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Good topic, overall. Now if only someone could make an official AA accent map. I agree with many of the observations from the post; however, I beg to differ on the classification of Memphis with Kentucky and West Virginia. I always viewed Memphis as being more similar to Mississippi and Arkansas culturally for AA's. Also, I believe North Carolina should be included in the coastal south instead of the Chesapeake region. I think the differences, even in accent, between AA's in the major metros of Virginia are pretty pronounced compared to those in North Carolina. Also, I have always noticed some similar slang used between the AA's in Tidewater, Richmond, DC, and Baltimore area that is not used in North Carolina. Here are some examples: wellin'/wailin' -lying, fryin'/bakin' -joking, carry/curry-to disrespect, ji in dc/pg jive in Richmond/Tidewater - kind of or sort of, Merlin- (Maryland). Additionally, I noticed the same areas tend to blend northern and southern slang, so you might here son/yo and mayne/shawty in the same conversation for example. I think the west-coast is one of the most interesting regions for AA's because many of the major movies I grew up watching featured LA as the city. Therefore, I have always been curious about life for AA's in California. The AA's I have met from LA so far have represented the laid back stereotype with the stereotypical hard r accent. I haven't met many AA's from the New England area, so the clip you showed me with the accent was interesting, because I have never heard anyone speak in that manner before.
Is that Livingston county your talking about? I had to spend 3 days in Brighton for a business meeting but it didn't seem too bad. I heard the history of Livingston county is pretty racist though. Something about a "KKK" chapter being there?
When I was going to school in MI, Howell is the place that people would mention, because some Grand Wizard lived there. No lie, the day I arrived on campus, the KKK had a rally at the State Capitol in Lansing. This was in the 90's. With this said, I met some cool people from Brighton.
I agree with alot of what your saying BostonBorn, But the same thing applies out in California, We don't talk about no Eastcoast cities either & plus were too busy in this Cali lifestyle to worry about what happens out of town. Another thing is Cali is not just Mexicans, We have alot of El Salvador, Guatemala, Belezian & South American people.Plus the biggest Asian population in America.
African Americans are a small percentage of population out here cause the population is so big but we still have the 5th highest Black population in the nation.
I tried to make it clear Memphis was sort of more delta associated ..western Tennessee really. But I didn't use an asterisk so that's my bad.
Yes that accent is fairly common. we as Blacks don't travel past NYC much and us blacks in new England don't really travel past NY and certainly not past DC much so its understandable if you havent heard it. If you get a chance listen to a shabazz napier interview he has the accent but he tries to cover it for image purposes.
Good topic, overall. Now if only someone could make an official AA accent map. I agree with many of the observations from the post; however, I beg to differ on the classification of Memphis with Kentucky and West Virginia. I always viewed Memphis as being more similar to Mississippi and Arkansas culturally for AA's. Also, I believe North Carolina should be included in the coastal south instead of the Chesapeake region. I think the differences, even in accent, between AA's in the major metros of Virginia are pretty pronounced compared to those in North Carolina. Also, I have always noticed some similar slang used between the AA's in Tidewater, Richmond, DC, and Baltimore area that is not used in North Carolina. Here are some examples: wellin'/wailin' -lying, fryin'/bakin' -joking, carry/curry-to disrespect, ji in dc/pg jive in Richmond/Tidewater - kind of or sort of, Merlin- (Maryland). Additionally, I noticed the same areas tend to blend northern and southern slang, so you might here son/yo and mayne/shawty in the same conversation for example. I think the west-coast is one of the most interesting regions for AA's because many of the major movies I grew up watching featured LA as the city. Therefore, I have always been curious about life for AA's in California. The AA's I have met from LA so far have represented the laid back stereotype with the stereotypical hard r accent. I haven't met many AA's from the New England area, so the clip you showed me with the accent was interesting, because I have never heard anyone speak in that manner before.
Yea coastal NC got the gullah influence my family is from Wilmington and rural metro Charleston and Florence. My grandma sounds geechee, my mom has a traditional Boston accent with southern words like yall aint Dem and dat and then I have the accent in the video. Were a mixed bag. My brother moved to LA and sounds like a damn locd out alien to me aha yo I hate it
Yea coastal NC got the gullah influence my family is from Wilmington and rural metro Charleston and Florence. My grandma sounds geechee, my mom has a traditional Boston accent with southern words like yall aint Dem and dat and then I have the accent in the video. Were a mixed bag. My brother moved to LA and sounds like a damn locd out alien to me aha yo I hate it
Coastal NC almost has no Gullah influence left, so it's interesting to hear about older Black folks from that region who have Gullah influences. Even in SC, you won't really find it north of Georgetown.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mega man
Yes Texas is commonly underrecognized for its crucial role in the development of Black American culture. I'm not even sure why.
It's probably because historically, TX never had a large slave population compared to other states but being that it's so large, it's always had a sizable Black population. I also wonder if it's because many of the Black cultural influences developed in Texas remained in-state because it's so big, and the destination cities for Texan Blacks during the Great Migration were far removed from the state with not much in between. Even present-day, there doesn't seem to be many connections between Texas and those Western cities unlike MS/AL and Chicago/Detroit, for example.
Coastal NC almost has no Gullah influence left, so it's interesting to hear about older Black folks from that region who have Gullah influences. Even in SC, you won't really find it north of Georgetown.
It's probably because historically, TX never had a large slave population compared to other states but being that it's so large, it's always had a sizable Black population. I also wonder if it's because many of the Black cultural influences developed in Texas remained in-state because it's so big, and the destination cities for Texan Blacks during the Great Migration were far removed from the state with not much in between. Even present-day, there doesn't seem to be many connections between Texas and those Western cities unlike MS/AL and Chicago/Detroit, for example.
I believe that quite few Black Texans that migrated went to western cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, etc.
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