Why do people think Southern = "country"? (living in, association)
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There seems to be a strange distinction that Southerners feel the need to make between "Southern" and "country" that people outside of the South have no concept of.
Like for instance, if I were to imitate a Southern accent, a Southerner might say "Noooo! That's a 'country' accent!"
Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what "country" means. There's no such concept of a subcategory of Southerner, at least here in Minnesota. Is "country" just another word for "redneck"? Is it applied only to a certain kind of redneck? Is it just impoverished/working class rural Southerners? Or is it just a specific place in the South? I truly don't get it.
Again, you are describing other regions when you say this. The Midwest and the inland West are exactly the same.
Yes. I know. I've been all over the South and the U.S. And I understand the stereotypes. I'm just stating the reasons why the South is perceived to be country.
There seems to be a strange distinction that Southerners feel the need to make between "Southern" and "country" that people outside of the South have no concept of.
Like for instance, if I were to imitate a Southern accent, a Southerner might say "Noooo! That's a 'country' accent!"
Sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what "country" means. There's no such concept of a subcategory of Southerner, at least here in Minnesota. Is "country" just another word for "redneck"? Is it applied only to a certain kind of redneck? Is it just impoverished/working class rural Southerners? Or is it just a specific place in the South? I truly don't get it.
People in the rural areas of Michigan are more likely to sound like Chicagoans than they are like Southern people. In fact I don't understand this idea of a "country" accent. Someone from the "country" in Idaho is going to sound vastly different from someone in the "country" of New Hampshire.
People in the rural areas of Michigan are more likely to sound like Chicagoans than they are like Southern people. In fact I don't understand this idea of a "country" accent. Someone from the "country" in Idaho is going to sound vastly different from someone in the "country" of New Hampshire.
I don't know that it's so much an accent as a way of phrasing things? My two kids were raised together, you'd think they would sound much the same but they don't, one is much more 'country' sounding than the other. Words like 'mater, tater, yonder, pronouncing can't like cain't, other little oddities, one kid picked it up from the crowd they ran with. The other kid ran with a much different crowd and is more 'proper' in his speech.
I have a friend who I cant get out of philly to come visit down south. It's all good for me to visit there but he cant and wont visit down here in south Carolina. He told me that he just never really like the south and that it was just too country for him. I been coaxing him for years and finally I just gave up trying anymore.
I know what you are talking about and I've said the same thing.
I grew up in a pretty rural part of New Jersey. Small town of mostly woods and farms. I moved to the south as a teenager and found that people automatically thought that being from up north meant you were from the city.
And people in the south, even those in the cities still kind of thought of themselves as country. I can't describe it other than you had to be there. In the 90s we'd go line dancing and people who live in the city of Tampa would be all driving pick up trucks, wearing cowboy hats and big belt buckles and act like they were straight off the ranch.
Country songs will often use southern and country interchangeably. "I'm from the south and I'm a country boy" type of theme in a lot of songs.
I know what you mean and it's just another annoying stereotype.
And lots of people down south who don't get out much, believe everything up north is all city and urban. You have country and rural places in northern states as well.
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