Is it still possible to easily tell apart different Southern accents?

15 comments

1. Oh yeah.

   The one exception to this is the inland/central/north Florida Cracker accent. You sound vaguely Georgian, vaguely Alabaman, and not quite either. We’re distinct in our indistinctiveness.

   You can spot someone from Clewiston versus from someone from Pensacola if you grew up around it though. The latter’s gonna sound a lot more like someone from Mobile, just *off*, and the former’s gonna be nearly unplaceable.

2. Yeah I can tell pretty well what vague part of the South you’re from and I’ve part of my home state you’re from. I won’t recognize an Alabaman regional accent, but I’ll tell you’re from the Gulf South.

3. You guys can’t recognize someone from the Palmetto state the moment they open their mouth?

4. Sometimes, yes but other times, no

   The reason being the gradual consolidation of Southern accents into white Southern English and black Southern English after the Civil War. For obvious reasons, the war sparked mass migrations of folks looking for work, leading to a heavy mixing of Southern accents. Its the reason why Elvis spoke with a mixed rhotic and non-rhotic accent and the reason I myself do as well.

   Now, the dialects of Older Southern English (pre-Civil War) are distinct. It is very easy to tell the difference between a Tidewater Virginia and Appalachian accent. There is also less division between black and white accents, with some people speaking the exact same, regardless of race and economic status. Poor whites have a lot of cultural and linguistic overlap with poor blacks around this time. Only nowadays is this occurring once more.

   You also have several dialects of coastal Southern English that retain elements of West Country English not found in other Southern dialects. Despite what others claim, they are not relics of a past brogue, but these dialects simply retained linguistic features other Southern dialects didn’t. This also isn’t a result of the Scotch-Irish, as they had very little linguistic input in Southern English overrall.

   Louisiana English is another thing entirely, but it’s gradually being merged with General Southern English (or white Southern English) and AAVE. The northern parishes are nearly all speakers of General Southern and AAVE.

5. Someone from Texas can easily tell apart like 5 different Texas accents, not just east/west.

6. Some are easier than others. Georgia has a pretty unique accent, and you’ll never miss someone’s Louisiana accent. It can be a little difficult to separate Tennessee, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, etc as a lot of those largely depend on if they’re from a rural or metro area.

7. The specific regional accents aren’t quite as distinct as they used to be, but they still exist. A Texas accent has more twang than the rest of the South. Tennessee and the surrounding areas have an accent that sounds like a blend of Southern and Appalachian. People on the gulf coast (except Louisiana) seem to talk a little slower and have a soft drawl.

   (It should also be noted that many non-southern actors choose the worst possible version of a southern accent to imitate. They almost invariably try to mimic that non-rhotic classic “plantation” accent, but it’s rapidly dying out. Only a small number of very old people talk that way. Unless they are in a period drama, or maybe playing an 80-year-old grandma from Savannah, that accent just sounds silly.)

8. If you’ve got the ear for it, and know what you’re listening for, sure!

   Same goes for any other regional accent.

9. Absolutely.

10. Grew up living in the South (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and Virginia) and I cannot distinguish between different Southern accents.

11. It’s getting harder but it’s still possible to spot differences- especially if you’re born here.
    My observations for the state of Georgia:

    * You can usually spot the difference between a north and South Georgian by their smoothing of the aɪ sound (“I”, “ice”, “right”). The south is famous for smoothing that vowel to sound more like the aː sound (“father”, “wasp”), but Georgia roughly splits down the middle as to what words get smoothed out and which don’t. North Georgians will smooth some aɪ sounds (like “price”) but not other (like “right”). South Georgians smooth everything.

    * Appalachians are much more likely to casually throw in a word you’ve never heard before (but don’t even bother looking it up in any dictionary). Appalachian accents don’t vary much between Georgia, Tennessee, or North Carolina.

    * Old money Georgians will talk very slowly and sternly, almost like the “Southern debutante” movie accent. Southerners tend to hang their jaws loose when they talk- not rich folks.

    * As a general rule, the closer you get to Atlanta, the faster people talk

    * Atlanta’s “white” and “black” accents are very different.

    * The old low-country dialect is almost extinct in Georgia, but it’s fascinating. It almost sounds British, or like something you’d might want to trace to some far-off part of New England.

    * In some words that start with an “sh” a lot of older (or black) South Georgians will replace it with an “s” sound (so “shrimp” becomes “srimp”).

    * Gullah accents are super rare, but probably the coolest accents in the country.

12. Kentucky has a very distinct accent that sounds so pleasing. Most of the other places sound the same to my non southern ears.

13. I have family in Boone, but the NC/TN/KY Appalachian accents all sound pretty similar to me as an outsider from California. I do feel like the accents in coastal NC are different, though. I’m not sure if I can explain it.

14. I can still hear the difference, but I have forgotten the placement of some accents. I used to be able to tell the area that person was from across the south. People in the mountains tend to have a harder r sound, though.

15. As an American I can’t tell you which southern accent I like but I know I don’t like all of them