent listening and perhaps a tape recorder.

[Manson Lamps]

In many ways...Chicago can indeed seem quite country.

[Master Jay]

I remember when I worked in the Milwaukee County Jail, when I was interviewing Black inmates, there would be times where I would ask: "Are you from Chicago?"... I could almost always detect if the person in front of me was a local person, or from Chicago.

I've spent so much time in Chicago, that there is a definite Chicago sound that I've heard Black people speak, that sounds like it has a "southern Black" sound to it.

I understand that the Uptown neighborhood had had a White Appalachian concentration. Can anyone speak on this? Was there a distinct accent??

Thank you.

[Manson Lamps]

I can't speak to the accent but the "Uptown hillbillies" were around from the 60s up through the 80s/early 90s. Could be wrong but I think they were mainly concentrated around where Truman is now. To the extent they stayed in the city they've pretty much assimilated into the overall white population. I think the last vestige of their presence, that country bar at lawrence and clark, is still around (or was pre-covid).

[Master Jay]

Mandson Lamps, thank you. I have read a couple of books on Uptown. Very interesting the stages that community area has gone through!

And yes, the group was referred to as "hillbillies", or Appalachians.