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There's just as many non-southern transplants moving to Nashville as well. Which is not the case for Memphis.
I just spent a week in Nashville. Southern axxents outnumber non-southern accents 2:1...
But Charlotte is bigger than Nashville and has mostly southern accents. And Atlanta is bigger than both combined and has more southern accents. And I was in Dallas last August/September which is bigger than Atlanta and has more southern accents...
Haven't been to Houston or Miami. So Dallas is the answer for places I've been...
My relatives were from SW Arkansas, NE Texas and NW Louisiana for the most part and they sounded so incredibly southern that it was nearly ridiculous. I mean, like yeehaw. Anyway, I rarely hear that sort of accent now. My vote goes to Atlanta, or maybe even Dallas. I have friends who live just outside of Atlanta and I have lived in NE Texas for thirty years. When I went back for a recent high school graduation, they were all like "Mah GOODNESS GRACIOUS, you've got tha=yat Texas twang!" Who knows, maybe I do. But I know this - I found a cassette tape of myself talking when I was a youngun and wow, did I ever sound southern! Much more so than now. I was a military brat so I lived literally all over the world but wow, did I ever retain that southern accent! I have lost some of it, but still...
TRUE STORY TIME: A few years ago, I was a corporate trainer and I was teaching a class with a co worker (also from Texas) to a group in Minneapolis. We both paused a moment to the chagrin of our class, who almost simultaneously yelled out "Keep talking - we want to listen to your accents!" Good grief! Or as they would say, Ya betcha!
By the way, aside note - I am a New Orleans native. I lived in a suburb of New Orleans called Metairie. I had an aunt who spoke Creole French sometimes with her neighbors and I couldn't understand her. I also wasn't quite sure what color she was but that's a whole other story.
I just spent a week in Nashville. Southern axxents outnumber non-southern accents 2:1...
But Charlotte is bigger than Nashville and has mostly southern accents. And Atlanta is bigger than both combined and has more southern accents. And I was in Dallas last August/September which is bigger than Atlanta and has more southern accents...
Haven't been to Houston or Miami. So Dallas is the answer for places I've been...
I was in Charlotte not too long ago. Wasn’t there that long but I ran into more transplants from the Northeast than I did actual natives of Charlotte or even NC.
Lived in Atlanta for 2 years. I could go days without hearing a southern accent unless I was in traditional black neighborhoods in the city or the suburbs or exurbs. Atlanta has way too many transplants.
Dallas is similar to Atlanta and actually has less of a southern accent outside of the local Black population in the city and older White communities. Too many California and Midwest transplants in the area to just run into southern accents like that.
Houston is similar to Atlanta and Dallas even though I’d rank Atlanta over both followed by Houston then Dallas.
Miami? Lmaooo unless you count a Cuban or Caribbean accent as southern.
Memphis bar none from my experience is the biggest city where the southern accent is the most dominant. I don’t think I ran into one person who lived there who came from somewhere outside the south. Not to mention part of their metro is in Mississippi and Arkansas. Heavy southern accents.
No one overlooks New Orleans as southern.
South Louisiana doesn't have many shared food and experiences as the rest of the south, either. I always felt like I was in a different region when I went to other southern states like Georgia.
I found New Orleans to be unique. I think they have their own accent or maybe many dialects.
I know I have written this on here before. I went to a dinner where the key speaker was a professor at Queen's College and an expert in accents. He could speak to a person a few minutes and tell them where they were born from the way they said certain words. He was amused that anyone thought the south has one southern accent. He also helped the movie makers get the accents correct for the part the actor was playing.
One of the most interesting parts of his speech was when a director wanted him to teach the actors in a movie to speak with a southern accent. His reply was to name over many kinds of southern accents and ask which one the director was needing. He said he had found people in the mountains of North Carolina who had pure Shakespearean English accents. When one gets into genealogy it becomes evident why that would be normal for that area. I have some great grandparents in common with the English Royal Family and one of my good friends traced her family back to royalty also. My grandmother has some great grandparents and some cousins in common with my husband's mother back in the 1500's and I had never met his family before we started dating. In checking I found that is just normal for those whose families came over to America before the country separated from England and became the United States of America.
Last week I was playing around and found one of his Grandaunt's. Then I checked our relationship with that persons parents and found they were my 13th great grandparents. Our families knew each other back in the 1500's.
I found New Orleans to be unique. I think they have their own accent or maybe many dialects.
I know I have written this on here before. I went to a dinner where the key speaker was a professor at Queen's College and an expert in accents. He could speak to a person a few minutes and tell them where they were born from the way they said certain words. He was amused that anyone thought the south has one southern accent. He also helped the movie makers get the accents correct for the part the actor was playing.
One of the most interesting parts of his speech was when a director wanted him to teach the actors in a movie to speak with a southern accent. His reply was to name over many kinds of southern accents and ask which one the director was needing. He said he had found people in the mountains of North Carolina who had pure Shakespearean English accents. When one gets into genealogy it becomes evident why that would be normal for that area. I have some great grandparents in common with the English Royal Family and one of my good friends traced her family back to royalty also. My grandmother has some great grandparents and some cousins in common with my husband's mother back in the 1500's and I had never met his family before we started dating. In checking I found that is just normal for those whose families came over to America before the country separated from England and became the United States of America.
Last week I was playing around and found one of his Grandaunt's. Then I checked our relationship with that persons parents and found they were my 13th great grandparents. Our families knew each other back in the 1500's.
I have never any kind of English-sounding accent in western NC.
I was in Charlotte not too long ago. Wasn’t there that long but I ran into more transplants from the Northeast than I did actual natives of Charlotte or even NC.
Lived in Atlanta for 2 years. I could go days without hearing a southern accent unless I was in traditional black neighborhoods in the city or the suburbs or exurbs. Atlanta has way too many transplants.
Dallas is similar to Atlanta and actually has less of a southern accent outside of the local Black population in the city and older White communities. Too many California and Midwest transplants in the area to just run into southern accents like that.
Houston is similar to Atlanta and Dallas even though I’d rank Atlanta over both followed by Houston then Dallas.
Miami? Lmaooo unless you count a Cuban or Caribbean accent as southern.
Memphis bar none from my experience is the biggest city where the southern accent is the most dominant. I don’t think I ran into one person who lived there who came from somewhere outside the south. Not to mention part of their metro is in Mississippi and Arkansas. Heavy southern accents.
Southern accents are still prominent in the Nashville metro and is larger than Memphis
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