As a Southerner with a pretty distinctive accent, I’ve been told numerous times that I mispronounce words due in nature to my accent. I’ve never heard of any other American accent referred to as “mispronouncing” words. Just cause I drag out my a’s instead of sounding like a nasal New Englander doesn’t mean I’m mispronouncing if you ask me.
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Just know that people around Seattle pronounce their local NFL team as “Seahocks”
Is it because AAVE always gets people saying they “mispronounced” words too.
I don’t know the answer, but I have a few friends from up north, and they give me a hard time about my accent. It used to bother me, but now I embrace it, lol.
We don’t pronounce our Rs and Gs when we’re speaking southernese. But, have you heard how Bostonites can’t say park, dark, lark, garage, car …
Oh, lots of people pronounce things interestingly. As a New Englander, I get it myself. But most regions of the country don’t put a big emphasis on their “culture and heritage” and so that’s a side effect.
Also, “Warshington” is just w-r-o-n-g incorrect. 😉
That’s not the case at all. Every strong accent gets made fun of for that sort of thing.
I wouldn’t be surprised if southerners get a lot more shit about their accents (pretty sure they do, actually), but getting told they mispronounce words definitely isn’t limited to a southern accent. Midwesterners get told they mispronounce things like “bag” all the time, I’m sure a lot of places around the country get told they mispronounce things. Telling people from other places they mispronounce things and your accent could never is a pretty common theme everywhere in the world.
I don’t know if you’re actually asking why, or just pointing out how annoying it is, but as a northerner I think some of the “shitting on southerners” is northerners just trying to make themselves feel superior.
Edit: that being said, you called New Englanders nasal in your own post, which I think kind of proves the whole “everyone says people who don’t talk the same way as them talk weird” thing
Anyone who speaks with an accent that’s different from whatever the dominant one is where they live is going to hear that occasionally, it’s not unique to Southern accents
Dialect is different than mispronouncing, the northeast, mid Atlantic, and southern stars have very distinct dialects. The northern Midwest sounds completely different then Texas, and Louisiana has multiple dialects!
Baltimore, Maryland enters the chat: Mispronounced words you say!
Don’t Pahk The Cah in Hahvahd Yahd! Or go Up Nort wit youse guys to da lake! Or goeen downey owe shin ta go sayleen.
Can you give an example?
I mean people sometimes gather at a bar when I’ve been in different areas after overhearing me order a beer.
People laugh and do a Boston accent —
Sometimes people try to correct my pronunciation of more unusual words – “Oh, it’s blahblah”.
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I don’t take offense. But really– you are sorta being a dick about New England accent when complaining about someone mentioning yours.
One southern name that I found gets mispronounced by a lot of people is Gucci Mane. Mane is pronounced as man
Well, I mean… you guys did lose the war, soooo……
What words do you mispronounce?
It’s not even remotely the only one.
Minnesoata, Bawston, New Yawk, Geooooorgia, they all get it.
Thing is, you only get it when you’re away from home, so you only see it when it happens to you.
A Californian in New England here… don’t get me started on New England accents. They don’t seem to know how to pronounce an “r” to save their lives. I can better understand a southerner unless there’s a ton of slang like “oh my giblets and gravy!” lol
I’m from Rhode Island and we don’t pronounce most of our R’s if they’re at the end of the word. We know we’re not pronouncing it right lol
I have a friend who manages to pick up a fairly strong New England accent from his mom (despite never living there) and he pronounces half of his O’s as “uh” which we tease him about (ie room = ruhm”
I reject your premise.
There’s a conservation of consonants: the R’s that they don’t use in Boston when the “Pahk the Cah” actually migrate to Texas where they warsh their hands after changing the earl in the car.
A person from Mississippi drops at least two SS’s from the word.
Here in Missouri we can’t pronounce French street names correctly.
I’ve had similar experiences over the years, but, have found most of the time the jokes and comments are only in good fun. There have been a few times that were not and absolutely rubbed me the wrong way, but, I found it just isn’t worth the time to argue with people.
People will low key treat you oddly sometimes though. The amount of times people unknowingly talk slower when addressing me compared to other (non-Southerners) in a group always stands out to me. I just want to say “I might talk slow but I promise my ears work at normal speed.”
Say this word aloud – February. Did you say an r after the b? Now this one – Library. Did you say it there? Now say this word – Brace. Did you say an r after the b? Ok now if you said the first two without the r and the second one with an r. Its a mispronunciation not an accent.
If you do say the r in February and library, is that what you normally hear where you’re from? Also, do you put an r in wash for no apparent reason, but not in bash?
Born and raised Southern. I work with a lot of history. The southern accent is what the general entrainment uses when trying to get a character “dumbed down.” This stems from the stigma put on southern states after the civil war. Most talk slower and are slow to respond but that’s not stupidity, at all.
Clearly you’ve never heard someone from norcal try to pronounce milk or anyone from Wisconsin say bag
When I was a kid, I had a Boston accent. In 2nd grade I was sent to speech therapy became they assumed I had a speech impediment. I lived in Pennsylvania at this time. My mom was from Massachusetts, just outside of Boston.
Accent is mostly gone now. But my boyfriend says it comes back if I get angry or excited about something.
Often I find myself pronouncing “your” as “yer”.
It’s not just Southerners. I’ve been called out because my “wash” sounds like “warsh”, and my “crayon” sounds like “crown”. I’m sure there are some more but those are the ones that I remember getting shit for.
This isn’t true at all.
Because southern people are very cocky and condescending to the rest of the country so it’s just a little bit of kickback
When my good friend was was in Peru, he made some decent cash just talking to the kids of a couple families.
They paid extra because he had a Midwestern accent. Apparently, in Peru, the coastal and southern accents sound either low brow or snobbish, while Midwestern is the most ‘regular person’ sounding.
Not trying to throw shade, just reiterating what I heard.
Maybe there is a Peruvian lurking who can co firm or deny?
That said,
East Coast: kaa
South: pin/straight pin
West Coast: elayy
Midwest:….well, the glottal stop, or saaggy
I get the urge to kick people’s teeth in when they complain about ‘changing the language.’
Like, which version, fucko?
As a southerner I do not know what a mid-word ‘t’ is unless it is part of a mixed phoneme such as “th” or “tion.” There is no “water,” only “wader.”
All do. It’s just southerners are typically portrayed in media as dumb racist hicks. Which they certainly aren’t.
Who is saying this to you? I’ve not heard anyone ever say that an accent is ‘mispronouncing’ a word.
Someone hasn’t heard backwoods Maine accent or Boston Southie. 🙂