My family is from Texas. We all live in Texas; we all grew up in Texas. We are bona fide deer-huntin, pickup truck drivin’, cowboy hat wearin’, barbecue eatin’, beer drinkin’, shotgun totin’ Texans.
I’ve had a lot of theater training, so I’ve gotten into the habit of enunciating very clearly. I’ve trained myself out of my drawl. It’s not even a conscious thing anymore. But there are certain times when The Drawl emerges:
When I’m around my family, or anyone else with a drawl
When there’s really no other way to express a certain sentiment, as when someone is really screwed, and I have to answer, "Well, you’re just up shit creek without a paddle, aincha?
I’m drunk. I don’t even have to be very drunk, just buzzed. 3 or 4 beers usually does it.
And I steadfastly refuse to give up the word “y’all.” It’s such a useful little word.
I don’t do it on purpose–it just happens sometimes. I had a boyfriend who used to get upset with me for incorporating Texanisms into my speech. His family was from Pennsylvania, and had not even adapted enough to say “y’all” instead of “you guys.” He would tell me that, if I spoke with an accent, I sounded unintelligent, and that he didn’t want our kids to sound like ignorant hicks. When I said “y’all,” he would respond, “what’s a 'y’all”? This drove me nuts, but it also made me a little self conscious.
My current boyfriend (also not a native Texan) thinks my drawl is a huge turn on. He wishes I talked that way all the time. He’s been known to kidnap me from parties after a few drinks, when I bust out The Drawl (again, not a conscious thing).
So my question is, when you hear someone with a Texas Drawl (or any southern accent), do you automatically think she’s a bimbo? Is it sexy? A turn-off?
My college GF came from a little East Texas town, and the effect of the years with her have lingered. Years later I found I looked forward to business trips that took me to Tyler, where I could immerse myself in the sounds of East Teas women.
I’ve been accused of having a little bit of an accent myself, which seems to appear when I drink.
Well, butter mah butt and call me a biscuit, but I don’t really see how a Southern accent is any less intelligent sounding than a Northern one. I mean, youse isn’t exactly a word that’s likely to impress me with someone’s language skills, you know?
Being a Southerner all my life, with particular affinity for the Deep South and Mid South, I find anybody who doesn’t speak with a Southern accent as a bit peculiar. It’s no putdown on non-Southerners, but the various ways of speaking in other areas of the country are just as odd sounding to the people in this section of the country as we are to you (y’all).
I challenge you to find anybody who sounds as educated and as sophisticated as Shelby Foote, the Civil War historian featured on the Ken Burns PBS series on the war. Just the right blend of wit, culture and charm.
And don’t overlook the presidents from this area. Carter, Clinton, Johnson to name but three.
Accent alone doesn’t assist in the sexy department for me. But I’d rather hear a Southerner read the phone book than to hear somebody from Wisconsin or Minnesota read Shakespearean love sonnets. But it’s a taste thing and a familiarity thing.
Since Foxworthy has made his fame by way of belittling rednecks I can accept that his view of an “intelligent sounding accent” is biased for the laughs. But tell me the Valley Girl accent sounds more intelligent. Or the characters from “Welcome Back Kotter.”
There’s more to intelligence than birthplace.
As Dave Gardner said in one of his bits, “I just love seeing them pore ignurnt southern boys selling water to them brillyunt yankees.” (And this was in the 60’s before bottled water was the thing it is today.)
This is merely conjecture, but I suspect there may be a correlation between the percieved intelligence of a person based on the way they speak, and the extent to which a person’s speech deviates from how it would be written in correct english.
I find strong southern accents to be a bit disagreeable, but I’m not convinced that this is entirely to to pronounciation and inflection. Rather, I think that colloquialisms like “y’all”, word slurring, and other manifestations of the area dialect which do not translate well to english construction are what put me off.
Thinking about this a little further, if I had to select accents which I find pleasing to the ear, they would have to be eastern European or south American, although I am at a loss to explain exactly why this is the case.
I think any woman who speaks intelligently, eloquently, and articulately is sexy.
It depends on the person. But I happen to adore the Southern gentleman sort of accent. Not the Southern HICK sort of accent. If he can speak intelligently along with sporting his accent, mmmmmmmmmm ! I happen to be great friends with a man from Texas, and his accent is to die for !
Depends on the accent. For instance, I tend to like Texan accents but not Kentucky accents. No matter what the accent, a person’s voice can be appealing or annoying. There are a number of factors, I guess.
Bona fide Southern girl checking in. I do not have an extremely heavy accent just because in my business I tend to try and sound less southern since that is a turn off to some.
I tend not to use “ya’ll” in my professional dealings but it slips out at home every now and then.
I have said this many, many times, there is the Southern accent which to me is beautiful and there is the redneck accent which is the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to me.
It has been my experience that people outside of the South usually find the accent sexy. I spent some time in Europe when I was 17 and I literally had a crowd gather on the Metro asking me to talk so they could hear my accent.
I also spent some time in New Mexico and people there would ask me why I talked “funny” a lot.
I tend to think that women get away with the southern accent a touch more than men. I’m not sure why I think that but it seems to be my experience.
Remember that most of the regional accents in the South sound pretty much alike to people who aren’t from the South. I’m not sure I could tell a Georgia accent from a Texas accent, myself (although I can usually tell a Philadelphian from a New Yorker at twenty paces, just by the way he says “down”).
I’d say Southern accents, are generally hot. Not hot enough to make me feel attraction to a woman I wouldn’t otherwise be attracted to, but definitely hot enough to enhance the attractiveness of a woman I already thought was babe-ly
This is in contrast to a British, Australian, Italian, or Spanish/Hispanic accent, which automatically doubles the attractiveness of almost any woman. West Indian and Jamaican accents are quite nice too.
Actually, there’s only a very short list of accents I truly find unattractive. Marisa Tomei’s New York accent in My Cousin Vinny… well, I liked the character, but I didn’t think the way she talked was sexy at all. I remember being turned off by a Dutch woman’s accent, but I really haven’t heard enough Dutch women speak to form a good opinion.
I love southern accents, more in women than in men though. I find them oddly soothing to listen to. My BF is from Texas, but hardly has an accent at all (He didn’t move there until he was 7), but you always know he’s from Texas when he says he’s “fixin’ to do something”…
Virginian here - of the Southern gentleman variety. I have a soft Southern accent and would much prefer to hear a Southern accent than any other. The last time I checked, more Miss Americas have come from Mississippi than any other state, and when you combine a beautiful woman and a Southern accent I think you’ve got a winner.
