True, though I was only there a couple of years and I know I didn’t pick up on all the variations. And there is no single “Deep South” accent; there are a bunch of 'em, differing by race and/or social class. I’m sure they vary by state as well, but I’m most familiar with Georgia since I lived there for six years. It hurts when I hear American actors attempting to sound “Southern” but butchering it.
I’ve heard some dead-on more “standard” American accents from British actors, though, to the point I didn’t know they weren’t one of us, for years in one case. Very impressive, really.
I’ve heard some butchered American spoken by Englishmen! But my wife watches House, and I thought I’d chime in to say that I’m impressed by Hugh Laurie’s ability to do the American accent. I’ve grown up with something like it and he sounds absolutely natural. You’d never know he was British.
Not a UK Doper, but I do have something to add to the topic.
My dad was able to tell where an American (USA person anyway) was from by the regional dialect/accent/speech pattern that person used, down to the part of the state in many cases. I’ve heard of others with the same skill/ability. I believe he got the skill while in the military (WWII) but he used it effectively in his later career as an ice breaker or conversation starter.
As for Southern accents, it may be harder for UK types to differentiate more than a generic Southern one because of the similarity of much of Southern USA speech with that of regions of the UK. I’ve heard from various sources that the speech of the Appalachians is nearer Elizabethan English than any other extant speech patterns, although I have also seen scholarship that attempts to refute that.
In my own case I can distinguish Southern accents into at least these categories:
Louisiana Cajun
Other Louisiana
Rural Alabama
City Alabama
Rural Tennessee
City Tennessee
Rural Mississippi
Rural Georgia
Coastal Carolina
Virginia
Kentucky
Arkansas
As for other regions of the country:
Chicago
Detroit
New York
New Jersey
Ohio
Wisconsin
Michigan
Texas
Minnesota
New England generic
Maine
Massachusetts
There are regional quirks that help to isolate specific regions once the quirks are heard, but some people can go a long time without using those quirks and thus sound “generic American” for a while.
One of the amusing things about USA speech is when people change locale for a long period and thereby adopt some (but not all) of the new region’s telltale patterns. It’s those patterns they either refuse to accept or don’t hear for themselves that let locals spot the “outsiders” and “newcomers” to a region.
The South is a great example of how the speech patterns are changing due to immigration from other parts of the country (and world).
Hugh Laurie’s an interesting example, because earlier in his career when he had to play an American character he would do a standard cod-American accent. He wasn’t the worst at it, but he wasn’t great either. It sounded nothing like he now does in House.
Great point. I’m often thought to be from the “midwest,” despite being born and (mostly) raised in North Alabama, I’m thinking due to the huge influx of peeps working with NASA/its subcontractors/the Defense Industry, etc. post WWII in the area.
I’m not very familiar with the southern accents, but I can usually distinguish a Montreal English accent when I hear it. And then there’s the accent of all those people on the south side of the lake. Or maybe that’s just 1980s Buffalo television. I have read, though, that northern New York and southern Ontario pronunciations are diverging.
Likewise, plus Texas. (My own accent, btw, is south London/Kent - which to an American would probably sound like a slightly less gutteral form of Cockney.)