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I'm southern born and bred and in fact even though we're a military family, most of my life was spent living in the South (and I have loved it).
However, when I was about seven, we lived about a year in Ohio. We also lived for three years right after that in NOVA. During that time period, I picked up "you guys" rather than the ubiquitous "y'all" of the South.
Now, don't get me wrong - I say "y'all" often - I mean I use it a lot. But even though I am 53 years old, that "you guys" comes out almost as often as "y'all" and that's a throwback to an impressionable time in my "speech pattern" life.
I hear a lot of Southerners say You Guys today- especially younger people. and its a new thing . In Virginia we used to always say Y'all. Now its more You Guys.\
I didn't mean to be rude in my post. Not all Northerners sound "bad". Its just that I don't think Northerners necessarily speak more "properly" either. Which seems to be their thinking, not mine.
Some do. I grew up in Miami and had a teacher in high school from Chicago who moved to Florida long ago and he sounds extremely southern. Nothing about him sounds northern. Today, northerners who move to Florida do NOT, as a whole, get a southern accent, especially because such accents are less and less common today.
In Texas, I know people from New Jersey and Ohio who picked up the Texas dialect and accent. One of them, she's from Ohio and sounds northern, except she says "y'all."
Ditto with Californians. Know a Californian who moved to Texas, sounds like a Texan. Same with a Californian that moved to Florida, also a high school teacher of mine. Got a southern accent with a California twist. It's weird but interesting!
I'm a Bostonian, we don't have accents. Everybody else does
No accents in Boston at all. Just had a guy from Boston at my work for a week and I had a tough time understanding him. Hard to believe we lived in the same country. Thickest northeast accent I have ever heard. He was a young man too, so the idea that accents are dying out in this nation went out the window here. Accents give the different parts of our nation character, I hope they don't die out personally.
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Maybe it's simply because people unconsciously change their accent gradually over the years. It certainly happened to me - even though it's merely a north Louisiana to Dallas matter (the accent is nowhere near as frequent in the region's biggest cities as in the small towns). My brother picked up on this years ago, and wondered if I did it deliberately.
I think the prevalence of regional accents have more to do with educational level and "rural vs urban". I grew up in a small New England town more then 2 hours outside Boston. If you came from a family with education and were generally NOT blue collar, you 99% of the time had what I call a Standard American Accent, like how they speak on TV. If you were from more of a blue collar background, you almost always had a nasally New England accent. Most of us called it a "redneck accent" and always in a negative sense.
The more educated, and more urban you are, I think the less likely you are to have a regional accent. Also, as people become more mobile and don't stay put in their hometowns their entire lives, regional accents become less and less frequent as well.
The Boston accent isn't as common as 'The Departed' makes it out to be, haha.
I think the prevalence of regional accents have more to do with educational level and "rural vs urban". I grew up in a small New England town more then 2 hours outside Boston. If you came from a family with education and were generally NOT blue collar, you 99% of the time had what I call a Standard American Accent, like how they speak on TV. If you were from more of a blue collar background, you almost always had a nasally New England accent. Most of us called it a "redneck accent" and always in a negative sense.
The more educated, and more urban you are, I think the less likely you are to have a regional accent. Also, as people become more mobile and don't stay put in their hometowns their entire lives, regional accents become less and less frequent as well.
The Boston accent isn't as common as 'The Departed' makes it out to be, haha.
I'd say that in/around Boston, most people don't have it. Also, the Boston accent is strongest in Boston, the Maine coast, and small towns in rural Nh and VT. West of Worcester, it virtually disappears...
Maybe some times. But in general. When Southerners move North, its amazing how quickly they can lose their accents . But you hear Northerners living in Georgia or TN and they still talk like Yankees. And they've lived there for years. You'd think living there their accents would at least soften up a bit. I hear people in Colonial Williamsburg. The Northern accents from the retirees there always jump out like a sore thumb. The worst part is they still seem think they speak better than Southerners. Its kind of insulting. But they don't understand how bad they sound to our ears. Why is this?
If you have a problem with the way other people speak maybe you should check your bigotry.
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. Just had a guy from Boston at my work for a week and I had a tough time understanding him. Hard to believe we lived in the same country. Thickest northeast accent I have ever heard. He was a young man too, so the idea that accents are dying out in this nation went out the window here. Accents give the different parts of our nation character, I hope they don't die out personally.
