Do most young Texans in the cities still have Southern accent?

[portlanderinOC]

When I lived in Houston, I hardly noticed anyone with an accent. However, my mum and her family are from East Texas so I must've been used to it. However, I have talked with a few people I knew when I lived there, and they seem to have a mild accent, just enough to notice. This seems to be the case with most big cities in Texas. It seems most people around my age (I was born in 1992) have a more mild accent than their elders.

On a side note, my mum has lived outside of Texas for the past 35 years on and off, and she hardly has an accent anymore. Her younger sister has lived in Colorado for the past 30 years and still has a very thick Texan accent.

[kbt1766]

This is what I consider a southern accent.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4aDSJq-9U

[kbt1766]

Originally Posted by portlanderinOC

When I lived in Houston, I hardly noticed anyone with an accent. However, my mum and her family are from East Texas so I must've been used to it. However, I have talked with a few people I knew when I lived there, and they seem to have a mild accent, just enough to notice. This seems to be the case with most big cities in Texas. It seems most people around my age (I was born in 1992) have a more mild accent than their elders.

On a side note, my mum has lived outside of Texas for the past 35 years on and off, and she hardly has an accent anymore. Her younger sister has lived in Colorado for the past 30 years and still has a very thick Texan accent.

I thought only people from England or Canada used mum instead of mom.

[Scientific]

Originally Posted by radiolibre99

But seriously, what is with the hardcore keep Texas Texan mentality? The only thing I care to keep that's Texan to the core is the open friendliness, the live and let live attitude and the utter lack of pretentiousness that characterizes other "worldly" cities. I could live with or without the hardcore holding on to every historical tradition. In fact the downright insistence by some of the natives to keep that historical tradition at any cost, has actually made some too bitter which cuts into the aspects I love about Texas mentioned above.

Jokes aside, more people in Louisiana should have maintained Cajun, but because of stereotypes and stigmas it was disappearing. The characteristics that make this state so great get pushed out by generic ones. I have co-workers from East Texas and all their family have thick accents. I tell one of them to never let it die, though he tells me he gets judged too much because of it. Its a damn shame.

Born and raised in the city, and never met anyone my age with an accent until I went off to school. I grew up thinking no one really had an accent anymore, and boy was I wrong. I for one appreciate the unique identity some have maintained, no reason for it to disappear because transplants are here or because some people don't want to be associated as being country.

[portlanderinOC]

Originally Posted by kbt1766

I thought only people from England or Canada used mum instead of mom.

I'm just a massive anglophile, that's all.

[kbt1766]

Originally Posted by portlanderinOC

I'm just a massive anglophile, that's all.

No Canadian or European parents or grandparents?

[sweat209]

Originally Posted by Pavement Pounder

Met a girl from Waco, Texas, now living in Austin (she's here for 6 months though) and she didn't sound southern at all! I said, 'you don't have the accent', and she said it was because she was urban. I've been to Texas, but only really passed through, and didn't get a good sense of how prevalent the accent was. In Lubbock most of the teenagers at the drive-in didn't have much of a Southern/Texan accent, while one old-timer had a strong accent, and a man probably about 30 years old did a bit. In Austin I asked directions from one young man and he had a moderate Southern accent, but of course no idea where he was from. It seems most young people in the larger Texan cities (maybe under 35) have a weak or non-existent southern accent, even the smaller cities. Would you say that's true?

To me Forth Worth does not have much of a southern accent where Dallas and Hoston more so.The white and black people more so.Some people more so than other people.The more west of Dallas seems to be weaker and weaker.

[davis449]

Some people say I do, others say I don't. I think it tends to come out the faster I speak and definitely becomes more prominent when I visit home (Midland, TX), which I don't do very often anymore. Funny thing is that I went over to Europe last year and no one commented on my having an accent of any kind. I got a compliment, actually, from a young Ukrainian intern of my former company over there on the fact that I don't have an annoying accent like many Americans she's met and don't act like a typical American. I just responded by explaining it's because, being from Texas, I was taught manners and respect.

[sweat209]

Originally Posted by kbt1766

This is what I consider a southern accent.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4aDSJq-9U

You not going to find strong accents like that in any city in the south. It is more in the town or country.Same thing with the here comes honey boo boo accent.

Cities accents are more weak or mix of Hollywood and southern accents.