Areas of the South with "General American" accents (transplants, school)

[JayJayCB]

Any areas come to mind that don't necessarily have stereotypical southern accents? Instead, accents that are a little more neutral and "General American." On the contrary, go outside this region and you start hearing thicker southern accents.

[Pyroninja42]

Hampton Roads.

Though people here also have Southern Accents, but generally speaking, most people only have fairly light southern accents.

[Kbank007]

Originally Posted by Pyroninja42

Hampton Roads.

Though people here also have Southern Accents, but generally speaking, most people only have fairly light southern accents.

Yea the Hampton Roads area of VA was one of my first thoughts also, especially in the city of Va Beach. The generations of military and transplants have diluted the accent. Also, the tidewater accent always had an aristocratic sound to it compared to many other southern accents. The Miami/Southern Florida area would fit the bill as well. Northern VA would be the number ONE choice if you wanted to get technical and consider the region southern, although most would consider NOVA the mid-atlantic.

[Spade]

Austin's southern accent has been heavily diluted to the point of nonexistent among many.

[JayJayCB]

Would Richmond fit the bill?

[Poquoson7]

Hampton Roads, I barely hear southern accents here. When I do hear that "Tidewater" accent it perks me up and I want to have a conversation with that person.
Usually those with the accent are a bit advanced in age.

[cheese plate]

NOLA has its own thing, not "general" but not a straight southern accent, either.

[rnc2mbfl]

Raleigh and the Triangle continue to lose their legacy southern accent as more and more people move from elsewhere and create a new normal for how people in the region speak. Here's a link to an interesting article specifically about it.
Raleigh has lost its drawl, y'all - Region/State - The Times News
From YouTube, this is a pretty good example of the new Raleigh "Southern" accent using the standard words from a linguistic study. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtz9cESMlqc
This is a video from another young person just an hour or so away to the southeast of Raleigh using the same study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmkB_yNxnY
What's interesting is that while many of the words used are the same but how they are pronounced is oftentimes different. I am guessing that both of these young people have roots in NC or the South because of the way they deal with the grandparents' names.
Yet another young North Carolinian that I suspect is from one of the urban areas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HXbfREIhm8
Here's a young man who is definitely old school North Carolina with an accent that is fading in the Raleigh area: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=szvDXwab_gc
This one is pretty interesting. He's from N.E. North Carolina and doesn't think that he has an accent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3aiWw60taA

[JayJayCB]

Originally Posted by rnc2mbfl

Raleigh and the Triangle continue to lose their legacy southern accent as more and more people move from elsewhere and create a new normal for how people in the region speak. Here's a link to an interesting article specifically about it.
Raleigh has lost its drawl, y'all - Region/State - The Times News
From YouTube, this is a pretty good example of the new Raleigh "Southern" accent using the standard words from a linguistic study.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtz9cESMlqc
This is a video from another young person just an hour or so away to the southeast of Raleigh using the same study:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmkB_yNxnY
What's interesting is that while many of the words used are the same but how they are pronounced is oftentimes different. I am guessing that both of these young people have roots in NC or the South because of the way they deal with the grandparents' names.
Yet another young North Carolinian that I suspect is from one of the urban areas:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HXbfREIhm8
Here's a young man who is definitely old school North Carolina with an accent that is fading in the Raleigh area: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=szvDXwab_gc
This one is pretty interesting. He's from N.E. North Carolina and doesn't think that he has an accent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3aiWw60taA

Raleigh/Durham fits the "General American" bill, but not Greensboro/Winston-Salem. Practically everyone I've met from the Triad speaks with a stronger southern accent than what I hear around the Research Triangle. I came across this one girl, and I was almost positive she was from a rural area due to her thick accent. Turns out, she was from the suburbs of Greensboro. Met tons of people from Kernersville who sounded the same. It's not just older folks, the younger folks in the Triad definitely sound "more North Carolinian" than the younger folks in the Triangle.

This is going to sound strange, but the few folks under 30 I've met from Northeastern NC didn't have thick accents. Met this one girl in her 20's from a rural area outside Roanoke Rapids and I thought she was from Raleigh. No trace of an accent whatsoever (just barely southern), maybe her parents aren't originally from NC. Same situation with another girl from outside Elizabeth City, a very "General American" accent. Am I losing my mind? I was thinking some of these folks might be transplants who moved here for the Hampton Roads area, but they're living in North Carolina over Virginia for whatever reason.

[censusdata]

In my experience accents seem stronger west of the Appalachians than east, especially in the fast growing metro areas along I-85. Most people in Kentucky outside the 5 most urban counties have strong Southern accents as do many people in Southern Indiana.