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Sounds *very* Appalachian to me (eg, the "drawl"), but then again, I moved there from Minneapolis, so pretty much anything on or south of 80 sounds like it has a "Southern" drawl to me....
Well most of NJ and Philly are south of 80; do they have a southern drawl?
I can't tell the differences in Southern dialects. My sister in law is from OK and can narrow each type down with razor-sharp accuracy ("that's Texas dumbass, not Louisiana", lol).
I can tell NYC/Northern NJ from South Jersey/Philly from Pittsburgh from Boston just as easily as she can pinpoint Southern accents.
Here is a very general linguistic geography of US Accents (though as you can see, it was originally done in the 40s, so migration has homogenized a lot of places).
Generally, two things are true about US accents:
-The East, being much older, has many more distinct and localized accents. I live in NC and people who grew up in the rural counties can identify a "____ county accent" by subtleties. Of course, a lot of this is being lost with each generation, especially post-TV.
-People of course are much more familiar with their own region than others, which may "all sound a like" to them.
Like the map shows, the western half of the country tends to have a pretty "general American" accent, blended together as people moved westward.
Being Southern, I can recognize many, many subtleties of Southern, just as a New Yorker might say there are distinct accents for each borough (I have actually seen a youtube video somewhere trying to explain the differences between the boroughs). The general breakdown in Southern, for a quick lesson, is indeed by class: high, middle, and lower. The movie S"teel Magnolias" has been pointed out as having examples of all three. Claree uses the "high class", sometimes called "Charleston" accent; Ouiser, M'Lynn, and Shelby have a more middle-class accent; and Truvy and Annelle have a more lower-class one. Of course, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts are the only two actual Southerners in the show so their accents are genuine (Dolly's being a true "Appalachian"; Julia's a more flatland Southern), but most of the other actresses do a decent job (except in the cenetary scene when Sally Field COMPLETELY loses all traces of her Southern accent during her breakdown, contrary to real life where a person's accent usually gets stronger under duress.
I'm sure people could point out the subtleties in their own region, such as New England. I can definitely recognize the difference between a "Boston Aristocracy" and a "Southie Boston" accent, but that is probably the extent of my New England savvy.
I would be most interested to hear of distinct West-Coast accents, sice most agree that it is so much more homogenous there.
^ But see, the different Southern accents these days are mostly defined by class & age rather than location. I have an aunt from Oklahoma who sounds just like my friend's mom from Nashville. Southern accents don't vary as much by location compared to Northern accents.
For me; accents are easier to distinguish among blacks.
Took the words right out of my mouth. To me the accents of black people from different cities coast to coast are very distinct, even in the same region. Look at the south for example, pretty much every major city has it own distinct accent among the black people. Same with the east coast, from the tidewater north pretty much every urban area has it own accent among the black people. The only one that is hard to pinpoint is Chicago IMO. They can go either way, some dudes sound country up there, some don't. St Louis too, I've always thought they sounded a little like dudes from Dallas, but that could just be me.
Here is a very general linguistic geography of US Accents (though as you can see, it was originally done in the 40s, so migration has homogenized a lot of places).
Generally, two things are true about US accents:
-The East, being much older, has many more distinct and localized accents. I live in NC and people who grew up in the rural counties can identify a "____ county accent" by subtleties. Of course, a lot of this is being lost with each generation, especially post-TV.
-People of course are much more familiar with their own region than others, which may "all sound a like" to them.
Like the map shows, the western half of the country tends to have a pretty "general American" accent, blended together as people moved westward.
Being Southern, I can recognize many, many subtleties of Southern, just as a New Yorker might say there are distinct accents for each borough (I have actually seen a youtube video somewhere trying to explain the differences between the boroughs). The general breakdown in Southern, for a quick lesson, is indeed by class: high, middle, and lower. The movie S"teel Magnolias" has been pointed out as having examples of all three. Claree uses the "high class", sometimes called "Charleston" accent; Ouiser, M'Lynn, and Shelby have a more middle-class accent; and Truvy and Annelle have a more lower-class one. Of course, Dolly Parton and Julia Roberts are the only two actual Southerners in the show so their accents are genuine (Dolly's being a true "Appalachian"; Julia's a more flatland Southern), but most of the other actresses do a decent job (except in the cenetary scene when Sally Field COMPLETELY loses all traces of her Southern accent during her breakdown, contrary to real life where a person's accent usually gets stronger under duress.
I'm sure people could point out the subtleties in their own region, such as New England. I can definitely recognize the difference between a "Boston Aristocracy" and a "Southie Boston" accent, but that is probably the extent of my New England savvy.
I would be most interested to hear of distinct West-Coast accents, sice most agree that it is so much more homogenous there.
Kidphilly, notice what the approximate northern border of the Midland dialect is in the linke above? It's 80.
That's what I'm talking about. Iowans north of I-80 sound pretty much Minnesotan. South of it, they talk with a drawl and a twang. Indiana outside of Chicagoland, Ohio outside of Cleveland, Illinois south of Chicagoland-- all pretty twangy. And I should know: I've spent significant amounts of time in all of those places.
I never said it was a Southern accent. I said it had similarities to a Southern accent to my sensitive Northern ears . And, I never even brought up Philadelphia....you did (as you have the tendency to do....)
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