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Miami is also in the part of Oklahoma that I think anyone would say is basically Midwestern. It has a lot more in common with Joplin or Pittsburg than it does Durant.
I was born and raised in Durant when it was more pronouncedly southern than it is now as it has grown with transplants mostly from Texas. The Casino is producing more jobs than that area has qualified people looking for work. So workers come into the area for jobs from Texa generally as the casino is advertised and well known here in DFW.
My accent tends to move and adapt to where I am for some reason. I worked in Houston and Pittsburgh 7 years on my way to a job in NYC metro. I worked in a smaller plants for 2 years in Bayonne NJ so where I was "from" was masked some what. The larger work location in NJ my job moved me to was filled with professional engineers from the NE USA and locals from near the plant location in Elizabeth NJ. The staff in both plants made fun of the professionals from Texas who moved to jobs in NJ.They called those transplants Pineapples. I managed to escape that badge with an accent that made them all think I was a local boy not a pineapple. much less a product of a southern culture. When I go back to Durant to see family now I hear the accent that many there have and it is southern. My accent now is Texan after being retired and working in Texas for over 40 years.
I do not gravitate back to a Durant sound when back there for family holidays. Do others find their accent moves too? When I was working I was in a global job based in Houston but spoke to folks all over the globe daily. I think that work environment made my accent more neutral in those days maybe like a midwestern, as Johnny Carson was.
Not to try to side track the thread but do NA Indians have accents in their native tongue too when compared to tribe members from else where?
Miami is also in the part of Oklahoma that I think anyone would say is basically Midwestern. It has a lot more in common with Joplin or Pittsburg than it does Durant.
Agreed about Miami, but that's the point. You WILL find southern accents in all parts of Oklahoma. But you will also find people who tend to have a more neutral accent. The guy in this video is devoid an accent IMO.
Here is one with a young woman who DOES have a southern accent.
I was born and raised in Durant when it was more pronouncedly southern than it is now as it has grown with transplants mostly from Texas. The Casino is producing more jobs than that area has qualified people looking for work. So workers come into the area for jobs from Texa generally as the casino is advertised and well known here in DFW.
My accent tends to move and adapt to where I am for some reason. I worked in Houston and Pittsburgh 7 years on my way to a job in NYC metro. I worked in a smaller plants for 2 years in Bayonne NJ so where I was "from" was masked some what. The larger work location in NJ my job moved me to was filled with professional engineers from the NE USA and locals from near the plant location in Elizabeth NJ. The staff in both plants made fun of the professionals from Texas who moved to jobs in NJ.They called those transplants Pineapples. I managed to escape that badge with an accent that made them all think I was a local boy not a pineapple. much less a product of a southern culture. When I go back to Durant to see family now I hear the accent that many there have and it is southern. My accent now is Texan after being retired and working in Texas for over 40 years.
I do not gravitate back to a Durant sound when back there for family holidays. Do others find their accent moves too? When I was working I was in a global job based in Houston but spoke to folks all over the globe daily. I think that work environment made my accent more neutral in those days maybe like a midwestern, as Johnny Carson was.
Not to try to side track the thread but do NA Indians have accents in their native tongue too when compared to tribe members from else where?
I do find it interesting that you are distinguishing a Texas accent from a Southern accent (specifically Durant, Oklahoma’s accent); what would you say the big differences in speech are?
Agreed about Miami, but that's the point. You WILL find southern accents in all parts of Oklahoma. But you will also find people who tend to have a more neutral accent. The guy in this video is devoid an accent IMO.
Here is one with a young woman who DOES have a southern accent.
Miami is not in the part of Oklahoma that most people consider the more Midwestern part of the state though. Even the pronunciation of the town’s name (Miamuh) hints at a Southern influence.
It’s also worth pointing out that in these last two videos you’ve posted, the subjects have both purportedly spent at least part of their lives outside of Oklahoma. The Miami speaker’s Twitter account lists him as being a Missouri resident and the Oklahoma/Arkansas accent tag lady admits to spending part of her life in Arkansas. Additionally, their ages seem to place them in the generation of Okies that really don’t have the stereotypical Okie accent at all, although there are exceptions.
Miami is not in the part of Oklahoma that most people consider the more Midwestern part of the state though. Even the pronunciation of the town’s name (Miamuh) hints at a Southern influence.
It’s also worth pointing out that in these last two videos you’ve posted, the subjects have both purportedly spent at least part of their lives outside of Oklahoma. The Miami speaker’s Twitter account lists him as being a Missouri resident and the Oklahoma/Arkansas accent tag lady admits to spending part of her life in Arkansas. Additionally, their ages seem to place them in the generation of Okies that really don’t have the stereotypical Okie accent at all, although there are exceptions.
As far as the town "name" pronunciation. I wonder if it is actually southern or is that how the Miami tribe pronounces (Miami).
As far as it being or not being in the part of Oklahoma that most people consider the more "midwestern" part of the state? Certainly it is more Missouri and Kansas than it is Texas. But it is part Arkansas for sure.
The reason for those particular videos is that they demonstrate that Oklahoma has a pretty significant spectrum of accents with probably a very mild southern to moderate southern accent being the most prominent. But there are plenty of people here that are fairly neutral like the guy who grew up in Miami, OK that lives in Missouri now.
If you get among the Mennonites in western Oklahoma there are many that sound like they are from the northern plains.
Miami is also in the part of Oklahoma that I think anyone would say is basically Midwestern. It has a lot more in common with Joplin or Pittsburg than it does Durant.
That part of Missouri (including Joplin) is Southern to the core.
The only people who group Oklahoma with the Midwest are people that are on the coasts and are relatively unfamiliar with the culture of flyover country. The only thing that makes Oklahoma different culturally from Arkansas or Tennessee is the fact that it wasn't a state during the Civil War and therefore wasn't officially a part of the Confederacy.
That part of Missouri (including Joplin) is Southern to the core.
The only people who group Oklahoma with the Midwest are people that are on the coasts and are relatively unfamiliar with the culture of flyover country. The only thing that makes Oklahoma different culturally from Arkansas or Tennessee is the fact that it wasn't a state during the Civil War and therefore wasn't officially a part of the Confederacy.
Joplin strikes me as awfully damn similar to Kansas and the rest of western Missouri. The only part of Missouri that's "Southern to the core", IMO, is the Boot Heel. The Ozarks have strong Southern influences as well, but definite Midwestern ones.
Oklahoma has about as much in common with the Plains states as the traditional South. That's why lots of people group it with the Midwest. It borders as many traditionally Midwestern states as it does traditionally Southern ones. The northern part of the state has more in common with Nebraska than it does with Georgia. Southern and eastern Oklahoma is definitely a Southern culture, but you can see a pretty wide range of cultures inside of one state.
While it's definitely not a true Midwestern state, to chalk up any inclusion of it with the Midwest as ignorance seems to miss the litany of similarities and shared cultural aspects.
Joplin strikes me as awfully damn similar to Kansas and the rest of western Missouri. The only part of Missouri that's "Southern to the core", IMO, is the Boot Heel. The Ozarks have strong Southern influences as well, but definite Midwestern ones.
Oklahoma has about as much in common with the Plains states as the traditional South. That's why lots of people group it with the Midwest. It borders as many traditionally Midwestern states as it does traditionally Southern ones. The northern part of the state has more in common with Nebraska than it does with Georgia. Southern and eastern Oklahoma is definitely a Southern culture, but you can see a pretty wide range of cultures inside of one state.
While it's definitely not a true Midwestern state, to chalk up any inclusion of it with the Midwest as ignorance seems to miss the litany of similarities and shared cultural aspects.
Bawac is on the Oklahoma board and is one of the people who wants to insist that Oklahoma is pretty much exclusively southern. There are others (such as myself) that agree with you that it's much more of mixed bag.
The reason I agree with you is that my family is from the part of the state of Oklahoma that is probably the least southern (NW Oklahoma) and as you said, it is much more like Kansas in many respects than anywhere else. It's absolutely nothing like Tennessee or Arkansas.
The northeastern part of the state is certainly also a mixed bag when you get up by Joplin.
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