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You know what's more amazing? No one up North puts down on you just for being from the south. Ever. Why is this?
Are you kidding me? It's constant...at least with the Northerners who move South, and I've certainly overheard it when up North and on discussion Boards (basically, comments about any rednecky thing that happens in the South gets a slew of "Well, it's the South, why is this even news?" sort of comment. Try again, if you don't think Northerners have horrible stereotypes about Southerners (which they are all too happy to share with us, even on "our own turf").
Not to mention, English has no second-person plural, so it serves a real purpose.
Native Texan here. Even in Texas, people rarely say "Y'all" or "Howdy" or "Git along", but I always get a kick out of saying it to tourists. Most don't realize Texas has changed a lot since 1860.
Anywho, I don't think one can "lose an accent". They simply trade it for another accent.
Native Texan here. Even in Texas, people rarely say "Y'all" or "Howdy" or "Git along", but I always get a kick out of saying it to tourists. Most don't realize Texas has changed a lot since 1860.
Anywho, I don't think one can "lose an accent". They simply trade it for another accent.
I'm also a native Texan. People in Texas definitely say "y'all". But the other two are right. The only people who say "Howdy" are in College Station.
Native Texan here. Even in Texas, people rarely say "Y'all" or "Howdy" or "Git along", but I always get a kick out of saying it to tourists. Most don't realize Texas has changed a lot since 1860.
Anywho, I don't think one can "lose an accent". They simply trade it for another accent.
I've lived in northeast Texas for nearly thirty years. You're right - Texans don't often say "Howdy" or "Git along" but "Y'all" and "ALL Y'ALL" are common in these here parts.
Probably because the vast majority of Northerners who move to the South end up in the Florida peninsula, where there's no discernible accent or other unifying cultural attributes and never really has been due in part to high net in and out-migration rates.
Most of the domestic in-migration from other US states has been primarily from states in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions, although other states in the South as well as California are well-represented, too.
Historically, when Northerners moved to Florida and, now more so than ever before, other areas of the South such as western North Carolina and coastal South Carolina, they tend to congregate in the same general areas as people from their previous cities/states.
For example, people from Brooklyn often congregate in Broward County, people from Buffalo in Hillsborough County, New Englanders in Sarasota County, Minnesotans in Collier County, etc. Call it the "United States of Florida." Here's a cute little map that pokes fun at that trend: http://www.onlyinyourstate.com/florida/silly-maps-fl/
Although not Northerners, Californians tend to follow a similar pattern - many Californians who move to the South end up in Austin, Dallas or, as that map suggests, the St. Augustine/Palm Coast area.
This trend is less pronounced in other Southern states because all other Southern states have higher percentages of natives than Florida, don't have as long a history of attracting Northerners and immigrants and were much more thickly populated/settled 100 years ago than Florida, which was largely uninhabitable for most of the year before the advent of air conditioning.
Thing is, in Florida, the natives have long since been outnumbered by transplants, so whatever little accent or culture previously existed is long gone. Coupled with people who fail to assimilate by "sticking to their own," so to speak, you're not going to hear those Northern accents softening any time soon.
I always thought it was strange how so many in people in Florida still have strong, very pronounced Boston, Brooklyn or Chicago accents, even after living in Florida for 25-30 years.
However, as many Northern transplants become priced out of Florida or they just decide to pass on the state altogether, you can observe more Northerners "infiltrating" nearby states such as Georgia and the Carolinas. For example, coastal South Carolina is home to tons of people from Massachusetts, and the Atlanta area is home to many people from the NYC area.
Location: Appalachian New York, Formerly Louisiana
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rvabread22
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?
And that's not insulting at all?
Being southern does not automatically give you a free pass to be a jerk about things. I mean, you have the right but don't feel as though you are justified.
That aside...
A lot of northerners lose their accents. If not entirely then it certainly becomes diluted. I think you may be mistaking accent to some degree with common vocabulary. A lot of northerners are highly educated and that carries with it a certain way of speaking; a way that is not going to be easily unlearned (and trust me on this, I have met many southerners who are equally learned and speak with similar wording). However, you may find that several million northerners have their own rural slang and that persists the same way rural southerners won't lose their own. Urban areas and connectivity have a way of leveling the playing field all around.
Now ask yourself, are northerners really always lording themselves over you with their speech or are you taking personal offense to it because of your own bias? I am going to infer from your labeling northern speech and accents as 'bad' that the latter is closer to the truth.
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