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To sum it up, the twang has sharper pronunciations of consonents than does the drawl. In short it is more akin to the "midland speech" of the midwest and rockies than the drawl. However it often leaves the pronunciation of vowels as they would be in the drawl. An example would be the word "yes"; instead of the strong fast YES would be a slight tendency to pronounce the short e as first a long A, then a short U, thus YAY US although it seldom ever sounds like two syllables.
The southern accent sounds less distinct than in the past. There are still some people who pronounce certain words - akern for acorn much the same as in the past, but I am hearing a lot of the old southern accent disappearing before my very ears. "I", and various other words aren't as strongly southern sounding as they once were. TV has changed some of this and it is not a concious change either.
A person would really have to go to a small southern town to really hear a strong southern accent nowadays. It is increasingly weakening.
Scott - I'm from East Tennessee and I assure you I don't say "bake" for bike. Our i's are pronounced long and flat and one syllabled,"bii'k" whereas a northerner makes two syllables out of the letter i as if it were pronounced "bi-eek." I was accused of talking slow when we moved to Indiana, not fast. If I was saying "how you doing today," "how" would certianly not be pronouced "hey." Like most southerner's we drop letters or combine two words sometimes, it would be "ha (pronouced as in the word "have) ya doin' (definite oo sound in "do" not "dow") tuhdaye," not "ta-die" with the "die" being way too harsh, our a's are broader, but not that broad. Now if you were speaking to a Mountaineer from up in the Appalachian's of NC, TN, VA, or KY, or WV you'd hear a totally different accent. If they said "I did once," it would be "Ii di'ud onc't." Or they're telling you something is far over there, it's "hit's over yonder." They still use venacular brought by their Scotch-Irish ancester's. Many people assume their speech is because they are backwards and don't know proper English. If you went to the countries and counties of Great Brittain (Cumberland - gee, what a surprise, Durham, Yorkshire, the Lowland parts of Scotland, many of whom settled in Ulster, Ireland and then migrated) and heard their speech you would see that many mountaineers still have the purest speech practiced by their ancestor's than any other part of our country. I won't get into the reasons why, but they do. Their speech patterns are rapidly disappearing for many reasons as well. Someone from Knoxville, TN, like me, and someone from Carver's Gap, TN would not have the same accent or venacular just as someone from Atlanta is going to sound different from someone from Savannah or Blairesville, GA. Many Mountaineer's are slow speakers due to the fact they add so many extra words. I would say "wey'l, Ii don't know." A Mountaineer might say "Way-el, Ii don't reckon Ii rightly know," drawing out his "well" much more than my southern version of speech. Maybe Hank Williams personally was nasally, but I don't think any Southern accent sounds nasally, the Lynchburg-Richmond "drawl," as some are calling it, is to my ear "mo'ah tow'ud th' frunt of th' tung" and "miin is mo'er tow'rd th' ba'uck," with neither sounding nasally....Just my thoughts.
I hope i'm not going too far off topic but I have found East Texans have more of a drawl and West Texans have more of a twang. Here is a former University of Texas football player and a current one to sort of give an idea.
East Texas: Tim Crowder (It isn't as pronounced here as I have heard it)
well a drawl is more of an enlongating speech as in vowls are enlongated and over pronounced a twang is harsher quicker more nasel though still there is the enlongating of vowls
I'm the FNG ("f" meaning funky [now I'm telling my age]), so Howdy.
As an Army brat, I lived in quite a few places (we moved 6 times by the time I was 13). I was born at Ft. Benning, GA, but spent most of my life in Texas. My wife is Michigander through and through; she's Detroit-metro born and raised. She says she has no accent; I tell her she's wrong (I like living dangerously).
She, my stepkids, and my friends up here all day they love to hear me talk. Personally I just think they like making fun of me. But the joke's on them, because they're the ones with the accent, not me
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yes he does.
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