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.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,094,499 times
Reputation: 1028
Advertisements
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade
I'd give you Upper South. Barely Southeast and I mean barely. Richmond is more Upper South leaning than it is Southeast. Hampton Roads I can honestly say is hard to place. It's Southern but there are characteristics of the Mid Atlantic.
Well Midwest=not the south...Mid-Atlantic ensures more consistency with that term. Another term for it is the Lower Northeast..call it whatever you want, but if you include all of Virginia in the Mid-Atlantic, you are blending in states which aren't even remotely similar. I'll give NOVA, even the northern third of WV the Mid-Atlantic definition, but nothing else, because doing so causes severe cultural overlap.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,094,499 times
Reputation: 1028
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spade
I'd give you Upper South. Barely Southeast and I mean barely. Richmond is more Upper South leaning than it is Southeast. Hampton Roads I can honestly say is hard to place. It's Southern but there are characteristics of the Mid Atlantic.
I would never use companies to define regions. They don't use any historic logic in their definitions...I've seen companies classify states like Nebraska as the Southern Plains
If the Mid-Atlantic by definition has to include Pennsylvania and Virginia in the same region, then I say get rid of that term because using it to represent culture makes about as much sense as using populations of snakes to represent bird populations. The bottom-line is that an appropriate cultural definition of the "Lower Northeast" include New Jersey, pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, NOVA, and the northern quarter roughly of WV.
I've always understood New England and the Mid-Atlantic to be separate parts of the Northeast . . . but also that the mid-atlantic definition can stretch beyond that of the northeast.
The entire area is continuum of cultures and dialects. As you go from the Finger Lakes down into the panhandle of WV dialects and culture shifts are gradual and almost imperceptible. It's only when you go from one end to other that you're able to notice a difference.
I also think people are confusing being 'country' with being Southern.
There's less of a difference in terms of culture and accent between Chambersburg, PA and Martinsburg, WV when compared to Philadelphia and Princeton, NJ (a similar distance) or even when compared to Chambersburg and Scranton (in the same state)
People in Northern New York have more in common with people in Vermont than they do with those downstate.
State lines are arbitrary - i'm pretty sure that's a good part of why the country did away with the articles of confederation.
I would never use companies to define regions. They don't use any historic logic in their definitions...I've seen companies classify states like Nebraska as the Southern Plains
If the Mid-Atlantic by definition has to include Pennsylvania and Virginia in the same region, then I say get rid of that term because using it to represent culture makes about as much sense as using populations of snakes to represent bird populations. The bottom-line is that an appropriate cultural definition of the "Lower Northeast" include New Jersey, pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, NOVA, and the northern quarter roughly of WV.
I only used that as an example because many people towards the Atlantic do indeed use the Mid-Atlantic thing moreso than Southeast. I know of many born and raised Virginians that are proud to say they are from the Mid-Atlantic just as they are proud to say they are from the South. Specifically the Hampton Roads areas.
I only used that as an example because many people towards the Atlantic do indeed use the Mid-Atlantic thing moreso than Southeast. I know of many born and raised Virginians that are proud to say they are from the Mid-Atlantic just as they are proud to say they are from the South. Specifically the Hampton Roads areas.
I dont think the Mid Atlantic has be an either/or but honestly to me (someone who never questioned he grew up in the Mid Atlantic) anything south of Virginia seems odd to me.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,539,156 times
Reputation: 6253
Quote:
Originally Posted by drive carephilly
I've always understood New England and the Mid-Atlantic to be separate parts of the Northeast . . . but also that the mid-atlantic definition can stretch beyond that of the northeast.
The entire area is continuum of cultures and dialects. As you go from the Finger Lakes down into the panhandle of WV dialects and culture shifts are gradual and almost imperceptible. It's only when you go from one end to other that you're able to notice a difference.
I also think people are confusing being 'country' with being Southern.
There's less of a difference in terms of culture and accent between Chambersburg, PA and Martinsburg, WV when compared to Philadelphia and Princeton, NJ (a similar distance) or even when compared to Chambersburg and Scranton (in the same state)
People in Northern New York have more in common with people in Vermont than they do with those downstate.
State lines are arbitrary - i'm pretty sure that's a good part of why the country did away with the articles of confederation.
That part in bold. THANK YOU! I'm not alone in this observation.
There is no such thing as "country", as a dialect, culture, heritage or religion.
As for no noticeable difference between the Finger Lakes and Martinsburg, I chose a public meeting from both areas. The Martinsburg meeting has people from neighboring counties of Mineral and Hampshire.
If the Mid-Atlantic by definition has to include Pennsylvania and Virginia in the same region, then I say get rid of that term because using it to represent culture makes about as much sense as using populations of snakes to represent bird populations. The bottom-line is that an appropriate cultural definition of the "Lower Northeast" include New Jersey, pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, NOVA, and the northern quarter roughly of WV.
Can't we come up with a better term then "lower northeast?" I'm sorry but the term northeast isn't even accurate as it is now to describe Pennsylvania since it has little to nothing in common culturally with New England. West Virginia has absolutely nothing in common with New England and Maryland I'd say is in the same boat as West Virginia when it comes to New England. The same can be said of NOVA.
Can't we come up with a better term then "lower northeast?" I'm sorry but the term northeast isn't even accurate as it is now to describe Pennsylvania since it has little to nothing in common culturally with New England. West Virginia has absolutely nothing in common with New England and Maryland I'd say is in the same boat as West Virginia when it comes to New England. The same can be said of NOVA.
I have heard some in NOVA call VA the northeast. I have also met numerous people here in my 20 years of being here that get extremely defensive when referring to Virginia as the south, it can get ridiculous. I don't know what to think about VA anymore. The African American population in this area is a whole other thing calling people "bama's" as a slur like saying "you a dumb***"...I don't know what to make of it all in this region anymore, whatever you classify it as..
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
4,409 posts, read 6,539,156 times
Reputation: 6253
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwa1984
Can't we come up with a better term then "lower northeast?" I'm sorry but the term northeast isn't even accurate as it is now to describe Pennsylvania since it has little to nothing in common culturally with New England. West Virginia has absolutely nothing in common with New England and Maryland I'd say is in the same boat as West Virginia when it comes to New England. The same can be said of NOVA.
Pennsylvania does, however, have a ton in common with the state of New York.
New York only has similarities to New England in the areas that border it and Quebec.
New York is not New England either. People usually fail to recognize this. As they do to recognize that PA and NY are damn near twins.
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.
it comes to New England. The same can be said of NOVA.
