Why don't Northerners seem to lose their accents when they move South? (homes, live in)

[JerseyGirl415]

Originally Posted by CookieSkoon

As backwards as it sounds to the stereotypical outlook, modern southerners are largely more judgmental than northerners. Sure, there are definitely judgmental Yankees, buuuut it's not a cultural staple here to judge, belittle and hate the south as it seems to be in the south to judge, belittle and hate the north.

In my experience, people just don't give a damn up here, at least in my particular area. We mind our business. Not because we're being polite, but because we don't care about you or your life and how you live it. We don't have time to even have basic polite conversation with strangers much of the time. And I'm using to seeing a ton of different types of people. Seeing a Southerner is nice compared to some people I see in parts of NJ and NYC... you see everyone around here. I would warmly welcome a Southerner any day over some others who arrive...

[Chevalier de Saint-George]

Interesting. Do some Southerners really expect people from up North and the Midwest to lose their native accent? Kind of unreasonable. This from a native Southerner.

[bamba_boy]

I don't think that is true that all Yankees prefer to keep their accents. I spent only 3 years in Texas from age 21-24 and then got a job in California. It was enough time to pick up a bit of a drawl and "youawll" (very useful 2nd person plural form that does not exist as a single word in The Midwest) preference as all the Californians thought I had lived my whole life in Texas but I grew up in Ohio! I think it's fun to add to your working vocabulary. I picked up "tubular", "awesome", and "fer shur" valley-speak from my next four years in SoCal and moved back to Texas to confuse those folks!

[rvabread22]

Originally Posted by rodentraiser

Sure they can. I moved out to California when I was 17, and after a quarter decade there, I definitely have a Californian accent. One of my co-workers moved out to California when she was in her 20s. She came form the Bronx originally. She asked me one day if I wanted to hear her Bronx accent. And let me tell you, she had a Bronx accent but I would've never have known it if she hadn't told me.

I have to relate this story: I was looking for a street in Richmond, Virginia a couple years ago. I stopped and asked a group of old men how to find the street I wanted and they kept saying, "Turn right and you'll be on Palm (only they pronounced it 'Pahm). I kept saying I didn't want to go to Palm, and after about three repetitions, I finally understood what they were saying (so I'm a little slow). I wanted Parham St. And they were telling me to turn right and I would be on Pah-ham. I've don't think there's been many times I've felt more stupid. And those guys were probably cracking up when I left.

i think you're talking about Parham Rd. Which is the West End. Most outsiders have confusion with many Richmond area landmarks- including how they say "Powhite" Parkway. A native says "pow-white" and a non native would say "po white". LOL. Its neat, though. Its interesting how the enlightened folks on the weather channel mispronounce so many Virginia names and places. "Norfolk" is "Naw-fulk" not "Norrr-folk".

[rvabread22]

Originally Posted by atler8

From my memories of experiences when I lived in the north, I could turn around and ask why is it that southerners don't lose their accents when they move north?
I recall that northerners by and large did not get agitated at southerners over things like their accents or other more trivial things.
I've lived in the south for over 35 years now but will never forget a few characters I've met down here over the years, including one not-too-bright dim bulb who, when stymied in an exchange of opinions with me, would eventually just sputter, "You Yankee!"

ARE you KIDDING?

My mother went up to New York to do some modeling work up there. She still had a very strong Tidewater Virginian accent. Being an attractive young woman from the South, she got nothing but flack for her accent. Quite a few New Yorkers gave her an extremely hard time up there. Even go as far as to say "lynch anyone today, sweetheart?" And she wasn't even from the Deep South! Of course it was the 1960s and at the height of the civil rights movement. But can you say that Northern folk are really so open towards Southerners?

Northerners are ALWAYS making fun of Southern accents and Southerners. Do not be so blind. Southerners in general are welcoming to Northerners, until they start bashing the South, and only then do they start using the Y-word.

[eschaton]

In my experience, plenty of northerners attempt as adults to change their accents. They're people who have heavy non-standard accents - usually urban accents from cities like Boston, Philadelphia, New York, or Chicago who either move to a place where the accent is more neutral, or end up in a higher economic stratum then their parents where their accent is considered to be low class. In some cases they can successfully eliminate their accents. In other cases it only weakens, or the attempts are fruitless.

Obviously Southerners who move north are going to find themselves stereotyped for much the same reasons, and thus often attempt to eliminate their accents. However, provided a northerner who moves South speaks something pretty close to standard American English (which, like it or not, is the prestige dialect in the U.S.) they really have no reason to alter their speech patterns. Very few people will not take them seriously for sounding like a Yankee, and those who won't are generally not in socially important positions, at least for them.

[CookieSkoon]

Originally Posted by rvabread22

ARE you KIDDING?

My mother went up to New York to do some modeling work up there. She still had a very strong Tidewater Virginian accent. Being an attractive young woman from the South, she got nothing but flack for her accent. Quite a few New Yorkers gave her an extremely hard time up there. Even go as far as to say "lynch anyone today, sweetheart?" And she wasn't even from the Deep South! Of course it was the 1960s and at the height of the civil rights movement. But can you say that Northern folk are really so open towards Southerners?

Northerners are ALWAYS making fun of Southern accents and Southerners. Do not be so blind. Southerners in general are welcoming to Northerners, until they start bashing the South, and only then do they start using the Y-word.

Well one, it was the 1960's, two I'm assuming it was NYC. People there give everybody a hard time always, all of the time ever.

Most southerners who are genuine are seemingly drowned out by the spiteful anti-Yankee sort.

Example: I met a man from Georgia in 2011, I was in Chattanooga, TN. We met over a minor wreck on the highway around Lookout Mountain of which we were a part (happens a lot there).

We got along great, talking, laughing, making sure everybody was alright. Then he asked where I was headed. I answered that I was from upstate New York and I was on my way to visit family for Thanksgiving. Suddenly this man who was warm, inviting and conversational turned stone cold and distant. A complete personality 180, all over the fact that I was from NY originally? If I'd never said it he'd never have been that way towards me.

Does that sound like a good attitude towards northerners? I have met an unfortunate amount of these people.

Due to my (evidently hard to believe) rural and "working class" roots I was both able and willing to blend into the south seamlessly after about six months of living there. So many people I spoke to just in passing said something derogatory about the "Yankees". Never suspecting I was one; I was able to catch a lot of candid hatred.

Granted, this was southern Louisiana and maybe that's a different atmosphere from other places of the south and most of these people were middle aged or older; regardless these people existed and were mean spirited for no good reason.

This happened more often in Louisiana than I had personally heard hatred towards the south in upstate NY. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, that'd be foolish, but northerners don't dwell on it the same way. Usually it's just one jerk we all ignore anyhow.

Here's an example of what I mean, bearing in mind this is applicable to how I have personally observed things:

Scenario: A room full of southerners. One of them says something insulting about the north. The room generally reacts with nods, laughter and some agreement.

Scenario: A room full of northerners. One of them says something insulting about the south. The room generally goes "eh", shrugs, and moves on, maybe one thick headed nut erupts in Larry the Cable guy lines.

There's just a different spirit about it.

Again, that's based on averages due to my experiences. I'm not saying that always happens; but that's how it generally occurred as far as I have seen with my own eyes.

Another thing I personally observed is that southerners will challenge your history. Something I've never witnessed a northerner do.

Example: I grew up dirt poor, leaping between trailer parks and eventually landing in my grandparents old shack on a hillside that didn't even have running water.

Whenever I'd tell my life story in the south I always had to fight uphill to prove it. To the point where I took pictures of the place to take back. It was met often with replies like, "well there aren't any poor people in NY" or "This sounds like you're making it up" or "Well being poor in the north is a totally different thing..." etc.

It was downright aggravating and insulting. If I had told the same story and claimed I was from Kentucky they'd have believed it full on, but because it was NY I must have been lying.

I have never, ever seen a northerner do the same thing to a southerner. I've never seen a wealthy southerner come up north and be met with "well there are no rich people in the south" or "You have a big house? Sounds like you're making this up." etc.

I work in a winery. I've seen plenty of rich southerners visit here.

Does that sound like a good attitude towards northerners? How would you feel if somebody trivialized your struggles or dismissed your ways to relate as if they were lies. It's humiliating.

In my near decade in Louisiana, I never once threw shade on the entire south to somebody. I spoke ill of certain places, sure, Baton Rouge was awful, but not 'the south'. I gave friends a hard time in good fun, and they did the same to me in return, but that's not the same scenario at all. I wouldn't do that to some stranger.

It just seems to me that in general there is more, shall we say vocal, spite towards the north than there is towards the south.

Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe it's just the cards life dealt to me. But my experience is all I have to go on.

[The_General]

How do you "lose and accent" it's the way you talk. If a person from the South comes the Northeast I wouldn't think they'd stop saying ya'll and If somebody from the North moves to Charlotte I wouldn't think they'd talk any differently from how they grew up.

[tallydude02]

A former co-worker of mine in Columbus, OH was born and raised in nearby suburban Hilliard, but her parents and grandparents originally were from eastern Kentucky. Many people from that part of the country moved to Columbus in the 1950's and 1960's because of the massive job loss in the coal mines during that time.


She has no trace of an Appalachian twang, but her parents still do. She said she worked hard not to pick up her parents accent because she knew it would hold her back. She said her parents had a hard time adjusting to Columbus because of their thick accents. Some of my other co-workers referred to those areas where southerners settled as "Grovetucky" aka Grove City. Cincinnati gained a lot of Kentucky migrants too and it was the first city in the nation that passed an anti-discrimination ordinance against people of Appalachian descent.


From a personal perspective, some of my relatives moved to Akron during that same time period from the hills of southwest PA/northern WV and faced some turned heads and comments about their accents. The younger relatives who stayed in Akron adopted the accent heard in Akron.

[CookieSkoon]

Originally Posted by tallydude02

A former co-worker of mine in Columbus, OH was born and raised in nearby suburban Hilliard, but her parents and grandparents originally were from eastern Kentucky. Many people from that part of the country moved to Columbus in the 1950's and 1960's because of the massive job loss in the coal mines during that time.


She has no trace of an Appalachian twang, but her parents still do. She said she worked hard not to pick up her parents accent because she knew it would hold her back. She said her parents had a hard time adjusting to Columbus because of their thick accents. Some of my other co-workers referred to those areas where southerners settled as "Grovetucky" aka Grove City. Cincinnati gained a lot of Kentucky migrants too and it was the first city in the nation that passed an anti-discrimination ordinance against people of Appalachian descent.


From a personal perspective, some of my relatives moved to Akron during that same time period from the hills of southwest PA/northern WV and faced some turned heads and comments about their accents. The younger relatives who stayed in Akron adopted the accent heard in Akron.

That was a very discriminatory time in our nation's history. Something a lot of us have been fighting to change over several decades.