North vs. South debate continues....

You kidding? There's a least 3 fairly distinct accents in Texas alone.

And two of them are Mexican!

Good point. Make that at least 4 in Texas alone.

The Minnesota/Wisconsin/Dakota accent is quite amusing.

The Yooper dialect. Alot of the earliest settlers of the northern Midwest were Scandinavian.

Fun to speak, sometimes I slip into it without even realizing it.

The city of Charlotte, NC has it's very own accent. It starts right at the city limits...wierdest thing.

A Chicago accent is the funniest... "Ahm goin hiykyin an Ahm taykin a byackpeyack". It's like Wisconsin trying not to be.

In the Bay Area alone there's 5 accents excluding the ethnic and gay ones (which number about 6 or 7 by themselves) - Peninsula, South Bay, Oakland, Lafayette, and Delta. Most people can't hear the difference between most of them, though Peninsula and Delta are different enough that a non-resident can tell them apart. The distribution of these accents is fairly self-explanitory, except Peninsula also covers most of the North Bay, Lafayette covers the 680 corridor and most of the length of 24, and Delta spreads as far West as Eastern Pittsburgh. It is believed that Lafayette, Oakland, and South Bay share a common ancestor in the Regular Western accent.

^ My, what a cunning linguist.

Oh no, there is a difference to the trained ear. I speak with a distinct tone of the mountains that run up through Northeastern Alabama, Southeastern Tennessee, Northern Georgia, Eastern Kentucky, Western North Carolina, and Western Virginia. The low countries, down the eastern seaboard through South Carolina and Georgia have a very different twang that always creates a lump in my throat when it comes from a pretty lady. Arkansas, Western Tennessee, and Northern Mississippi shares a bit of my mountain tint while Southern Alabama, and Southern Mississippi leans more towards the low country twang, but it is not identical. Then you've got those Cajuns in Louisiana, and Texicans off doing their own things.

You left out the Oklahomans and the Floridians

^The "South" is a very interesting region. If you look at it's historical roots and ties, you could argue that it stretches from Delaware to S. California (interesting note: S. California was to be it's own state, but was prevented from splintering because of their pro-slavery population was deemed dangerous in the years right before the ACW!). IIRC, even Arizona organized at least some token CSA units to probe the extreme western front.

Much to the chagrin of my most esteemed colleagues from those two fine, outstanding, states, neither rates as "southern" in my book.

Not surprising...back then, Arizona and New Mexico territories, as proposed, were one atop the other rather than side by side, and the more southerly Arizona territory was nominally a CSA territory for part of the CSA's existence, until 1863, when the border between them was altered from a horizontal to a vertical one, and both became official Union territories.

There does seem to be a influx of Yankees into this fine state (hell, me being one of them), but you'll have to live with the fact that Florida seceded from the Union exactly one day before Alabama did.

I like that Tennessee was the last to leave and the first to come crawling back

I'm a native Virginian.

I've never been a huge fan of the deep drawl, but there's nothing quite as sexy as a woman with just a hint of a Southern accent...

What's that to do with what I said?

I'm a native Tarheel.

I wouldn't say a northern accent is sexy by any means. However, a stereotypical southern female accent just makes them seem as dumb as a box of rocks. Don't really get the same impression from the male southern accent (unless its a real hillbilly accent), but then again I don't grade those in terms of sexiness.

I never understood how a person could use an accent to judge intelligence.

While it may not be a TRUE meter of intelligence, many northerners think the deep south accent makes a person sound like a dumb hillbilly. I sure have trouble when I'm in Westminster SC taking anybody seriously.

Doesn't help that half the people my sister's kids know have criminal records and deal drugs and stolen goods out of their old rusty peekup truuuks. And the other half were parents at the age of 15.

I really don't have that much of an accent and it has always amused people when they find out I'm from Mississippi. They are like, you don't talk like you're from Mississippi.



As if there is a certain way Mississippi folks are supposed to talk, other than how Hollyweird portrays us.

Oddly enough my brother-in-law from North Carolina also has no accent, or just a very light one. He lived in Jersey for a while and nobody ever mentioned an accent to him.

That's exactly what I say, but change up to down

For a start, it's 'film', not fil-um and 'book', not booook, s-cone and not scon and no, not no-ah.

Don't even get me started on Northeners backward pronounciation of cake

In Americans I love the Southern accent. Sounds gorgeous on a woman

If it's anything like Ancalagon's, good luck understanding him at all.

south unless the drawl is faked--and I love midwestern girls anyway sooo...

Southern

Well you probably have all ya teeth.

If you speak the language properly the accent should be minimul.

So many with strong accents aren't speaking properly. D'UH!!