# Do Southerners really speak like this? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2012, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299 "2012-04-29T04:27:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/21 "2012-04-30T10:17:51Z")
I was born and continue to live in Virginia and never had an accent. The only trait I have is the use of the word, y’all as in “What are y’all doing today?”. I love the word and will always use it. ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/22 "2012-04-30T13:02:24Z")
> [@simple\_homer](#): > > I disagree. For almost 50 years I have traveled almost all the states and abroad, and no one has ever confused my Georgia accent with a Texas or Louisiana accent. Let me just clarify what you seem to be saying here: you travelled abroad, and foreigners that you met while abroad knew that you had a Georgia accent as opposed to, say, a Texas accent? I think that merits a sceptical eyebrow: :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/23 "2012-04-30T16:14:39Z")
I don’t know where the lady is from at my dentist’s office, but last week, she called to remind me about my appointment for “mah fillins.” So yeah, ahm gettin’ two fillins ta-morrah. ---
**Author:** ![drastic\_quench](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e36b37/32.png) [@drastic\_quench](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drastic_quench)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/24 "2012-04-30T16:32:39Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There’s a problem in asking any question about accents on a message board where very few people know how to write the pronunciations in IPA (the International Phonetic Alphabet) or any other system that precisely characterizes the pronunciation. The posters will have to try to talk about the accent using just ordinary English spelling. There’s no way to correctly explain the pronunciation in ordinary English spelling though. Often then, someone will claim that people in region X say a particular word in some way, but someone from region X will insist that the people there don’t say the word that way. In fact, the first person will be correct about the pronunciation, but they will have no way of explaining what that pronunciation sounds like using just ordinary English spelling. > > Furthermore, it’s not easy learning IPA. I have a master’s degree in linguistics, but I didn’t specialize in phonetics or phonology. To learn how to use IPA accurately, I would have to go back and take several courses in such subjects. Sure, IPA is more precise, but everyone seems to be getting along just fine without it in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/25 "2012-04-30T16:40:20Z")
I was born and have lived in or near Atlanta all my life. I have constantly been told I have no accent, by people who grew up in California. I know that I do and don’t understand why they can’t hear it. Most are surprised when I even tell them I was born here. No one living in Atlanta was born here, apparently. Accents vary greatly regionally, no matter how small the region. My mother and her twin sister have different accents. I don’t say “suh” and “doah” but do say something close to “tommora”. ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/26 "2012-04-30T16:52:28Z")
> [@Sister\_Vigilante](#): > > I was born and have lived in or near Atlanta all my life. I have constantly been told I have no accent, by people who grew up in California. I know that I do and don’t understand why they can’t hear it. Most are surprised when I even tell them I was born here. No one living in Atlanta was born here, apparently. I’m an Atlanta native, born to a mother from middle Tennesse and a father from east Tennessee (the accent from the two regions of Tennessee vary considerably). I, too, have been told by people I have no accent, because I don’t talk like a character from “The Dukes of Hazzard.” (Like you, I say “tomorra”) But when I wento to live in Illinois for 12 years, I was constantly told I had an accent, so it’s all in the hearing, I suppose. W/re regional variances, I remember a _New Yorker_ article about Georgia from 1976 commenting that the state is so big (largest state east of the Mississippi) that accents vary considerably. It pointed out that in the North Georgia mountains, the people in the Middle East who were behind the oil embargo were called “Uhrbs”, while down in the far southwest part of the state they were referred to as “AY-rabs!” ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/27 "2012-04-30T19:25:31Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > For more, read up on “[rhoticity](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhotic_and_non-rhotic_accents)”. Why do you have to bring fried chicken into this? Racist. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/28 "2012-04-30T21:10:13Z")
How do you deep fry chicken on a rhoticery? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2012, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/29 "2012-04-30T21:13:42Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > How do you deep fry chicken on a rhoticery? It’s very hahd! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/30 "2012-05-01T04:52:08Z")
Oddly enough, I tend to think of southern accents as those ones that over enunciate the R. Probably because that’s the main accent around here. ---
**Author:** ![Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@Maggie\_the\_Ocelot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maggie_the_Ocelot)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/31 "2012-05-01T05:06:34Z")
One of the most amusing conversations I’ve ever been part of was around 1990, discussing perfumes with two co-workers. One was a Black woman from Alabama, the other was a white woman from Boston. They each bought up the perfume “Red Door”, but the woman from Alabama called it " Re-ah Doah" and the one from Boston called it “Reddowah” (as best as I can transliterate). Their accents were so different that they had no idea that they were discussing the same scent until I pointed it out to them. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/32 "2012-05-01T10:48:42Z")
The southerner was probably saying re-ahd do-ah ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/33 "2012-05-01T12:24:17Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > I was born and continue to live in Virginia and never had an accent. The only trait I have is the use of the word, y’all as in “What are y’all doing today?”. I love the word and will always use it. While I agree completely that the word ‘y’all’ is the only acceptable way to clearly state the plural of ‘you’, there is a value to efficiency and in some parts of Texas the question would be asked as “Where y’gəun?” (And how did we get this far in the thread without the schwa sound?) ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/34 "2012-05-01T14:03:50Z")
> [@Dereknocue67](#): > > I was born and continue to live in Virginia and never had an accent. If you’re going to use humor, it helps to put a smiley at the end of it, otherwise someone might think you’re being serious. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/35 "2012-05-01T14:06:38Z")
> [@cornflakes](#): > > While I agree completely that the word ‘y’all’ is the only acceptable way to clearly state the plural of 'you…) You-uns are wrong about that, as yous guys have at least two or three other option. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![cornflakes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@cornflakes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cornflakes)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/36 "2012-05-01T17:09:29Z")
Well, I didn’t say that they weren’t out there… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TheFifthYear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@TheFifthYear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFifthYear)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/37 "2012-05-01T17:31:41Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > W/re regional variances, I remember a _New Yorker_ article about Georgia from 1976 commenting that the state is so big ( **largest state east of the Mississippi** ) that accents vary considerably.!" Wait, what? Michigan, Wisconsin, and Florida would like a word. ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/38 "2012-05-01T17:41:10Z")
Hmm- I’ve heard GA as the largest state east of the Mississippi from supposedly educated folks. I never thought to verify it by checking. I do know a guy who believes Maine is the state farthest east and the farthest north of the 48 contiguous states. ---
**Author:** ![TheFifthYear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@TheFifthYear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheFifthYear)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/39 "2012-05-01T17:46:44Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Hmm- I’ve heard GA as the largest state east of the Mississippi from supposedly educated folks. I never thought to verify it by checking. I do know a guy who believes Maine is the state farthest east and the farthest north of the 48 contiguous states. What’s funny is that when I read that, it struck me as wrong, but the two states I had in mind (Illinois and New York) are, in fact, smaller than GA. Also, I found two listings of states by area, one that had Wisconsin ahead of Georgia and one that had it just behind. Not sure what accounts for the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299/40 "2012-05-01T18:02:15Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Oddly enough, I tend to think of southern accents as those ones that over enunciate the R. Probably because that’s the main accent around here. I’m in Alabama, and that’s what I hear, not dropped Rs. If I’m not paying attention then my “your” becomes “yur”, not “yo-ah”. My grandmother added Rs to words that didn’t have them at all: “window” became “windur”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-southerners-really-speak-like-this/620299.md?page=3)