"..and the southern girls, with the way they talk, they knock me out when I'm down there".
The Beach Boys sure knew what they were talking about - I have lived in various states in the US, and know people from all over the country, but there is no accent like a true southern one.
My ambition in life at this point is to confuse people into thinking I'm a local (yes, I like to have realistic goals in life). All of my life I have had a fairly stable Northeastern accent (minus the "pahk the cahr" tick), and have managed to have people assume I come from some place in New England. But having been here for a while, I've decided that I like the way they talk so much better. I don't know about it knocking me out, but it's close.
It's not just the accent; it's far more than that. For one thing, the intonation is completely different from anything you hear up north. Here in the south, everything seems to be a question; "I'm going to go ahead and file those forms now?". The danger in that is that as an insensitive non-southerner, you assume that people actually want you to respond to what appears to be a question, and so you end up telling people what to do when all they were looking for was an "uhuh". Directness is not a quality that is much valued down here, something I have had to discover the hard way :) (but more about that some other time)
And how about "y'all"? I could write a whole page about the practicality of that term. Up north I would always say "you guys", but that just sounds odd when talking to a group of girls, and then what do you say? "You gals"?. So, no, "y'all" is a wonderfully useful term that was part of my daily vocabulary within a week. And the best part? No one can quite seem to agree on whether it's plural or singular, so you can use it for individuals as well as groups. And you're free to play with it too; "all y'all" (all of you guys) and "y'alls"(you people's - possessive) are perfectly acceptable variations.
The south is also known for its colorful expressions, many of which I had never heard living up north. How about "she's meaner than a skillet full of rattlesnakes"? Or "I'm in it for spit and sticks" (spek en bonen), and "uglier than a mud fence".
But there are some things I'm not too sure about; how about "across-t" for "across" and "heighTH" for "height". Call me snooty, but to me that sounds just plain wrong.
In spite of those few things that I don't care, the drawl wins me over every time. And I do think I'm getting there. The other day I had two people ask me if I was from the midwest...I'm not quite there yet, but my accent is slowly moving south...yeehaw!
"Y'all better come back now, ya hear?"
2 comments:
As a northerner, I have a really hard time with this one. I don't find the accent charming in the least... probably because of northern stereotypes of southerners (especially white southerners) as relatively uneducated rednecks stubbornly stuck in their antebellum past. I'm finding that the differences down here are not the blatant images of Dukes of Hazard, NASCAR, and Wal-mart Republicans, but more subtle (yet equally bizzare) attitudes. Like the lack of directness and fake niceties... they strike this Midwesterner as passive aggressive. Frankly, I expected the south to be over the top because the Midwest has its own share of NASCARisms, which I expected to be only amplified down here. I guess that's just middle America in general. Now, I am familiar with the Texan/Oklahoman lifestyle, but that's a whole other redneck culture. With a ten-gallon hat and tight jeans.
Grappig, dat je "heighth" noemt. Ik moet iedere keer weer op mijn tong bijten om Christine niet te verbeteren, als zij dat zegt. Grappig is, dat ze in Canada is opgegroeid, maar daarna als volwassene jaren in het zuiden heeft gewoond.
Wij wonen hier op het randje van het zuiden, we hoeven maar iets die kant op te rijden en het accent verandert. Maar Northern Virginia is duidelijk deel van het noorden, de meesten, die ik ken, die hier zijn opgegroeid, hebben een onbestemd accent, wat ze tot goede nieuwslezers zou maken.
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