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Tag Archives: American Southern Accents
American Dialects: A Red State/Blue State Divide?
In a brief piece in Time this week, famed linguist William Labov suggested that American dialects are getting more distinct rather than less. The article is extremely short, but I was nevertheless intrigued by Labov’s comment on the connection between accents and … Continue reading
That’s the Idear: Intrusive ‘R’
Generations of Americans have puzzled over the British tendency to add ‘r’s where (it seems to us) ‘r’s don’t belong. This can be found in such phrases as “an idear of it,” “pastar and sauce,” and “sawr and conquered.” Termed r insertion (or intrusive r), … Continue reading
On the Hunt for the New Orleans Yat
Some English dialects are so uncommon that they adopt the mythology of the Loch Ness Monster. One such dialect, unique the city of New Orleans, is locally referred to as Yat. It is renowned not because of how strange it … Continue reading
More on the Ocracoke Brogue
Some months back I mentioned an unusual dialect of English known colloquially as the “Ocracoke Brogue.” Spoken in the remote islands off the coast of North Carolina, the brogue is sometimes mentioned as one of the “last living relatives” of … Continue reading
The Texas Accent: Bush vs. Perry
An article in the Star-Telegram this week compares the Texas accents of Governor Rick Perry with that of George W. Bush. Apparently, Perry’s accent triggers some negative associations with our last president. For reference, here’s a clip of Perry speaking: … Continue reading
One of My Favorite Famous Accents
As per a recent post about non-rhotic American Southern English, I should mention one of my favorite accents of any politician. That would be the former Senator from Charleston, South Carolina, Fritz Hollings. An excellent clip of his speech can … Continue reading
R-lessness in the American South: RIP?
Whatever happened to non-rhotic Southern accents? For those of you joining us from the everyday world (one where “non-rhotic” isn’t a household word) a non-rhotic accent is one where the “r” is dropped at the end of words or syllables. … Continue reading
Twangs vs. Drawls
I would like to discuss a pair of very unscientific words that describe accents or dialects of English: twang and drawl. Both words are associated with the accents of the American South; one often hears of the “Texas twang” or the … Continue reading
The Pin-Pen Merger
I used Ancestry.com for a few months, before it got a bit too expensive. One of the main family branches that I researched were (was?) the Kendricks, a family in Kentucky that has been in that state for several generations. … Continue reading
Posted in American English Tagged American Southern Accents, dialect maps, phonetics, pin-pen merger 34 Comments
“Rod” or “Ride?” Glide Deletion in the American South
When my mother was a teenager, she spent a summer in Scotland. Since she was staying as a guest in a family’s home, she shared a telephone with the other residents. In jest, a Scottish friend of hers often answered … Continue reading