Being Southern-born and raised helps. It makes the mockery more accurate...

True that people up north make fun of southern accents. And it's really not as much the accent as it is what syllable is accented. Like NAYto. Or PRESident. Or INsurance. There are really only a handful of of them. If I was in public life, I would try to pronounce them like the rest of the English speaking world.

I lived in Texas again for just one (before heading back to the Pacific Northwest), and people made fun of my newly-acquired Northwest accent all the time.

It's that old "I don't have an accent; YOU have an accent" thing.

Just imagine an upscale "deliverance" accent that pronounce words mostly properly.

I don't think people have "deliverance" accents. It used to be that some pockets of Seattle had a trace element of Scandinavian accents, and I suppose like any manufacturing area, there was an influx of factory workers from the South that formed some pocket communities (Darrington, e.g.) that have traces of Southern accents.

Kind of hard to tell since most people here don't like to engage in conversation, though. Which puts a real crimp in trying to identify any accents.

Seattle or Portland.

you have no idea how spot on those guys from the old SNL "Super Fans" sketch
nailed the "Chicahgah" accent. Lived here my whole life. I know. LOL


[link:https://www.google.com/search?q=SNL+Super+Fans&oq=SNL+Super+Fans&aqs=chrome..69i57.6039j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8|

It is not a big hitech hub, so I have never been outside the terminals of O'Hare.

and having a thick German accent

When I was stationed in Germany, I had a German girlfriend whom I used to love listening to, just for the accent.

luckily because of all the singing I had done to this point, I was able to get rid of it quickly. Now I wouldn't care

we had a classmates newly arrived from Germany. Her name was Bettina, and she spoke almost no English. She was very shy as a result. One day, one of the lunch ladies heard about her, and came over to the lunch table and engaged Bettina in fluent German. Bettina perked right up and smiled from ear to ear.

I was always thankful for that kind, compassionate lunch lady.

🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

She is 89 and came here at 19...war bride.. To me she always had a slight accent. Not much but you could tell "she weren't from around here"....
Her children??? they never thought she had an accent. I guess when you live with someone forever you don't hear it... "Accent? what accent"....
Then again they all have a NY/Long Island accent you could cut with a knife...
m

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And there's someone else VERY close to me whose German accent doesn't bother me at all (mainly because for 45 years, we have ALWAYS spoken German together)
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The dip's the 45th, your marriage for 45, his daily approval at 45 ( please NO higher)

We were together for 8 years before my brother invited us to our wedding (no typos). On paper, we will have been married 38 years this April.

We came from Budapest in November of 1956, when I was six. Since we lived in an Eastern European neighborhood in Springfield, Illinois known as The Cabbage Patch, it took me a long time to lose my accent. After all, everybody around us had one! When I started my theatrical training, I learned what's called "The Mid-Atlantic Voice". As a result, I sound something like Vincent Price.
Except when I'm tired or angry...then it's full-on Bela Lugosi!

much Ohio cow in his voice.

That's interesting in the Mid-Atlantic voice. (Biden). It also reminds me that I read a politician needs to be Episcopalian...100% non-offensive religion. Lol

Wow... Budapest to Springfield What a culture shock that must have been.

I was young and flexible.
And Central Illinois has huge Hungarian population. It's a lot like the plains outside of
Budapest across the Danube: flat farmlands!

For god’s sake, the say things like ‘I’m going on I-5’ instead of ‘I’m going on theI-5’. They say ‘he graduated high school’ instead of ‘from high school. ‘ Geeze.

supposedly, CT has the most perfect English.

Although my husband corrected me tonight. I say for-choon. It it for-chun. Per Merriam Webster.

but occasionally a word just slips out and it is pure Southern talk. My wife loves to tease me over this. There are a few words that are particularly hard for me like cement and anything that has the oil sound in it. And if I could get myself to stop saying "might could" it would be a giant victory.

and heard that a lot. My son actually got in trouble in school for correcting the teacher who said "Bats in the belFRY". Lol.

Here in Texas now where they say, I seen. Instead of I have seen.

Not the end of world of course. But think people should realize it does create an impression. In politics, think it's very important. No one will hear your great ideas if you have an annoying voice. Invest in speech lessons!!!

1 of my kids flunked her spelling test every fucking week. I was in tears, my kid was in tears. She studied, I tested at home. She knew how to spell every word. I figured it out when she misspelled help - healp. The teachers southern accent and phonics didn't mix.

I used to say 'howdy' until a now-ex girlfriend made fun of it. I don't say it anymore, and she ain't my girlfriend anymore!

Every once in a while, I'll slip into my Texas just for fun. I especially enjoy composing sentences conjugating 'bring, brang, brung'.

For that matter, much of the English-speaking world goes to the loo instead of to the toilet, puts stuff in the boot of the car instead of in the trunk, and transports stuff in a lorry instead of in a truck. It's enough to drive you 'round the twist.

The best take-off on this was in National Lampoon's European Vacation, when the Griswold family arrives at their hotel in London and Clark Griswold takes out his translator to figure out what the Cockney receptionist is saying. His son exasperatedly says, "Dad, he's speaking English!"

since I was 16. Everyone that does so says my English has a southern ring to it, but I sure can't tell what that is. Certainly not intentional.

sound just like someone from Bronx/Brooklyn.

That there arange man is a hypocrite.

Last edited Tue Jan 28, 2020, 04:57 PM - Edit history (1)

Roughly speaking.

I go in and out of my drawl all the time. How else could I survive living in the south all mah life?!

My sister imitates what she calls my "southern belle okie accent" all the time. I don't take offense. I still sound more northern than southern, but it slips in there quite a bit anymore .

New York/Brooklyn accents, too. I’m from California and pretty sure I get mocked often.

..sound like movie stars or cable news anchors?

Apparently we all sound like Dennis Weaver.

There's a bit of a twang to it.

Though that affectation still has an influence in younger Americans, it has faded a lot.

I think the Midwest accents introduced in news announcers in the 1960s and seventies has flattened out a lot of the regional accents in the US. Some of the announcers were from Canada but used a generic US accent in their broadcasting. No one notices now, but when I was a kid, the distinction between the local news broadcasters and the national news announcers was very apparent.

Traveling across the UK, from Scotland to Wales and the extreme Southwest of the UK, showed me how deep regional accents can be. Sometimes it took my husband and me a few days to adjust to the local accents, but for the most part we could understand the people and vice versa. Going from the north (the Orkneys) to the South (Land's End) gave us an appreciation of the variations possible in English. One thing that was constant, though, were the "educated" English - those who probably attended the upper class schools - who are all over the British Isles and who 'must' be understood by the "lower class" across the land. I put those in quotes since the distinctions between classes are less than in past centuries, but are still there.

<can't think of the term 'preferred?' 'proper???' 'BBC???'> accents and started mixing in regional accents, she can't understand what they're saying either!

And now there are more regional voices on the air, from what I saw though we didn't watch much news.

On the British made shows, the accents can be broad. I watch Vera, a mystery show set in Northumbria and have grown used to the local accents. My husband will walk into the room and have no idea what is being said so I have to translate. He did get fond of it while we were in the UK and can now understand the people better, but he still has problems.

But after you spend twenty minutes having a conversation with an old Scotsman who had lived out in the back country for his seventy or eighties years of life, you learn to interpret it. And that was just our first day in the UK.

The biggest problem was that we never stayed any where longer than four days. By the time we'd adjusted to the local accent we were moving on to a new locale.

I just remember the "received whatever" phrase floating in and out of Lord Peter Wimsey conversations. Kind of an ironical Church of England ecclesiastical reference?

LMAO! Too funny.

I lived in SoCal from late ‘01 through ‘04 and it’s amazing how many people seemed to force their pronunciations like the people in that sketch.

I mean, yeah, like, no, you know, fer shure the Moon Zappa “Valley Girl” affectation is not all that common, but I heard people start sentences like I just did ALL THE TIME!

I was hauling cars at the time and delivered all over the LA basin, down to San Diego, all along the coast up to the Bay Area, as far north as Redding and all down the Central Valley.

The range of accents in just the one state is remarkable, but with the most severe mangling, like found in the SNL Vid (I understand they are over the top of course, but not too far from real truth) always found south of the San Bernardino mountain range.

for all their success trying to call him out.

He's never going to be more than a "Never Trumper"--certainly never a Democrat, but I'll never underestimate his quick wit and intelligence.

Look at shrub and his fake ranch hand persona. It's just another tool to divide.

The early sixties was when a LOT of northerners began moving to South Florida, and we'd mock their accents. When JFK ran for President, many of the Floridians and Alabamians I knew complained about his accent and how they couldn't understand him.

In the mid-60s my family went to the New York World's Fair and being in New York was like a different country. They couldn't understand us and we couldn't understand them. Fortunately, my Dad went to Midshipman's School at Columbia during the war and he could translate for us kids. But when in private, we'd make fun of the NY accents.

Not long after that a college friend of my Dad's was transferred from Michigan to Central Florida and his daughter, who was my age, had a horrible time understanding the teachers and the other kids. She'd mock us and was not popular at all so many of the kids would mock her. It got so bad the teachers had to intervene and tell us all to cut it out.

Since my Dad's relatives were from Upper Peninsula Michigan and his mother's sister had taught for decades in Ohio, I'd grown up hearing those accents so I could understand them better. Later a teacher asked if I was from the Midwest since my accent was very mixed, and it still is to this day.

As a young child I lived in a rural south Texas town with all of my extended family living in small town central Texas. I was steeped in thick Texas drawl, and I didn’t know anything differnt’.

Fast forward to my father getting a job in Houston and us moving there not far from NASA. I landed on another planet that year. It was tough, but spiked with all the fun of new things. I was bullied for my accent and homemade clothes (which were totally cute in my memory). Kids can just be cruel, ya know. I settled-in and all that teasing calmed down. Nbd.

Now my country cousins*? They ripped on me for being a city slicker and talking all fancy as my drawl went away and shifted to a cosmopolitan, almost east coast quality. I know this because I was asked more than a few times whether I was from the east coast.

But the drawl always came back if I’d get on the phone with Pa, Granny, Aunt Barbara, etc.

And that back and forth continues to this day. Teasing about accents can actually be rather endearing and is pretty superficial in the grand scheme of things.


* Which is hilarious, because I was rather present/shared in their lives a lot, lol


...
Eta: I moved the parenthetical phrase about my cousins down to a footnote. I added that comment in my previous edit, because I think it’s funny complexity in my relationships with them. They’re a good, mostly open-minded lot these days. Reads better now, and I think I’m done fidgeting with this post. Ty for your indulgence.

But too often it is meant to be demeaning and that is what we should not support.

I know what you mean about accents changing depending on who you're talking to. When talking to academics I have much less of an accent, legacy of my great aunt's Ohio academic social group, many of whom often spent part of the winter at my grandmother's Central Florida lake home.

When I talk horses with my North Florida/South Georgia friends, I have a pronounced Southern accent.

In general, many people think my accent is Midwest but when we were in the UK a lot of people, even those used to US tourists, couldn't guess where my husband and I are from. He grew up in North Florida but his parents and their families were from Minneapolis so he also has a mixed Southern/Midwest accent. His cousin kid him and he gives him a good response for it. And it gets more complicated - one set of cousins were born in Hawaii and their accents are completely different from the rest of the family, too.

Especially when stereotypes are unfairly waged in the mocking. With southerners, the stereotype is that they sound like they’re summarily stupid. I know from personal experience that is quite far from reality.

When I heard Wilson’s off-the-cuff remarks, I heard an expression of the insidious resentment towards the more educated. I think he made a genuine glance at that, and good golly, those scoffing at education deserve some ribbing on that front.

I appreciate your turn, and for bringing this discussion down to hearing the nuance in such as Wilson’s moment, and knowing the difference. His comments aren’t a cue for blanket insensitivity.

Most of my people/kin/relatives live(ed) in the south. A southern accent to me is like a lovely, soft comforting hug that wraps all around my heart and my memories. I get made fun of for saying things like “CE- ment” and “I reckon” “See-gar” cigar and “Pineys” Peonies etc. I just laugh right along with them!!

I was born and raised in Texas, but urban Texas (Houston, mostly) and was the first in my family from the state. My mother was from Tennessee, yet for some reason has little to no accent. And my father was an Army brat who grew up in the NE and Midwest.

I never really picked up the drawl. I even had folk ask if I was from England on occasion. I went to school for broadcasting and got more of a trained speech pattern then moved to London. Interestingly, while my tendency to pick up and mimic British accents improved while I was in the UK, my true American accent became more fixed. I think it was a subconscious affirmation of my identity.

Since then i have lived mostly in the North and Midwest. The only artifacts of my Texas upbringing are "y'all" (a necessary distinct second person plural which formal English lacks) and some double modals (Might should ...). And the propensity to address any female over 20 as "ma'am". I actually got called on the carpet about that when working at a place in Connecticut. Darned regional discrimination.

Y'all does get me laughed at by colleagues and students but it ain't never gonna change.

world worse than someone calling a woman ma'am. Absolutely nothing.

I will admit I do not understand that?

Is it age related? Even in Texas I was told "Don't call me Ma'am." by a 23-27 year old woman. I assumed it made her feel older than she was. Perhaps it is something to do with the derivation of the word, though I am ignorant of any negative origin.

I assume the male equivalent is "Sir", which i have never had a problem either using or being called (though the latter is less common).

Apparently this is a personal blind spot.

...in various circumstances since I was 24 or 25. I'm 63. Your point is escaping me.
How does a term of respect demean anybody?

meme where people say that they were taught to say that is like ancient history. It makes whoever says it look very simple minded.

He ruthlessly mocked his own handpicked AG.

Similar experiences. People from the northeast states were especially made fun of about their "accent".

"The arrogance, mocking accents and smug ridicule of this nation’s ‘Real Elites’ is disgusting." - recent Vonkers tweet

seems like it might be grounds for a family feud

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100212919456

They’re mocking redneck, ignorance, assholery USING the accent because it’s an easy thing to hang a handle on.

I hate stereotypes but this one is slippery. Southern accents when used to say intelligent, beautiful things are soothing and mellifluous. I know. I take absolutely indecent advantage of it whenever I can. 😘

She's been in Az for 25 years or so, but when we travel back to visit her folks,
she starts twangin' around Albuquerque and it just gets stronger until we get
there. I tease her about it but she just can't help it.
I was raised on AFBases all over and to my mind I have no accent, but I love
all accents. My ex-drummer was from Boston and had a wicked bad accent.
Vive la difference. Variety is the spice of life.

Both kids were raised on Miami Beach. The one with the NY parents had a NY accent and the one with Alabama parents had a southern accent.. weird, huh..
It's pretty easy to pick out a southern accent but how about WHAT PART of the south are they from... Tx? Alabama? O'l Miss? Tennessee? Sometimes Oklahoma sounds more southern than the Georgia Mountains!!
m

The other was born in Noo Yawk City.

I was born and grew up in the south (minus one year in the northeast of Spain).

Y'all got a problem with that, it's your problem, not mine!

And a sign of insecurity.

Americans' government is mocked. Our history of law is mocked.

And is there a relevant or specific difference between mocking accents and mocking people (e.g., a comedian making fun of Reagan), or is all mocking immature?

This whole thread is ridiculous. Your post is contributing to the the knee-jerk ridiculousness.

"what did you say?"

Especially southern accents. Listen to Jeff Session or Senator Kennedy (the republican) for example, they have a much stronger one.

Several years ago I gave a talk at a convention in Toronto. At the casual, alcohol fed after party I found myself the center of several young ladies asking me questions about my job and other things. To the point I was feeling kind of odd. I’m an slightly overweight, middle aged happily married guy. Even in my most ego fed moment I can’t kid myself these young ladies were interested in me! So I asked them, what’s with all the questions? They grinned and one of them said “we love listening to the way you talk!”

I wish I had more of my accent, but my Southern father born in the early 30’s was a journalism major and did not encourage it. Southern accents were professionally harmful back then.

I think most Americans like proper southern accents. Think President Clinton. But too often that accent is loaded with poor grammar, bigotry and other symptoms of no education. I hate the term “ain’t” with a white hot passion. Unless used in an Ironic way which I occasionally do.

Many infomercials use British accents to use the same commercial over the whole of America.

heck, I am a native of Illinois but I find Chicago accents jarring - the over-emphasis of the A vowel

Didn't you know thaaat?

Are they snowflakes? Any accent can be mocked. Why do they feel inferior! No one can make them feel that way without their consent.

Listen to The Liberal Redneck. (Trae Crowder)

His attitude and philosophy are what makes him sexy. The accent is the icing on the cake.