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What's a "stereotypical" southern accent? I swear Hollywood does a "stereotypical" southern accent in every movie based somewhere in the south and most of the time they always get it wrong. I will say Chicago's accent is more blatantly southern influenced probably because Chicago's Black population migrated from fewer southern states at a later period of time in history in comparison to Baltimore's Black population.
Baltimore had Blacks migrating from multiple southern states and the Appalachians by and large. So Baltimore has a more diverse Black migration. Also there was a small population of Blacks established in Baltimore in the late 1700's to the early 1800's whereas Chicago's black population was even much smaller in the mid to late 1800's. Mostly from runaways and freedman from the Upper South.
With that said, I've never heard any Black folks pronounce to, do, you like Black Baltimore folks. That's definitely different but I do hear some slight similarities in dialect with Black people in the Southeast. It's certain words I hear Baltimore people pronounce that remind me of the Southeast. It's not as pronounced as say Chicago and Mississippi accent similarities but I can hear it.
I also think Chicago's Black accent has evolved from sounding exactly like a stereotypical Mississippi accent imo. You definitely hear the similarities with their dialect but it's some slight differences. Like I can tell the difference between a Black Mississippi accent and a Black Chicago one. You put Big Krit in Chicago and his accent will stand out.
A stereotypical southern accent is the default southern accent you see in movies, with sheer disregard of the nuances of the location of said accent. A Miami accent doesn't sound like Atlanta. Raleigh doesn't sound like New Orleans. He'll, a Raleigh accent won't even sound like an Outer Banks, NC accent.
It’s really hard for me to put a finger on the DC black accent. It’s not Northern but it’s not all the way Southern either. Some speech could pass off as being Southern. I don’t know. It’s a unique that I can’t say which region it belongs to other than Mid Atlantic. The “r” is heavily used and stretched out here in the DC area. I know of no region that pronounces the word “carry” like DC. Dallas, Memphis, and St Louis use the r pretty strongly like DC but it’s quick. Baltimore to me sounds slightly different. Perhaps the closest to the accents are Virginia and maybe some North Carolina influences. But I know in Chicago, you could definitely hear the Southern influence there. Still, like Redlionjr said, the Chicago black accent has evolved from being just straight Delta and Mississippi.
It’s really hard for me to put a finger on the DC black accent. It’s not Northern but it’s not all the way Southern either. Some speech could pass off as being Southern. I don’t know. It’s a unique that I can’t say which region it belongs to other than Mid Atlantic. The “r” is heavily used and stretched out here in the DC area. I know of no region that pronounces the word “carry” like DC. Dallas, Memphis, and St Louis use the r pretty strongly like DC but it’s quick. Baltimore to me sounds slightly different. Perhaps the closest to the accents are Virginia and maybe some North Carolina influences. But I know in Chicago, you could definitely hear the Southern influence there. Still, like Redlionjr said, the Chicago black accent has evolved from being just straight Delta and Mississippi.
Yeah in D.C. carry is pronounced more like Curry. Tripped me out when I first went to D.C. and heard it because being from East Texas we pronounce those words with r's like Dallas/Memphis/ Mississippi Delta/St.Louis/ Arkansas. I remember this chick I use to talk from D.C. thought I was copying D.C. till I started throwing them heavy R's in words like "hair" "where" "there". It's more of a twang with the way we say those words with R's if anything.
OBX has a more New York sound, where as Tangier, and Smith Island sounds more like an England accent.
A New York sound? OBX pronounce things similar to Pittsburgh in some word. There's an OBX video that states that early settlement there came from Tidewater, VA and Eastern Shore of MD and then started to develop its own differences but I can hear the similarities with Smith Island and Tangier (OBX isn't really Carolinian).
Most Black Chicagoan’s lineage comes from Mississippi and Tennessee. Black Baltimore lineage generally comes from the Carolinas/Virginia/Florida and Maryland(considering the state was considered the south during Slavery).
So how is Chicago’s Black population more southern? The migration just came from different parts of the south.
You kind of just answered your own question. Most of black Chicagoans are from the deep south vs most Baltimoreans being from the Carolinas. Mississippi "out-southerns" the Carolinas in every way, shape and form. Plus, black Chicagoans have a very distinct southern drawl. Black Baltimore has a few choice words that are southern (like dug = dog) but not across the board like Chicago. My ex GF from Chicago use to say, she was going to see her Deddie = Daddy.
Last edited by DC's Finest; 06-22-2020 at 10:46 AM..
It’s really hard for me to put a finger on the DC black accent. It’s not Northern but it’s not all the way Southern either. Some speech could pass off as being Southern. I don’t know. It’s a unique that I can’t say which region it belongs to other than Mid Atlantic. The “r” is heavily used and stretched out here in the DC area. I know of no region that pronounces the word “carry” like DC. Dallas, Memphis, and St Louis use the r pretty strongly like DC but it’s quick. Baltimore to me sounds slightly different. Perhaps the closest to the accents are Virginia and maybe some North Carolina influences. But I know in Chicago, you could definitely hear the Southern influence there. Still, like Redlionjr said, the Chicago black accent has evolved from being just straight Delta and Mississippi.
I always think of this song when I hear DC folks pronounce words like "carry":
Wrong context. People from DC don't say "therrrrre" like they do in St. Louis. We say curry for carry and Murlin for Maryland. The R usage is totally different. Listen to Wale or Taraji. P. Henson for the typical D.C. accent.
It’s really hard for me to put a finger on the DC black accent. It’s not Northern but it’s not all the way Southern either. Some speech could pass off as being Southern. I don’t know. It’s a unique that I can’t say which region it belongs to other than Mid Atlantic. The “r” is heavily used and stretched out here in the DC area. I know of no region that pronounces the word “carry” like DC. Dallas, Memphis, and St Louis use the r pretty strongly like DC but it’s quick. Baltimore to me sounds slightly different. Perhaps the closest to the accents are Virginia and maybe some North Carolina influences. But I know in Chicago, you could definitely hear the Southern influence there. Still, like Redlionjr said, the Chicago black accent has evolved from being just straight Delta and Mississippi.
DC's accent is a mix of some northern, some mid atlantic/tidewater and some southern. Some of the northern aspects would be words like bruva = brother, muvah = mother, farvah = father. Some of the southern aspects are curry = carry, earn = aaron or iron.
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