"The North Carolina Southern accent is disappearing"

My wife is a Yankee English teacher and she insists those two words are pronounced differently. For 30 years my response has been “bullshit, then why do we need adjectives to differentiate them?”

Then again she also thinks wonder and wander are pronounced differently, and she pronounces nighttime sleepwear paJAMas rather than the proper pronunciation paJAHmas. I have however, been successful in teaching her the proper pronunciation of peCAHN.
Funny, my dad from eastern NC has ways pronounced it “pee-can” and my mom from upstate NY has always given him a hard time for that (as it should be pronounced “peCAHN”).
 
The snookering of Yankees by playing up the accent, especially the country one, is indeed a good game and one that ought to be played. I hang out in a NYC BBQ joint fairly often and bar banter allows me to get away with that sort of stuff pretty easily. And folks expect me to know QUE once they hear my voice (I'm also usually make it a point to wear Carolina gear when I go there).

On another angle...two word combinations I remember our teachers in first and second grade working very hard with us were

Set/Sit

Pin/Pen

Pen was so mispronounced that to this day most everyone that i grew up with in #DeepChatham will say INK Pen to fully distinguish between a straight pin and a writing tool.

Sit is what people do and set is what hens do.
When I was in the 7th grade, I had a teacher who was just insistent correct pronunciations. Once a friend of mine pronounced "was" as if it was spelled "wus." The teacher got so mad at this that she wrote "wus" and "was" on the blackboard. She was genuinely angry and made my friend stand-up. She pointed to "was" on the blackboard and asked my friend to pronounce that word. My friend was absolutely terrified and without thinking he said "waz." And the teacher just dissolved into laughter. She had to sit down she was laughing so hard. And my friend was trying to apologize claiming he just blurted it out before he thought. The teacher eventuallly recovered and went on with the class.
 
Funny, my dad from eastern NC has ways pronounced it “pee-can” and my mom from upstate NY has always given him a hard time for that (as it should be pronounced “peCAHN”).
I'm from Eastern NC and pronounce pecan as "pee-can." But oddly enough I have always pronounced pecan pie as "peCAHN pie." I have absolutely no idea why I make that distinction. But I have noticed in NC and Texas it is "pee-can," but in Georgia is is "peCAHN." So, not necessarily a North/South thing.

ETA: Maybe I go with "pee-can" when it is just the plain, simple nut. But when it is some fancy like a pecan pie or something really fancy like a Kentucky Derby (pecans and chocolate drops) Pie, it deserves to be called a peCAHN pie.
 
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I'm from Eastern NC and pronounce pecan as "pee-can." But oddly enough I have always pronounced pecan pie as "peCAHN pie." I have absolutely no idea why I make that distinction. But I have noticed in NC and Texas it is "pee-can," but in Georgia is is "peCAHN." So, not necessarily a North/South thing.

ETA: Maybe I go with "pee-can" when it is just the plain, simple nut. But when it is some fancy like a pecan pie or something really fancy like a Kentucky Derby (pecans and chocolate drops) Pie, it deserves to be called a peCAHN pie.
But the street that connects Elizabeth with Plaza Midwood is peCAHN Avenue and the shopping plaza at the corner of Pecan Ave and 7th Street is peCAHN Point, right?
 
It is interesting seeing it evolve in a place like Charlotte, where I live and grew up, versus other parts of the state.

Most of the folks who grew up in Charlotte prior to the 1970s have fairly thick southern accents. Most, but not all, who grew up in Charlotte in the 1970s and 1980s, and whose parents are both from the south, have southern accents but generally much less pronounced than that of their parents/those who grew up in Charlotte prior to the 1970s. Those who grew up in Charlotte that timeframe who have at least one parent from somewhere other than the south have even less of a southern accent, if they even have one at all. Just about anyone born after the 1990s who grew up in Charlotte has no real detectable southern accent at all.

I see that evolution with my brother-in-law and his family. He is from a long line of Charlotte natives. His parents, who grew up in the 1940s-1960s have very thick southern accents. My brother-in-law, who grew up in Charlotte in the 1970s-1990s, has a noticeable southern accent, but nowhere near as pronounced as his parents’ accent. His and my sister’s teenage kids have no detectable accent. None of my kids’ friends have any detectable accent.

It’s also interesting that I often notice that Charlotte natives about 5 years older than me, and whose parents are from the south, have slightly more pronounced southern accents than Charlotte natives who are may age, including their siblings.

Meanwhile, I meet younger generations from some towns and more rural communities in NC and their accents haven’t changed much from older generations, and remain fairly thick.
Im Charlotte born and raised in the 80’s 90’s and two weeks ago I had a nurse in Reno what part of socal I was from. WTF
 
I'm from Eastern NC and pronounce pecan as "pee-can." But oddly enough I have always pronounced pecan pie as "peCAHN pie." I have absolutely no idea why I make that distinction. But I have noticed in NC and Texas it is "pee-can," but in Georgia is is "peCAHN." So, not necessarily a North/South thing.

ETA: Maybe I go with "pee-can" when it is just the plain, simple nut. But when it is some fancy like a pecan pie or something really fancy like a Kentucky Derby (pecans and chocolate drops) Pie, it deserves to be called a peCAHN pie.
My dad makes no distinction. He loves “pee-can pie.”
 
I was chatting with a late-thirties woman who lives in Knightdale, I assumed by her accent she was from out-of-state originally, i mentioned this and learned she was born and raised in N. Raleigh.
 
But the street that connects Elizabeth with Plaza Midwood is peCAHN Avenue and the shopping plaza at the corner of Pecan Ave and 7th Street is peCAHN Point, right?
Do you know that if you take Pecan far enough north it turns into a Chestnut?
 
One of my Yankee cousins (his mother a widow from #DeepChatham) grew up in New Jersey and New York City used to come to our Grandmother's farm to spend his summers. He is a master of accents and speaks several languages to boot. He tells it that when he'd show up in Chatham for the summer he'd have to fight for a solid two weeks all of the local boys over his being from The North. Then after spending close to three months in the Tar Heel State he'd go home to New Jersey/NYC and have to turn around and fight for another two week solid all of the Yankee boys that wanted to mix it up with the little Rebel boy.
 
The snookering of Yankees by playing up the accent, especially the country one, is indeed a good game and one that ought to be played. I hang out in a NYC BBQ joint fairly often and bar banter allows me to get away with that sort of stuff pretty easily. And folks expect me to know QUE once they hear my voice (I'm also usually make it a point to wear Carolina gear when I go there).

On another angle...two word combinations I remember our teachers in first and second grade working very hard with us were

Set/Sit

Pin/Pen

Pen was so mispronounced that to this day most everyone that i grew up with in #DeepChatham will say INK Pen to fully distinguish between a straight pin and a writing tool.

Sit is what people do and set is what hens do.
Fill and feel
 
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