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Chicago's Mayor has no discernable accent whatsoever. Her lack of an accent is not what I heard while I was in Chicago. Baltimore's Mayor has a Baltimore accent. It doesn't sound like a classic southern accent.
Notice how he says, "outta huh." When he says "on," it sounds like "own." "Nines" sounds like "Nans."
The Chicago accent sounds more southern.
I don't know if it was mentioned here since I didn't read all the comments, but Mayor Lori Lightfoot is from Ohio, not Chicago, so she would not have a Chicago accent. Neither does Ms. Preckwinkle, who is AA and who is president of Cook County, who is from Minneapolis and almost sounds white.
Jada Pinket Smith is all Hollywood now. I can show you clips of 90s Jada where she definitely had your normal Baltimore southern twang.
Toni Braxton is from Severn and grew up in Silver Spring, MD. You’ve got to go that far out to a DC suburb (which you claim to hate) to find an example? LMAO
Rudy Gay and Nicole Ari Parker- I’ll give you.
Mario- has a slight hint of that Baltimore southern twang, but it’s very faint. I’ll give you that one.
The fact you’ve got to reach out to throughout the state of MD to scrap up a few examples proves how few black Baltimorians lack any southern accents. Many White Baltimorians have that southern twang too. Marty Bass is the perfect example.
Baltimore is overall much more Southern influenced than Chicago. It’s not even a question or fair competition. I thought you used to embrace Baltimore’s southern influence. What happened?
Toni Braxton grew up in Severn, MD. She did not live in Silver Spring growing up. Her and her family lived almost directly across the street from Queenstown Park, which is damn near at BWI's runway. If she did live in Silver Spring it was after she was already grown.
I didn't have to reach. In fact, I never left the Baltimore region; I used people who lived within a 10 mile radius of downtown Baltimore.
Post the quote where I said that Baltimore was anything other than southern Show me...
This is an interesting perspective, although being 100% honest, the average Baltimore and DC black accents seem almost identical to me. They both seem to have a light southern twang to it, and they both seem completely different from black accents from the northeast (Philly, NY/NJ, Boston/New England).
To me, there is a clear distinction along the lines of: Baltimore/DC (slight southern twang) < Philly (hybrid) < NY/NJ/Boston and greater NE (strong stereotypical NY accent (or modified version for Boston/New England blacks).
As I have said, being white, it seems like there may be nuances that we do not fully appreciate.
I would be interested in hearing how a black person from Philly/NY/NJ/Boston/New England views Baltimore and DC's predominant black accent compared to theirs.
A Boston and NYC black accent are barley discernible. Only amongst the older blacks in Boston do you here a traditional Boston accent (with AAVE grammar + y’all and ain’t). Amongst the younger ones you here this sort of vowel flattening (think kid->kehd..but for like every word with a vowel imaginable Cousin becomes ‘kezzin’, mad becomes ‘med’ bananas become ‘benenes’) or no accent (if they’re better educated). Some NY’ers pronounces though, all and coffee with this weird sort of W’ in it like “thu-watt” “Awwwl” “cauwfee”
Philly accent is more rounded and they migTh say things like wudder (water) and Aigs (eggs) Sort of like Baltimore. To me Philly accent is sort of like Bmores with no “oo” inflection and less of a southern drawl b HT still present.
Dc is like a marble mouth sound to me. Hard to describe beyond that and a weird way of saying Eric(urrick) that reminds me of how Baltimore people day dog (dug). It’s southern sounding but not all the way, not really as full or buoyant as a Chicago blaccent
Last edited by BostonBornMassMade; 06-24-2020 at 11:11 AM..
Correct. While you will encounter some "Bless your heart" types who truly embrace southernness from time to time, the tendency is to distance oneself from all things Southern. So you will have threads with people living in North Carolina or Virginia arguing to death about how non-Southern they are. It's not a label many people embrace.
It's really the more heavily Southern-influenced accents and speech patterns that aren't viewed in the most favorable light as they are closely associated with the country/rural areas and a lack of refinement/sophistication. I'm from rural SC and proud of it, but even I wouldn't embrace the countriest of the country ways of talking and everything else you can find in isolated pockets here and there down my way.
Your last paragraph appears to be condescending towards the south, and towards black PEOPLE. There is no winner or loser in this thread. Being a northern city isn't some exclusive club that cities from other regions are fighting to become a member of.
No KodeBlue..... you are misinterpreting. I was saying that a comparison of which city is more southern- influenced between Baltimore and Chicago, can really only involve Chicago's black population (since that is the only part of the population that has any southern influence in Chicago). There is nothing bad about or insulting about that, that is just facts.
I was then saying that if you restrict the comparison for which city is most southern-influenced to only the black populations of the cities, you are comparing one city that is only 30% black (Chicago) to another city (Baltimore) that is over 60% black, so based on the percentages, Baltimore would be more southern-"influenced" (given that almost 60% of their population may have southern influence) if people feel that the blacks in both cities have some degree of "southerness."
This is what I was trying to convey. Nothing to be condescending to the south or black people. I'm not sure how or why you interpreted this way. I am speaking only of the percentages.
No KodeBlue..... you are misinterpreting. I was saying that a comparison of which city is more southern- influenced between Baltimore and Chicago, can really only involve Chicago's black population (since that is the only part of the population that has any southern influence in Chicago). There is nothing bad about or insulting about that, that is just facts.
I was then saying that if you restrict the comparison for which city is most southern-influenced to only the black populations of the cities, you are comparing one city that is only 30% black (Chicago) to another city (Baltimore) that is over 60% black, so based on the percentages, Baltimore would be more southern-"influenced" (given that almost 60% of their population may have southern influence) if people feel that the blacks in both cities have some degree of "southerness."
This is what I was trying to convey. Nothing to be condescending to the south or black people. I'm not sure how or why you interpreted this way. I am speaking only of the percentages.
I get what you’re saying. I said something similar to this earlier
Toni Braxton grew up in Severn, MD. She did not live in Silver Spring growing up. Her and her family lived almost directly across the street from Queenstown Park, which is damn near at BWI's runway. If she did live in Silver Spring it was after she was already grown.
I didn't have to reach. In fact, I never left the Baltimore region; I used people who lived within a 10 mile radius of downtown Baltimore.
Post the quote where I said that Baltimore was anything other than southern Show me...
I must have been mistaken, but growing up as a teen in the mid/late 90's who loved Toni Braxton, I could have sworn I heard she grew up in Silver Spring (although that was a little pre-Internet so there were more "rumors" lol), but you are right; I just looked it up and she went to Glen Burnie HS.
What I'm taking away from this thread, is that "Southern influence" is not desirable, as there is no one here embracing it. Quite the opposite. Interesting. And, even though (technically) Baltimore is considered to be a part of the South, no one in and/or near Baltimore, seems to want this. Am I right? Just reading between the lines.
That's incorrect. I'm fully embracing Baltimore's southerners. What I am is that Baltimore does not have a stereotypically southern accent. I also said that whatever accent Baltimore has is technically since Baltimore is indeed a southern city to begin with.
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