Southern accent
Southern accent in American English
A little theory and a few examples

A little theory
lThe so-called „southern accent“ can be heard in 16 out of the 50 states in the USA
lIt covers the south of the States, goes from Maryland through Florida all the way to Texas.
lApproximately 130 million people speak this accent, this figure also includes the American
capital, Washington D.C.
lOrigins of the southern accent can be traced to the first british colony in the US, Virginia

Typical features of Southern
lPeople in Virgina, being the british colony, needed to establish their position on top of the
society, so they used British RP to emulate their social and financial situation by using „posh“
british accent.
lDue to getting rich through trade of cotton, tobacco and sugar cane, the need for further
differentiation materialized in the adoption of the way british aristocracy and top of society
spoke
lIn the beginning, the typical features of southern accent were the drop of „R“ and elongation of
the wovels.

Further evolution
lThis area was subjected to further changes due to increased human traficking and immigration in
the coming years, the wealth attracting immigrants and the rich upper class bringing in more and
more slaves to work on the plantation.
lThis had a huge impact on the accent and the way people talked.
lThe French and Spanish had their colonies there, all the people brought in spoke to each other in
pidgin and Creole, and specificaly African nations influenced the southern accent quite a lot

Types of Southern accent
lAtlantic
•This accent is probably the one accent most people associate with being „Southern“. Made popular
by movies such as Gone with the Wind, it is spoken in Maryland, Virginia, North and South Carolina
and in Georgia.
lFamous (and infamous) people speaking this are South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xuzbJw1qr8)
lMaryland accent (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-MHVxLXvVQ)

Types of Southern accent
lApalachian
lThis variety covers Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama.
lPhonological features include pronouncing the „r´s“ rather than dropping them, and a special
feature of h-dropping.
lhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03iwAY4KlIU&t=19s

Types of Southern Accent
lMissisipi Delta and Texan accents
•
lMissisipi – Johnny Cash, Britney Spears
lTexas – Mathew McConne
lTexas accents – Young Sheldon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iDDw2PpCC4

Features of Southern accent
lSouthern lilt
lSouthern accents slow down and elongate the vowel sounds, turning vowels turn into diphthongs.
•
lBill → /bee yill/
lPet → /pe yut/
lCat → /ca yut/
lThe tone of the vowel will rise then fall to make a classic Southern accent.
•
lR dropping
lMost Southern accents will drop the r’s on most words.
•
lMother → /mu thuh/
lFather → /fa thuh/
lTired → /tay yud/

Southern Slang
lAmerican Slang is highly regional, some of the phrases are fairly common:
•
lHowdy Hello Howdy, y’all.
lY’all You (plural); you all How y’all doin’?
lFixin’ to Going to I’m fixin’ to eat lunch.
lOver yonder Over there The shop is over yonder.
lI reckon I think I reckon it’s gon’ rain.
lAs all get out Very; a lot He’s funny as all get out.

More examples:
lSenator John Kennedy (Louisiana): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAGusWzYAEw
•
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGxsH6SgKYk
•
•southern way of pronouncing certain words
•
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_NCzNSoE8A
•
•southern slang explained
•
•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJKnJrDm8mk
•
•lady with a southern accent with Craig

The Legend of Bagger Vance
lThe movie, made by Robert Redford, has famous actors replicate the southern accent. The movie is
set in Savannah, Georgia, and you will watch and hear an exchange between Matt Damon and Charlize
Theron as Junuh and Adele, and also a clip when Charlize Theron as Adele speaks to the town´s
people´s delegation:
•
l1: 11:35 – 14:35
l2: 1:07:40 -