Study Says Southern Accent is Disappearing

Daily Mail

- The study, done as a collaboration between the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, shows that Xers had a 'notable change' in how they speak.

- The researchers studied hours of spoken word from people of different generations and saw that the accent became lighter as speakers got younger.

- The explanation was that demographic shifts saw more people move to the south, which led young people to adjust their speech to match their peers.

The famous 'southern drawl' is set to become extinct because Generation X'ers from the deep south speak so differently to their Baby Boomer parents, a study suggests.

Scientists from the University of Georgia and Georgia Tech, shows that Xers displayed a 'notable change' in how they speak compared to their Boomer elders.

The researchers studied hours of spoken word from people of different generations and saw that the accent became lighter as speakers got younger.

They say the explosion in pop culture TV including MTV may have been behind the rapid change in regional accents, but did not offer firm conclusions on why the change has taken place.

Lots of non Southerners are moving South and mixing with Southerners. We lived in Alabama for nine years - Madison Alabama. LOTS of people from outside the South lived there. I can see young people from the South losing their accent because they spend so much time with new people who are not from the South, while they are in school and in sports etc. Also, spending time on YouTube and tiktok and other media where people don't have Southern accents. Blending takes place.

a reply to: FlyersFan

We in the south here call those "neigschmeggde" / "Zuagroast". The first means they were from elsewhere but got assimilated into the local culture but it is still audible in their speech. The second describes people that settled here but did not engage in local community, thus never loosing their accent/dialect. I have a Bavarian dialect and people pull my leg because of it . Yet they also comment on my progress of assimilating when they teach me old local words.

Tribalism to a point. Which isn't always a bad thing, considering it also preserves core cultures that developed over centuries and longer I think need to be preserved. Like traditions.

This has always happened on lesser and bigger scales and was how languages were influenced. So it is a natural thing to happen through economy or disasters. A few centuries ago this place where I live now, was dirt poor. This led to the Swabian mindset, being cheapskates and inventors out of need. Their region now is one of the richest in Germany, now people move here to work, I am no exception.

In todays interconnected times, this happens a lot faster it seems.

Nice thought provoking thread

The researchers studied hours of spoken word from people of different generations and saw that the accent became lighter as speakers got younger.

Yeah, kids today can't hold down a spoken conversation.
Seriously.

originally posted by: Gothmog

The researchers studied hours of spoken word from people of different generations and saw that the accent became lighter as speakers got younger.

Yeah, kids today can't hold down a spoken conversation.
Seriously.

Was about to suggest the same thing... the separate generations don't converse as much as they used to. People have a phone stuck to thier face

a reply to: Gothmog

Right along with the lighter content as well.

Half of my family speaks with a southern accent. My immediate family doesn't but I'm close with the half that does. I speak with a southern accent around them naturally but not when I'm at home. My wife thinks this is weird. I just say, if you go to France, do you speak with an English accent or French accent? Or pick a country...

The point is, the middle American accent (or accent-less) is normalized, so that's how you talk now. It's simple to understand around the board. Just how it is, I guess.

We all ultimately talk differently in different situations. It's normal.

My husband's daughter lives in the deep South, and she has a definite drawl -
And says 'y'all' quite a bit, it's a charming accent.
She says we have a New York accent, which I'm sure we do.
Looking forward to moving South - the one thing I notice any time I call their town halls, real estate companies, etc., is how they always say, 'Yes, ma'am', and speak so respectfully.

the south country accent in the uk was deemed remarkably similar to the southern African American dialect but it no longer exists in the uk. we now speak a version of estuary English with differing geographic words and terms.

the only place local dialects will end up existing is within the local slang and geographic terms..

a reply to: FlyersFan

The spoken and written word has been subjugated by the visual medium.

Immigration has always blended cultures to a greater or lesser extent, however I would assume that not just modern technology assisted immigration, but pseudo-immigration, or perhaps better expressed as internet based cultural immigration via social media, is creating an amalgamation of vastly more cultures at one time.

The “South” of the USA definitely has received an additional physical influx of not just foreign cultures, but Northern and Western USA transplants due to health, climate and political influence over the past decades.

Pretty cool study anthropologically speaking.

I live in upstate NY and it's horrifying how many people here speak with a drawl. I absolutely loathe the burr-like sound that comes out of their mouth-holes. My neighbor is no different form Cletus the slack-jawed yokel in the SImspons.

What kind of miserable life do you live when you spend all day every day sitting outside under your car port, and you just never stop talking? They're sitting outside, talking, nearly every minute of their lives. The only time they're not is when it's night-time and they go inside to sleep. When I do yard work I get to hear them talk about me because I'm the most entertaining thing they've seen all day. They'll talk about anything they see because nothing of interest ever happens in their sad little lives, and with every word they speak there's the burrr of the lazy long throaty words they have to drawl on and on and on and on and on and on.

Shut up, Cletus.

And when he's not sitting outside talking nonstop he's running a circular saw or banging a hammer. I have no idea how his little trailer needs so much construction done on it. It seems like he could have built a whole second house by now.

a reply to: BlueJacket

Would be a lot more interesting if it were organic and authentic.

Unless of course one is fascinated by socially engineered manipulation and mass psychosis. Then, it's actually exciting!

Weirdos.

a reply to: EternalShadow
I don’t disagree. I personally blame the internet for destroying culture, but certain control factions for implementing conditions that hasten it along with the sole intention of destroying society… but that would be a different thread

a reply to: RonnieJersey

Well "bless your heart" young lady! Look it up

a reply to: peskyhumans

I have lived in upstate New York in the suburbs in Erie County near Buffalo. Once you go an hour out into the 2nd tier suburbs the people have a "southern" drawl type of accent so I agree with what you wrote. We have lived in the deep south since 2104. Five years West of Atlanta and 5 years in a rural region 20 miles from Columbia, South Carolina. Obviously many have a southern drawl and many do not.

It seems to correlate to said persons education. Same for all the television and radio announcers.

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: EternalShadow
I personally blame the internet for destroying culture, but certain control factions for implementing conditions that hasten it along with the sole intention of destroying society…

The internet is creating its own culture.

Do you see the irony of talking about the www. technology destroying society....while posting on a medium that has its own society and culture.


eta topic....I love the accent in "naw lens" [New Orleans].. Not a drawl, but unique, localized, musical. Cajun influenced, sweet
patois...

originally posted by: olaru12

originally posted by: BlueJacket
a reply to: EternalShadow
I personally blame the internet for destroying culture, but certain control factions for implementing conditions that hasten it along with the sole intention of destroying society…

The internet is creating its own culture.

Do you see the irony of talking about the www. technology destroying society....while posting on a medium that has its own society and culture.


eta topic....I love the accent in "naw lens" [New Orleans].. Not a drawl, but unique, localized, musical. Cajun influenced, sweet
patois...

I do indeed see the irony. There’s plenty of it around. Fact of the matter is concerning emotional maturity. Some have it, a great many do not.

Well bless our little ol southern hearts.
The accent now, what next? Save the turnip greens!

As a former Texan: Good. It sounds dumb.
I spent half my life trying hard to not develop the accent.
I get people are proud of their heritage and stuff, but, let's be real, most people who aren't southern think southern accents sound dumb. So who cares. Good.

I would also add that accents all over are likely to keep disappearing. With the rise of audio in film, we saw in the USA, the mass adoption of the unified "Trans-Atlantic Accent", and this spread into everyday life over time as people emulated the people they saw in the "talkies". TV and the internet has done the same thing with today's "non regional accent".
Remember the only reason distinct languages and accents even exist is because of social isolation between groups, and that isolation is disappearing. A lot of people across the world are learning English too.
We're becoming closer as a species through the internet, so this isn't gonna stop happening.
It will intensify, and it's probably a GOOD THING, because we'll all have an easier time understanding each other.

a reply to: FlyersFan

I guess The voice is no longer a good indicator of who is a redneck?