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I'm seeing in this thread people are saying the Black NY accent and the Black NO accent are similar and this is the very first time I've ever heard that. They do not sound similar to me at all. Not even in the slightest.
I'm seeing in this thread people are saying the Black NY accent and the Black NO accent are similar and this is the very first time I've ever heard that. They do not sound similar to me at all. Not even in the slightest.
Yeah I'm still flabbergasted by that comment. Never in my life have I heard this statement EVER. No one is confusing Birdman's accent as a Queens accent. No one is listening to Russel Simmons talk and say "Oh yeah he sounds like he comes straight from Treme!" Nah
Btw, If I did have to pick the largest city/metro where the southern accent is still dominant my pick would be MEMPHIS.
DAL,HOU,ATL differ from Memphis in the sense that they have more transplants and suburban areas that don't have a dominant populace with a southern accent. You'll definitely find more consistent southern accents in traditional Black communities in the city limits and older White communities in the city limits. I notice the older suburbs closed to the city limits of each metro tend to have more of a mix of southern and non southern depending on the age. Some of the newer burbs that experienced growth during the early 00’s in all 3 metros tend to have little to no southern accents w/ the influx of more recent transplants and younger generation. Also you have in all 3 cities gentrified neighborhoods in their urban cores dominated by transplants from other regions outside the south. The exurbs of these metros still hold on pretty strongly to a southern accent and they’re usually predominantly White.
Memphis doesn’t have a large influx of transplants like those 3 or even Charlotte.
I would say New Orleans but you do have a significant amount of White NOLA natives that don't have a traditional southern accent. So my pick goes to Memphis. It's consistently southern with both Black and White all throughout the metro.
Last edited by Redlionjr; 02-09-2024 at 06:23 AM..
Atlanta isn't a melting pot in the historical sense as it was devoid of an ethnically diverse white population until the recent arrival of white transplants from outside the South, and the idea that Atlanta lost it's Southern culture is also inaccurate because culture is something which will evolve and not lose. As far as accents, it's difficult to distinguish what you hear in black inner city Atlanta from black inner city Birmingham.
A local culture is often displaced, which means it basically becomes lost. That's not the case in Atlanta though. Most major metropolitan areas have lots of Americana culture and Atlanta is no exception.
Yeah I'm still flabbergasted by that comment. Never in my life have I heard this statement EVER. No one is confusing Birdman's accent as a Queens accent. No one is listening to Russel Simmons talk and say "Oh yeah he sounds like he comes straight from Treme!" Nah
Btw, If I did have to pick the largest city/metro where the southern accent is still dominant my pick would be MEMPHIS.
DAL,HOU,ATL differ from Memphis in the sense that they have more transplants and suburban areas that don't have a dominant populace with a southern accent. You'll definitely find more consistent southern accents in traditional Black communities in the city limits and older White communities in the city limits. I notice the older suburbs closed to the city limits of each metro tend to have more of a mix of southern and non southern depending on the age. Some of the newer burbs that experienced growth during the early 00’s in all 3 metros tend to have little to no southern accents w/ the influx of more recent transplants and younger generation. Also you have in all 3 cities gentrified neighborhoods in their urban cores dominated by transplants from other regions outside the south. The exurbs of these metros still hold on pretty strongly to a southern accent and they’re usually predominantly White.
Memphis doesn’t have a large influx of transplants like those 3 or even Charlotte.
I would say New Orleans but you do have a significant amount of White NOLA natives that don't have a traditional southern accent. So my pick goes to Memphis. It's consistently southern with both Black and White all throughout the metro.
I don't know why it's black accents being talked about but older New Orleans accents, regardless of race, have definitely been mistaken for New York accents.
Also, no one in New Orleans has a "traditional" southern accent. There really isn't a "traditional" southern accent. There's an accent that's been popularized in media that represents only one part of the south. Our accents differ just like Philly vs New York vs Boston. You say Memphis is consistently southern, so it's New Orleans. Just because it doesn't meet your idea of Hollywood southern accents doesn't mean it isn't southern.
Also, no one in New Orleans has a "traditional" southern accent. There really isn't a "traditional" southern accent. There's an accent that's been popularized in media that represents only one part of the south. Our accents differ just like Philly vs New York vs Boston. You say Memphis is consistently southern, so it's New Orleans. Just because it doesn't meet your idea of Hollywood southern accents doesn't mean it isn't southern.
It's true there's no one traditional Southern accent, but it's easy enough to recognize that they are all related and are basically variations along the same theme as it were--as Southern culture generally is. But in light of NO's uniqueness as a city, it's Southernness can be spoken of as distinctive but not all that traditional IMO. Memphis, on the other hand, is truly the cultural capital of the most quintessentially Southern region of the country.
It's true there's no one traditional Southern accent, but it's easy enough to recognize that they are all related and are basically variations along the same theme as it were--as Southern culture generally is. But in light of NO's uniqueness as a city, it's Southernness can be spoken of as distinctive but not all that traditional IMO. Memphis, on the other hand, is truly the cultural capital of the most quintessentially Southern region of the country.
I'd argue Birmingham is just as Southern as Memphis.
Take your pick from the current scholarly masters of mapping American English dialects - look carefully for the green-bounded "Classical Southern" within the "Lowland South" (in case you might get confused, New Orleans may look like it is within "Classical Southern" but the details treat it as a fiercely diverse exclave of its own) - within that, Atlanta would be the largest metro:
I don't know why it's black accents being talked about but older New Orleans accents, regardless of race, have definitely been mistaken for New York accents.
Also, no one in New Orleans has a "traditional" southern accent. There really isn't a "traditional" southern accent. There's an accent that's been popularized in media that represents only one part of the south. Our accents differ just like Philly vs New York vs Boston. You say Memphis is consistently southern, so it's New Orleans. Just because it doesn't meet your idea of Hollywood southern accents doesn't mean it isn't southern.
We've discussed both Black and White accents so I don't know what you mean by it's black accents being talked about.
As far as New Orleans accents being mistaken for New York/ Northeast accents, I totally hear it when it comes to White New Orleans. Not all but there's a ton of White New Orleans natives that have that "YAT" accent. But as far as Black New Orleans, the only group of people where I hear some similarities to a New York or Northeast accent are Creoles of color folks from Downtown. And I'm talking Creole people of color that come from a long line of Free people of color who married other Free people of color. The ones that can "pass" as something other than "Black". They're the ones I usually hear with some faint New York/ Northeast dialects and even then I still wouldn't mistake it for a Black New York accent. And even with that yes probably most Creole people in New Orleans today racially consider themselves Black but there's also a good amount who don't consider themselves Black.
With that said, I don't hear that with the majority of Black New Orleans natives. And I'm talking Black New Orleans who are clearly Black or primarily of African descent. That also includes Black downtown residents that are primarily of African descent. Even when they share neighborhoods with descendants of Creole people of Color from my experience I still don't hear a New York accent w/ them.
Also I don't go by Hollywood's version of southern accents considering I'm from the South, East Texas (Ark-La-Tex) to be exact. Traditional maybe was the wrong word to use, but there is a general southern accent that can be found to some degree all throughout the southern region. Of course there's variations of southern accents but there are similarities as well throughout the region.
You just admitted that older New Orleans accents can be mistaken for New York accents but now the New Orleans accent is consistently southern as a Memphis accent? Nobodies mistaken a Black or White Memphis accent for a New York one. It's southern throughout unlike New Orleans that has a variety of different accents that are unique to that region and can even be reminiscent of New York.
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