Discerning different accents across the United States can be tricky, especially for those who weren’t raised in the States. However, one of the most iconic accents, recognized by just about anyone in the world, is the Southern accent. In this article, we’ll discuss hallmark features of the general Southern accent and explain the differences between the different Southern accents - that’s right, there are multiple!
The General Southern Accent: Where Is It Used?
One thing to remember about the United States is: it’s big. The area known as “the South” in the US is about the same size as continental Europe, so it’s to be expected that there will be many different dialects and accents in this region alone!
Though there are no hard geographic lines between accent regions, there are such lines separating groups of states. According to the U.S. federal government, the American South includes 16 states, but the ones with the hallmark Southern accent that we are talking about today are those in bold:
- Alabama
- Arkansas
- Delaware
- Florida
- Georgia
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
Another way to determine which areas of the US constitute the Southern American English (SAE) accent is the “pin/pen” test. While not comprehensive, it includes most of the states we are focusing on today. The basis of the ‘test’ is that in areas where the words “pin” and “pen” sound the same is where the Southern accent is used.
people living in the 16 Southern states
of the US lives in the South
Keep in mind that the Southern accent has its own unique characteristics depending on the area it’s from, which doesn’t adhere to state lines. For example, East Texas and West Texas each feature different accents, while the accents in urban areas of Tennessee and North Carolina are just about the same.
If you’re wondering, “Why is Louisiana not included in the list of Southern accents?” you’re asking a good and interesting question! Parts of Louisiana feature a Southern accent, but the area also features an extremely distinct Cajun Creole accent.
There are a few different ways to let someone know that you’re talking about a Southern accent.
The most common way today is to call it a Southern American English accent (SAE accent) to differentiate from talking about accents in South America (known as South American English).
Where Does the Southern Accent Come From?
How did this unique flavor of American English accent come to be? There are many theories, some of which are just inaccurate rumors.
Older Southern American English began to develop as a unique dialect from the original English colonists who settled in the tidewater region of Virginia in the 17th century.
Over the course of the next 200 years, the accent spread and evolved naturally.
But it also became influenced by new accents in the mix, from more settlers and indentured servants from different regions of the UK as well as traders in London and Southern England.
Of course, slavery also impacted the language, as “Plantation accents” developed amongst the African slaves, who also came from many different language backgrounds.
Multiple accents developed among separated groups, whether by geography or social class. Upper-class Southerners tended to practice “r-dropping” (aka non-rhoticity), but this style of Southern speech is rapidly dying out.
Most other folks kept their “r’s” (rhotic language), which is present in the majority of Southern articulations these days.
After the Civil War, Americans moved about the country in many new ways, further influencing the various accents. Former slaves, who had developed their own unique accents, intermingled with other Southern (and Northern) accents, too. Large, initial groups of settlers expanded into different areas and, over time and due to being isolated until modern-day connectivity changed it, different pockets of the south had different iterations of the accent.
Just like any accent, it’s impossible to trace the history to any one person or group of people and explain exactly how and why it changed over time.
The Midwest accent is another example of a diverse, multi-cultural way of speaking.
Misconceptions About the Southern Accent
Some people believe that the Southern accent is just a slowed-down variation of 16th and 17th-century British English. If you listen to any Southern person speak for any length of time, you’ll understand why this makes no sense. The myth likely stems from the fact that the original settlers in the South did have contemporary English accents. But, as we discussed, the accent took on its own life after a few hundred years.
Another problem is that certain accents are often characterized as “uneducated.” This is because certain Southern accents are associated with very rural, secluded, isolated areas that typically don’t have access to the same type of education and modern conveniences found in more populated areas. While it’s true that there are undereducated people in the South, not every person with a Southern accent fits the bill. And even if they did, that’s no reason to think less of them for being born and raised in a place with different resources than others.
On the other hand, many people think the Boston accent sounds quite educated.
Key Features of Different Southern Accents
How many types of Southern accents are there?
In general, you will find 7 major different Southern accents. Additionally, there are numerous minor accents and dialects, but that’s a much larger subject than what we’re discussing here.
Here are the 7 main accents/dialects to know and their key features.
1. General Southern Accent
While it’s true that there is no one accent covering all of the south, most Southern accents have a few things in common, and the base intersection of these commonalities can be called the General Southern Accent for simplicity’s sake.
This is likely what most people think of when asked to imagine a quintessential Southern accent, that is, a dialect distinct enough from other US accents that it’s unmistakably Southern.
It includes elements of both the Southern drawl and twang.
Features
- Vowel lengthening in the form of diphthongs (e.g., “sit” becomes “seyit”)
- Some speakers may also use vowel smoothing (e.g., “price” sounds like “prahs”).
- May include rhoticity (“r” is pronounced) or non-rhoticity (“r” is not pronounced), but either way, it’s a distinguishing feature of the way a person speaks.
- For example, a non-rhotic speaker might say “I am forty-four years old,” which would sound like “I am fohty-fouh yahs old.”
- A rhotic speaker might say “I’m going to the Walmart on the corner,” which would (combined with diphthongs) sound like “Ahm going tew the Walmaert on the couwrner.”
Region
Alabama, Mississippi, North Florida, and in varying degrees of intensity throughout the other southern states.
2. Appalachian Accent (aka Southern Mountain Dialect)
Also called Smoky Mountain English or Mountain Speech, this accent originated in Appalachia, likely in the 17th or 18th century. It was largely influenced by Scots-Irish immigrants who came to the area, particularly to work in the mines.
It's closely related to the Ozark Accent, which originated from Appalachian settlers who moved from the eastern Appalachian Mountains to the western Ozarks.
Features
- Includes vocabulary like adding “a-” at the beginning of words, such as “a-walkin’” and ”a-singin’.”
- Distinctive vowel sounds, such as the pronunciation of "i" as "ah" and “ou” as “eh” (e.g., "ride" becomes "rahhd", and “flour” becomes “flehr”).
- Some people may add a voiced “h” in words beginning in “wh” (e.g., “white” sounds like “hwhhite”).
- May make some vowel sounds into two syllables (e.g., “door” becomes “do-wer”).
- Two-syllable words are often stressed on the first syllable, called initial syllable stress (e.g., “July” sounds like “JOO-lah”).
Region
Primarily in the central and southern Appalachian Mountains, including parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia.
3. Texas Accent (aka Lone Star Accent)
There are a few different Texan accents: East vs West, rural vs urban, and so on. In general, the Texan accent comes from the settlers in the early 19th century, who mingled their already-Southern-accented English with Native American people’s unique and varied ways of speaking.
Eastern Texas remains more aligned with the Louisiana/New Orleans and sometimes Delta accents of the neighboring states. West Texas accents tend to sound more Spanish due to the proximity of Spanish-settled Mexico. Northern Texas and parts of Central Texas can sound more neutral.
Features
- Vowel-flattening (e.g., “oil” becomes “oll”).
- Lilting speech pattern
- Includes many features of the general Southern accent
Region
Predominant in Texas, but variations exist in different parts of the state.
4. Coastal/Lowland Southern Accent
This accent is slowly disappearing over time as Southern dialects are alive and evolving. Once upon a time, it was the hallmark accent people associated with the South. But, as more influence from other places changes the way children learn to speak growing up, the long, drawn vowels of this iconic dialect are giving way to a more general sound.
It derived from early colonial settlers on the coasts, who had more regular contact with British traders as the years went on. These areas also had plantations, so the drawl was likely influenced by differences in social class.
Some Southern accents, such as the Coastal Accent, is declining in use as new generations are influenced by external sources while learning how to speak.
Features
- Vowel lengthening and adding syllables in vowels (e.g., “time” is said like “tahhm,” “dress” becomes “dray-ess”).
- Speech is generally slower than other dialects.
- Interesting and unique cadence in speech patterns.
Region
Coastal areas of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida.
5. Charleston Accent (aka Tidewater Accent or Outer Banks Dialect)
Closely related to the Piedmont accent, the Charleston accent developed in a secluded coastal region. Early residents had limited contact with other communities due to the nature of the coastal islands they lived on. There were no bridges, and the only way to go from the mainland to the islands was by boat, which kept the people from each community rather separate.
Over time, the cloistered folks in the islands had developed their unique way of speaking that sounds very different from many other Southern dialects. Like the coastal accent, Tidewater is dwindling as new generations learn other ways of speaking from external sources.
Features
- Most notably, “i” sounds are morphed into “oi” sounds (e.g., “high tide” becomes “hoi toid”).
- May add “r” to words (e.g., “window” becomes “winder”).
- Unique vocabulary
Region
Charleston, South Carolina, as well as the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions of Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
6. Mississippi Delta Accent
A highly regional Southern dialect, the Delta dialect features a mixture of Southern and African American Vernacular English (AAVE). It’s a dialect in that the people who speak it do more than just change the way they say words; they change which words they use and the word order in which they speak.
The history of the Delta accent is built on a foundation of harsh, swampy environmental conditions, which required a massive slave population to cultivate it into cotton fields.
Thus, the area became densely populated by African-Americans, which continued on after the end of slavery.
Through the decades after abolition, the Black population was ostracized by the white population, leading to the condition where former slaves and their descendants built off their informal English rather than learn other ways of speaking through socialization and schooling.
Features
- Distinct combination of changing of syllable stress, dropping consonants, and modifying vowel sounds (e.g., “I worked at the Coca-Cola Bottle Company” becomes “Ah work’ ah th’ Coc'cola Bahd’l Comp’ny”).
- Typically non-rhotic, with “r” being dropped in the middle of and at the end of words.
Region
The Mississippi Delta.
7. New Orleans Accent (aka Creole)
Different from the Cajun accent, the New Orleans creole is an eclectic mixture of Southern, French, French-Canadian, Spanish, and Black accents together. The most known sub-accent in the New Orleans area is known as Yat (stemming from a common local greeting: “Where y’at?”)
Some aspects of the accent are strikingly similar to the metropolitan New York accent, possibly because of the influence of similar settlers in both areas (German, Irish, and Italian).
Features
- Use of French and Spanish words in everyday speech.
- Innovative phrases and sentence structure.
- Th-stopping (e.g., “them” becomes “‘em”).
- Drawn-out vowel sounds and changed vowel sounds (e.g., “water” becomes “woader”).
Region
New Orleans, Louisiana
Southern Words & Phrases
Now, you know there are lots of different regions with different ways of speaking, so it makes sense that they would also have different phrases. But there are a handful of words you should know that will get you far in most Southern places. At the very least, most people will know what you’re talking about, even if the words you’re using aren’t quite from the same area.
| Word or Phrase | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Bless your heart | 1. Showing sympathy 2. A polite way to call someone stupid | 1. "Your car broke down and you had to walk five miles? Oh, bless your heart." 2. "You gave more money to your friend who already owes you $500? Bless your heart." |
| Fixin' to | Aiming to, about to | "I'm fixin' to make lunch." |
| Highfalutin | Fancy, gaudy, failing to be authentically sophisticated | "She was all highfalutin in her cheap dress." |
| Holler | Hollow; a valley | "I live in the holler." |
| Howdy | Lit.: How do you do? Used like: Good morning; hello | "Howdy, nice weather today." |
| Hush | Hush your mouth; be quiet | "Hush, don't be rude!" |
| If the creek don't rise | If everything goes well | "We'll be able to buy a new home next year, if the creek don't rise." |
| Over yonder | Far away | "He lives on that hill over yonder." |
| Plumb | Very, absolutely, totally | "The kids are plumb tired." |
| Reckon | Figure, think | "We can make it there before dark, I reckon." |
| Ugly | Being rude or negative | "Quit being so ugly." |
| Y'all | You all | "Hey, ya'll, it's good to see you!" |
Learning about different accents, linguistic histories, and cultures of the many areas of the United States is interesting! There is so much to know that it would take you years just to scratch the surface. Hopefully, you're feeling more informed about the South and its many dialects and confident enough to improve your accent and understand the locals.
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
