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Son, I'm from Baton Rouge, between Cajun Country and New Orleans. New Orleans does not have Cajun history, you can barely find Cajun food there. Lafayette is the heart of Cajun culture.
Yes, it's distinctively different, I mentioned that earlier. Whenever I traveled to other southern states it felt like I was in a different region of the country. However, just because it's not the same as the quintessential south doesn't mean it's "less southern." Same as Miami.
Those Cajuns settled in the swamps west of the Atchafalaya River, not New Orleans.
I never insinuated that New York is the same as Maine, but no one questions the differences in northeast regions or midwest regions, yet they claim Miami isn't southern because of Latin American influences, like you just did. Not once have I heard that Buffalo isn't a northeastern city because it isn't like the Bos-Wash. But people constantly question the southerness of only southern cities because they don't fit in with the quintessential idea of the south to northerners.
The south is allowed to be diverse.
Lol, it's always the ones that have no idea what Cajun means that are always the ones that are trying to school people. I can't believe he said you have never been there.
I dunno why it's so hard for people to grasp that Cajuns are Arcadian descendants. Pure and simple. Arcadians did not settle in New Orleans. Arcadians are just a small subset of people of French lineage. It certainly isn't synonymous with Creole. All Cajuns are Creole but not all Creoles are Cajun.
Creole simply means someone born in the New World that has French Heritage.
Similarly, Latin Americans of European Descent were Criollos.
As for New Orleans, it is as Southern as they come. When the south was a thing it was cities such as New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond that were truly Southern cities.
Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte are New South cities. They probably were not what people would think of first if they were thinking of a southern city.
St Louis is an odd duck because it is firmly in an area that is generally accepted as being the midwest, but there was no midwest in St Louis's younger days. St Louis was the last Major city up the Mississippi with southern characteristics. It was not only where east met west, but where North met south.
I still see St Louis as a southern city in the Midwest just as I see Baltimore as a southern city in an area where people find it hard for a Southern city to be located.
As far as the largest city with a dominant Southern accent, good luck with that. There are dozens of southern accents so idk which you would be looking for.
In major southern cities you will find multiple.
I don't think you have to go a far as 100 miles to hear distinct accents. Going through Appalachia you hear multiple.
The Creole Crescent in Louisiana has a very distinct accent, you don't even leave the area before you get to Plantation Country where the accent is again distinct, then there's Cajun Country with again very distinct accents. For how people like to lump Cajun with New Orleans, people from the Crescent sound more like people from southern Mississippi and Alabama than they do to Cajuns.
New Orleans was a far more diverse place when it was THE major city in the south, idk why people now think a southern city can't be diverse. New Orleans was more French than Miami is Spanish, but nowadays people seem to have the idea that the south was always one thing.
Idk why people seemed to think Southern cities didn't have a large Catholic population. Most major cities did. Evangelicalism has always been most popular in rural areas. But Major US cities were very catholic. Baltimore, Charleston, Savanah, Mobile and New Orleans are all major prototype southern cities that have strong Catholic presence.
But I do realize some here think the South means rural so I guess that would fit the Evangelical stereotype.
If a place in the south is too Cosmopolitan, it's too well educated, it isn't dominated by fire and brimstone evangelicals, all of a sudden it isn't the south. I will stop trying to make sense of city data thinking now.
Lol, it's always the ones that have no idea what Cajun means that are always the ones that are trying to school people. I can't believe he said you have never been there.
I dunno why it's so hard for people to grasp that Cajuns are Arcadian descendants. Pure and simple. Arcadians did not settle in New Orleans. Arcadians are just a small subset of people of French lineage. It certainly isn't synonymous with Creole. All Cajuns are Creole but not all Creoles are Cajun.
Creole simply means someone born in the New World that has French Heritage.
Similarly, Latin Americans of European Descent were Criollos.
As for New Orleans, it is as Southern as they come. When the south was a thing it was cities such as New Orleans, Charleston, Richmond that were truly Southern cities.
Houston, Atlanta, Charlotte are New South cities. They probably were not what people would think of first if they were thinking of a southern city.
St Louis is an odd duck because it is firmly in an area that is generally accepted as being the midwest, but there was no midwest in St Louis's younger days. St Louis was the last Major city up the Mississippi with southern characteristics. It was not only where east met west, but where North met south.
I still see St Louis as a southern city in the Midwest just as I see Baltimore as a southern city in an area where people find it hard for a Southern city to be located.
As far as the largest city with a dominant Southern accent, good luck with that. There are dozens of southern accents so idk which you would be looking for.
In major southern cities you will find multiple.
I don't think you have to go a far as 100 miles to hear distinct accents. Going through Appalachia you hear multiple.
The Creole Crescent in Louisiana has a very distinct accent, you don't even leave the area before you get to Plantation Country where the accent is again distinct, then there's Cajun Country with again very distinct accents. For how people like to lump Cajun with New Orleans, people from the Crescent sound more like people from southern Mississippi and Alabama than they do to Cajuns.
New Orleans was a far more diverse place when it was THE major city in the south, idk why people now think a southern city can't be diverse. New Orleans was more French than Miami is Spanish, but nowadays people seem to have the idea that the south was always one thing.
Idk why people seemed to think Southern cities didn't have a large Catholic population. Most major cities did. Evangelicalism has always been most popular in rural areas. But Major US cities were very catholic. Baltimore, Charleston, Savanah, Mobile and New Orleans are all major prototype southern cities that have strong Catholic presence.
But I do realize some here think the South means rural so I guess that would fit the Evangelical stereotype.
If a place in the south is too Cosmopolitan, it's too well educated, it isn't dominated by fire and brimstone evangelicals, all of a sudden it isn't the south. I will stop trying to make sense of city data thinking now.
Getting back to OPs original question, I’m familiar with all the varying accents of New Orleans, but they don’t generally fit a southern stereotype accent. In fact, New Orleans is a bit unique this way, and why I wouldn’t highlight it as a city with a quintessential southern accent.
Southern can mean a lot of things, just like northeastern can. But I think when questions like this are asked, one is trying to figure out which city best fits the common stereotype.
What’s different about considering NYC as northeastern, and not considering New Orleans as southern, is that the northeastern archetype is built around NYC. It embodies the north eastern stereotype.
Funny enough, while not a large city, some of the thickest southern accents I’ve heard are further north, in southern Illinois and the Paducah KY region. I wasn’t trying to be impolite, but I genuinely couldn’t understand half of what the locals were saying
New Orleans accents are distinct, but I wouldn't say it's unique.
There are southern accents among some Hispanics in San Antonio. I still wouldn't call them unique because you hear something similar in Houston too.
As I mentioned in the post above, Some of the NOLA accents are more similar to coastal Mississippi than Cajun Country accents.
Point is, these things are regional. There is no uniform southern accent. So I don't know if I would say New Orleans accent is unique just because it's different when every few 100 miles you encounter differences.
That's why I never went along with Southern Florida not being southern because it is "different" every where is different.
We draw too many inferences from popularity. Memphis has a very very different accent from Nashville, but which would you say it's unique? Neither are unique, they are just different.
Maybe the answer to the OP's question may be the city with the least transplants to dilute the regional southern accent. Memphis and Atlanta both are very southern, both have distinct accents, but Atlanta is less distinct because you hear a lot more southern accents.
Getting back to OPs original question, I’m familiar with all the varying accents of New Orleans, but they don’t generally fit a southern stereotype accent. In fact, New Orleans is a bit unique this way, and why I wouldn’t highlight it as a city with a quintessential southern accent.
Southern can mean a lot of things, just like northeastern can. But I think when questions like this are asked, one is trying to figure out which city best fits the common stereotype.
What’s different about considering NYC as northeastern, and not considering New Orleans as southern, is that the northeastern archetype is built around NYC. It embodies the north eastern stereotype.
Funny enough, while not a large city, some of the thickest southern accents I’ve heard are further north, in southern Illinois and the Paducah KY region. I wasn’t trying to be impolite, but I genuinely couldn’t understand half of what the locals were saying
Ok so my point still stands, no one questions rural New York or Pennsylvania are northeastern because they don't adhere to the big city stereotype of the northeast. Same with New England and and rural Maine vs Boston. No one suggests Stockton isn't really the west coast because it's nothing like LA and SF.
Quote:
Originally Posted by atadytic19
New Orleans accents are distinct, but I wouldn't say it's unique.
There are southern accents among some Hispanics in San Antonio. I still wouldn't call them unique because you hear something similar in Houston too.
As I mentioned in the post above, Some of the NOLA accents are more similar to coastal Mississippi than Cajun Country accents.
Point is, these things are regional. There is no uniform southern accent. So I don't know if I would say New Orleans accent is unique just because it's different when every few 100 miles you encounter differences.
That's why I never went along with Southern Florida not being southern because it is "different" every where is different.
We draw too many inferences from popularity. Memphis has a very very different accent from Nashville, but which would you say it's unique? Neither are unique, they are just different.
Maybe the answer to the OP's question may be the city with the least transplants to dilute the regional southern accent. Memphis and Atlanta both are very southern, both have distinct accents, but Atlanta is less distinct because you hear a lot more southern accents.
I would definitely say it's unique, Memphis to Little Rock and Northern Mississippi share the same accent for the most part. The New Orleans accent pretty much stops at Slidell and Kenner. Baton Rouge is a completely different accent, so is Lafayette and Mississippi.
The Southern accent is fading among young people in many metro areas, certainly the case around Nashville. Even around Knoxville and UT there's a lot less of it than there used to be, and you hear students from Memphis or Kingsport that have a minor twang at most.
I was in Chattanooga for a week this year and barely heard a drawl the entire time I was there, just a "y'all" tacked onto conversation now & then.
Obviously Atlanta for metro. City might be Jacksonville.
Atlanta no way. Atlanta is not southern at all. Maybe if you get 70 miles outside of the city and that’s still a stretch. Are there parts? Sure. Georgia is one of the most diverse states in the South. I live inside 285 in Brookhaven and I’m the only native Georgian in my neighborhood circle. People are from all over the country and world. Rarely do I hear a southern accent in Atlanta.
Atlanta no way. Atlanta is not southern at all. Maybe if you get 70 miles outside of the city and that’s still a stretch. Are there parts? Sure. Georgia is one of the most diverse states in the South. I live inside 285 in Brookhaven and I’m the only native Georgian in my neighborhood circle. People are from all over the country and world. Rarely do I hear a southern accent in Atlanta.
Maybe you don't have big and diverse enough of a social circle as you thought you did?
Maybe you don't have big and diverse enough of a social circle as you thought you did?
It’s robust. It’s just that Atlanta is a melting pot and has lost its southern culture a very long time ago. Apparently you haven’t spent much time here.
St Louis is an odd duck because it is firmly in an area that is generally accepted as being the Midwest, but there was no Midwest in St Louis's younger days. St Louis was the last Major city up the Mississippi with southern characteristics. It was not only where east met west, but where North met south.
I still see St Louis as a southern city in the Midwest just as I see Baltimore as a southern city in an area where people find it hard for a Southern city to be located.
History bears this out to some extent. There is "Very Old St. Louis " and "Old St. Louis" before the transformation to the current Midwestern rooted St. Louis. In the very old days, it was a French and Spanish town on the banks of the Mississippi -- one of many that sprung up in the late 1700s. (Ste. Genevieve, St. Charles, Carondelet, Cape Girardeau, New Madrid, etc.) The very old settler families were largely French Canadian. As in New Orleans, the French held sway in St. Louis as the upper class but lingering only into the mid 1800s. During those later years the southerners poured into the town, from the Carolinas, Virginia and Tennessee/Kentucky. giving the city a southern-ness flavor in "old" St. Louis days. Those were the early statehood days. It became a city and a major port on the Mississippi and an outfitting point for folks going west or shipping up the Missouri River. It was conveniently in the way of national expansion and the immigrants began pouring in from the eastern states and many from Ireland and Germany and other parts of Europe. Many Europeans came up the river from New Orleans or overland from New York or Baltimore. So many immigrants arrived that St. Louis was once again transformed around the time of the Civil War and became less southern and barely French at all, except in street names and some few families. Union ironclad gunboats were manufactured in St. Louis for service on the rivers. Major industrial development brought in more new people. Today, St. Louis is the western-most Eastern city, firmly anchored in the Midwest on the Mississippi. It was once "First in shoes, first in booze, and last in the American League" referring to the St. Louis Browns - a team that I'm old enough to remember seeing play. There might be some lingering relics of the south and even the French. What people think of the south begins in southern Missouri counties, so it is still relatively close and there are connections. My ancestors settled there in the 1840s up to 1900 -- all European (except the later New York state shoe workers).
When I grew up there, we all swore that we St. Louisans didn't have an accent -- we spoke pure American English. Now, living 1000 miles distant, I can pick out a St. Louis accent like a sore thumb. There is also a rural/river country twang that sounds a bit southern if you go outside of the city, but you can pick that up in parts of Kansas or Illinois and farther up the Mississippi Valley.
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