Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
interesting, i could hear drastic differences between them. i thought they were all excellent examples of local accents.
the Atlanta one was new to me. i never realized Atlanta whites have their own accent... but when I heard that video clip, it was exactly like my late great uncle, who lived most of his life in Atlanta.
when i heard that Kentucky one, that's just like a fellow I know from West Virginia.
when i heard the east Tennessee mattress salesman, that's a dead-on example of anyone i've ever met from the mountains of western North Carolina.
when i listened to the garden district NOLA accents, they sounded like a guy i know who grew up in the garden district.
i might not be able to peg exactly where a speak is from without knowing beforehand, but to me it is crazy to say that it is all the same.
I never said that they all sound the same, they do sound different, but not one accent dominates a specific region (except for the accents in NO and along the coast). I can hear all those differents accents in my hometown in TN. My point is, the different ways of speaking in the South don't seem to have much to do with location, except for a few select places. I can hear people in OK who talk just like people in ATL or Memphis.
Quote:
Originally Posted by moorlander
What? I mean (st. Louisians) talk like the people on the news. You know, like the language is meant to be spoken. And what isn't wrong with Ya'll? Girls in the south use 'Ya'll' more often than valley girls use 'like.' "hey Ya'll, wanna go to the rodeo?"
St. Louisians for the most part have a General American accent, but they pronounce certain vowels differently. Words like "mom" sound like "maaam" or "slap" sounds like "slaaayp" Kinda nasal, but not as much as Chicago. It's definitely noticeable. I think people in Kansas City are closer to a General American accent.
And I'm one of those people that says "y'all" 1,000 times a day. I think it's a very convenient word.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,987,215 times
Reputation: 7328
Quote:
Originally Posted by moorlander
What? I mean (st. Louisians) talk like the people on the news. You know, like the language is meant to be spoken.
Meant to be spoken like people on the news?
No, the "general american" accent is purely the invention of the media as the standard they decided for what American English should sound like. In reality though, most Americans don't speak this way.
What do I mean by that?
Northeasterners in general don't speak that way: Population 54,741,353
Southerns in general don't speak that way: Population 109,083,752 (the largest, by a very wide margin, group of Americans)
Westerners in general don't speak that way: Population 69,355,643
That leaves 66,217,736 Midwesterns on their lonesome with the general American english accent....and most of them probably don't speak this way.
Maybe you should actually travel there and find out. That's like saying everyone in NYC in every borough sounds the same (which is far from true). Variations in dialect and accents vary everywhere, with only a minimal bond per region. The media has lied to you.
Here are the differences from various Southern cities
No, the "general american" accent is purely the invention of the media as the standard they decided for what American English should sound like. In reality though, most Americans don't speak this way.
What do I mean by that?
Northeasterners in general don't speak that way: Population 54,741,353
Southerns in general don't speak that way: Population 109,083,752 (the largest, by a very wide margin, group of Americans)
Westerners in general don't speak that way: Population 69,355,643
That leaves 66,217,736 Midwesterns on their lonesome with the general American english accent....and most of them probably don't speak this way.
I think there is such thing as a neutral American accent. It's an accent the doesn't pronounce anything distinctly, only the way that the dictionary says to pronounce words (more or less). It's not found in all of the Midwest, only a small part, like Eastern Nebraska and Iowa.
I've listened to a bunch. To me, this clip from Lincoln Nebraska is the most neutral-sounding. He could probably go to many different parts of the country and no one would even question where he's from because his accent is so neutral.
Location: The Greatest city on Earth: City of Atlanta Proper
8,485 posts, read 14,987,215 times
Reputation: 7328
Quote:
Originally Posted by polo89
I did not know various areas of Atlanta had distinct accents.
Oh yes. The two I posted aren't the only ones either as I just wanted to highlight the distinct Southern dialects native to the City of Atlanta. In fact, I'd be willing to say that they are not even the most common for the entire metro.
The first two videos of Franklin Garrett and Martin Luther King Jr are now rarely ever heard as it was born out of the residential areas just east of Downtown and in Midtown. In the years since the mid-20th century, most of those neighborhoods saw massive population loss due to white flight, urban renewal, and deindustrialization. By the 90s, the areas had only a fraction of the residents it had in the early 20th century (the era in which both Garrett and King grew up in Atlanta). Since that time the area has been filled once again with transplants from other areas and the distinct culture is almost entirely gone and exists only in small pockets. In those neighborhoods you will literally be one block that has people who's family has lived in the immediate area for generations, and on the very next block it will dominated by middle class DINKs in their 20s or 30s.
The accent shown in the video with Andre 3000 has withstood the test of time (and transplants) and is commonly heard in working class and poor black neighborhoods on the southside of Atlanta proper and near in burbs like Dekalb and Clayton.
BUT
As I said, fully Southern accents on natives are rarer these days and in particular with the last two generations of natives. While there are several different examples of this, the two most prevelant are children of upper and middle class families black or white (or asian) who are one of the following.
1. Natives that are the children of transplants from out side the South (The group I am apart of). This group will usually have a mix of speech patterns that take on the influence of their parents dialect, infused with Southern pacing and colloquialisms. Some examples being:
Chris Reis, native of Roswell (Near in suburb) and Georgia Tech grad
2. Natives who's family are natives or Southerners, but due being surrounded by kids who either transplants themselves or type 1 natives from up above, developed an accent that leans from being more Southern in nature to not at all.
Leigh Torrence, native of the City of Atlanta in a West side neighborhood
These are all a mash of different extra-regional and local influences, but are indicative of most people in the 30 and younger who grew up in Atlanta and the inner most suburbs. I wouldn't call it a native "Atlanta accent" yet as it is still developing and is now shifting due to the massive in flux of Latin American and Asian immigrants as well as the continual influx of people from other regions. A new, true, Atlanta accent will probably not be possible until we stop having growth rates that cause us to gain 1 million plus residents every 10 years.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
