SaraLM

I find most accents (english, french, australian etc) charming and fun, however, I really dislike a moderate to heavy southern accent. To me it sounds like they are dumb and don't know how to pronounce the words. I also particularly enjoy asking them to repeat themselves and they keep saying it the same over and over again - if I understood you the first time I wouldn't have asked!

If the words are pronounced correctly - with all the letters that are supposed to be in the word pronounced I think I would find it less annoying.

I know there are smart people that have southern accents but my experience with them is limited so they do just sound ignorant to me.

Traveling through the south I was amazed how often I simply could not understand what people were saying - might as well have been in a different country!

Rusty

Where is the bad grammar in "I'm fixin' to carry Jethro to the store" ?

Subject - verb - object. No bad grammar there !!

babyblue78

I think that people that judge a person's intelligence based on their accent are "dumb"

I would be willing to bet that you have an accent of the nothern persuasion. Maybe the southerners that you encountered during your travels could not understand a word that you were saying!!!

Regards,
*A born and bred southerner*

babyblue78

Make that people *who* judge.

amp322

Went to college in Dallas & Chicago, although I am originally from New Jersey. I laughed at southern accents, but was most annoyed by midwestern accents. However, a New York accent coupled with bad grammar is the worst!

rjw_lgb_ca

I'm fairly smart, educated, etc. and still slip in my grammar. Not in ridiculous ways-- no "Him 'n' Bill's been rasslin' in those 'Backyard Brawlin'' videos and they jus' bought a new double-wide" talk. However, I will say things like "Look, I spoke with Marie and she don't (sic) care what wine it is as long as there's a lot of it." Even typing it makes my brain cringe, but I say it without any hesitation. And no one flips out until I point it out.

Kinda weird....

Ani

Amp322--DITTO a million times!

Chele60

I've always thought Southern accents were delightful to hear. When I went to New Orleans, it was charming to hear southern accents all around me. After a week and then some time in Houston, I have to admit that it grew tiresome. (Wonder why it happened when I reached Houston??) Perhaps too much all at once? Not sure, but once I was back home for a while I am back to finding Southern accents soothing to listen to.

Betsy

Miss SaraLM, you contradict yourself. On one hand you say "I find most accents (english, french, australian etc) charming and fun..." (Oops, you must have forgotten to capitalize the languages) and on the other hand you say that "If the words are pronounced correctly - with all the letters that are supposed to be in the word pronounced I think I would find it less annoying (Oops, you must have forgotten how to use a comma). Tell me, Sara, how would you pronounce, for example, the French mustard brand, Maille. Would you pronounce all the letters?

Frankly I find your attitude annoying. Also, you should look up the words "tolerance" and "acceptance" in your dictionary.

Wednesday

Good point Betsy....They are "pronouncing" the words correctly. The "accent" is what makes it sound different from someone else. What is the definition of "correctly" if we are all speaking English just with different accents ? Doesn't make any sense.

GoTravel

soccr, hated to say because I knew someone would flame me. Ahhnold pointed out my pointless post.

The southern accent originates back to the days of the settlers. The accent of the Queens English of the settlers combined with the African accent of the slaves.

Ani

GoTravel...Is that true? Very interesting. In fact, I've often wondered how different accents came about...any more on that?

Rusty

Queen's English ? There was no queen in the days of the early settlers. And they did not speak English with an accent. The southern settlers WERE English and they spoke English the same as English settlers in the North and the same as English people in England.

Diana

Oh, SaraLM. I was SO looking forward to your next trip to see us all here in the South. But of course since you find us all so "annoying," you'll not be bothered to head this way will you?

Let me ask you...

When you kept on asking Southerners to repeat themselves because you couldn't understand them, did you notice how polite they were in obliging your request?

That's because they would never dream of being rude to you. They probably just assumed you were simple-minded or hard of hearing when you kept asking them to repeat the same thing again and again.

People in the South are much smarter than you give them credit for - smart enough not to get on here and make inaccurate assumptions about a person's intelligence based on the manner in which they speak.

mrwunrfl

yeah, gotribe, I think I understand (in a vague way) what you mean. With your first post on the "back to that class" pronunciation thing, I was thing of it as a valleygirl speak. It would go along with a rising tone in a sentence?, or when just about every sentence sounded like a question? yaah, you know what I mean. It is a honky nasal thing, but the other place that i thought of with the the ah is, I think, Maine.

SteveJudd

I love Southern accents. I find urban New York and Boston accents very grating. Furthermore, I find the accents of many African-Americans hard to understand though I have lived in close proximity with them for most of my life.

soccr

There was an excellent series on PBS several years ago tracing the sources of the various American accents (can't now remember the name of it), and it's enormously complex. However, some of the tidbits I remember are that Southern English had, in addition to "Elizabethan" English a fair amount of French influence (not just La.), which survives in constructions like "I haven't but a dime," while some northern accents are related to the Cockney and even Yorkshire accents.

But the biggest single influence was the Scots-Irish culture/language which seems to form the base of much of the linguistic culture from Appalachians to Rockies. The influence of African patterns was, of course, much more dominant in non-white populations of the South.

Much as I question GoTravel's sweeping comments, it's no less correct to refer to the Queen's English than the King's English, since Queens Mary and Eliz 1 reigned for the last half of the 16th century, which was when some of the earliest settlements were settling. If you are looking for the "purest" and earliest version of North American English, you'll have to go to some islands off the coast of NC and GA where some very old forms have survived -- and by that reasoning, all of the rest of us are the ones who have accents.

For that matter, what about the Queen's Spanish -- Isabella sent Columbus over, but of course, he spoke Italian, so who was in power in Italy in 1492?

I have no clue where ValleySpeak came from, y'know?

PCHsmiles

hey, ahhnold, how are you, guy! help me out, okay - is it the big words you use or trying to express the big ideas giving you fits? Kind of like Trent Lott, or maybe Gary Coleman.

Michelem4

I was born and raised in New Jersey. I now live in Florida. Everyone here gets a kick out of my accent. My kids even make fun of me (5and 3) when I say "hot dowg" or cohwfee.
I tolled a friend I would (call) cawl her and she had no clue what I was saying. I tried to say it like, cal (like cal-ifornia and that didnt work either. So I finally hasd to just spell it to her..lol
I love NJ accents.

kiki13

While living and working in Cincinnati, my co-workers just loved it when I'd say "bye ya'll".
Pretty soon I even had my Japanese friend saying it!..she thought it was so cute.