# Has there ever truly been a genius who had a thick, stereotypical Southern accent? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 12, 2024, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437 "2024-05-12T04:07:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Xocomil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xocomil/32/14927_2.png) [@Xocomil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xocomil)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/81 "2024-05-16T04:22:06Z")
I’ve never noticed that particular quirk of the surfer dude dialect. In fact, I was doubting that it was true, but then Spicoli spoke. Now I’m probably going to be hearing it everywhere. For some reason my impression was that with young Californians the short A sound was sounding more like in stereotypical Minnesotan. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/82 "2024-05-16T11:27:24Z")
> [@Xocomil](#): > > For some reason my impression was that with young Californians the short A sound was sounding more like in stereotypical Minnesotan. Yes, I’d thought the same. There is definite overlap between _Fargo_ and _Fast Times_. You betcha, dude! ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/83 "2024-05-16T13:04:06Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Yes. Notably for me, the [æ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-open_front_unrounded_vowel) sound – as in “had” or “that” – started to shift in the 1970s in parts of California toward an [ʌ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open-mid_back_unrounded_vowel) sound. Think of Jeff Spicoli (the Sean Penn character) in _Fast Times at Ridgemont High._ > > Just in the last decade, this shift has spread across much of the US - especially among young women, who tend to lead the way in such trends. As with a thick Southern accent, I have an unjust bias against this. To me (a fifty-something male), it sounds strange to have serious people talking like Valley Girls or surfer dudes. Back in the late 1980s, I saw a technical sales video by Silicon Graphics Inc. which showed several software developers demonstrating tools they’d created. One was a young ponytailed California guy in a suit. He seemed very competent, but sounded _exactly_ like Jeff Spicoli. I found it amusing. And whatever else you can say about it, I remember it almost forty years later. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/84 "2024-05-16T14:27:53Z")
I don’t know about _genius_, but Charlie Duke, Apollo 16 lunar module pilot got his masters degree in aeronautics at MIT. He definitely maintained a noticeable Carolina twang. John Young, commander on that mission was born in California, but had a good bit of good ole’ boy aw shucks going on too. Listening to their conversations tooling around the moon in their rover, you half expect to hear “Charlie, we got any beer left in the cooler?” John Aaron was part of the mission control team during Apollo, an engineer with a physics degree born in Texas. He might be considered a genius, at least by members of the Apollo 12 mission. Aaron came up with the famous “SCE to AUX” command after a lightning strike on the booster, knocking out the guidance platform. Nobody knew what to do, and they were very close to punching out and having to blow up the Saturn V. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/85 "2024-05-18T20:39:53Z")
Jimmy Carter is the first name who came to mind. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/86 "2024-05-18T20:52:34Z")
> [@MortSahlFan](#): > > Jimmy Carter is the first name who came to mind Carter certainly has (and had) a Southern accent, though by the time he was a nationally-recognized figure, it was clearly attenuated. By then, he’d graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, and served as an officer in the Navy for six years (stationed at various locations across the U.S.). He was well-educated, and well-spoken, and while he still spoke with a Southern accent, it was a relatively mild one at that point. Here’s a [recording of Carter’s 1977 inaugural address](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejZW9v4a9YQ). Compare his accent to the [substantially thicker accent of his brother Billy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvrQLruQqZ8) (from an interview from that same era), who lived in Plains for most of his life (though he did briefly attend college, and served in the Marine Corps), and who was very much a good ol’ boy. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2024, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/87 "2024-05-18T21:29:56Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > various locations across the U.S. and Canada, as you can see in [Before he was president, Jimmy Carter saved nuclear reactor after meltdown](https://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/jimmy-carter-nuclear-meltdown-clean-up-canada-navy-history) . ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/88 "2024-05-20T00:49:31Z")
I went back and looked at U.S born Nobel Prize winners for the last 40 years. Note that I didn’t include literature winners, or winners born in Texas, which may not be “southern” enough for the OP. Ben Bernake, 2022 Nobel winner in economics was born in Augusta, GA and raised in Dillon, S. Carolina. George Smoot and John Mather, who shared the 2006 Nobel in Physics, were born in Florida and Virginia, respectively. Robert Grubbs, 2005 Nobel winner in chemistry, born and raised in western Kentucky and graduated from the University of Florida. Daniel McFadden, born in Raleigh, N. Carolina, winner 2000 Nobel in economics. Robert Furchgott, co-winner of the 1998 Nobel for medicine, born in Charleston, S. Carolina, graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill. Kary Mullins, born in Lenoir, N. Carolina, graduated from Georgia Tech; 1993 Nobel laureate in chemistry. Phillip Sharp, born in Falmoth, Ky, undergraduate studies at Union College in Kentucky, shared the 1993 Nobel in medicine. James Buchanan, another Nobel laureate in economics (1986), born in Murfreesboro, Tenn. and graduated from Middle Tennessee State and the University of Tennessee. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/89 "2024-05-20T00:57:38Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Ben Bernake, 2022 Nobel winner in economics was born in Augusta, GA and raised in Dillon, S. Carolina. Here’s [a short video of Bernanke in a congressional hearing with Ron Paul](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKYKLgzyF9o). Bernanke grew up in the Southern U.S., but if he had a “thick, stereotypical Southern accent” (to quote the OP) as a young person, he certainly doesn’t have it now. He has, maybe, a slight Southern accent now, but I don’t think it’s what the OP is thinking about or asking about. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/90 "2024-05-20T01:14:09Z")
But just because someone may have lost their accent once they were exposed to a greater variety of people with wider patterns of speech doesn’t mean that they never had a thick down-home accent, unless the OP’s point is that a genius would lose the hillbilly accent ASAP. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/91 "2024-05-20T01:21:08Z")
The OP’s question seems, to me, to be, “show me an example of a bona-fide genius who **speaks** with a thick Southern accent” (present tense). The OP specifically mentioned, as an example, Travis Taylor, who does speak with a Southern accent though, [based on this clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-jD-wqirjQ), it doesn’t seem “super-thick” to me. We’ve given a number of examples of Southerners who are accomplished (arguably “geniuses”), but nearly all of them didn’t still have a thick accent when they became well-known/famous for their work, likely due to time spent learning and working away from the South (and interacting with other people who don’t have Southern accents), and/or making a conscious attempt to reduce their accent. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/92 "2024-05-20T02:41:27Z")
Here’s a clip of J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, who I proposed upthread as a genius. [This clip is from the 1950s.](https://youtu.be/r9V_-gwz9jI?t=3452) Sure, his accent faded in later years, but that ham and molasses Ozark accent didn’t stop him when he was young. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/93 "2024-05-20T02:46:50Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Here’s a clip of J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, who I proposed upthread as a genius. [This clip is from the 1950s.](https://youtu.be/r9V_-gwz9jI?t=3452) That looks much newer than the '50s to me, as it’s pretty clear, color videotape – maybe the '80s, based on their attire? But, yes, I think that’s a good example. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/94 "2024-05-20T13:05:50Z")
Damn, that IS the 80s clip. When I have a chance later I’ll download the clip from the 1950s. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2024, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437/95 "2024-05-20T14:11:24Z")
[Here’s the clip of Sen. Fulbright from the 1950s.](https://youtu.be/2gR4Cf51mFs?t=8) He would have been age 45-50 at that point and even then his accent was still deep and down home, compared to the clip from the 1980s. And for good measure [here’s Fulbright in 1971.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4gL84b-qJQ) At first it sounds like he’s flattened out his accent, but give it about a minute for him to get into the speechifying portion of his remarks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-there-ever-truly-been-a-genius-who-had-a-thick-stereotypical-southern-accent/1001437.md?page=4)