“Georgia, right?” … “Are you from North Carolina?”
My southern accent is a regular source of conversation and outright amusement amongst those I’ve met since moving to the Bay Area. People try to pinpoint where I’m from, but usually only those who are also from the South. No one ever guesses Tennessee, but I’ve gotten Kentucky a few times.
What is funny to me is how when I waited tables in Murfreesboro and in Nashville I was often asked from the locals where I was from. Because my Southern drawl wasn’t as pronounced as every one else’s. And I called it soda.
Then I went to work for a TV station that doled out a little charity and let me be on the air. I learned, or tried to learn, even more how to hide my Tennessee twang, though I’m not sure I ever succeeded. However, when I hang out with the good folks of Cheatham County, where I went to high school, the vocal divide is readily apparent. I have nowhere near as deep an accent as my Ashland City and Pleasant View friends.
I drop more g’s when I’ve had a couple to drink, and I snap into a slower lilt when I’m on the phone with my terrificly twangy Mom, but on the whole I do not have a strong southern accent. Which is why this blog post from Honest Lee made me laugh:
i follow three people on twitter (via their xml rpc api via rss via newsbeuter). defectiveyeti (matthew baldwin), dooce (heather armstrong) and brittneyg. and i had no idea brittneyg had a southern accent
He’s referring to a video segment I did for CBS 5 in San Francisco. And frankly, I don’t really hear an accent. So, I want you to do me a favor. Watch this video and weigh in with your comment: Do you hear a Southern accent? I am particularly interested in how the answers will skew based on location.
Y’all come back now, ya hear?
23 comments ↓
I listened very closely, and here were the only words where I heard anything. Exaggerated for effect:
Nahyeet (night)
L’yeader (leader)
Faiyeled (failed)
Bowlts (bolts)
T’dayee (today)
You had a tiny bit of the L dropped in “Saint Paul.” My dad does the same thing with words like Pool, which become almost Poo’.
I love what’s left of your twang. Don’t lose it!
Back in my theatre days (ok, high school) they said you have to learn a “Midwestern neutral” accent before you could effectively try to imitate other accents.
You and I were blessed with innate Midwestern neutral. Alcohol brings out the drawl in most of us. Alcodrawl?
It’s barely perceptible. Just enough to be charming, but not so much that it’s jarring.
I hear it, but it’s really, really subtle. Not sure I’d have noticed it if I weren’t listening for it.
And I’m like you — my North Carolinian drawl comes out just a little when I’m tired, homesick, or drunk.
Yes…you do have a bit of one in much the same way I do.
People up here (Washington, DC area) remark on my southern accent and pick on me for the inevitable long vowels and extra syllables that creep into my speech; people back home (the blue Ridge mountains of VA/NC) wonder where my shockingly non-southern accent comes from.
Whatever the case, you have a lovely voice.
It’s there, but it’s very understated. It comes across like someone from Tennessee who’s lived in California for a long time. Although a normal TN accent isn’t really that “southern” to begin with, if growing up watching Huell Howser is any indication.
I had a girlfriend from Texas who had a very neutral accent, and she lived her entire life there. It only came out when she was talking to family and then it was BAM, TEXAS Y’ALL.
I can only make out the slightest bit of a Southern accent on “St. Paul,” “though,” “bolts,” “today” and maybe “blogs.” My middle Tennessee accent was pointed out to me daily when I lived in Denver, usually by easy-to-excite men. I’ve hung on to my twang, but I certainly know how to tone it down. I did an on-air spot at PBS in Denver, and I think I hid it fairly well. It’s odd because I’m not ashamed of it; I just didn’t want to call attention to it. I love all regional accents, even the grating ones. They’re fun to mimic.
You sound great!
I just recently got to where I could call it soda without a disclaimer. Pop, however, I cannot do.
Barely perceptible. It’s there but I’d have a hard time pinning down where you’re from - it doesn’t scream “southern”.
As Ariel pointed out, there’s a bit of a twang on “night” and “leader” but having lived in south Georgia I’ve heard much, much worse!
I’ll agree with “Midwestern neutral”. Well, at least here in Indianapolis. I could get away with being from anywhere due to my distinct lack of speech patterns or draw.
I’m lipreading, but I see a little bit of a drawl on you.
I have no accent, in spite of growing up in Georgia, because both my folks are Yankees.
As a southerner I didn’t catch any of the twang the others picked up. I guess I’m just used to it. You didn’t sound at all southern to me.
Definitely there. Not being from the US, I’m probably not as able as others to pick up on subtle regional variations, but it sounded Southern to me. Not like Deliverance southern, but a definite drawl.
Would probably be interesting to compare to your first TV appearance.
I’ve lived in Tennessee all my life. Most of us don’t have a thick, pronounced accent. (Although I do have a few relatives in East Tennessee who have the “Deliverance” accent that Jordan mentioned.) Listening to you, I didn’t pick up on any kind of Southern accent in your speech. You refrained from using the dead giveaway words such as “ain’t”, “y’all” and “who ‘dat”. Wait, that last one was Cajun. Never mind.
I have to say that I only detected a very small amount of accent. If I didn’t know where you were from I would guess that you perhaps you had lived somewhere southern when you were a child and had a slight residual accent. I may not have even noticed it if it hadn’t been pointed out. As for my location I’m in Calgary, Canada
you do have a southern accent but only really on certain words (like ‘five’). as for location, i live in philly but i’m from new york (a suburb of nyc).
TX here. You definitely sound a bit southern, but its not glaringly so. I think few people not from the region would ever be able to pin down where exactly from, just obviously NOT mississippi or alabama. :P
I lived in Georgia for 7 years, I think if you can keep it low key like it is now and are well spoken, no one will care. Its a little endearing!
I personally tend to pick up the accents of where I live really quick, even when I’m not trying to. If I went to california in a few weeks I’d already be saying dude way too much I fear.
Yeah, you still got it. :) I heard a soft lilt/almost twang. You’ve done well in “losing” most of it, but there’s still a hint. People from TN wouldn’t necessarily notice it… and it’s definitely not the twangy sound of Ashland Ceeety ;) but being from SoCal originally, I can hear it.
PS — Soak up some of that Bay Area fog for me! I miss The City.
Sounds mostly mid-western to me. I think I heard ‘blawg’ once in there, but you sound mostly neutral to me.
Most importantly, your hair is fabulous.
Naw, but I’ve got a real strong Texas accent myself.
I like “Midwestern Neutral”. I had never heard that before. But that pretty much sums it up. Especially with the more conservative haircut, you just seem very urban-hometowny. Neutral enough for markets from Cleveland to Fresno.
So, yeah, slight accent, but one that works. I find the phenomenon fascinating anyway. Hartfords WFSB used to have a southern weatherman, and I found him an unusual, but very likeable part of the newsteam.
Heh. I was talkin’ to a campaign flack in Indiana this week, and she swore she didn’t detect an accent. I called “bullshit.” I’ve heard/seen myself on tape. I’m not ashamed.
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Your accent is effectively gone here. I remember watching you the first time Channel 2 did a segment on you in Tennessee, and there you sounded Middle Tennesseean. (I thought.)
I’m from Middle Tennessee, currently in New York City. My lack of an accent is a good conversation topic. It comes back if I will it to, or (apparently) if I talk to my best friend back home on the phone.
Haha… I recently moved to San Francisco, CA from Chattanooga, TN… I never thought I had much of a Southern Accent - compared to other Chattanoogans I didn’t - until I landed in California…
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