How ta Speak Suthun (Southern)

[celtic_crippler]

Tez inspired me. LOL

Your guide to the Southern dialect.

http://www.gagirl.com/southern/south.html

 

[MA-Caver]

Now lookit here ya'll if'n ya'll wanna talk suthurn then ya got ta learnt ta spell lak suthern ... sorta lak huk on da thar fonics thang dey had a wile back.
Of course da suthern folk kin speek de english language better than dey can.

Peace... ya'll.

 

[Drac]

Da ya all knows the difference between Southern and Northern girls?? Northern girls say " Yes you can"...Southern girls say " Yes, ya all can"..

 

[K-man]

Now lookit here ya'll if'n ya'll wanna talk suthurn then ya got ta learnt ta spell lak suthern ... sorta lak huk on da thar fonics thang dey had a wile back.
Of course da suthern folk kin speek de english language better than dey can.

Peace... ya'll.

I'm sure I read on one of the threads that people in the US speak English! :rofl:

 

[MA-Caver]

I'm sure I read on one of the threads that people in the US speak English! :rofl:

Now hold on thar boah... if'n ya'll want to complain 'bout our english then ya'll need ta start tawlkin rite tew!... fer exampill ... it's Gudday not G'day... rite?

 

[Jade Tigress]

I lived in the Appalachian region for 10 years. Beautiful place, great people, whole new way of speaking. Boone, NC. for 5 years and Mountain City, TN. for 5 years. My son was not quite 3 when we moved from the Chicago burbs so he picked up the accent and terms while we lived there. He would often use the term "plum". He would say, "Ahm plum tarred." (I'm very tired).

Another thing I remember is plates vs. tags. Up north we have plates (license) on our vehicles. Down south they have tags. Also, in addition to "Ya'll" there was "You'ins", they're interchangable.

I'm loving these threads. Every region has there own twist on dialect and slang. Very fun!

 

[Flea]

I lived in Kentucky for ten years, and I'm still developing my ear for the Appalachian dialect.

For all you furriners, here's a cool map of regional dialects in the United States. It has a detailed breakdown of different regions, including some individual cities with especially interesting sounds.

 

[Gordon Nore]

I lived in Kentucky for ten years, and I'm still developing my ear for the Appalachian dialect.

My Missus is from KY. Her name is Blanche -- could that be any more southern? As a freshman at Cornell, she answered a question wrong in class, to which the prof retorted, "Clearly, you think as slowly as you speak." Sadly, she took lessons from a voice coach to diminish her accent. Her dialect returns when she is on the phone with her sisters or traveling in the south.

 

[celtic_crippler]

It may come as a surprise, but there are several different Southern dialects. For instance, a North Carolina accent will sound different from an Alabama accent...but they are both distinquishably Southern.

As evidenced in many posts here, it seems that some have preconcieved prejudices concerning Southern dialects. Fascinating. lol

 

[Xue Sheng]

Uhmewzin

 

[K-man]

Now hold on thar boah... if'n ya'll want to complain 'bout our english then ya'll need ta start tawlkin rite tew!... fer exampill ... it's Gudday not G'day... rite?

Just as you have the deep South, we have the far North. Might be something to do with heat or humidity but the speech slows appreciably the further north you go. So, if I was from the North I would probably say 'Gudday', as I'm from the South I say 'G'day' but if I was truly speaking English I would 'Good day, Sir' in my plumbiest voice. Mind you, within the sound of Bow Bell I would by more inclined to say, 'Mornen Guv!', and it is to those erstwhile citizens we owe most for our colloquial turn of phrase. :asian:

 

[Flea]

It may come as a surprise, but there are several different Southern dialects. For instance, a North Carolina accent will sound different from an Alabama accent...but they are both distinquishably Southern.

As evidenced in many posts here, it seems that some have preconcieved prejudices concerning Southern dialects. Fascinating. lol

I'm very conscious of that these days with my customer service phone job. I have an ear for Appalachian english, but when we started taking calls from Mississippi? Ha' mercy! It was like a whole different language. A few months ago I started taking calls from Louisiana. No Cajun in the mix yet, but I keep hoping. Adapting to these different flavors at such a fast pace is one of the challenges that keeps me going in that job.

One of my all-time favorite geek factoids is that dialects are not unique to humans. Several species of birds have regional dialects as well, and can pick up each other's brogues along their migratory paths.

It's a groovy world.