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Here is a Northeast Philly black man, Peedi Peedi. I think he's also Puerto Rican. Now, his speech definitely has Southernisms in it, especially glide deletion on sounds that Whites in Philly do not exhibit.
I live in Alabama, he sounds like a black man from the north.
Hey I am not saying that Blacks from the North don't sound like this, but considering that prior to 1900, most non Southern states barely had any Blacks living in them, a pattern does show in that when the Great Migration happened, Blacks just happened to also bring Southernisms with them in their dialect as well. See, you guys that refuse to believe that Southernisms can be maintained in Black speech of the North need to refute my statements about the Southernisms that are still there. Blacks in the North for the most part have ties to the South; Whites don't. Why should it surprise anyone that they have even a few carryover linguistic traits? It's like, Puerto Ricans in NYC may speak in New York fashions but they do exhibit Spanish carryover. This is just a fact. However NYC is more the exception than the rule as a good chunk of Blacks there have no ties to the South at all.
Do I think Peedi Peedi sounds fully Northern? Nope. But I don't believe he sounds fully Southern, either. I think a good example of Blacks who sound fully Northern are the 105.1 woman and my Doug Banks example a few pages back (New York and Detroit). Sorry my man but Southern vowels are present, the accent can't be a true Northern one.
Not that it even matters since Philly has a Midland dialect, not a Northern one. But as far as Blacks go, some in Philly do maintain the Southern vowels at times that you won't hear in Whites. However unlike their other Northern counterparts, Philly Blacks are rhotic. In fact I find that in the Midland, Blacks are rhotic. Examples are Philly and St. Louis.
I see what you mean about the glide deletions; however, he sounds northeastern/midatlantic to me for an AA. I think the average AA on the east-coast would hear him speak and know most likely he was from Philly or Jersey area. His speech is rhotic and the way he pronounces certain words is distinct. For example, "anywhere" becomes "inywheyerrr" and "real" sounds more like "rell" for some Philly AA's. Some people from the deep south might even believe he was from NYC area based on his speech.
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Originally Posted by PortCity
I live in Alabama, he sounds like a black man from the north.
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Originally Posted by Spade
Nah he sound like everybody that I've talked to from Philly. I don't hear much Southern in there. Maybe that's me.
Yeah don't mind Eddieolskool. He has no idea what he is talking about and reaches when it comes to Philly blacks. He is in the minority when it comes to his opinion. The black accent of Philadelphia sounds completely northern.
Here are good Examples of Philly accents.
You can tell by their heavy dipthongs in words like "thought" and "bought" and their overall tone of voice that they sound Northeastern.
He counts saying a simple "yall" as a "southerism" (which all blacks say in the US say from Boston to Atlanta to NYC to Miami to LA to Philly to Seattle say etc). He also says that Jay-z and Memphis bleek and blacks from NYC in general sound southern or have "southernisms". On the subject of other regions, black accents from the Midwestern cities like Chicago, Detroit and St louis all sound southern. This also applies to black people from western cities like LA, San Francisco and San Diego because they sound southern too.
African Americans in the major southern cities have southern accents; Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Charlotte, Memphis etc. (AA's in New Orleans have their own distinctive accent).
AA's in the north talk completely different from AA's in the south.
Yeah don't mind Eddieolskool. He has no idea what he is talking about and reaches when it comes to Philly blacks. He is in the minority when it comes to his opinion. The black accent of Philadelphia sounds completely northern.
Here are good Examples of Philly accents.
You can tell by their heavy dipthongs in words like "thought" and "bought" and their overall tone of voice that they sound Northeastern.
He counts saying a simple "yall" as a "southerism" (which all blacks say in the US say from Boston to Atlanta to NYC to Miami to LA to Philly to Seattle say etc). He also says that Jay-z and Memphis bleek and blacks from NYC in general sound southern or have "southernisms". On the subject of other regions, black accents from the Midwestern cities like Chicago, Detroit and St louis all sound southern. This also applies to black people from western cities like LA, San Francisco and San Diego because they sound southern too.
You didn't even read my posts. I didn't say Philly Blacks sound Southern. I said they exhibit Southernisms in areas where Philly Whites don't. But, you want to believe this isn't true either. No one is debating whether they have diphthongs words like thought, caught, or coffee. We all know this, and it's YOU who wants to act like this means that ALL of their speech is Northern. But how many Whites in Philly say the word "my" like "mah"? I'm curious. Can't answer that, really? Because Whites in Philly only have glide deletion on words that start with f or before an r. Whites in Philly say Arsh for Irish, farr for fire, but they say luik for like, not lahk which Blacks do and they say myin for mine unlike Blacks who say mahn. You are an all or nothing person. You hear a few Northernisms peppered here and there and you assume they sound like Bostonians.
Even linguists acknowledge that the Philly dialect isn't even under the Northern umbrella, anyway. Its Midland so even a White person in Philly doesn't sound fully Northern but to you, anything that isn't a Southern dialect is automatically Northern. The problem is that has no basis in linguistics. At best, Philadelphia has a North Midland sound but it's still Midland. True Northern dialects are NYC, Providence, Boston, Buffalo, Detroit, Chicago, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, and as far west as Eastern South Dakota. Whether you like it or not, Philadelphia is in the Midland region and while other Northern cities are there like Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Kansas City, etc., it is STILL a separate region. But to you, you hear "caw-uh-fee" and you think you're already in NYC.
P.s. Can you show me exactly where I said Jay or Bleek sound Southern? You must have me confused with someone else. I even posted examples of Styles and Jadakiss to prove that NYC Blacks DON'T sound Southern. Waiting on your response.
The majority of African Americans live in the south, that could be a reason...
I'm from the West side and I don't have a southern accent at all.
Me and or my parents don't sound southern either, but we're from Los Angeles, California. It's very obvious and evident that we're not from the South even though we live in Atlanta though. MY dad is Belizean though so yeah, he's not African American and my mom went to mostly white and Latino schools in Orange County.
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