I’m visiting the 'rents in Buffalo right now.
Whenever I’m back home, I experience a bit of culture shock from hearing the Buffalo accent – a nasal inflection that includes the “flat A” (where words like “pass” and “Amherst” sound like “payass” and “Aymherst”) and the "hard A, which is written as an “o” (where words like “Don,” “pot” and box end up sounding like “Dan,” “pat” and “backs.”) For whatever reason, I don’t speak in a Buffalo accent, nor do my parents, but most of my close relatives have it.
I’m struck by how children and adolescents almost never speak in a Buffalo accent – no flat A, no nasal intonation. However, the vast majority of white adults, or at least those in their mid-20s and up, speak with the accent. It’s so prevalent, you’ll even hear it among media talent; radio DJs, voiceover talent, and television news reporters.
So, I’m wondering soneone would “adopt” a regional accent only after their college years? Is the accent-by-age division unique to the Buffalo area? I don’t think it can be attributed to “national media presence” – even in my high school days in the 1980s, students had for the most part a generic “Midwestern” accent, adults the flat-A.
Mushy keyboard on my Mom’s computer. “wondering soneone” = “wondering why someone”.
Buffalo’s may be the most unappealing regional accent in the English speaking world, with the possible exception of Pittsburgh. I grew up in Wellsville.
For my part, I have not noticed a Buffalo-ness in the speech patterns of Americans over 30. But it does seem to me as if everyone in old black-and-white movies has something like a mild British accent.
Anyway, here’s what I think:
Generally speaking, regional accents manifest themselves most strongly among the less-than-extensively educated and those with more modest intellectual gifts (maybe because of decreased exposure to non-local influences?).
I wonder if your HS experience of midwestern English speaking kids was not the result of your having incidentally de-selected those most likely to sound twangy out of your circle of friends.
In the same way – since kids tend to have less control over the adults with whom they come into contact – your experience of adult speech patterns may have been colored by the relatively larger number of hardcore locals in the general population.
That’s my best guess.
Okay, here’s some anecdotal for you.
Mom’s from Buffalo. She married my father, a Southern Virginian. Both adopted a fairly “neutral” American accent, which I would like to think I have as well. I think it’s because they both moved far away from their homes as soon as possible, and because they would have driven each other insane otherwise.
They drove each other insane, anyway. Parents divorced, Dad went home and now speaks like a good ol’ boy again. He re-adopted his southern accent at about age 45.
Mom moved to Florida (and voted for Pat Buchanan… grrrrr), and won’t go back to Buffalo unless someone dies. No flat-A.
Mom’s sister married her high-school sweetheart. They also ran like hell from Buffalo. Both still retain the flat-A, but not nearly as pronounced as our family friends who still live in Buffalo.
Not many still live there. In fact, I can think of only two, although I can name dozens of Buffaloes who are still in regular contact with my Mom’s side of the family.
What does it all mean? I don’t have a clue, but I hope it helps. By the way, I’m not ragging on Buffalo in any way. Great, cheap pizza, decent cheap beer.
You know why my entire family left.
Well goodness, that is exactly the way I talk. I’ve got the Buffalo flat-A, and I’m educated, too. My family members who have it the strongest (I’m about in the middle) are in West Seneca and South Buffalo, and the kids run around bleating Maaaaaam! Daaaaaad! just like everyone else.
For my family in the northern 'burbs (Williamsville, Amherst), the parents have a stronger accent because they are from South Buffalo. Their kids get more exposure to non-natives at school. I think most people who move to Buffalo (hey, there are some! Well, a few.) tend to live in these areas rather than in the city proper, so these kids have more classmates and neighbors who do not have the Buffalo flat A.
Are you listening to kids in Amherst, or from Seneca Street?
Speaking only for myself, in my high school days, I didn’t notice whether the other kids had accents, because I had nothing to compare it too. I’m assuming they did, because I did, as I discovered when I went to college. When I moved away, I consciously worked to tone it down (although it’s far from gone), and now when I go home, I hear it more, in people of all ages.