Maryland a NORTHEASTERN state (Baltimore, Silver Spring: incomes, vs, centers)

[Tezcatlipoca]

MD's Northeastern in the PA sense. The Midland culture that spread west from the Delaware valley.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Tezcatlipoca

MD's Northeastern in the PA sense. The Midland culture that spread west from the Delaware valley.

Is it, though? It was settled differently than PA, and has a different ethnic makeup. MD is very Black state with large amounts of English descended people. The one way I can see it's like PA is that it has a large German population, but even then they're outnumbered by the Blacks and only outnumber the English slightly.

PA also has large amounts of Puerto Ricans and Dominicans. MD's Hispanic population leans more toward Central American.

Religiously, MD and PA differ. Most of PA's population is Protestant, while most of MD's is Catholic.

[BajanYankee]

Much of the Midwest and the South was settled by Pennsylvanians of Scots Irish and German ancestry.

West of the Susquehanna, the road passed through York, then turned southwest through Maryland and into Virginia. Near Winchester, the road entered the Shenandoah Valley between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains. Near Roanoke, Virginia, the road passed through the Roanoke River Gap to the east side of the Blue Ridge, and then south to present-day Winston-Salem. Later in the eighteenth century, other roads continued or split off from the Great Wagon Road. By 1780, the Georgia Road continued from the Piedmont of North Carolina south through Salisbury and Charlotte and into Georgia.

Mapping the Great Wagon Road - North Carolina Digital History

http://www.waywelivednc.com/before-1770/wagon-road.html

[BajanYankee]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Religiously, MD and PA differ. Most of PA's population is Protestant, while most of MD's is Catholic.

Both states are mostly Protestant.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by BajanYankee

Both states are mostly Protestant.

//www.city-data.com/states/Maryland-Religions.html

Catholics outnumber Protestants by 327014.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by BajanYankee

Much of the Midwest and the South was settled by Pennsylvanians of Scots Irish and German ancestry.



Mapping the Great Wagon Road - North Carolina Digital History

http://www.waywelivednc.com/before-1770/wagon-road.html

Well, this explains why many people in Pennsylvania sound almost Southern, especially in areas like Pittsburgh and Philly, where the dialect is sort of a half Southern blend combined with New Yorkisms (Philly), and Midwestisms (Pittsburgh).

I've met many a Southern Pennsylvanian who sounded quite Southernish. But I also hear this sound in places like Ohio and rural Indiana.

The Scotch-Irish influence is definitely heard in Yinzers. Theirs is heavily Scotch-Irish influenced, and this is why their dialect is similar to that of West Virginia and Youngstown.

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by EddieOlSkool

Well, this explains why many people in Pennsylvania sound almost Southern.

Inland Southern (quickly becoming the most common variety) used to be classified as a subdialect of Midland. It combines features of Coastal Southern and Midland.

[Richard Martin]

Originally Posted by Tezcatlipoca

Inland Southern (quickly becoming the most common variety) used to be classified as a subdialect of Midland. It combines features of Coastal Southern and Midland.

That's about how I speak. It's not full blown Georgia Southern but it's also not an all out "neutral" accent or lack thereof. When I moved to NC back in 2006 the old timers kinda had a feeling that I wasn't from NC but they couldn't really be sure. I did see a NC born and bred doctor that was younger, probably around 30 or so. He asked me if I was having any trouble making water. I was like "Huh?". He said he figured that I knew what that meant since all of the old school boys from NC knew what it meant.

[EddieOlSkool]

Originally Posted by Tezcatlipoca

Inland Southern (quickly becoming the most common variety) used to be classified as a subdialect of Midland. It combines features of Coastal Southern and Midland.

As the Coastal, non-rhotic Southern accent dissipates (you know, because Americans are becoming more rhotic by the day), many people in the South will not sound "Northern" but instead speak in the South Midland variety. I've heard young people from the Carolinas sound more like young people from Baltimore than sound General American.

I feel like the Southern accent of young people has a more Midland sound. Older people from the South and older people from Baltimore have a different sound, which is why linguists are quick to classify Coastal Southern (the version that used to be the standard) as separate from accents like Baltimore. The vowels are shared, so once the "r" starts being added in, there's not much difference. This is especially true in the Black population of Baltimore, whose vowel sounds have a stronger Southern sound but are partially rhotic, yet will use words like "thangs" and "y'all".

It's interesting that "O" fronting is a Midland sound shared with the South. This is probably from the West English settlers common across the Upper South. Sometimes Black Baltimoreans won't have this trait but they instead will have "U" fronting. In certain parts of the South, people will front BOTH, but in Baltimore it seems that Whites have the fronting of "O" and Blacks have the fronting of "U". I think this is because many Blacks in Baltimore, having roots in the Carolinas, don't front the "O" the way the Midland does, and many Whites in Baltimore have West English roots that does involve fronting the "O". "O" fronting I feel is not as common across Coastal Southern accents as it is in Inland Southern accents/South Midland. Interestingly, South Midland is considered a sub-dialect of Southern accents, and both Philadelphia and Baltimore are within the South Midland region. But the strong rhotic pronunciation, as well as their very unique Tense-Lax split (mad and sad don't rhyme) causes them to be separated into their own unique Mid-Atlantic sub-region, which is in and of itself a sub-region of the Midland dialects.

What confuses people is the fact that Philly and Baltimore accents can sound alike, and Philly and New York accents can sound alike. This is why people are quick to point out the "Northeastern" quality of Baltimore's accent. But this is not based on reality, but on people confusing one accent (Philly) with another (New York). Philly is indeed a TRUE Midland dialect because it is smack dab in the middle of the North and the South. You hear Northern pronunciations like "kawfee" (coffee), but you also hear Southern pronunciations like "geh-oat" (goat). The problem is for Baltimore = Northeastern proponents is that Baltimore shares the SOUTHERN pronunciations with Philly, but it doesn't share the Northeastern ones. Where a Philly person will say a word like a New Yorker, a Baltimore person will say a word like a Southerner. So, their argument goes

Baltimore and Philly share a Midland dialect region
Philly shares Northern pronunciations with New York
Therefore, Baltimore also shares the same dialect region of New York

But it doesn't work. It's like saying that because Chicago and New York share some vowel sounds, that Chicago and New York are in the same dialect region. But they're not and people know that because no one claims that Chicago and New York accents sound the same. One interesting thing to point out that even though Philadelphia is currently undergoing a slow Northern Cities Vowel Shift, Baltimore isn't. If Philly undergoes this shift fully (doubtful), they probably won't be in the same dialect map as they currently are, with Baltimore being left in the southern fringe of Midland and Philly probably occupying the Inland North American dialect region like its NE Pennsylvania counterpart of Scranton. Although NCVS doesn't occur everywhere in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania's Northernmost corner in Erie didn't make the shift and instead has a more Midland sound like that heard in Pittsburgh. The funny thing is about Midland dialects is that they span for soooooooooooo much distance. You can hear a Midland sound in Eastern PA the same way you can hear it in Kansas.

[EddieOlSkool]

Interesting side note:

The Inland North region completely bypasses Northern Indiana (outside of the 219 area code region in the NW corner known as Da Region). Northern Indiana (starting at the 574 area code going east) actually is in the Midland dialect region. I dated a girl from Goshen, IN (near South Bend) and her accent was MUCH different than mine. It definitely had the semi-Southern sound.