Friday, March 20, 2026

Southern American English

Southern American English or Southern U.S. English is a regional dialect[1][2] or collection of dialects of American English spoken throughout the Southern United States, primarily by White Southerners and increasingly concentrated in more rural areas.[3]

Posted by LampLighter at 01:54 AM | 17 COMMENTS | permalink

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More from the article ...

... A diversity of earlier Southern dialects once existed: a consequence of the mix of English speakers from the British Isles (including largely English and Scots-Irish immigrants) who migrated to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, with particular 19th-century elements also borrowed from the London upper class and enslaved African-Americans.

By the 19th century, this included distinct dialects in eastern Virginia, the greater Lowcountry area surrounding Charleston, the Appalachian upcountry region, the Black Belt plantation region, and secluded Atlantic coastal and island communities.

Following the American Civil War, as the South's economy and migration patterns fundamentally transformed, so did Southern dialect trends.[11]

Over the next few decades, Southerners moved increasingly to Appalachian mill towns, to Texan farms, or out of the South entirely.[11]

The main result, further intensified by later upheavals such as the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl and perhaps World War II, is that a newer and more unified form of Southern American English consolidated, beginning around the last quarter of the 19th century, radiating outward from Texas and Appalachia through all the traditional Southern States until around World War II.[12][13]

This newer Southern dialect largely superseded the older and more diverse local Southern dialects, though it became quickly stigmatized in American popular culture.

As a result, since around the 1950s and 1960s, the notable features of this newer Southern accent have been in a gradual decline, particularly among younger and more urban Southerners, though less so among rural white Southerners. ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-20 01:57 AM

#@1

Of course, those in the Southern US may ponder Northern American English.

OK, since you asked so nicely ... :)

Northern American English
en.wikipedia.org

... Northern American English or Northern U.S. English (also, Northern AmE) is a class of historically related American English dialects, spoken by predominantly white Americans,[1] in much of the Great Lakes region and some of the Northeast region within the United States.

The North as a superdialect region is best documented by the 2006 Atlas of North American English (ANAE) in the greater metropolitan areas of Connecticut, Western Massachusetts, Western and Central New York, Northwestern New Jersey, Northeastern Pennsylvania, Northern Ohio, Northern Indiana, Northern Illinois, Northeastern Nebraska, and Eastern South Dakota, plus among certain demographics or areas within Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Vermont, and New York's Hudson Valley.[2]

The ANAE describes that the North, at its core, consists of the Inland Northern dialect (in the eastern Great Lakes region) and Southwestern New England dialect.[3]

The ANAE argues that, though geographically located in the Northern United States, current-day New York City, Eastern New England, Northwestern U.S., and some Upper Midwestern accents do not fit under the Northern U.S. accent spectrum, or only marginally. Each has one or more phonological characteristics that disqualifies them or, for the latter two, exhibit too much internal variation to classify definitively.

Meanwhile, Central and Western Canadian English is presumed to have originated, but branched off, from Northern U.S. English within the past two or three centuries.[4][5] ...


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-20 02:03 AM

A lot of BS to decribe Rednecks Drawling like morons.

There is no there, there.

Uneducated people talk funny.

As people get more educated the long vowels and Idiotic turns of phrase disappear because people have moved into modern life.

TV and Mass media accelerate the Improvements in language development.

Thankfully, the regional patois is fading.

Soon to vanish altogether,if we're lucky.

#3 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-03-20 09:43 AM

You talk like a Russian ------.

#4 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-03-20 02:37 PM

Anyone who automatically interprets a deep southern, redneck, or hillbilly accent as the sign of an idiot is a classist, urbanist, regionalist moron.

#5 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-03-20 05:35 PM

. . . and will likely be treated as one, bless their hearts.

#6 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-03-20 05:40 PM

Yup Let's.

Like yourself Cletus.

#7 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-03-21 08:45 PM

@#4 ... You talk like a Russian ...

Perhaps there may be a reason for that observation.

#8 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-21 09:48 PM

@#5 ... Anyone who automatically interprets a deep southern, redneck, or hillbilly accent as the sign of an idiot is a classist, urbanist, regionalist moron. ...

I do not disagree.

#9 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-03-21 09:49 PM

I grew up in NE Texas, third county to the left. My Dad's older sister, born and grew up in the same county, was married to an Army officer. They spent quite a bit of time in VA. When they came home they had noticeably different accents.

Over the course of my career, I've spoken with I don't know how many thousand people. I've noticed an homogenization of the accent and dialects of urban persons. I don't know how many times someone has commented on my NE Texas accent which I consider mild by local country standards.

#10 | Posted by et_al at 2026-03-21 11:12 PM

ET AL,

I went to college at ETSU, grew up in Ft Worth/Dallas.

At 16, I was working at a gas station (for a few days until they fired me!).

There was a cute 20-something girl customer who asked me where I was from... I said I was from here. She said, 'NO you aren't!' Said I didn't have any accent.

Said she'd just paid a lot of money to get rid of her Texas drawl to get her new job as a news broadcaster at a local station, lol... and she was really kinda teed off.

I chocked my non-accent up to elementary school neighbors, and a best friend who were from New Jersey.

#11 | Posted by Corky at 2026-03-21 11:38 PM

HOW y'all doin?

#12 | Posted by South_American at 2026-03-22 12:23 AM

fine as frog hair here...

#13 | Posted by South_American at 2026-03-22 12:41 AM

A talk-radio host in Atlanta who used to be entertaining once referred to PMS (premenstrual syndrome) as FTS (fixin' to start).

#14 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-03-22 10:51 AM

One of two decent English professors I had in college was working on a linguistic atlas of the Southeastern United States. He'd say that if your family hadn't moved for a few generations, he could tell from your speech within a few miles of where you grew up.

Plenty of baseball references, so the coeds didn't care from him.

He spent most of one class period explaining how "Me and Bobby McGee" was one of the finest examples of twentieth-century American poetry.

#15 | Posted by Dbt2 at 2026-03-22 10:55 AM

I was raised all over the South, traveling with my Military family. I saw some of the mostest 'Suthren' --------- locales in the Nation. Smerna TN, Ardmore OK, Warner Robins GA (the gnat Capitol of America).
As a USAF recruit, I also saw San Antinio, Biloxi, and Altus OK. My experience creds are well earned.

When Dad separated from the USAF, we returned to my birth place, Peoria Il. As a 3rd grader, I had become keenly aware of how the 'Whee Doggy! people' sounded. I didn't want to sound like that, and I very intentionally used TV announcer's pronunciations to model my own diction.

The Peoria area and really all of Central IL, broadly represents lots of Southern Migration roots. Grampa was from KY, Gramma, was from rural Iowa (is that redundant?) , One hears lots of Suthren accents in the river city, , but it signals a different...read 'lower'... economic and social class attitude which has decided to maintain the Clampet Family speak.

If you don't think that poor grammar, bad diction, low vocabulary command and exaggerated 'Suthren' dialect doesn't matter in economic and social stratification, and that it has no impact in one's destiny, I would suggest a reexamination of that assumption.

Disregard for grammar, diction, proper pronunciation and a poor language skills, and the embrace of 'semi closed societal dialects' will likely carry a negative outcome impact, and can limit opportunity for personal outcomes.

Reread George Bernard Shaw's 'Pygmalion' for a clearer metaphorical explanation.

IMHO, Grammar matters. Diction Matters. One ignores that advice at one's own economic risk.

#16 | Posted by Wardog at 2026-03-22 10:57 AM

#15

"He'd say that if your family hadn't moved for a few generations, he could tell from your speech within a few miles of where you grew up."

That is the exact boast which Professor Henry Higgins makes to his fellow Grammarian "Col. Pickering".

Higgins postulates that language and diction can change destinies, and insists that improving language skill can turn a cockney Guttersnipe, Eliza Doolittle, into a high class lady. Higgins and Pickering make a bold wager on it, and that, my friend, is the play!

Pygmalian ...George Bernard Shaw. It became one of the greatest Broadway Musicals ever, "My Fair Lady".

#17 | Posted by Wardog at 2026-03-22 11:11 AM

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