I was born in NYC and have always moved on the coasts or out of the country (I guess there were a couple years in IL but I was a toddler). I have never met anyone who spoke Southern. I don’t know that I could understand them. It’s like when I’m in Quebec and speak French with a Canadian - after a couple minutes, I can’t understand them, even though I speak French the France way.

I have been in the US South off and on most of my life and it is clear that most "Southern" accents are regional and even local, just like north of the Mason/Dixon Line. The kids in my neighborhood pride themselves on speaking with no accent, and it is true, no accent unless they want to use it, same for Black or White kids
However, when you get up in the hills or back in the really rural areas you get the real deal, which is the accents from long ago. We were just in the area of NC in the middle just south of the TN border ( Rt 18). (driving our old 993, we were totally lost, lost the GPS no cell reception, etc and just pressed on. Of course we had no paper maps, totally screwed, lost We ended up in W. Jefferson,NC, got burgers at Hardee's (pretty good) with 4 NC State Police Troopers (laughed about the loss of cell reception -_they have their own system- haha) (they were there for the Eclipse crowds).

I have been in the US South off and on most of my life and it is clear that most "Southern" accents are regional and even local, just like north of the Mason/Dixon Line. The kids in my neighborhood pride themselves on speaking with no accent, and it is true, no accent unless they want to use it, same for Black or White kids
However, when you get up in the hills or back in the really rural areas you get the real deal, which is the accents from long ago. We were just in the area of NC in the middle just south of the TN border ( Rt 18). (driving our old 993, we were totally lost, lost the GPS no cell reception, etc and just pressed on. Of course we had no paper maps, totally screwed, lost We ended up in W. Jefferson,NC, got burgers at Hardee's (pretty good) with 4 NC State Police Troopers (laughed about the loss of cell reception -_they have their own system- haha) (they were there for the Eclipse crowds).

The late Tim Wilson explains it all:

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He's spot on.
Then agin, I didn't even know I had an accent 'till I moved.

NC can indeed be a thick one! Also, I can always detect someone from Richmond. When I was a little kid, my relatives lived in Florida (no appreciable accent). As we would drive south to visit them, I could hear my dad’s southern accent get thicker and thicker. A neighbor in VA was German but you would never know it…no accent what so ever. The guy across the fairway from me now is English and has lived in the US for at least 50 years and I can only understand about half of what he says. I think some people hold on to it on purpose.

Luv it:D

Waaaya his people fruuum?

Florida isn't the South. It's mostly Michigan, NewYork, and Cuba.

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Don't forget the Canadians

Nope, I think whether someone loses or keeps their accent over time is more down to some innate ability to hear and mimic others like some folks have natural abilities in music, painting, math, sports, etc... Some folks can hear something and then mimic it, and others can't. I think those that can't retain their original accent

I can remember when we lived in Destin in the late 70s you could tell when the "snowbirds" were in town because headlights on their cars were on in the daytime. Back then, American cars didn't have daytime running lights, I guess the Canadian cars had daytime running lights or they just liked to have their headlights on all the time.

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Daytime running headlights are a law in Canada, I can't remember which year it was passed.

The reason being, it's the only light they see from October to May (esp. those living in Ontario).

It was around 1990

Since 1976, I’ve lived in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. I was born in Alabama but raised in Connecticut, from age 4 until 17. That said, the only accent I hear are people from New England/New York/Massachusetts-Boston, etc. everybody else, sounds the same to me.

Guff Ohl

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^^

Oh yeah. They'll chick yer ohl and are in your tars while pumping yer gaish.

Yum. I love grits with butter and a little bit of salt and pepper. Shrimp and grits are good too.

Edit: also fried chicken, fried okra, deviled eggs, poundcake, sweet tea, etc. My mom used to make it all from scratch.

OMG sounds so good 😋