On Being Southern

[Scraper Enthusiast]

Right, but I don't think the stigma is so prevalent anymore (the southern hick stereotype, or whatever you want to call it), but when I was around 9 or 10 in NJ/NY, I would be made fun of by the kids when they found out I was from N.C. They'd say I lived on a farm with cows and whatnot, and I was a little perplexed, I tried to tell them I lived in a city, but then I caught on that farms/rurality was negative to them, and what they thought of as the south. So I pointed out how NY is the leading producer of many agriculture products and cows/dairy and that half of NJ was farmland as well (I read encyclopedias as a kid). Really was ridiculous, but don't see it much at all now, really. I guess it helps when corporate locations and opportunity have forced so many to move down south.

Have a link to that topic? Searched but returned over 350 pages for "southern accents"....

Unlike some people, I really don't think that the south is stigmatized like it once was. Frankly, I see little evidence to support that the south is any longer the butt of jokes. When I was in high school fifteen years ago, up until the late nineties, you heard much more of it than you do today.

[912]

I agree with you that the southern accent should extend farther into Texas. I've heard southern accents as far west as the Midland/Odessa area. Realistically, I've even heard southern accents as far west as parts of the Tucscon, Arizona area.

Agreed. The accents in the Houston area are, bar none, Southern. You hear some West Texas here, but by & large, it's Southern. Houston's less than 2 hours from Louisiana, after all.

[nowensone]

Unlike some people, I really don't think that the south is stigmatized like it once was. Frankly, I see little evidence to support that the south is any longer the butt of jokes. When I was in high school fifteen years ago, up until the late nineties, you heard much more of it than you do today.

I think we have been agreeing, may not be reading you right, though.

[nowensone]

Agreed. The accents in the Houston area are, bar none, Southern. You hear some West Texas here, but by & large, it's Southern. Houston's less than 2 hours from Louisiana, after all.

I don't know about that, I knew a lot of natives and transplants in Houston, the native accent was more neutral than southern, but that may just be a factor of age. And of course the majority of Houston's pop is not from Houston (that could just mean some are from 30 miles down the road, interesting stat none-the-less).

[teshadoh]

I don't know about that, I knew a lot of natives and transplants in Houston, the native accent was more neutral than southern, but that may just be a factor of age. And of course the majority of Houston's pop is not from Houston (that could just mean some are from 30 miles down the road, interesting stat none-the-less).

That could be said about most major metro areas - the larger cities are not as provincial as rural areas are. Having visited Jasper, TX - it is as southern as any place in the south I've visited.

[The Tot Pack]

here in Nashville..

i notice all the new people i talk to.. AREN'T FROM HERE!

they aren't even from the south

The New South has become so diverse that I don't think you can really call yourself a southerner..

unless your family traces back to the cherokees or something..

[912]

unless your family traces back to the cherokees or something..

My family can...and we have a LTC from the Confederacy in our lineage to boot!

[LizellaJacket]

I'll call myself Southern. Private John Henry Rainey 19th Georgia Infantry, occupation farmer. He fought at Chancellorsville, Seven Pines, and The battle of the Wilderness. Thats my great^4 grandfather and I'm darn proud of everything he did. Also, 13 other male relatives on my grandmas side.

The New South is a farce. It means drooping all semblance of anything Southern. Your heritage, your sayings, your speech, your symbols, your pride.

[Pillsbury]

I'm Southern. I drink Sweet Tea and talk with a drawl (on Saturday nights anyway ). I think Coke and grits are the best combination to cure a hangover. I know what a "hose-pipe" is (you'd be suprised how many people in this town have no idea what that is). I was raised on Braves baseball and Bobby Jones is considered saint in my household. So, yeah, I'm pretty Southern I'd say.

I think the New South is just an understanding that maybe the things we revere are offensive to other people and that maybe we should try and be a litte more understanding of that issue.

[Miesian Corners]

I would rather hear "y'all" any day of the week (since it is a REAL contraction) than to suffer through "yuns" from western PA, "yous" from eastern PA and southern NJ, or a nasal "you guys" from any area bordering the Great Lakes.

[sprtsluvr8]

I think of "the South" as the southeastern and southwestern geographical areas of the U.S., so Southerners would be people from that region. As far as accents, attitudes, etc...we are all individuals with our own identity. There are major differences in Southerners from urban areas and Southerners from rural areas. Differences also seem to depend on class and economic factors as well as level of education. There really isn't one typical Southerner, but there are many types just like in any other region of the country.

[teshadoh]

I would rather hear "y'all" any day of the week (since it is a REAL contraction) than to suffer through "yuns" from western PA, "yous" from eastern PA and southern NJ, or a nasal "you guys" from any area bordering the Great Lakes.

[TexasTea]

Having visited Jasper, TX - it is as southern as any place in the south I've visited.

[teshadoh]

Remember that tragedy that happen in Jasper a while ago? It split the town right down the middle, after that happened Blacks stayed on their side of the line and Whites on theirs

[Pillsbury]

^ Very true. For a while there, Jasper, Texas was the...personification of small town racism. But really it could have happened anywhere. Small towns all across America, where the races still exist on opposite sides of railroad tracks. It's still there.....

[912]

^ Very true. For a while there, Jasper, Texas was the...personification of small town racism. But really it could have happened anywhere. Small towns all across America, where the races still exist on opposite sides of railroad tracks. It's still there.....

[Pillsbury]

^ Yeah, very true. It could have happened anywhere.

I like to give Southern towns the sweet tea test. You don't have to like sweet tea, but if the town you live in has sweet tea available at most restaurants (and I mean real sweet tea) then you're in a Southern town. If you have sweet tea beside unsweet tea then you're a Southern town that's open to outsiders. If you just have unsweet tea, then you're not as Southern. You could also move into more complex scenarios, such as how big the sweet tea container is compared to the unsweet tea, et cetera. Currently this is an experiment in progress (this being performed along with my Mexican restaurant menu test to see if a Number 10 really is the same everywhere. I'll keep everyone updated of my progress).

[nowensone]

^ There was just this one BBQ restaurant and Chik-fil-A that I could get sweat tea at while in Houston, and believe me, I ate at many different places. SO I guess that proves the theory that Texas is not Southern.

[davidals]

I usually define "South" by geography; the South is getting too diverse to really sum up in simple ethnic, or class terms. There are a lot of different "Souths", and others have pointed out the variance in accents - that Appalachian accent you might hear in Avery County NC is a lot like what you might hear in Pittsburgh, and very unlike what you'd hear in Eastern NC or the Chesapeake area.

The South has always been a state of mind - I don't remember who said that Pennsylvania was "two big cities with Alabama in between," but a lot of places elsewhere are Southern in the stereotypical sense but not in geography, and some of the Southern boomtowns (not just the Florida ones) aren't very southern at all. You can spot the romanticization of the South in film and literature - there's a big genre of "Southern Fiction", a lot of stuff about grandmothers and front porches and humidity and such, and it seems very sepia-toned and silly, having drifted far from Faulkner and more towards Steel Magnolias, but a lot of it is also about mourning the best qualities (while conveniently ignoring the worst ones) of a region that in some places is soaking up influences from around the country and the world.

Some of the South-bashing one will see is justified by a tragic history, but there's also some motivated by envy - the weather is nice (some of us LOVE hot weather), and basically almost everything that could be described as American popular culture (which means a noteworthy percentage of global popular culture) was born here: blues, rock, funk, bluegrass, country, jazz all came out of the South, and - in spite of my swipe at new-school Southern lit (ugh), a lot of the greatest American literature is from here as well. The region is culturally rich and diverse and has always drawn from a zillion things, which is why I'd argue that Florida is Southern in spite of itself - it's just adding yet more ingredients into the gumbo, which has always happened; ditto for the internationalisms you see in places like Atlanta, NoVa, Raleigh-Durham and elsewhere.

The conservatism and racial beliefs and overall churchiness of the region are oft-discussed, but the urban/rural divide exists elsewhere as well, and plays out in pretty much the same fashion; no smart person would travel out of the South and suddenly expect the US to turn into rampant leftism; and anyone who thinks Charlotte, Nashville or Raleigh is straight out of Deliverance needs to get out more. Of course, the new South hasn't shown up in literature, TV or movies - being a techie at RTP wouldn't seem to be loaded with the literary potential of Faulkner's swamps, debutantes and half-wits (though the life story of someone from Bangalore landing in Cary, and liking the transition might also be an interesting story as of yet untold), and I doubt Designing Women would have been popular were it not for those hammy drawwwwls.

The South just gets less exotic, a lot less like some kind of foreign country within the US, which is fine with me.

[urbanvb]

I like to give Southern towns the sweet tea test. You don't have to like sweet tea, but if the town you live in has sweet tea available at most restaurants (and I mean real sweet tea) then you're in a Southern town. If you have sweet tea beside unsweet tea then you're a Southern town that's open to outsiders. If you just have unsweet tea, then you're not as Southern. You could also move into more complex scenarios, such as how big the sweet tea container is compared to the unsweet tea, et cetera. Currently this is an experiment in progress (this being performed along with my Mexican restaurant menu test to see if a Number 10 really is the same everywhere. I'll keep everyone updated of my progress).

[Dale]

If you say, 'SWATE-TAY', you may be a southerner.

[JDC]

The only thing that's "southern" about DC is the fact that senators and representatives from southern states work there.

[cinco]

If you say, 'SWATE-TAY', you may be a southerner.

[shanthemanatl]

dude, i don't know about that example... i am from the south born and raised. i keep reading your example aloud... and i got to tell ya - it doesn't sound like any southern accent that i've heard. it sounds more like jody foster's (nell) character in the movie NELL.... which is a southern accent under the influence of a speech impediment.

[pyper]

After reading all 7 pages, it seems southerners are bound together by kudzu, sweet tea, and grits.

I like the accent map, but it misses the low country dialect (Gulla), which is quite different from anything else.

My wife is from East Texas. I'm sure she doesn't consider herself southern. I don't think any of the people I've met in her home town would consider themselves southerners, either. I'll ask next time. Remember: Texas was a country before it was a state

I've met people around here who would argue that Tennessee isn't part of the south (let alone Kentucky). My friends in Tennessee seemed insulted when I told them about that.