Are there any states in the North or West where people speak with Southern accents?
Posted by Jezzaq94@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 98 comments
winksoutloud@reddit
Bakersfield, California is known for its southern/Oklahoma accent. I can't say if it's still as strong after all these years.
There are scattered towns in the West where you can notice a bit of an accent, usually left over from generations ago.
TelevisionNo4428@reddit
Isn’t that because of all the Okies fleeing the dust bowl that settled there during the Great Depression?
winksoutloud@reddit
Yep
TaxSilver4323@reddit
I can relate. My family moved to California during the depression from north Texas during the depression and I picked up some of their accent in my own even though I was born and raised in CA.
OwlishIntergalactic@reddit
There are other parts of the Central Valley with it, too. My father and grandparents were in Modesto and I have a twang on some words even though I’ve lived on the West Coast my whole life. I’ve heard there are pockets in the Bay Area, too.
tn00bz@reddit
This. My dad's family settled in the central valley and they all have southern-ish accents. It was supper apparent in my grandparents. My parents moved to the coast, so they mostly don't have the accent, but they still say things like "warsher" and "hwite." My cousins have an interesting mix of a California and Southern accent. Extra funny because they're all Mexican-American. We call them Rednexican.
I think it's still prominent with them because they really live in the middle of nowhere.
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
It's so weird, because we kids were calling "warsh" the "old people accent" back in the 1980s.
WrongJohnSilver@reddit
The Central Valley gets interesting, because you get multiple accents on top of each other. There's a base older Californian sound, then there's Okie/Arkie, then a coastal transplant sound. And that's all before we talk about Mexican-American accents.
They're all on top of each other and co-existing. You can tell one from another by letting them say the word "almond."
anneofgraygardens@reddit
when I was a freshman in college there was a girl in my dorm from somewhere in the Central Valley. She sounded like a regular Californian. But her boyfriend would come visit pretty much every weekend and he sounds like he was straight out of Oklahoma. multiple people in my dorm asked him where he was from, and he'd delight in their shocked faces when he'd say he was from California.
Flossmoor71@reddit
I came here to say this based on what I’ve heard about Bakersfield, but fortunately I’ve never been there other than passing through, so I can’t speak from experience.
Juicy_Hamburger@reddit
Depends on how you define “Southern”
There’s definitely a country twang in rural parts of Maryland and Delaware
SevenSixOne@reddit
and some kind of "country twang" exists in rural and remote areas all over the US (especially in folks over the age of ~60 who have lived in the same area their whole life), and can easily be mistaken for a "Southern accent" by anyone who's not familiar with Southern American accents or American accents in general
LaFleurRouler@reddit
Maryland is below the Mason-Dixon Line (fully qualified as part of the American South), and Delaware is very close to it. Both were slave states. Neither seceded, but populations were very divided and fought for both the Union and Confederacy. These states aren’t fantastic examples of the American North. I’d say the same about southern Ohio, southern Pennsylvania, and southern Indiana. Many lower Midwest states have linguistic similarities and influences from the south. Though all above the Mason-Dixon, they are linguistically influenced in a way the West, Pacific Northwest, Northeast, and northern Midwest are not.
Linguistically, the southern accent is becoming extinct due to older generations encouraging younger generations to speak without one. This is because the accent is incorrectly associated with lower education and intelligence: the hillbilly (though some truly are hillbillies).
It would make sense that the states closer to the North would be able to shed it more noticeably than the states in the Deep South. But it’s still there. A great example is Joe Biden’s accent.
NomadLexicon@reddit
Large swathes of Delaware and Maryland are becoming suburbs or retirement/vacation communities for larger cities that attract lots of transplants (DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Wilmington and the larger military bases) so rural Southern accents are dying out in most places (similar to Northern Virginia) and the region as a whole has taken on more of a Mid-Atlantic identity with every new generation.
One area where a variant of the Southern accent is still strong is the predominantly black neighborhoods in and around the cities.
Ibn-Rushd@reddit
Many in my demographic (Millenial, middle class) code switch our accents. I am fully southern speaking to locals in Southern Maryland but unconsciously switch to a much more generic accent in professional and academic contexts.
It still slips through in some words though.
LaFleurRouler@reddit
For sure! Very familiar, I have a Peter Griffin accent as my base but it’s pretty generic overall, so code switching usually happens if I’m around people with strong RI accents, and back to total generic if I’m not around otha New Englandahs.
My friends have a joke that they can tell I’m buzzed and feeling good when the townie tongue comes out to play. I never really realized that I suppressed it until a few years ago when a few friends (also townies) pointed it out lol. I work in academia and I didn’t realize that I completely unconsciously shift even my natural speech (very light RI accent) to regionally neutral.
mikutansan@reddit
Just go to a rural area anywhere and you’ll find that a country culture/accent isn’t just a southern thing
Juiceton-@reddit
Oklahoma (is not southern and I’ll die on this hill) has a southern-lite accent going on. It’s subtler than Texas has but not quite as flat as in Kansas.
GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit
Southern Indiana can get pretty thick.
WingedLady@reddit
I know someone from there who gets asked if he's from Texas fairly regularly when he travels.
thusnewmexico@reddit
Native Hoosier here. When I went away to college at Indiana University, my new friends from Chicago asked me if I was from Texas. Consciously lost dialect soon after.
ridleysquidly@reddit
For a play I had to learn some of this accent, but it was called the “midwestern farmer accent,” and was differentiated from southern. IDK if that’s actually a true differentiation because I’ve never been there myself, though.
GhostOfJamesStrang@reddit
Indiana is straight southern. Not just a Midwestern rural laze.
NomadLexicon@reddit
Ohio and Indiana became much more culturally Southern because of mass migration from Appalachia to Midwestern factory towns in the 40s-60s.
NArcadia11@reddit
Southern Indiana is the Deep South as far as I’m concerned lol
sociapathictendences@reddit
I used to travel through there for work and counting confederate flags was a fun game. More southern than Lexington, Kentucky in some ways.
braines54@reddit
I grew up in Louisville. Crossing the bridge north took you 200 miles south.
braines54@reddit
I grew up in Louisville. Crossing the bridge north took you 200 miles south.
Eric848448@reddit
It doesn’t have to be that far south. Exurbs around Indianapolis can get pretty twangy.
WhiskyTangoNovember@reddit
This is what I came to post. From my perspective, the accent, the hills, and the 812 area code all start at about the same line
_alittlefrittata@reddit
Indiana has more twang below I70
concrete_isnt_cement@reddit
As a Washingtonian, I have had multiple foreign acquaintances comment on my “southern accent”. I don’t hear it at all myself, and find the idea baffling.
I do occasionally have a tiny bit of a rural twang, which might be where the confusion comes from, but it’s definitely a rural Western accent, not a rural Southern accent. I’m from the city, but my mom’s from a small town and passed a bit of it on.
TaxSilver4323@reddit
I was born and raised in California but I picked up on my grandma and great grandma's Texas accents since I was around them a lot while growing up. People get very confused about my accent because of that. Lol it's like a weird California Texas hybrid.
AKDude79@reddit
Not really. But the culture of the Pacific Northwest is similar to the South in some ways. But the accent is definitely not the same.
Studious_Noodle@reddit
How is PNW culture like the South? I'm near Seattle and would love to know.
AKDude79@reddit
I'm not talking about Seattle as much as the rural areas between Seattle and Portland. Very redneck, very much reminded me of where I live.
OceanPoet87@reddit
Culturally even the red counties are still very different than the south.
TheBimpo@reddit
I spent years living in each. I'm curious what you're referring to.
AgHammer@reddit
Texas
wiz28ultra@reddit
Illinois south of Springfield
Wut23456@reddit
I'm from rural Northern California and a lot of people have a distinct southern-ish accent. It's not exactly the same but it's a distinctly rural way of talking
Afromolukker_98@reddit
White folks out in California far from City, coastal, or Suburban spots.
I'd say like mountains/dessert/central Cali. It seems they have a twang in their accent that makes me feel they have accents that have Southern/Country notes.
Relevant_Elevator190@reddit
Grew up in rural NorCal. We tend to have Country accents that have some similarities to southern accents.
JasperStrat@reddit
No, the Northwest accent is pretty muted, there is a slight California one (very similar to PNW) and various ones throughout the northern Midwest and East Coast. But unless it's someone who moved it's not often you hear a real Southern accent. (Most on TV are so thick it's painfully fake.)
BankManager69420@reddit
I know a bunch of people from eastern and southern Oregon who have super thick Yellowstone accents. Had a friend in college who I thought was from the deep south, turns out he was born and raised in Coos Bay.
JasperStrat@reddit
Interesting, I was pretty confident but if anywhere was going to have those accents I would 100% believe Eastern Washington and Eastern/Southern Oregon.
JessicaGriffin@reddit
I live in rural Eastern Oregon, and can 100% confirm this. Our accent is generally the same as the “West Coast” accent you hear from all Western states, but we do have a tendency to say things like “y’all” and “ain’t nothin’” etc. that are often labeled “Southern.” The further out in the country you go, the thicker it gets. I used to work with a guy who pronounced “wells” like “whales,” as in “We drilled them whales ten, fifteen year back.”
Relevant_Elevator190@reddit
To most, a 'Country' accent sounds southern. I grew up in rural NorCal and now live in Utah and sometimes I get asked where in the south I am from.
kippen@reddit
What in the world is a yellowstone accent?
NP_AneyyZ@reddit
Theres a ton of fake rednecks in Idaho who like to pretend they’re tough with a southern accent.
ScatterTheReeds@reddit
Are they pretending? I heard a guy on tv from Idaho. I kept thinking, this guy sounds kind of southern. Idaho is really far geographically from the south.
kippen@reddit
I lived in Idaho for 10 years. The only southern accents I ever heard were from people that moved there from the south.
NP_AneyyZ@reddit
Some of them aren’t, a lot of them are. Hate to say that our state has become an epicenter of MAGA toxicity. Most people here talk with little to no discernible accent from the majority of America. However, we’ve gotten a lot of insecure people “fleeing” from California and think that pandering to southern confederate ideals makes them tough and “true patriots.”
Modern conservatism has ruined our beautiful state.
_bibliofille@reddit
I live in southern Appalachia. I met a California redneck that had an accent typical of what I'd expect from my surrounding area.
OderusAmongUs@reddit
There are people who "talk country" for whatever reason. I know a dude in vanilla ass Colorado Springs who talks with a twang even though he's never been on a ranch or the South and grew up in the suburbs here.
And yes, we tease him.
ColossusOfChoads@reddit
A lot of western accents are related. European chicks have told me I sound like a cowboy. But at this point, they're kind of their own seperate thing, I guess.
sneeds_feednseed@reddit
Don’t live there but iirc there parts of of the Central Valley of California where people have a distinct twang, largely because of concentrated migration from Oklahoma during the Great Depression
bazackward@reddit
Generally in my experience, people in the PNW (where I grew up) can't differentiate the Texas accent from deep south, rural, etc. To me, that speaks to the lack of hearing that accent on a regular basis for the average person.
I know I thought they were all the same until I lived in and traveled through the southern US. If you spend enough time there, you can pick up on the differences.
martlet1@reddit
Accents are weird. In the town I live in, just maybe 15 minutes south goes to complete proper southern accent. 15 minutes north of us is a midwestern accent.
No idea why other than a River.
Turdulator@reddit
People confuse rural accents with a southern accent all the time, they are similar but not the same
garublador@reddit
That's for sure true in a lot of the Midwest. People from smaller towns in IA, NE and IL sound more Southern. One you get north of a certain line, like MN and WI the smaller town accents are more 'Fargo-like".
Turdulator@reddit
They sound closer to southern, but they don’t sound southern. The differences can be subtle but they are there.
frogmuffins@reddit
Cincinnati, OH
I'm from northeast Ohio but lived in the Cincinnati area for 12 years. There is definitely a distinct Cincinnati accent. Not a typical southern accent but my sister went to uni at Leeds in the UK. One of her classmates was from Cincinnati and everyone thought she was from the South based her accent.
MeanderFlanders@reddit
I was surprised to recognize a familiar drawl in many places throughout Ohio.
MarcusAurelius0@reddit
I heard it in some people in Columbus Ohio.
Chad_Tachanka@reddit
You can hear southern accents in the midwest. I've heard them as far north as Ohio and Indiana
GreenNeonCactus@reddit
I’ve lived in the South (north Florida and metro Atlanta) all but five years of my life. Those five were spent in Arizona. Accents in the very rural parts of the American Southwest share a lot of similarities with a Southern accent.
LaFleurRouler@reddit
I think it’s probably because most western states were founded by southerners fleeing or starting fresh after the Civil War.
GreenNeonCactus@reddit
Absolutely a significant factor. I'm certainly not a linguist, though there's something that I can certainly attest to about the "classic" (?) Southern accent, and that's that it's increasingly less prevalent in urban centers. Certainly in Atlanta, though I'd wager that the Southern accent is increasingly less common in cities like Charlotte, Raleigh, and maybe even Memphis and Nashville as the populations become more transient. And then there are cities like Charleston and New Orleans, where their distinctive accents persist.
LaFleurRouler@reddit
Hope you’re ready for a ramble, you’ve brought up one of my favorite subjects 😂
Many Southern accents in urban areas are quickly becoming extinct, definitely for the reason you stated (more transient population), but also for a couple more.
Unfortunately, it was a conscious effort to alter or eliminate these dialects after WWII. While relocation and exposure to different dialects were a factor, the main driving force was shame. Baby boomers were highly encouraged to alter or altogether eliminate their twangs, who encouraged their Gen X children even more. This was because the South was exposed to the rest of the country’s opinions for the first time, on a wide scale. People automatically associated Southern accents with being uneducated and ignorant; hillbillies. Southerners believed they would have more opportunities without preconceived notions if they shed their accents in favor of pan-regional ones.
Other reasons are widespread exposure via television, movies, internet and much easier modes of transportation. Lastly, dialects are usually developed from peers more so than parents.
I can’t speak for Charleston, but I can speak for New Orleans: the Cajun accent particularly. Cajun was actually a slur for French Creoles. People incorrectly assume that Creole is indicative of race, but that is incorrect and a successful concerted effort by the KKK. In Louisiana, Creole means “of the new world” and refers to anyone of foreign heritage born there after the French settled. This was used to describe French, Spanish, African, and Caribbean folk unanimously until WWII. Cajun was derogatory, but post Civil War, the KKK wanted the French Creoles to separate themselves from Black Creoles. So, they embarked on a failed campaign to ignite white, French pride by encouraging the use of Cajun. Most of Louisiana did not consider themselves American until WWII, when Cajun rhetoric resurfaced and finally made it to mainstream vernacular and French Creoles adopted the term. The adoption of Cajun was not directly because of racism, but because of American pride with post-war morale. For the first time, Louisianans considered themselves part of the country and not a French/Spanish settlement in the New World.
All that background is to say this: Cajun and Creole accents remain because Louisiana hasn’t been as susceptible to outside opinions as much of the other Southern states have. Their accent is a source of pride and resilience in their way of life. Many Cajuns were originally exiled Acadians that survived against all odds and created a rich culture in a hostile/unfamiliar environment. The bayous, where these accents are the strongest, are still very isolated places where very few outsiders venture to set roots because it’s a difficult lifestyle due to the ecology and conditions.
Also, just in case anyone jumps on me: creole has different meanings when used to describe populations in other countries.
XelaNiba@reddit
This isn't a phenomenon specific to Southern States. Accents flourish when a place is settled for a long time. Mobility tends to blunt accents. Louisiana has the highest rate of retention of native born residents with not much influx from other areas, particularly in rural Louisiana.
Thick regional accents are associated with class in every region (and not just in America). I think you'll find this linguist's analysis of American accents interesting.
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/are-accents-disappearing
"This brings us to a few other factors in accent disappearance: class, race and education. When people refer to accents like the Boston accent or the Texas accent, they often don’t mention that these accents today are spoken mostly by white, working-class people. More and more, people who speak with distinctive accents have — subconsciously or not — been marked as uneducated. It’s a form of bias that is perpetuated in many ways, from people with southern accents being ridiculed in pop culture to people being explicitly taught to change their accent to “make it” in upper-class society. One editorial in Philadelphia Magazine went so far as to say it’s good the Philadelphia accent is going away because it might lead to a “higher degree of respect” for the city. It hasn’t always been the case, but being able to speak with a General American accent has become a prerequisite to getting many high-ranking jobs in the United States."
https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/are-accents-disappearing
LaFleurRouler@reddit
Yes, these are excellent points about the suppression of dialects!! Especially the white working class aspect.
Another thing I’d like to point out is that most accents on the East Coast naturally developed from predominantly Irish accents, then Cockney accents, and on a smaller scale, Scottish. The Irish faced a lot of prejudice in the US (because of the British) and Cockney automatically meant low class. New England and NYC accents in the north, the Yat accent in New Orleans, and the Chicagoan accent are all indicative of strong Irish Influence. The overall accent of the American south was heavily influenced by the Cockney (among other British dialects) and Irish settlers/immigrants. The Scottish played a huge role in the Appalachian accent specifically. Scots were incidentally looked down upon by the British as well, though to a far less degree than the Irish.
For a long time, a majority of the white working class comprised of Irish immigrants. It’s very interesting that they also influenced a huge majority of accents and the dialects within them. So, on some level, dislike/disdain for strong accents is essentially the unintentional remnants of Anti-Irish sentiments.
I also have particular interest in the Trans-Atlantic accent, which was an intentionally developed, taught, and learned accent (blended upper class British and nondescript American accents) that was prominent in late 1800’s to early to mid 1900’s. The upper class used it to separate themselves from the “plebeians”, aka normal people, regardless of location. However, there is an Aristocratic Southern accent variant, also heavily influenced by British accents. Movie stars were taught this as well. Kelsey Grammer uses it in the role of Frasier, but I’d also be unsurprised if this was his IRL default.
Language, accents, and dialects are so cool to learn about. I love it!
ExtremePotatoFanatic@reddit
Yes. I went to Indiana recently and a lot of them actually have southern accents. I was shocked.
MTHiker59937@reddit
I lived in Montana for 20 years (am a fifth-generation Floridian). Everywhere I go people ask- are you from the South?
manicpixidreamgirl04@reddit
the Pittsburgh accent sounds kind of southern
TheLastRulerofMerv@reddit
I've heard twangy accents in Idaho and eastern Oregon before.
Taffr19@reddit
I had a pleasant conversation with a Japanese guy in a line at a store in western Washington years back. I complimented his fit and he asked where I was from because I had a “rural twang” not from there. Originally I am from there but spent a lot of time around eastern Washington/idaho/montana and apparently I had picked up different talking habits and he was telling me about how accents are regional even within the same state. Kind of cool I suppose this just confirms what he told me years ago.
Electrical-Ad1288@reddit
I had a teacher who grew up in rural Pennsylvania who a bit of a twang.
Danibear285@reddit
South Dakota known for their southern accent
soulsista04us@reddit
I'm from Detroit, and people are always like, "what part of the south are you from?" It drives me nuts.
CupBeEmpty@reddit
Southern Indiana can have a bit of southern twang despite being a northern state.
ProfessionalAir445@reddit
I live in Southeast Ohio and there are lots of people with Southernish and Appalachian accents. It’s a small enough number that I would get excited to encounter “real” Southern accents during trips to Tennessee as a kid.
I think the accents are pretty different to Deep South accents and are probably mostly Appalachian from Kentucky.
DaddyyBlue@reddit
Ohio
2manyfelines@reddit
There's a broad western drawl in certain parts of rural California, New Mexico, etc.
You can hear it in actors like Sam Elliott and Josh Brolin.
spookyhellkitten@reddit
I mean, there are a handful of people in my town in the West that speak with Southern accents...most of them are my family and they are from North Carolina originally. The others are mostly from Texas and here for the gold mining opportunities.
Generally, the Mountain West (Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, and Utah where I've lived at least) all have the standard US TV non-accent-accent.
WVC_Least_Glamorous@reddit
Supposedly, there is a Southern influence on the Utah accent. A souvenir from when the Latter-day Saints lived in Missouri.
everyoneisflawed@reddit
Any rural area is going to have a rural accent that sounds a little southern.
BankManager69420@reddit
Lots of Oregon has a drawl. Not technically Southern but a more pronounced “Yellowstone” accent (tv show).
Grew up with a kid from Southern Oregon, who you would presume was from the deep south. He was born and raised in Coos Bay.
TheBimpo@reddit
Definitely. There's been a long history of domestic migration.
The Great Migration occurred in 2 phases, in the early-mid 1900s and brought millions of southerners to the north to find work or a different life.
The Detroit area saw a huge influx of people from Alabama and Kentucky, those people brought their accents and their traditions with them. Many of the people I grew up with had grandparents or parents from these places and your speech/vocalization is heavily influenced by family.
It's still very normal to hear an accent or twang in Southeast Michigan. 2 of my oldest and closest friends have family ties to eastern Kentucky and northern Alabama/south-central Tennesee so there's a lot of southern traditions in their homes. From accents to food to the college football team they support.
Difficult_Cupcake764@reddit
South central Pennsylvania is a bit twangy but I wouldn’t call it a southern accent
Ibn-Rushd@reddit
I spend a lot of time in Huntingdon and Franklin counties and they have the drawn-out and fronted O sound of the Chesapeake but not the full southernisms you'll find south of Annapolis
Jumpy-Cranberry-1633@reddit
Unless they’re from the south, no.
Ballsaxs@reddit
Eh, I’ve known people from southern Ohio and Indiana who spoke with what I would consider a southern accent.
Gallahadion@reddit
Yeah, I met some people from Marietta and they sounded more Southern than Midwestern, at least to my ears.
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
There are accents in the northern United States but they aren’t southern. Boston has some thick accents but they’re northern. The Boroughs of New York City all have distinct accents, but they’re not a southern accent which is defined as being southern.
Ibn-Rushd@reddit
Southern accents extend into much of Maryland and Missouri, whatever you want to consider them.
virtual_human@reddit
A fair number of people in Indiana and Ohio flying the confederate flag, does that count?
ordermaster@reddit
West Virginia split from Virginia during the civil war to be part of the North. There's definitely people speaking with a southern accent in WV, but most West Virginians consider their state to be part of the South. You can also see lots of Confederate flags in WV. In Southern Ohio bordering Kentucky you can also hear a southern accent.