Our Southern Language

MendotoManteo

MendotoManteo

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I start so many threads that I never carry out and respond to. But I got to thinking: what is the nature of the Southern dialect with our youth?

I'm 40 now and have lived in California for the past decade. Only get back home around Christmas. All my friends and acquaintances still have the thick drawl. And you get a few beers in me out here, and I am basically a backwoods Appalachian snake handler despite having an English PhD. They really seem to love it out here and is a point of curiosity.

But do the youths use words like "yuns"? Or even "ya'll?" I feel like "ain't" has become somewhat ubiquitous. And for good reason. It's an incredibly versatile word. "Will not." "Won't." "Isn't." Etc.

When I go back home, it always strikes me the way people sound. Much more "Southern" than I remembered. But I'm no longer connected to younger people. Do they speak like many of us do/did?
 
In the Triangle area the Dialect is fast fading. I look forward to other posts on this thread . Every once in a while I still come across a white male in their 70s that have what was once a distinct Raleigh dialect
 
Y'all is prevalent up and down the east coast as best I can tell these days (I can't speak for other parts of the country but from TV and radio is seems that might be true for other places as well).

I do a lot of work in a NC History class that I teach (as well as a Geography one) about accents and language and use a lot of Walt Wolfram's stuff (NCSU linguist).
 
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Ya'll is still pretty common to hear in my experience, including among younger people. As for the Southern accent itself, I think it's still going strong in most rural and small-town areas in NC, including among younger generations. I think in the state's growing urban areas (Raleigh/Durham, Charlotte, Piedmont Triad, etc.) it's becoming less prevalent as more and more non-Southerners move in, although you can still certainly hear it. Just my two cents.
 
I never really realized that I have an accent until last week when I called a local drywall repair place here in Birmingham and the lady asked for my phone number and I started with “919-“ and she interrupted me and goes “where’s that area code? I don’t recognize it.” And I said “it’s in North Carolina” and she laughed and goes “with the way you talk I’d have sworn you were from somewhere in south Alabama.” It was….humbling.
 
CFordUNC said:
I never really realized that I have an accent until last week when I called a local drywall repair place here in Birmingham and the lady asked for my phone number and I started with “919-“ and she interrupted me and goes “where’s that area code? I don’t recognize it.” And I said “it’s in North Carolina” and she laughed and goes “with the way you talk I’d have sworn you were from somewhere in south Alabama.” It was….humbling.
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The accent around Mobile is much like a Charleston accent.
 
I was visiting some friends in Ithaca NY a couple of years ago and my dog caught a groundhog and was bitten inside his mouth. I took him to the vet where they made sure there were no repercussions.

I talked to the folks there quite a bit during that time and the paperwork was filled out by them questioning me.

When I got my copy there was my boy's name...PRANCE.

His name is Prince.

That's me Talking Tar Heel.
 
HesNaughtHere said:
I use y'all all the time and find that it's rapidly spreading amongst non-southerners too, as the common informal "you guys" can be a bit sticky these days.

Y'all'd've is perhaps the greatest construction in the entire language
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Yes, y'all is good because it's easy to say and non-gender specific, as I think you were alluding.

Y'alld've is incredible!
 
mpaer said:
In the Triangle area the Dialect is fast fading. I look forward to other posts on this thread . Every once in a while I still come across a white male in their 70s that have what was once a distinct Raleigh dialect.
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I've only been to Raleigh like once or twice in my life, but I know the dialect of which you speak. I knew several people from there in their 50-70s, when I was a child. I can still remember the way they sounded. Regal, almost.
 
CFordUNC said:
I never really realized that I have an accent until last week when I called a local drywall repair place here in Birmingham and the lady asked for my phone number and I started with “919-“ and she interrupted me and goes “where’s that area code? I don’t recognize it.” And I said “it’s in North Carolina” and she laughed and goes “with the way you talk I’d have sworn you were from somewhere in south Alabama.” It was….humbling.
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I manage the warehouse for a solar distributor out here in California. A few years ago, I had to call up some company in Georgia regarding a shipment. Here I was thinking I basically had a non-regional dialect after a decade of grad school and collegiate teaching, and this twangy Georgia lady immediately says to me, "You're from North Carolina, aren't ya?" I was taken aback. But responded affirmatively, of course. That was truly shocking that she was able to identify my home state from my initial introduction.

As I said, though, in my OP, get a few beers in me, and I definitely become a point of curiosity out there. Almost everyone comments on it.

But, like you said, I guess we just don't hear ourselves that way.
 
farce© said:
The accent around Mobile is much like a Charleston accent.
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A combination of seafaring British (you can really hear it around Dare County) and gullah, African influences. Those are the roots of the general southern accents. Each area has a bit of a different dialect. outside ATL and drawl is softer in the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia. Twangier in Texas, with Cajun/Creole influences in south Louisiana. Many of the NOLA wards and eastern part of NOLA metro area (ex. Chalmette) have accents that sound more like a Boston warf and NY rather than the south. Randy Newman still has a bit of that accent left from childhood.
 
It was a shock to learn that I had an accent when I moved to Chapel Hill for college. Back home, I wasn’t country enough.
 
Off topic, but does anyone here know what that old brick foundation (almost looks like it burned out) is in Rockingham?

I went through there for the first time in decades on my way down to Holden Beach this past December, when I was back home for the holidays. I couldn't believe that it was still there and undeveloped. I remember being fascinated by it as a child. With all that kudzu growing around.
 
Duke Mu said:
A combination of seafaring British (you can really hear it around Dare County) and gullah, African influences. Those are the roots of the general southern accents. Each area has a bit of a different dialect. outside ATL and drawl is softer in the Carolinas, Alabama, and Georgia. Twangier in Texas, with Cajun/Creole influences in south Louisiana. Many of the NOLA wards and eastern part of NOLA metro area (ex. Chalmette) have accents that sound more like a Boston warf and NY rather than the south. Randy Newman still has a bit of that accent left from childhood.
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Yes, I've always thought NOLA (not necessarily Cajun) sounds more like a Boston or NYC accent.

I did not realize until past couple of years that NOLA is not considered "Cajun," despite all the Cajun cuisine and influences.
 
Paine said:
It was a shock to learn that I had an accent when I moved to Chapel Hill for college. Back home, I wasn’t country enough.
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I'll never forget walking to the elevator from our Critical Theory Reading Group meeting at UT with a number of my professors.

I don't remember exactly what I said, but I remember in some moment I had an outburst (not in the bad sense of that term) where I had the most twangy dialect you could imagine. I sensed it immediately, and I could tell from all their silent faces they did too. No one commented, but I was so embarrassed.

As the years go on, I don't think about it much anymore. Yes, there will always be the connotations of the "dumb Southerner" (not that we've done much as a culture to counter), but - when spoken well - I believe it the most mellifluous Anglo dialect.

There's a reason why people are so obsessed with it. And it's not just because they think we're "stupid."
 
For folks who grew up in Charlotte proper, they almost certainly have a noticeable southern accent if they are over 60 and generally don’t have any noticeable southern accent if they are under the age of 40. It’s virtually entirely non-existent for young people under 20. For that 40-60 group, it’s a mixed bag and may depend on where their parents were originally from. I also notice differences between people who are roughly 5 years apart within that 40-60 group. For example, I notice it more with folks in their mid 50s vs. those in their late 40s. It’s interesting to see with my friends from Charlotte who are my age and their older siblings. Their siblings who are 5 or more years older than them have more pronounced southern accents than they do.

My sister, on the other hand, is 3 years younger than me and somehow has a more noticeable southern accent than I do. I think that was influenced by many of her high school and college friends, many of whom had deeper southern roots.

While my dad is from eastern NC, my mom is from upstate NY. My wife grew up mostly in New Jersey and her family is all originally from NYC. Funny enough, my wife’s family doesn’t think I have a southern accent at all but thinks she has developed one after having live in the south for nearly 30 years (she has nothing close to a southern accent btw). Meanwhile, my upstate NY family thinks I have a very noticeable southern accent, but most of them have a very noticeable central/western NY accent, so it may be my lack of a central/western NY accent that makes them think that.
 
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