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I've seen several threads on the topic of accents. I wanted to start a thread on the subject but a little differently. Instead of focusing on states, I wanted to focus more on cities. What are some cities whose accents have changed the most over time and what do you think contributed to those changes?
Any city being flooded by transplants, especially in the South. Austin, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, Atlanta, and Florida cities come to mind. I hear many complain you're more likely to hear New York/NJ accents in North Carolina these days than a Southern accent which is really sad.
There's nothing more depressing than states and cities losing their local cultures/accents. Our states are more like mini countries if you really think about it, and too many outsiders flooding into a state that is different from their own can absolutely change the culture, and that includes the dilution of local accents over time.
Cities outside the South and Midwest tend to not have accents, but instead a generalized American accent. This is due to mainstream cultural influence primarily from California/New York media
The Northern Cities Vowel Shift didn't exist before the 1880s-90s, IIRC. So Milwaukee, Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland etc. used to have standard US accents. That series of divergent vowel pronunciations probably started with a bunch of immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Hungary, Poland etc. working in factories together and generating a new dialect that was sort of the average of their individual accents of English. But over time it spread well outside the industrial cities and deep into e.g. rural Wisconsin and Michigan.
Probably Miami. Old school Miami residents often have southern drawls. A lot of my older generation teachers growing up there had notable drawls. Then when Cubans, other Latinos and northern transplants came en masse, the accent changed. But really if you grew up in Miami you got used to hearing all kinds of accents. The current Miami accent is very distinct.
Any city being flooded by transplants, especially in the South. Austin, Raleigh-Durham, Nashville, Atlanta, and Florida cities come to mind. I hear many complain you're more likely to hear New York/NJ accents in North Carolina these days than a Southern accent which is really sad.
There's nothing more depressing than states and cities losing their local cultures/accents. Our states are more like mini countries if you really think about it, and too many outsiders flooding into a state that is different from their own can absolutely change the culture, and that includes the dilution of local accents over time.
Cities outside the South and Midwest tend to not have accents, but instead a generalized American accent. This is due to mainstream cultural influence primarily from California/New York media
"Cities outside the South and Midwest" umm the Northeast exists. Maybe this is somewhat true for the West (and not totally true either, California has very distinct accents itself) but New York, Philly, Boston, Jersey... all have very strong accents.
The Movies. The old pictures from the 30s-40s, when all actors spoke acting-school British.
Logically, fast-growing cities would be most susceptible the loss of "old-timer" speech. If Las Vegas ever had a Southwestern drawl, it has certainly been eraseed.
The Movies. The old pictures from the 30s-40s, when all actors spoke acting-school British.
Logically, fast-growing cities would be most susceptible the loss of "old-timer" speech. If Las Vegas ever had a Southwestern drawl, it has certainly been eraseed.
I always trip out on those older movies and the way they talked
With an influx of Hispanic residents NYC has seen a real diminution of the old-school New Yawk accent, which was often heard in white ethnic neighborhoods. But those neighborhoods are a lot smaller now. You're now more likely to randomly hear the type of English (Spanglish?) you get from Rosie Perez or AOC.
"Pittsburghese" seems to have been watered down significantly in the last 30 years.
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