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{{See also|Southern American English}}
{{Short description|Former set of American dialects}}
{{Infobox language
[[File:Shrew Kate+P limp.jpg|thumb|right|Lynda Myles and Maury Leo Erickson imitated older Tidewater accents as the stars of a 1975 [[The Taming of the Shrew in performance|''Taming of the Shrew'' performance]], set in the American South and directed by [[Keith Fowler]].]]
| name = Older Southern American English
'''Older Southern American English''' was a set of [[American English]] dialects of the [[Southern United States]], primarily spoken by [[white American]]s before the [[American Civil War]], moving towards a state of decline by the turn of the nineteenth century, further accelerated by [[World War II]] and again, finally, by the [[African-American Civil Rights Movement (1954–68)|Civil Rights Movement]].<ref name="Thomas 2006 4">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=4}}</ref> These dialects have since been largely replaced throughout the South by a more unified, younger [[Southern American English]], notably recognized today by a highly [[Southern American English|unique vowel shift]] and certain other characteristics. Some features unique to older Southern U.S. English persist today, though typically in only very localized dialects or speakers.
| region = [[Southern United States]]
| familycolor = Indo-European
| fam2 = [[Germanic languages|Germanic]]
| fam3 = [[West Germanic languages|West Germanic]]
| fam4 = [[North Sea Germanic]]
| fam5 = [[Anglo-Frisian languages|Anglo–Frisian]]
| fam6 = [[Anglic languages|Anglic]]
| fam7 = [[English language|English]]
| fam8 = [[North American English]]
| fam9 = [[American English]]
| ancestor = [[Old English]]
| ancestor2 = [[Middle English]]
| ancestor3 = [[Early Modern English]]
| nation =
| script = * [[Latin script|Latin]] ([[English alphabet]])
| isoexception = dialect
| glotto = none
}}
{{listen|filename=Strom Thurmond voice.ogg|type=speech|title=Speech example|description=An example of a [[South Carolina|South Carolinian]] man born in 1902, whose speech contains elements of a non-rhotic Plantation Southern accent ([[Strom Thurmond]]).}}

'''Older Southern American English''' is a diverse set of [[American English|English dialects]] of the [[Southern United States]] spoken most widely up until the [[American Civil War]] of the 1860s, gradually transforming among its [[White Southerners|White speakers]]&mdash;possibly first due to postwar economy-driven migrations&mdash;up until the mid-20th century.<ref name="Thomas 2006 4">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=4}}</ref> By then, these local dialects had largely consolidated into, or been replaced by, a more regionally unified [[Southern American English]]. Meanwhile, among Black Southerners, these dialects transformed into a fairly stable [[African-American Vernacular English]], now spoken nationwide among Black people.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Thomas|first=Erik R.|title=Rural White Southern Accents|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190324140951/http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|archive-date=2019-03-24|access-date=2020-12-21|website=[[De Gruyter]]}}</ref> Certain features unique to older Southern U.S. English persist today, like [[Rhoticity in English|non-rhoticity]], though typically only among Black speakers or among very localized White speakers.


==History==
==History==
This dialects of [[American English]] evolved over a period of four hundred years, primarily from older varieties of [[British English]] spoken by those who initially settled the area. Given that language is an entity that is constantly changing,<ref>Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent. New York, New York: Routledge.</ref>the English of the colonists was quite different from any variety of English being spoken today. The colonists who initially settled the Tidewater area spoke a variety of [[Early Modern English]], which itself was very varied.<ref>Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.</ref> The older Southern dialects thus originated in large part from a mix of immigrants from the [[British Isles]], who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the creole or post-creole speech of African slaves.
This group of [[American English]] dialects evolved over two hundred years from the older varieties of [[British English]] primarily spoken by those who initially settled the area. Given that language is an entity that is constantly changing,<ref>Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent. New York, New York: Routledge.</ref> the English varieties of the colonists were quite different from any variety of English spoken today. In the early 1600s, the initial English-speaking settlers of the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater area]] of Virginia, the [[Colony of Virginia|first permanent English colony]] in North America, spoke a variety of [[Early Modern English]], which itself was diverse.<ref>Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.</ref> The older Southern dialects thus originated in varying degrees from a mix of the speech of these and later immigrants from many different regions of the [[British Isles]] who moved to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as perhaps the English, creole, and post-creole speech of African and African-American slaves.


One theory of historian [[David Hackett Fischer]]'s book ''[[Albion's Seed]]'' is that indentured servants chiefly from England's [[Southern England|South]] and [[Midlands]] primarily settled the Tidewater (Virginia) region and poor [[Northern England|Northern English]] and [[Ulster Scots people|Ulster Scots]] families primarily settled the Appalachian Southern [[Backcountry (historical region)|backcountry]], so that the Tidewater and backcountry dialects were most directly influenced by those two immigrant populations, respectively.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America|chapter=From the South of England to Virginia|last=Fischer|first=David Hackett|publisher=OUP USA|year=1992|isbn=978-0195069051|location=On line stores/Public Libraries}}</ref> Indeed, the [[Appalachian dialect]] shows such likely immigrant influences as evidenced by, for example, their consistent preservation of [[Rhoticity in English|rhoticity]].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Devlin|first1=Thomas Moore|title=The United States of Accents: Southern American English|url=https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/united-states-of-accents-southern-american-english|website=[[Babbel]]|date=December 13, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Pool|first1=Jake|title=The Southern Drawl: Breakdown Of An American Accent|url=https://magoosh.com/english-speaking/the-southern-drawl-breakdown-of-an-american-accent/|website=[[Magoosh]]|date=16 January 2021}}</ref> However, linguists have disputed many of the specifics of Fischer's theory, instead arguing that dialect-mixing in both regions was in fact more varied and widespread.<ref>Kirkpatrick, Routledge (ed.) (2010). ''The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes''. Routledge: London and New York. pp. 97-99.</ref> For example, an ''[[Appalachian State University#Publications|Appalachian Journal]]'' linguistic article reveals the flawed premises and misrepresentation of sources in ''Albion's Seed'' and asserts that the early Southern dialects are actually difficult to trace to any singular influence.<ref name="Ellis1992">{{cite journal|author1=Michael Ellis |title=On the Use of Dialect as Evidence: "Albion's Seed" in Appalachia |journal=Appalachian Journal |date=1992 |volume=19 |issue=3 |pages=278–297 |issn=0090-3779|jstor=40933361}}</ref>
===Atlantic Coast===
The earliest English settlers of the colonies of Virginia and [[Massachusetts]] were mainly people from [[Southern England]]. However, Virginia received more colonists from the English [[West Country dialects|West Country]], bringing with them a distinctive dialect and vocabulary.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}


The [[Boston, Massachusetts]]; [[Norfolk, Virginia]]; and [[Charleston, South Carolina]] areas maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to England. Thus, the colonists and their descendants defined "social class" according to England's connotations. As the upper class English dialect changed, the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas changed. Two examples are the "''r''-dropping" (or [[rhoticity in English|non-rhoticity]]) of the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting in the similar ''r''-dropping found in Boston and parts of Virginia during the cultural "[[Old South]]," as well as the [[trap–bath split]], which came to define these same two areas (and other areas of the South that imitated this phenomenon) but virtually no other region of the United States.
In the decades following the [[American Revolution]] of the 1760s to 1780s, major population centers of the coastal American South, such as [[Norfolk, Virginia]], and [[Charleston, South Carolina]], maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to southern England around London. Thus, as the upper-class standard dialect around London changed, some of its features were mirrored by: the dialects of upper-class Americans in eastern Virginia and the Charleston area, followed by the dialects of the surrounding regions in general, regardless of socioeconomic class. One such example accent feature is the "''r''-dropping" (or [[rhoticity in English|non-rhoticity]]) of the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting in the similar ''r''-dropping found in these American areas during the cultural "[[Old South]]". Contrarily, in Southern areas away from the major coasts and plantations (like Appalachia), on certain isolated islands, and variously among lower-class White speakers, accents mostly remained rhotic. Another example feature is the British-style [[trap–bath split]], which also helped define the eastern Virginia accent. The split was also adopted in the Gulf, Appalachian, and plantation regions of the South, though with their own articulation distinct from the British one. (The feature is extinct in virtually all these areas today.)<ref name="Thomas 2006 8">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=8}}</ref>


By the time of the [[American Civil War]] in the 1860s, many different Southern accents had developed, namely: eastern Virginia accents (including Tidewater accents), [[South Carolina Lowcountry|Lowcountry]] (or Charleston) accents, [[Appalachian English|Appalachian accents]], Plantation accents (those primarily of the [[Black Belt in the American South|Black Belt]] region), and [[Hoi Toider|accents in the secluded Pamlico and Chesapeake islands]].
Given that there are over 2.8 million people in the area,<ref>[http://tidewaterva.htu.myareaguide.com/demographics.html ]{{dead link|date=August 2012}}</ref> it is difficult to account for all variants of the local accent, which have largely been supplanted by [[Southern American English|newer Southern features]]. The area is home to several large military bases such as [[Naval Station Norfolk]], Little Creek Amphibious Base, Oceana Naval Station, and Dam Neck Naval Base. Since a significant portion of the area's inhabitants are actually natives of other areas, there is constant linguistic exposure to other dialects. This exposure could be a reason why the younger generations do not exhibit most of the traditional features.

===Decline===
After the Civil War, the growth of timber, coal, railroad, steel, textile, and tobacco mill industries throughout the South, along with the whole country's resulting migration changes, likely contributed to the expansion of a more unified Southern accent (now associated with the 20th century), which gradually ousted 19th-century Southern accents.<ref name="Thomas 2006 4–5">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=4–5}}</ref> The South's 19th-century linguistic prestige was rooted in the plantation areas and higher-class White people, including features such as non-rhoticity. However, by the mid-20th century, linguistic features originating from Texas, Appalachian towns, and lower-class White people&mdash;such as rhoticity&mdash;were suddenly expanding throughout all the Southern States.

Also, before World War II, the demographic tendency of the South was out-migration, but after the war a counter-tendency emerged in the Southern cities, which received masses of migrant workers from the North: another possible motivation for the abandonment of older Southern accent features. Finally, the Civil Rights Movement seems to have led White and Black Southerners alike to resist accent features associated with the other racial group and even develop newly distinguishing features, which may have further contributed to the sudden mid-20th-century adoption of rhoticity among White Southerners of all classes, despite continuing non-rhoticity among Black Americans.<ref name="Thomas 2006 4–5"/> Today, this linguistic divide on the basis of rhoticity, alongside other accent features, largely persists between Black versus White Southerners.


==Phonology==
==Phonology==
{{IPA notice}}
{{IPA notice|section}}

The phonologies of older Southern speech in the United States were diverse. The following pronunciation features were very generally characteristic of older Southern as a whole:
===General Older South===
{{hidden begin|toggle=left|title=A list of typical older Southern vowels<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=7-14}}</ref>}}
The phonologies of early Southern English in the United States were diverse. The following pronunciation features were very generally characteristic of the older Southern region as a whole:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ class="nowrap" | A list of typical older Southern vowels<ref name="Thomas 2006 7–14">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=7–14}}</ref>
|+
! [[Help:IPA/English|English diaphoneme]]
! colspan="3" | '''Older Southern vowels'''
! Old Southern [[phoneme]]
|-
! Example words
| '''[[Help:IPA for English|English diaphoneme]]'''
| '''Old Southern [[phoneme]]'''
| '''Example words'''
|-
|-
|-
|-
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/aɪ/}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA|/aɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[æɛ~aæ]}}
| {{IPA|[aɪ~æɛ~aæ]}}
| br'''i'''de, pr'''i'''ze, t'''ie'''
| br'''i'''de, pr'''i'''ze, t'''ie'''
|-
|-
Line 37: Line 61:
| c'''a'''t, tr'''a'''p, y'''a'''k
| c'''a'''t, tr'''a'''p, y'''a'''k
|-
|-
| [[æ tensing|{{IPA|[æɛæ~eə]}}]]
| [[æ tensing|{{IPA|[æɛæ~eə]|cat=no}}]]
| h'''a'''nd, m'''a'''n, sl'''a'''m
| h'''a'''nd, m'''a'''n, sl'''a'''m
|-
|-
| [[trap-bath split|{{IPA|[æɛ~æe]}}]]
| [[trap-bath split|{{IPA|[æɛ~æe]|cat=no}}]]
| b'''a'''th, c'''a'''n't, p'''a'''ss
| b'''a'''th, c'''a'''n't, p'''a'''ss
|-
| {{IPA|/aʊ/}}
| {{IPA|[æɒ~æɔ]}}
| m'''ou'''th, '''ow''', s'''ou'''nd
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ɑː/}}
| {{IPA|/ɑː/}}
| {{IPA|[ɑ]}} or {{IPA|[æ]}}
| {{IPA|[ɑ]}} or {{IPA|[ɒ]}}
| f'''a'''ther, l'''aa'''ger, p'''a'''lm
| f'''a'''ther, l'''aa'''ger, p'''a'''lm
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ɑr/}}
| {{IPA|/ɑr/}}
| {{IPA|[ɒː]}} (non-rhotic) or </br>{{IPA|[ɒɻ]}} (rhotic)
| {{IPA|[ɑː~ɒː]}} (non-rhotic) or <br />{{IPA|[ɒɻ]}} (rhotic)
| '''ar'''k, h'''ear'''t, st'''ar'''t
| '''ar'''k, h'''ear'''t, st'''ar'''t
|-
|-
Line 56: Line 84:
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/eɪ/}}
| {{IPA|/eɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɛɪ~ɛi]}} or </br>{{IPA|[eː~iː]}} (plantation possibility)
| {{IPA|[ɛɪ~ei]}} or <br />{{IPA|[eː]}} (plantation possibility)
| f'''a'''ce, r'''ei'''n, pl'''ay'''
| f'''a'''ce, r'''ei'''n, pl'''ay'''
|-
|-
Line 64: Line 92:
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ɜr/}}
| {{IPA|/ɜr/}}
| {{IPA|[ɜɪ~əɪ~ɜː]}} (non-rhotic before a consonant) or </br>{{IPA|[ɜɚ]}} (non-rhotic elsewhere, or rhotic)
| {{IPA|[ɜɪ~əɪ]}} (non-rhotic before a consonant) or <br />{{IPA|[ɜː]}} (non-rhotic) or <br />{{IPA|[ɜɚ]}} (rhotic)
| n'''ur'''se, s'''ear'''ch, w'''or'''m
| n'''ur'''se, s'''ear'''ch, w'''or'''m
|-
|-
Line 78: Line 106:
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/oʊ/}}
| {{IPA|/oʊ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɔu~ɒu]}} (after late 1800s) or </br>{{IPA|[oː~uː]}} (plantation possibility)
| {{IPA|[ɔu~ɒu]}} (after late 1800s) or <br />{{IPA|[oː~uː]}} (plantation possibility)
| g'''oa'''t, n'''o''', thr'''ow'''
| g'''oa'''t, n'''o''', thr'''ow'''
|-
|-
Line 88: Line 116:
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}}
| {{IPA|/ɔɪ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɔoɪ]}} or </br>{{IPA|[oɛ~oə]}} (plantation possibility)
| {{IPA|[ɔoɪ]}} or <br />{{IPA|[oɛ~oə]}} (plantation possibility)
| ch'''oi'''ce, j'''oy''', l'''oi'''n
| ch'''oi'''ce, j'''oy''', l'''oi'''n
|-
|-
| {{IPA|/ʌ/}}
| {{IPA|/ʌ/}}
| {{IPA|[ɜ]}} or </br>{{IPA|[ʌ]}} (plantation possibility)
| {{IPA|[ɜ]}} or <br />{{IPA|[ʌ]}} (plantation possibility)
| str'''u'''t, t'''ou'''gh, w'''o'''n
| str'''u'''t, t'''ou'''gh, w'''o'''n
|-
|}
|}
* Lack of [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Yod-dropping|''Yod''-dropping]]: Pairs like ''do'' and ''due'', or ''toon'' and ''tune'', were often distinct in these dialects because words like ''due'', ''lute'', ''new'', etc. historically contained a [[Eɪ (IPA)|diphthong]] similar to {{IPA|/ju/}} (like the ''you'' sound in ''cute'' or ''puny'').<ref>Even in 2012 Random House Dictionary labels [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/due due], [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/new new] and [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tune tune] as having the {{IPA|/yu/}} sound as a variant pronunciation.</ref> (as England's [[Received Pronunciation|RP]] standard pronunciation still does), but Labov et al. report that the only Southern speakers who make a distinction today use a diphthong {{IPA|/ɪu/}} in such words.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|pp=53–54}}</ref> They further report that speakers with the distinction are found primarily in [[North Carolina]] and northwest [[South Carolina]], and in a corridor extending from [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]] to [[Tallahassee]]. For most of the South, this feature began disappearing after World War II.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=17}}</ref>
{{hidden end}}
**[[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Yod-coalescence|''Yod''-coalescence]]: Words like ''dew'' were pronounced as "Jew", and ''Tuesday'' as "choose day."
* Lack of [[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Yod-dropping|''Yod''-dropping]]: Pairs like ''do'' and ''due'', or ''toon'' and ''tune'', are often distinct in these dialects because words like ''due'', ''lute'', ''new'', etc. historically contained a [[Eɪ (IPA)|diphthong]] similar to {{IPA|/juː/}} (like the ''you'' sound in ''cute'' or ''puny'').<ref>Even in 2012 Random House Dictionary labels [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/due due], [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/new new] and [http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tune tune] as having the {{IPA|/yu/}} sound as a variant pronunciation.</ref> (as England's [[Received Pronunciation|RP]] standard pronunciation still does), but Labov et al. report that the only Southern speakers who make a distinction today use a diphthong {{IPA|/ɪu/}} in such words.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|pp=53–54}}</ref> They further report that speakers with the distinction are found primarily in [[North Carolina]] and northwest [[South Carolina]], and in a corridor extending from [[Jackson, Mississippi|Jackson]] to [[Tallahassee]]. For most of the South, this feature began disappearing after World War II.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=17}}</ref>
* [[wine–whine merger|Wine–whine distinction]]: distinction between "w" and "wh" in words like "wine" and "whine", "witch and "which", etc.
**[[Phonological history of English consonant clusters#Yod-coalescence|''Yod''-coalescence]]: Words like ''dew'' are pronounced as "Jew", and ''Tuesday'' as "choose day."
* [[horse–hoarse merger|Horse–hoarse distinction]]: distinction between pairs of words like "horse" and "hoarse", "for" and "four", etc.
* Rhoticity and non-rhoticity: The pronunciation of the ''r'' sound only before or between vowels, but not [[postvocalic consonant|after vowels]], is known as "non-rhoticity" and was historically associated with the major plantation regions of the South: specifically, the entire [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] and most of the South's Atlantic Coast in a band going west towards the [[Mississippi River]], as well as all of the [[Mississippi Embayment]] and some of the western [[Gulf Coastal Plain]]. In older Southern, rhotic accents, which fully pronounce all historical ''r'' sounds, were rarer and primarily spoken in [[Appalachia]], the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, and the areas west of the Mississippi Embayment.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=3, 16}}</ref>
* [[Rhoticity in English|Rhoticity and non-rhoticity]]: The pronunciation of the ''r'' sound only before or between vowels, but not [[postvocalic consonant|after vowels]], is known as non-rhoticity and was historically associated with the major plantation regions of the South: specifically, the entire [[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]] and most of the South's Atlantic Coast in a band going west towards the [[Mississippi River]], as well as all of the [[Mississippi Embayment]] and some of the western [[Gulf Coastal Plain]]. This was presumably influenced by the non-rhotic East Anglia and London England pronunciation. Additionally, some older Southern dialects were even "variably non-rhotic in intra-word intervocalic contexts, as in ''carry'' [kʰæi]."<ref name="Thomas 2006 7–14"/> Rhotic accents of the older Southern dialects, which fully pronounce all historical ''r'' sounds, were somewhat rarer and primarily spoken in [[Appalachia]], the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, and the areas west of the Mississippi Embayment.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=3, 16}}</ref>
* [[Palatalization (sound change)|Palatalization]] of /k/ and /g/ before /ɑr/: Especially in the South along the Atlantic Coast, the consonants {{IPAc-en|k}} (as in ''key'' or ''coo'') and {{IPAc-en|g}} (as in ''guy'' or ''go''), when before the sound {{IPAc-en|ɑr}} (as in ''car'' or ''barn''), are often pronounced with the tongue fronted towards the [[hard palate]]. Thus, for example, ''garden'' in older Southern is something like "gyah(r)den" {{IPA|[ˈgjɑː(ɹ)dən]}} and "car" like "kyah(r)" {{IPA|[cʰjɑː(ɹ)]}}. This pronunciation feature was in decline by the late 1800s.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17"/>
* [[Palatalization (sound change)|Palatalization]] of /k/ and /g/ before /ɑr/: Especially in the older South along the Atlantic Coast, the consonants {{IPAc-en|k}} (as in ''key'' or ''coo'') and {{IPAc-en|g}} (as in ''guy'' or ''go''), when before the sound {{IPAc-en|ɑr}} (as in ''car'' or ''barn''), were often pronounced with the tongue fronted towards the [[hard palate]]. Thus, for example, ''garden'' in older Southern was something like "gyah(r)den" {{IPA|[ˈgjɑ(ɹ)dən]}} and "cart" like "kyah(r)t" {{IPA|[cʰjɑ(ɹ)t]}}. This pronunciation feature was in decline by the late 1800s.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17"/>
* Glide weakening of {{IPAc-en|aɪ}}: The gliding vowel in words like ''prize'', but less commonly in ''price'' (appearing before a [[voiceless consonant]]s), commonly has a "weakened" glide. This phenomenon has occurred throughout the South, except in the [[High Tider]] and Lowcountry accents, continuing to be a defining feature of the modern Southern dialects.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=10-11}}</ref>
* Lack or near-lack of {{IPAc-en|aɪ}} glide weakening: The gliding vowel in words like ''prize'' (but less commonly in ''price'' or other situations of this vowel appearing before a [[voiceless consonant]]) commonly has a "weakened" glide today in the South; however, this only became a documented feature since the last quarter of the 1800s and was otherwise absent or inconsistent in earlier Southern dialects. Today, the lack of glide weakening persists in the [[High Tider]] and updated Lowcountry accents. Full weakening has become a defining feature only of the modern Southern dialects, particularly the most advanced sub-varieties.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=10–11}}</ref>
* [[Mary–marry–merry merger|Mary–marry–merry distinction]]: Unlike most of the U.S. and modern Southern, older Southern does not merge the three following vowels before /r/: [e~eə] (as in ''Mary''), [æ] (as in ''marry''), and [ɛ] (as in ''merry''). Although the three are now merging in modern Southern, the "marry" class of words is still the least likely among Southerners to merge with the other two.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=15}}</ref>
* [[Mary–marry–merry merger|Mary–marry–merry distinction]]: Unlike most of the U.S. and modern Southern, older Southern did not merge the following three vowels before /r/: [e~eə] (as in ''Mary''), [æ] (as in ''marry''), and [ɛ] (as in ''merry''). Although the three are now merging or merged in modern Southern English, the "marry" class of words remains the least likely among modern Southerners to merge with the other two.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=15}}</ref>
*Clear /l/ between front vowels: Unlike modern Southern and General U.S. speech's [[dark L|"dark" /l/]] sound (often represented as [ɫ]), older Southern pronunciation has a "clear" (i.e. [[velarization|non-velarized]]) /l/ sound whenever /l/ appeared between [[front vowel]]s, as in the words ''silly'', ''mealy'', ''Nellie'', etc.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17"/>
*Clear /l/ between front vowels: Unlike modern Southern and General American English's universally [[dark L|"dark" /l/]] sound (often represented as [ɫ]), older Southern pronunciation had a "clear" (i.e. [[velarization|non-velarized]]) /l/ sound whenever /l/ appears between [[front vowel]]s, as in the words ''silly'', ''mealy'', ''Nellie'', etc.<ref name="Thomas 2006 17"/>
*''Was'', ''what'' and ''of'' pronounced with [ɑ]: The stressed word ''what'', for example, rhymes with ''cot'' (not with ''cut'', as it does elsewhere in the U.S.).<ref name="Thomas 2006 6">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=6}}</ref>
*''Was'', ''what'' and ''of'' pronounced with [ɑ]: The stressed word ''what'', for example, rhymed with ''cot'' (not with ''cut'', as it does elsewhere in the U.S.).<ref name="Thomas 2006 6">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=6}}</ref>
*No [[Happy-tensing|''happy''-tensing]]: The final vowel of words like ''happy, silly, monkey, party'' etc. are not tensed as they are in newer Southern and all other U.S. dialects, meaning that this vowel sounded like the {{IPA|[ɪ]}} of ''fit'' rather than the {{IPA|[i]}} of ''feet''.
*No [[Happy-tensing|''happy''-tensing]]: The final vowel of words like ''happy, silly, monkey, parties,'' etc. were not tensed as they are in newer Southern and other U.S. dialects, meaning that this vowel sounded more like the {{IPA|[ɪ]}} of ''fit'' than the {{IPA|[i]}} of ''feet''.
*{{IPAc-en|oʊ}}, as in ''goat, toe, robe'', etc., keeps a back starting place (unlike most Southern since World War II, but like most Northern U.S. dialects today); this became an [[open vowel|opener]] {{IPA|[ɔu~ɒu]}} in the early 1900s.<ref name="Thomas 2006 6"/> The modern fronted form started as far back as the 1800s in northeastern North Carolina, in the form {{IPA|[ɜy]}}, but only spread slowly, until accelerating after World War II.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=10}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|oʊ}}, as in ''goat, toe, robe'', etc., kept a back starting place (unlike most Southern since World War II, but like most Northern U.S. dialects today); this became an [[open vowel|opener]] {{IPA|[ɔu~ɒu]}} in the early 1900s.<ref name="Thomas 2006 6"/> The modern fronted form of the Atlantic South started as far back as the 1800s in northeastern North Carolina, in the form {{IPA|[ɜy]}}, but only spread slowly, until accelerating after World War II.<ref name="Thomas 2006 10">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=10}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|ʃ|r}} pronounced as {{IPA|[sɹ]}} (e.g. causing ''shrimp'', ''shrub'', etc. to sound like ''srimp'', ''srub'', etc.); this feature was reported earliest in Virginia.<ref name="Thomas 2006 18">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=18}}</ref>


====Plantation South====
===Virginia Piedmont and Tidewater===
[[File:Virginia painted relief.png|thumb|right|The old Virgina accent was mostly spoken in the central and eastern regions of the state, excluding the [[Eastern Shore of Virginia]] on the [[Delmarva Peninsula]].]]
[[Image:Southern counties with 40 percent African-American population in 2000.png|thumb|right|275px|The area in dark purple approximates the Plantation Southern dialect region, excluding the [[South Carolina Lowcountry|Lowcountry]] (the Atlantic coast of South Carolina and Georgia).]]
Older speech of the [[Plantations in the American South|Plantation South]] included those features above, plus:
The major central ([[Piedmont region|Piedmont]]) and eastern ([[Tidewater region|Tidewater]]) regions of Virginia, excluding its [[Eastern Shore of Virginia|Eastern Shore]], once spoke in a way long associated with the upper or [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] [[plantation]] class in the [[Old South]]. Additional phonological features of this Atlantic Southern variety included:
*Non-rhoticity: ''R''-dropping historically occurred in the greater central sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and in coastal Texas and some other coastal communities of the Gulf states. Rhoticity (or ''r''-fulness) was more likely in the southernmost sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as in northern Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.<ref name="Thomas 2006 16">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=16}}</ref>
*[[Trap–bath split]]: Words like ''bath'', ''dance'', and ''ask'', used a different vowel ({{IPA|[æ̈ɛ~æ̈e]}}) than words like ''trap'', ''cat'', and ''rag'' ({{IPA|[æ~æ̈ɛæ̈]}}).<ref name="Thomas 2006 8">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=8}}</ref> A similarly organized (though different-sounding) split occurs in [[Standard British English]].
*{{IPAc-en|eɪ}}, as in ''face'', was inconsistently pronounced {{IPA-all|e̝ː|}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 9">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=9}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|oʊ}}, as in ''goat'', was inconsistently pronounced {{IPA-all|o̝ː|}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 10"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ʌ}}, as in ''strut'', was [[conservative (linguistics)|conservative]].<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=7}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|ɔɪ}}, as in ''choice'', was {{IPA-all|oɛ~oə|}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=11}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|ɝ}}, as in ''nurse'', was predominantly [[Rhoticity in English#Up-gliding NURSE|up-gliding, non-rhotic]] {{IPA|[ɜɪ]}} in the "Deep South" (all the Plantation South except North Carolina).<ref name="Thomas 2006 8"/>

===Appalachia===
{{Main|Appalachian English}}
Due to the former isolation of some regions of the [[Appalachia]]n South, a unique [[Appalachian accent]] developed. This dialect is rhotic, meaning speakers consistently preserve the historical phoneme {{IPA|/r/}}. Moreover, Appalachians may even [[epenthesis|insert it innovatively]] into certain words (for example, "worsh" or "warsh" for "wash").

The Southern Appalachian dialect could be heard, as its name implies, in [[north Georgia]], [[north Alabama]], [[east Tennessee]], [[Upstate South Carolina|northwestern South Carolina]], [[western North Carolina]], [[Eastern Kentucky Coalfield|eastern Kentucky]], [[Southwest Virginia|southwestern Virginia]], [[western Maryland]], and [[West Virginia]]. Southern Appalachian speech patterns, however, are not entirely confined to the mountain regions previously listed.

The dialect here is often thought to be a window into the past, with various claims having been made that it is either a surviving pocket of Elizabethan English or the way that the [[Scotch-Irish Americans|people of Scotch-Irish origin]] that make up a large fraction of the population there would have spoken back when they first migrated and settled there. However, these are both incorrect. Though some of the distinctive words used in Appalachia have their origins in the Anglo-Scottish border region, a more realistic comparison is the way that some people in North America would have spoken in the colonial period.

Researchers have noted that the dialect retains a lot of vocabulary with roots in "[[Early Modern English]]" owing to the make-up of the early European settlers to the area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh30-2.html |title=The Dialect of the Appalachian People |publisher=Wvculture.org |access-date=2012-11-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023060610/http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh30-2.html |archive-date=2012-10-23 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

===Charleston===
{{anchor|Charleston}}
[[South Carolina Lowcountry|The Lowcountry]], most famously centering on the cities of [[Charleston, South Carolina]] and [[Savannah, Georgia]], once constituted its own entirely unique English dialect region. Traditionally often recognized as a '''Charleston accent''', it included these additional features, most of which no longer exist today:<ref name="Labov 2006 259-61">{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|pp=259–260}}</ref>
*[[near-square merger|Cheer–chair merger]] towards {{IPA|[ɪə~eə]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12"/>
*Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping).
*Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping).
*{{IPAc-en|ʃ|r}} pronounced as {{IPA|[sɹ]}} (e.g. causing ''shrimp'', ''shrub'', etc. to sound like ''srimp'', ''srub'', etc.); this feature is reported earliest in Virginia.<ref name="Thomas 2006 18">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=18}}</ref>
*[[Trap–bath split]]: pronunciation of the "bath" set of words in the [[trap–bath split]] as {{IPA|[æ̈ɛ~æ̈e]}}, different from the "trap" set of words as {{IPA|[æ~æ̈ɛæ̈]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 8">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=8}}</ref>
*A possibility of both variants of [[Canadian raising]]:
*A possibility of both variants of [[Canadian raising]]:
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[]}}, but {{IPA|[əʉ~ɜʉ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11-12}}</ref>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as something like as {{IPA|[ɑe]}}, but possibly {{IPA|[ɐɪ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref name="Thomas 2006 11–12"/>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as something like {{IPA|[aε~aæ]}}, but possibly {{IPA|[ɐɪ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11-12}}</ref>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[]}}, but {{IPA|[əʉ~ɜʉ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref name="Thomas 2006 11–12"/>
*{{IPAc-en|eɪ}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɛ]}} in certain words, making ''bake'' sound like "beck", and ''afraid'' like "uh Fred."
*{{IPAc-en|eɪ}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɪə~eə]}} in a [[closed syllable]], {{IPA|[ɪː~eː]}} in an [[open syllable]].<ref name="Thomas 2006 9"/>
*{{IPAc-en|oʊ}} pronounced as {{IPA|[oə~uə]}} in a closed syllable, {{IPA|[o~u]}} in an open syllable.<ref name="Thomas 2006 10"/>
*In [[Tidewater region|Tidewater Virginia]] particularly:
*{{IPAc-en|ɔː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɔ~o]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 9"/>
**Some of the "bath" words (''aunt'', ''rather'', and, earlier, ''pasture'', etc.) pronounced farther back in mouth, as {{IPA|[ɒ~ɑ]}}.
*{{IPAc-en|ɑː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɑ~ɒ]}},<ref name="PEAS"/> with possible remnant pronunciations using even older {{IPA|[æ]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 9"/>
**{{IPAc-en|ɜr}}, as in ''bird, earth, flirt'', etc. pronounced as {{IPA|[ɜ]}}, similar to modern London English.
*{{IPAc-en|ɜr}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɜ~ɞ]}},<ref name="PEAS"/> or possibly {{IPA|[əɪ]}}<ref name="Thomas 2006 8"/>
**"Broad ''a''" (as in ''palm, father, spa,'' etc.) shifted towards a rounded {{IPA|[ɒː]}}, potentially causing, for example, ''palm'' and ''harm'' to rhyme.
*{{IPAc-en|uː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ʉː]}} or {{IPA|[ᵿʉ]}}.<ref name="PEAS"/>


===Down East/Pamlico/Outer Banks and Delmarva/Chesapeake===
===Pamlico and Chesapeake===
{{main|High Tider}}
{{main|High Tider}}
The "[[Down East (North Carolina)|Down East]]" [[Outer Banks|Outer Banks coastal region]] of [[Carteret County, North Carolina]], and adjacent [[Pamlico Sound]], including [[Ocracoke, North Carolina|Ocracoke]] and [[Harkers Island]], are known for additional features, some of which are still spoken today by generations-long residents of its [[Unincorporated area|unincorporated]] coastal and island communities, which have largely been geographically and economically isolated from the rest of North Carolina and the South since their first settlement by English-speaking Europeans. The same is true for the very similar dialect area of the [[Delmarva]] (Delaware&ndash;Maryland&ndash;Virginia) Peninsula and neighboring islands in the [[Chesapeake Bay]], such as [[Tangier, Virginia|Tangier]] and [[Smith Island, Maryland|Smith Island]]. These two regions historically share many common pronunciation features, sometimes collectively called a High Tider (or "Hoi Toider") accent, including:
The "[[Down East (North Carolina)|Down East]]" [[Outer Banks|Outer Banks coastal region]] of [[Carteret County, North Carolina]], and adjacent [[Pamlico Sound]], including [[Ocracoke, North Carolina|Ocracoke]] and [[Harkers Island]], are known for additional features, some of which are still spoken today by generations-long residents of its [[Unincorporated area|unincorporated]] coastal and island communities, which have largely been geographically and economically isolated from the rest of North Carolina and the South since their first settlement by English-speaking Europeans. The same is true for the very similar dialect area of the [[Delmarva]] (Delaware&ndash;Maryland&ndash;Virginia) Peninsula and neighboring islands in the [[Chesapeake Bay]], such as [[Tangier, Virginia|Tangier]] and [[Smith Island, Maryland|Smith Island]]. These two regions historically share many common pronunciation features, sometimes collectively called a High Tider (or "Hoi Toider") accent, including:
*Rhoticity (or ''r''-fulness, like in most U.S. English, but unlike in most other older Atlantic Southern dialects)
*Rhoticity (or ''r''-fulness, like in most U.S. English, but unlike in most other older Atlantic Southern dialects)
*{{IPAc-en|aɪ}}, such as the vowel in the words ''high tide'', retaining its glide and being pronounced beginning further back in the mouth, as {{IPA|[ɑe]}} or even rounded {{IPA|[ɒe~ɐɒe]}}, often stereotyped as sounding like "hoi toid," giving Pamlico Sound's residents the name "[[High Tider]]s."<ref name="Thomas 2006 4, 11">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=4, 11}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|aɪ}}, such as the vowel in the words ''high tide'', retaining its glide and being pronounced beginning further back in the mouth, as {{IPA|[ɑe]}} or even rounded {{IPA|[ɒe~ɐɒe]}}, often stereotyped as sounding like "hoi toid," giving Pamlico Sound's residents the name "[[High Tider]]s."<ref name="Thomas 2006 4, 11">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=4, 11}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|æ}} is raised to {{IPA|[ɛ]}} (so ''cattle'' sounds like ''kettle''); {{IPAc-en|ɛ}} is raised to {{IPA|[e~ɪ]}} (so that ''mess'' sounds like ''miss''); and, most prominently, {{IPAc-en|ɪ}} is raised to {{IPA|[i]}} (so ''fish'' sounds like ''feesh'').<ref>Wolfram, Walt (1997). ''Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue''. University of North Carolina Press. p. 61.</ref> This appears to mirror Stages 2 and 3 of the Southern Vowel Shift (see under "Newer phonology"), despite this accent never participating in Stage 1 of the shift. It is thus possible that this chain shift's resemblance to a portion of the Southern Shift is merely coincidental.{{citation needed|date=September 2015}}
*{{IPAc-en|æ}} is raised to {{IPA|[ɛ]}} (so ''cattle'' sounds like ''kettle''); {{IPAc-en|ɛ}} is raised to {{IPA|[e~ɪ]}} (so that ''mess'' sounds like ''miss''); and, most prominently, {{IPAc-en|ɪ}} is raised to {{IPA|[i]}} (so ''fish'' sounds like ''feesh'').<ref>Wolfram, Walt (1997). ''Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue''. University of North Carolina Press. p. 61.</ref> This mirrors the second and third stages of the Southern Vowel Shift (see under "Newer phonology"), despite this particular accent never participating in the very first stage of the shift.
*{{IPAc-en|ɔː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɔ~o]}}, similar to modern Australian or London English.
*{{IPAc-en|ɔː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɔ~o]}}, similar to modern Australian or London English.
*{{IPAc-en|aʊ}}, as in ''loud, town, scrounge,'' etc., pronounced with a fronted glide as {{IPA|[aɵ~aø~aε]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=12}}</ref> Before a voiceless consonant, this same phoneme is {{IPA|[ɜʉ~ɜy]}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11-12}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|aʊ}}, as in ''loud, town, scrounge,'' etc., pronounced with a fronted glide as {{IPA|[aɵ~aø~aε]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=12}}</ref> Before a voiceless consonant, this same phoneme is {{IPA|[ɜʉ~ɜy]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 11–12"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ɛər}}, as in ''chair, square, bear,'' etc., as {{IPA|[æɚ]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ɛər}}, as in ''chair, square, bear,'' etc., as {{IPA|[æɚ]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12"/>
*[[English-language vowel changes before historic r#Card–cord merger|Card–cord merger]] since at least the 1800s in the Delmarva Peninsula.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=12}}</ref>
*[[English-language vowel changes before historic r#Card–cord merger|Card–cord merger]] since at least the 1800s in the Delmarva Peninsula.<ref name="Thomas 2006 12"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ʃ|r}} pronounced as {{IPA|[sɹ]}} (e.g. causing ''shrimp'' to sound like ''srimp'')<ref name="Thomas 2006 18"/>


===Lowcountry (Charleston and Savannah)===
===Piedmont and Tidewater Virginia===
[[File:Virginia painted relief.png|thumb|right|The old Virginia accent was mostly spoken in the central and eastern regions of the state, excluding the [[Eastern Shore of Virginia]] on the [[Delmarva Peninsula]].]]
[[South Carolina Lowcountry|The Lowcountry]], most famously centering around the cities of [[Charleston, South Carolina]] and [[Savannah, Georgia]], once included these additional features, most of which no longer exist today:<ref name="Labov 2006 259-61">{{Harvcoltxt|Labov|Ash|Boberg|2006|p=259-260}}</ref>
The people of the major central ([[Piedmont (United States)|Piedmont]]) and eastern ([[Tidewater region|Tidewater]]) regions of Virginia, excluding Virginia's [[Eastern Shore of Virginia|Eastern Shore]], once spoke in a way long associated with the upper or [[Aristocracy|aristocratic]] [[plantations in the American South|plantation]] class in the [[Old South]]. Additional phonological features of this Atlantic Southern variety included:
*[[near-square merger|Cheer–chair merger]] towards {{IPA|[ɪə~eə]}}.
*Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping).
*Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping).
*A possibility of both variants of [[Canadian raising]]:
*A possibility of both variants of [[Canadian raising]]:
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as something like as {{IPA|[ɑe]}}, but possibly {{IPA|[ɐɪ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11-12}}</ref>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[]}}, but as {{IPA|[əʉ~ɜʉ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref name="Thomas 2006 11–12">{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11–12}}</ref>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[]}}, but {{IPA|[əʉ~ɜʉ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=11-12}}</ref>
**{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as something like {{IPA|[aε~aæ~aə]}}, but possibly {{IPA|[ɐɪ]}} before a voiceless consonant.<ref name="Thomas 2006 11–12"/><ref name="PEAS">Kurath, Hans; MacDavid, Raven Ioor. ''The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States''. Vol. 3. University of Michigan Press, 1961. [https://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.32106001579140 HathiTrust]. pp. 18-22.</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɪə~eə]}} in a [[closed syllable]], {{IPA|[ɪː~eː]}} in an [[open syllable]].<ref>({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=9}}</ref>
*{{IPAc-en|ɛər}} pronounced as {{IPA|[æː(ə)]}}.<ref name="PEAS"/>
*{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[o~u]}} or {{IPA|[oə~uə]}}.
*{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɛ]}} in certain words, making ''bake'' sound like "beck", and ''afraid'' like "uh Fred."
*{{IPAc-en|ɔː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ɔ~o]}}.
*{{IPAc-en|}} pronounced as {{IPA|[ʉː]}} or {{IPA|[ᵿʉ]}}.<ref name="PEAS"/>
*In [[Tidewater region|Virginia's Tidewater region]] particularly, these further features became associated with the label '''Tidewater accent''':
*{{IPAc-en|ɑː}} pronounced as {{IPA|[æ]}}.
**{{IPAc-en|ɔr}}, {{IPAc-en|ɔː}}, {{IPAc-en|ɑː}}, and {{IPAc-en|ɑːr}} all potentially merge (as well as a small number of words that have {{IPA|/æ/}} in other American dialects, namely ''aunt'', ''rather'', and, earlier, ''pasture'': an imitation of the British-style [[trap-bath split]]). The merged vowel is long, low-back, and rounded: {{IPA|[ɒː]}} or {{IPA|[ɒɒ̝]}}. Examples words for each traditional phoneme include ''more'', ''maw'', ''ma'', and ''mar'', respectively.<ref name="PEAS"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ɜr}} pronounced as {{IPA|[əɪ]}}.
*{{IPAc-en|ʃ|r}} pronounced as {{IPA|[]}} (e.g. causing ''shrimp'' to sound like ''srimp'')<ref name="Thomas 2006 18"/>
**{{IPAc-en|ɜr}}, as in ''bird, earth, flirt, hurt, word, dirt'', etc. pronounced with a weak {{IPA|/r/}} consonant as {{IPA|[ɜʴ]}}, or a less common variant without {{IPA|/r/}}: {{IPA|[ɜ]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 8"/>

===Appalachia===
{{Main|Appalachian English}}
Due to the former isolation of some regions of the [[Appalachia]]n South, the [[Appalachian accent]] may be difficult for some outsiders to understand. This dialect is also rhotic, meaning speakers pronounce "R"s wherever they appear in words, and sometimes when they do not (for example, "worsh" or "warsh" for "wash".) Because of the extensive length of the mountain chain, noticeable variation also exists within this subdialect.

The Southern Appalachian dialect can be heard, as its name implies, in [[North Georgia]], [[North Alabama]], [[East Tennessee]], [[Upstate South Carolina|Northwestern South Carolina]], [[Western North Carolina]], [[Eastern Kentucky Coalfield|Eastern Kentucky]], [[Southwest Virginia|Southwestern Virginia]], [[Western Maryland]], and [[West Virginia]]. Southern Appalachian speech patterns, however, are not entirely confined to the mountain regions previously listed.


===Southern Louisiana===
Almost always, the common thread in the areas of the [[Southern United States|South]] where a rhotic version of the dialect is heard is a traceable line of descent from [[Scots language|Scots]] or [[Scotch-Irish American|Scots-Irish]] ancestors amongst its speakers. The dialect is also not devoid of early influence from Welsh settlers, the dialect retaining the [[Welsh English]] tendency to pronounce words beginning with the letter "h" as though the "h" were silent; for instance "humble" often is rendered "umble".
Southern [[Louisiana]], as well as some of southeast [[Texas]] ([[Houston]] to [[Beaumont, Texas|Beaumont]]), and coastal [[Mississippi]], feature a number of dialects influenced by other languages beyond English. Most of southern Louisiana constitutes [[Acadiana]], dominated for hundreds of years by monolingual speakers of [[Cajun French]],<ref name="Dubois 2">Dubois, Sylvia and Barbara Horvath (2004). "Cajun Vernacular English: phonology." In Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (Ed). ''A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool.'' New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 412-4.</ref> which combines elements of [[Acadian French]] with other French and Spanish words. This French dialect is spoken by many of the older members of the [[Cajun]] ethnic group and is said to be dying out, although it is experiencing a minor resurgence among younger Franco-Louisianaise. A related language called [[Louisiana Creole French|Louisiana Creole]] also exists. The older English of Southern Louisiana did not participate in certain general older Southern English phenomena, for example lacking the Plantation South's [[trap–bath split]] and the fronting of {{IPAc-en|aʊ}}.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|pp=8, 11}}</ref>


[[New Orleans English]] was likely developing in the early 20th century, in large part due to [[New York City English|dialect influence]] from New York City migrants in New Orleans.
Researchers have noted that the dialect retains a lot of vocabulary with roots in Scottish "[[Early Modern English|Elizabethan English]]" owing to the make-up of the early European settlers to the area.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh30-2.html |title=The Dialect of the Appalachian People |publisher=Wvculture.org |date= |accessdate=2012-11-08}}</ref>

===Gulf Coast===
Older speech of the [[Gulf Coast of the United States]] includes these features:
*Rhoticity and non-rhoticity: Non-rhoticity (or ''r''-dropping) historically occurred in the greater central sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and in coastal Texas and some other coastal communities of the Gulf states. Rhoticity (or ''r''-fulness) occurred in southern sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as in northern Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.<ref name="Thomas 2006 16">({{Harvcoltxt|Thomas|2006|p=16}}</ref>
*[[Trap–bath split]]: pronunciation of the "bath" set of words in the [[trap–bath split]] as {{IPA|[æ̈ɛ~æ̈e]}}, different from the "trap" set of words as {{IPA|[æ~æ̈ɛæ̈]}}.<ref name="Thomas 2006 8"/>
*{{IPAc-en|ʃ|r}} widely pronounced as {{IPA|[sɹ]}} (e.g. causing ''shrimp'', ''shrub'', etc. to sound like ''srimp'', ''srub'', etc.).<ref name="Thomas 2006 18"/>

====Southern Louisiana====
Southern [[Louisiana]], as well as some of southeast [[Texas]] ([[Houston]] to [[Beaumont, Texas|Beaumont]]), and coastal [[Mississippi]], feature a number of dialects influenced by other languages beyond English. Most of southern Louisiana constitutes [[Acadiana]], dominated for hundreds of years by monolingual speakers of [[Cajun French]],<ref name="Dubois 2">Dubois, Sylvia and Barbara Horvath (2004). "Cajun Vernacular English: phonology." In Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (Ed). ''A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool.'' New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 412-4.</ref> which combines elements of [[Acadian French]] with other French and Spanish words. This French dialect is spoken by many of the older members of the [[Cajun]] ethnic group and is said to be dying out. A related language called [[Louisiana Creole French|Louisiana Creole]] also exists.

[[New Orleans English]] was likely developing in the early 1900s, in large part due to [[New York City English|dialect influence]] from New Yorker immigrants in New Orleans.


==Grammar and vocabulary==
==Grammar and vocabulary==
* Zero copula in third person plural and second person. This is historically a consequence of [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|''R''-dropping]], with e.g. ''you're'' merging with ''you''.
* Zero copula in third person plural and second person. This is historically a consequence of [[rhotic and non-rhotic accents|''R''-dropping]], with e.g. ''you're'' merging with ''you''.
*:You [Ø] taller than Louise.
*:You [Ø] taller than Louise.
*:They [Ø] gonna leave today (Cukor-Avila, 2003).
*:They [Ø] gonna leave today (Cukor-Avila, 2003).
Line 177: Line 210:
*:He was a-hootin' and a-hollerin'.
*:He was a-hootin' and a-hollerin'.
*:The wind was a-howlin'.
*:The wind was a-howlin'.
* The use of ''like to'' to mean ''nearly''; ''liked to'' merging into ''like to''
* The use of ''like to'' to mean ''nearly''.
*:I like to had a heart attack. (I nearly had a heart attack)
*:I like to had a heart attack. (I nearly had a heart attack)
* The use of the simple past infinitive vs [[present perfect]] infinitive.
* The use of the simple past infinitive vs [[present perfect]] infinitive.
Line 186: Line 219:


==Current projects==
==Current projects==
There is currently a linguistic survey and study occurring in the Tidewater region.{{when?|date=July 2015}} A project devised by [[Old Dominion University]] Assistant Professor Dr. Bridget Anderson entitled ''Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia'' was initiated in late 2008.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots|title = ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots'|date = January 22, 2009|accessdate = November 15, 2014|website = hamptonroads.com|publisher = The Virginian Pilot|last = Batts|first = Denise}}</ref> In collecting oral histories from natives of the area, this study offers insight to not only specific history of the region, but also to linguistic phonetic variants native to the area as well. This linguistic survey is the first of its kind in nearly forty years.<ref>{{cite web|last=Watson |first=Denise |url=http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots |title=ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots' &#124; HamptonRoads.com &#124; PilotOnline.com |publisher=HamptonRoads.com |date=2009-01-22 |accessdate=2012-08-06}}</ref> The two variants being analyzed the most closely in this study are the {{IPA|/aʊ/}} diphthong as in ''house'' or ''brown'' and post-vocalic ''r''-lessness as in {{IPA|/ˈfɑːðə/}} for {{IPA|/ˈfɑːðər/}}.
A project devised by [[Old Dominion University]] Assistant Professor Dr. Bridget Anderson entitled ''Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia'' was initiated in late 2008. In collecting oral histories from natives of the area, this study offers insight to not only specific history of the region, but also to linguistic phonetic variants native to the area as well. This linguistic survey is the first of its kind in nearly forty years.<ref>{{cite web|last=Watson |first=Denise |url=http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots |title=ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots' &#124; HamptonRoads.com &#124; PilotOnline.com |publisher=HamptonRoads.com |date=2009-01-22 |access-date=2012-08-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150731091934/http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots |archive-date=2015-07-31 |url-status=dead |df=ymd-all}}</ref> The two variants being analyzed the most closely in this study are the {{IPA|/aʊ/}} diphthong as in ''house'' or ''brown'' and post-vocalic ''r''-lessness as in {{IPA|/ˈfɑðə/}} for {{IPA|/ˈfɑðər/}}.


==References==
==Notes==
{{reflist|2}}
{{reflist|2}}

*{{citation|title=Rural White Southern Accents|first=Erik R.|last=Thomas|publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]|work=Atlas of North American English (online)|year=2006|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf}}
==References==
* Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). ''English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States''. New York: Routedge.
* {{citation|title=Rural White Southern Accents|first=Erik R.|last=Thomas|publisher=[[Walter de Gruyter]]|work=Atlas of North American English (online)|year=2006|url=http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|access-date=2015-07-27|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222004531/http://www.atlas.mouton-content.com/secure/generalmodules/varieties/unit0000/virtualsession/vslessons/thomas.pdf|archive-date=2014-12-22|url-status=dead}}
*Shores, David L. (2000). Tangier Island: place, people, and talk. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses.
* Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). ''English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States''. New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|9780415114769}}.
* Shores, David L. (2000). Tangier Island: place, people, and talk. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses.
* Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
* Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.


==External links==
==External links==
* [http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=795 Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by] a [[Richmond, Virginia]] native, featured in the [[George Mason University]] Linguistics program [http://accent.gmu.edu/ Speech Accent Archive].
* [http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=795 Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by] a [[Richmond, Virginia]] native, featured in the [[George Mason University]] Linguistics program [http://accent.gmu.edu/ Speech Accent Archive].
* [http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/niceandcurious/manyvoices.htm "Virginia’s Many Voices," [[Fairfax County, Virginia]] Library]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080830052030/http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/niceandcurious/manyvoices.htm "Virginia’s Many Voices", Fairfax County, Virginia Library]
* [http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/virginia/virginia.htm ''International Dialects of English Archive,'' "Dialects Of Virginia"]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100609232021/http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/virginia/virginia.htm ''International Dialects of English Archive,'' "Dialects Of Virginia"]
* [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics at [[University of Pennsylvania]] ]
* [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics] at [[University of Pennsylvania]]
* [http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots Hamptonroads.com]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150731091934/http://hamptonroads.com/2009/01/odu-team-records-areas-accent-english-deep-roots Hamptonroads.com]

{{English dialects by continent}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Virginia Accent}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Old Virginia Accent}}
[[Category:English-American culture in Virginia]]
[[Category:English-American culture in Virginia]]
[[Category:Virginia culture]]
[[Category:Virginia culture]]
{{English dialects by continent}}

[[Category:American English]]
[[Category:American English]]
[[Category:Culture of the Southern United States]]
[[Category:Culture of the Southern United States]]
[[Category:African-American English]]

Latest revision as of 15:32, 6 December 2024

Older Southern American English
RegionSouthern United States
Early forms
Language codes
ISO 639-3
GlottologNone

Older Southern American English is a diverse set of English dialects of the Southern United States spoken most widely up until the American Civil War of the 1860s, gradually transforming among its White speakers—possibly first due to postwar economy-driven migrations—up until the mid-20th century.[1] By then, these local dialects had largely consolidated into, or been replaced by, a more regionally unified Southern American English. Meanwhile, among Black Southerners, these dialects transformed into a fairly stable African-American Vernacular English, now spoken nationwide among Black people.[2] Certain features unique to older Southern U.S. English persist today, like non-rhoticity, though typically only among Black speakers or among very localized White speakers.

History

[edit]

This group of American English dialects evolved over two hundred years from the older varieties of British English primarily spoken by those who initially settled the area. Given that language is an entity that is constantly changing,[3] the English varieties of the colonists were quite different from any variety of English spoken today. In the early 1600s, the initial English-speaking settlers of the Tidewater area of Virginia, the first permanent English colony in North America, spoke a variety of Early Modern English, which itself was diverse.[4] The older Southern dialects thus originated in varying degrees from a mix of the speech of these and later immigrants from many different regions of the British Isles who moved to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as perhaps the English, creole, and post-creole speech of African and African-American slaves.

One theory of historian David Hackett Fischer's book Albion's Seed is that indentured servants chiefly from England's South and Midlands primarily settled the Tidewater (Virginia) region and poor Northern English and Ulster Scots families primarily settled the Appalachian Southern backcountry, so that the Tidewater and backcountry dialects were most directly influenced by those two immigrant populations, respectively.[5] Indeed, the Appalachian dialect shows such likely immigrant influences as evidenced by, for example, their consistent preservation of rhoticity.[6][7] However, linguists have disputed many of the specifics of Fischer's theory, instead arguing that dialect-mixing in both regions was in fact more varied and widespread.[8] For example, an Appalachian Journal linguistic article reveals the flawed premises and misrepresentation of sources in Albion's Seed and asserts that the early Southern dialects are actually difficult to trace to any singular influence.[9]

In the decades following the American Revolution of the 1760s to 1780s, major population centers of the coastal American South, such as Norfolk, Virginia, and Charleston, South Carolina, maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to southern England around London. Thus, as the upper-class standard dialect around London changed, some of its features were mirrored by: the dialects of upper-class Americans in eastern Virginia and the Charleston area, followed by the dialects of the surrounding regions in general, regardless of socioeconomic class. One such example accent feature is the "r-dropping" (or non-rhoticity) of the late 18th and early 19th century, resulting in the similar r-dropping found in these American areas during the cultural "Old South". Contrarily, in Southern areas away from the major coasts and plantations (like Appalachia), on certain isolated islands, and variously among lower-class White speakers, accents mostly remained rhotic. Another example feature is the British-style trap–bath split, which also helped define the eastern Virginia accent. The split was also adopted in the Gulf, Appalachian, and plantation regions of the South, though with their own articulation distinct from the British one. (The feature is extinct in virtually all these areas today.)[10]

By the time of the American Civil War in the 1860s, many different Southern accents had developed, namely: eastern Virginia accents (including Tidewater accents), Lowcountry (or Charleston) accents, Appalachian accents, Plantation accents (those primarily of the Black Belt region), and accents in the secluded Pamlico and Chesapeake islands.

Decline

[edit]

After the Civil War, the growth of timber, coal, railroad, steel, textile, and tobacco mill industries throughout the South, along with the whole country's resulting migration changes, likely contributed to the expansion of a more unified Southern accent (now associated with the 20th century), which gradually ousted 19th-century Southern accents.[11] The South's 19th-century linguistic prestige was rooted in the plantation areas and higher-class White people, including features such as non-rhoticity. However, by the mid-20th century, linguistic features originating from Texas, Appalachian towns, and lower-class White people—such as rhoticity—were suddenly expanding throughout all the Southern States.

Also, before World War II, the demographic tendency of the South was out-migration, but after the war a counter-tendency emerged in the Southern cities, which received masses of migrant workers from the North: another possible motivation for the abandonment of older Southern accent features. Finally, the Civil Rights Movement seems to have led White and Black Southerners alike to resist accent features associated with the other racial group and even develop newly distinguishing features, which may have further contributed to the sudden mid-20th-century adoption of rhoticity among White Southerners of all classes, despite continuing non-rhoticity among Black Americans.[11] Today, this linguistic divide on the basis of rhoticity, alongside other accent features, largely persists between Black versus White Southerners.

Phonology

[edit]

General Older South

[edit]

The phonologies of early Southern English in the United States were diverse. The following pronunciation features were very generally characteristic of the older Southern region as a whole:

A list of typical older Southern vowels[12]
English diaphoneme Old Southern phoneme Example words
/aɪ/ [aɪ~æɛ~aæ] bride, prize, tie
[ai~aæ] bright, price, tyke
/æ/ [æ] (or [æɛæ~ɐɛɐ], often before /d/) cat, trap, yak
[æɛæ~eə] hand, man, slam
[æɛ~æe] bath, can't, pass
/aʊ/ [æɒ~æɔ] mouth, ow, sound
/ɑː/ [ɑ] or [ɒ] father, laager, palm
/ɑr/ [ɑː~ɒː] (non-rhotic) or
[ɒɻ] (rhotic)
ark, heart, start
/ɒ/ [ɑ] bother, lot, wasp
/eɪ/ [ɛɪ~ei] or
[eː] (plantation possibility)
face, rein, play
/ɛ/ [ɛ] (or [eiə], often before /d/) dress, egg, head
/ɜr/ [ɜɪ~əɪ] (non-rhotic before a consonant) or
[ɜː] (non-rhotic) or
[ɜɚ] (rhotic)
nurse, search, worm
/iː/ [iː~ɪi] fleece, me, neat
/ɪ/ [ɪ] kit, mid, pick
happy, money, sari
/oʊ/ [ɔu~ɒu] (after late 1800s) or
[oː~uː] (plantation possibility)
goat, no, throw
/ɔ/ [ɔo] thought, vault, yawn
cloth, lost, off
/ɔɪ/ [ɔoɪ] or
[oɛ~oə] (plantation possibility)
choice, joy, loin
/ʌ/ [ɜ] or
[ʌ] (plantation possibility)
strut, tough, won
  • Lack of Yod-dropping: Pairs like do and due, or toon and tune, were often distinct in these dialects because words like due, lute, new, etc. historically contained a diphthong similar to /ju/ (like the you sound in cute or puny).[13] (as England's RP standard pronunciation still does), but Labov et al. report that the only Southern speakers who make a distinction today use a diphthong /ɪu/ in such words.[14] They further report that speakers with the distinction are found primarily in North Carolina and northwest South Carolina, and in a corridor extending from Jackson to Tallahassee. For most of the South, this feature began disappearing after World War II.[15]
    • Yod-coalescence: Words like dew were pronounced as "Jew", and Tuesday as "choose day."
  • Wine–whine distinction: distinction between "w" and "wh" in words like "wine" and "whine", "witch and "which", etc.
  • Horse–hoarse distinction: distinction between pairs of words like "horse" and "hoarse", "for" and "four", etc.
  • Rhoticity and non-rhoticity: The pronunciation of the r sound only before or between vowels, but not after vowels, is known as non-rhoticity and was historically associated with the major plantation regions of the South: specifically, the entire Piedmont and most of the South's Atlantic Coast in a band going west towards the Mississippi River, as well as all of the Mississippi Embayment and some of the western Gulf Coastal Plain. This was presumably influenced by the non-rhotic East Anglia and London England pronunciation. Additionally, some older Southern dialects were even "variably non-rhotic in intra-word intervocalic contexts, as in carry [kʰæi]."[12] Rhotic accents of the older Southern dialects, which fully pronounce all historical r sounds, were somewhat rarer and primarily spoken in Appalachia, the eastern Gulf Coastal Plain, and the areas west of the Mississippi Embayment.[16]
  • Palatalization of /k/ and /g/ before /ɑr/: Especially in the older South along the Atlantic Coast, the consonants /k/ (as in key or coo) and /ɡ/ (as in guy or go), when before the sound /ɑːr/ (as in car or barn), were often pronounced with the tongue fronted towards the hard palate. Thus, for example, garden in older Southern was something like "gyah(r)den" [ˈgjɑ(ɹ)dən] and "cart" like "kyah(r)t" [cʰjɑ(ɹ)t]. This pronunciation feature was in decline by the late 1800s.[15]
  • Lack or near-lack of // glide weakening: The gliding vowel in words like prize (but less commonly in price or other situations of this vowel appearing before a voiceless consonant) commonly has a "weakened" glide today in the South; however, this only became a documented feature since the last quarter of the 1800s and was otherwise absent or inconsistent in earlier Southern dialects. Today, the lack of glide weakening persists in the High Tider and updated Lowcountry accents. Full weakening has become a defining feature only of the modern Southern dialects, particularly the most advanced sub-varieties.[17]
  • Mary–marry–merry distinction: Unlike most of the U.S. and modern Southern, older Southern did not merge the following three vowels before /r/: [e~eə] (as in Mary), [æ] (as in marry), and [ɛ] (as in merry). Although the three are now merging or merged in modern Southern English, the "marry" class of words remains the least likely among modern Southerners to merge with the other two.[18]
  • Clear /l/ between front vowels: Unlike modern Southern and General American English's universally "dark" /l/ sound (often represented as [ɫ]), older Southern pronunciation had a "clear" (i.e. non-velarized) /l/ sound whenever /l/ appears between front vowels, as in the words silly, mealy, Nellie, etc.[15]
  • Was, what and of pronounced with [ɑ]: The stressed word what, for example, rhymed with cot (not with cut, as it does elsewhere in the U.S.).[19]
  • No happy-tensing: The final vowel of words like happy, silly, monkey, parties, etc. were not tensed as they are in newer Southern and other U.S. dialects, meaning that this vowel sounded more like the [ɪ] of fit than the [i] of feet.
  • //, as in goat, toe, robe, etc., kept a back starting place (unlike most Southern since World War II, but like most Northern U.S. dialects today); this became an opener [ɔu~ɒu] in the early 1900s.[19] The modern fronted form of the Atlantic South started as far back as the 1800s in northeastern North Carolina, in the form [ɜy], but only spread slowly, until accelerating after World War II.[20]
  • /ʃr/ pronounced as [sɹ] (e.g. causing shrimp, shrub, etc. to sound like srimp, srub, etc.); this feature was reported earliest in Virginia.[21]

Plantation South

[edit]
The area in dark purple approximates the Plantation Southern dialect region, excluding the Lowcountry (the Atlantic coast of South Carolina and Georgia).

Older speech of the Plantation South included those features above, plus:

  • Non-rhoticity: R-dropping historically occurred in the greater central sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, and in coastal Texas and some other coastal communities of the Gulf states. Rhoticity (or r-fulness) was more likely in the southernmost sections of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, as well as in northern Florida, western Louisiana, and eastern Texas.[22]
  • Trap–bath split: Words like bath, dance, and ask, used a different vowel ([æ̈ɛ~æ̈e]) than words like trap, cat, and rag ([æ~æ̈ɛæ̈]).[10] A similarly organized (though different-sounding) split occurs in Standard British English.
  • //, as in face, was inconsistently pronounced [e̝ː].[23]
  • //, as in goat, was inconsistently pronounced [o̝ː].[20]
  • /ʌ/, as in strut, was conservative.[24]
  • /ɔɪ/, as in choice, was [oɛ~oə].[25]
  • /ɜːr/, as in nurse, was predominantly up-gliding, non-rhotic [ɜɪ] in the "Deep South" (all the Plantation South except North Carolina).[10]

Appalachia

[edit]

Due to the former isolation of some regions of the Appalachian South, a unique Appalachian accent developed. This dialect is rhotic, meaning speakers consistently preserve the historical phoneme /r/. Moreover, Appalachians may even insert it innovatively into certain words (for example, "worsh" or "warsh" for "wash").

The Southern Appalachian dialect could be heard, as its name implies, in north Georgia, north Alabama, east Tennessee, northwestern South Carolina, western North Carolina, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, western Maryland, and West Virginia. Southern Appalachian speech patterns, however, are not entirely confined to the mountain regions previously listed.

The dialect here is often thought to be a window into the past, with various claims having been made that it is either a surviving pocket of Elizabethan English or the way that the people of Scotch-Irish origin that make up a large fraction of the population there would have spoken back when they first migrated and settled there. However, these are both incorrect. Though some of the distinctive words used in Appalachia have their origins in the Anglo-Scottish border region, a more realistic comparison is the way that some people in North America would have spoken in the colonial period.

Researchers have noted that the dialect retains a lot of vocabulary with roots in "Early Modern English" owing to the make-up of the early European settlers to the area.[26]

Charleston

[edit]

The Lowcountry, most famously centering on the cities of Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia, once constituted its own entirely unique English dialect region. Traditionally often recognized as a Charleston accent, it included these additional features, most of which no longer exist today:[27]

Pamlico and Chesapeake

[edit]

The "Down East" Outer Banks coastal region of Carteret County, North Carolina, and adjacent Pamlico Sound, including Ocracoke and Harkers Island, are known for additional features, some of which are still spoken today by generations-long residents of its unincorporated coastal and island communities, which have largely been geographically and economically isolated from the rest of North Carolina and the South since their first settlement by English-speaking Europeans. The same is true for the very similar dialect area of the Delmarva (Delaware–Maryland–Virginia) Peninsula and neighboring islands in the Chesapeake Bay, such as Tangier and Smith Island. These two regions historically share many common pronunciation features, sometimes collectively called a High Tider (or "Hoi Toider") accent, including:

  • Rhoticity (or r-fulness, like in most U.S. English, but unlike in most other older Atlantic Southern dialects)
  • //, such as the vowel in the words high tide, retaining its glide and being pronounced beginning further back in the mouth, as [ɑe] or even rounded [ɒe~ɐɒe], often stereotyped as sounding like "hoi toid," giving Pamlico Sound's residents the name "High Tiders."[31]
  • /æ/ is raised to [ɛ] (so cattle sounds like kettle); /ɛ/ is raised to [e~ɪ] (so that mess sounds like miss); and, most prominently, /ɪ/ is raised to [i] (so fish sounds like feesh).[32] This mirrors the second and third stages of the Southern Vowel Shift (see under "Newer phonology"), despite this particular accent never participating in the very first stage of the shift.
  • /ɔː/ pronounced as [ɔ~o], similar to modern Australian or London English.
  • //, as in loud, town, scrounge, etc., pronounced with a fronted glide as [aɵ~aø~aε].[28] Before a voiceless consonant, this same phoneme is [ɜʉ~ɜy].[29]
  • /ɛər/, as in chair, square, bear, etc., as [æɚ].[28]
  • Card–cord merger since at least the 1800s in the Delmarva Peninsula.[28]

Piedmont and Tidewater Virginia

[edit]
The old Virginia accent was mostly spoken in the central and eastern regions of the state, excluding the Eastern Shore of Virginia on the Delmarva Peninsula.

The people of the major central (Piedmont) and eastern (Tidewater) regions of Virginia, excluding Virginia's Eastern Shore, once spoke in a way long associated with the upper or aristocratic plantation class in the Old South. Additional phonological features of this Atlantic Southern variety included:

  • Non-rhoticity (or r-dropping).
  • A possibility of both variants of Canadian raising:
    • // pronounced as [aʊ], but as [əʉ~ɜʉ] before a voiceless consonant.[29]
    • // pronounced as something like [aε~aæ~aə], but possibly [ɐɪ] before a voiceless consonant.[29][30]
  • /ɛər/ pronounced as [æː(ə)].[30]
  • // pronounced as [ɛ] in certain words, making bake sound like "beck", and afraid like "uh Fred."
  • // pronounced as [ʉː] or [ᵿʉ].[30]
  • In Virginia's Tidewater region particularly, these further features became associated with the label Tidewater accent:
    • /ɔːr/, /ɔː/, /ɑː/, and /ɑːr/ all potentially merge (as well as a small number of words that have /æ/ in other American dialects, namely aunt, rather, and, earlier, pasture: an imitation of the British-style trap-bath split). The merged vowel is long, low-back, and rounded: [ɒː] or [ɒɒ̝]. Examples words for each traditional phoneme include more, maw, ma, and mar, respectively.[30]
    • /ɜːr/, as in bird, earth, flirt, hurt, word, dirt, etc. pronounced with a weak /r/ consonant as [ɜʴ], or a less common variant without /r/: [ɜ].[10]

Southern Louisiana

[edit]

Southern Louisiana, as well as some of southeast Texas (Houston to Beaumont), and coastal Mississippi, feature a number of dialects influenced by other languages beyond English. Most of southern Louisiana constitutes Acadiana, dominated for hundreds of years by monolingual speakers of Cajun French,[33] which combines elements of Acadian French with other French and Spanish words. This French dialect is spoken by many of the older members of the Cajun ethnic group and is said to be dying out, although it is experiencing a minor resurgence among younger Franco-Louisianaise. A related language called Louisiana Creole also exists. The older English of Southern Louisiana did not participate in certain general older Southern English phenomena, for example lacking the Plantation South's trap–bath split and the fronting of //.[34]

New Orleans English was likely developing in the early 20th century, in large part due to dialect influence from New York City migrants in New Orleans.

Grammar and vocabulary

[edit]
  • Zero copula in third person plural and second person. This is historically a consequence of R-dropping, with e.g. you're merging with you.
    You [Ø] taller than Louise.
    They [Ø] gonna leave today (Cukor-Avila, 2003).
  • Use of the circumfix a- . . . -in' in progressive tenses.
    He was a-hootin' and a-hollerin'.
    The wind was a-howlin'.
  • The use of like to to mean nearly.
    I like to had a heart attack. (I nearly had a heart attack)
  • The use of the simple past infinitive vs present perfect infinitive.
    I like to had. vs I like to have had.
    We were supposed to went. vs We were supposed to have gone.
  • Use of "yonder" as a locative in addition to its more widely attested use as an adjective.
    They done gathered a mess of raspberries in them woods down yonder.

Current projects

[edit]

A project devised by Old Dominion University Assistant Professor Dr. Bridget Anderson entitled Tidewater Voices: Conversations in Southeastern Virginia was initiated in late 2008. In collecting oral histories from natives of the area, this study offers insight to not only specific history of the region, but also to linguistic phonetic variants native to the area as well. This linguistic survey is the first of its kind in nearly forty years.[35] The two variants being analyzed the most closely in this study are the /aʊ/ diphthong as in house or brown and post-vocalic r-lessness as in /ˈfɑðə/ for /ˈfɑðər/.

Notes

[edit]
  1. ^ Thomas (2006:4)
  2. ^ Thomas, Erik R. "Rural White Southern Accents" (PDF). De Gruyter. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-24. Retrieved 2020-12-21.
  3. ^ Lippi-Green, R. (1997). English with an Accent. New York, New York: Routledge.
  4. ^ Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
  5. ^ Fischer, David Hackett (1992). "From the South of England to Virginia". Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in America. On line stores/Public Libraries: OUP USA. ISBN 978-0195069051.
  6. ^ Devlin, Thomas Moore (December 13, 2017). "The United States of Accents: Southern American English". Babbel.
  7. ^ Pool, Jake (16 January 2021). "The Southern Drawl: Breakdown Of An American Accent". Magoosh.
  8. ^ Kirkpatrick, Routledge (ed.) (2010). The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes. Routledge: London and New York. pp. 97-99.
  9. ^ Michael Ellis (1992). "On the Use of Dialect as Evidence: "Albion's Seed" in Appalachia". Appalachian Journal. 19 (3): 278–297. ISSN 0090-3779. JSTOR 40933361.
  10. ^ a b c d e Thomas (2006:8)
  11. ^ a b Thomas (2006:4–5)
  12. ^ a b Thomas (2006:7–14)
  13. ^ Even in 2012 Random House Dictionary labels due, new and tune as having the /yu/ sound as a variant pronunciation.
  14. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:53–54)
  15. ^ a b c Thomas (2006:17)
  16. ^ Thomas (2006:3, 16)
  17. ^ Thomas (2006:10–11)
  18. ^ Thomas (2006:15)
  19. ^ a b Thomas (2006:6)
  20. ^ a b c Thomas (2006:10)
  21. ^ Thomas (2006:18)
  22. ^ Thomas (2006:16)
  23. ^ a b c d Thomas (2006:9)
  24. ^ Thomas (2006:7)
  25. ^ Thomas (2006:11)
  26. ^ "The Dialect of the Appalachian People". Wvculture.org. Archived from the original on 2012-10-23. Retrieved 2012-11-08.
  27. ^ Labov, Ash & Boberg (2006:259–260)
  28. ^ a b c d Thomas (2006:12)
  29. ^ a b c d e Thomas (2006:11–12)
  30. ^ a b c d e f g Kurath, Hans; MacDavid, Raven Ioor. The pronunciation of English in the Atlantic States. Vol. 3. University of Michigan Press, 1961. HathiTrust. pp. 18-22.
  31. ^ Thomas (2006:4, 11)
  32. ^ Wolfram, Walt (1997). Hoi Toide on the Outer Banks: The Story of the Ocracoke Brogue. University of North Carolina Press. p. 61.
  33. ^ Dubois, Sylvia and Barbara Horvath (2004). "Cajun Vernacular English: phonology." In Bernd Kortmann and Edgar W. Schneider (Ed). A Handbook of Varieties of English: A Multimedia Reference Tool. New York: Mouton de Gruyter. p. 412-4.
  34. ^ Thomas (2006:8, 11)
  35. ^ Watson, Denise (2009-01-22). "ODU team records area's accent - English with 'deep roots' | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com". HamptonRoads.com. Archived from the original on 2015-07-31. Retrieved 2012-08-06.

References

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  • Thomas, Erik R. (2006), "Rural White Southern Accents" (PDF), Atlas of North American English (online), Walter de Gruyter, archived from the original (PDF) on 2014-12-22, retrieved 2015-07-27
  • Lippi-Green, Rosina. (1997). English with an accent: Language, ideology, and discrimination in the United States. New York: Routledge. ISBN 9780415114769.
  • Shores, David L. (2000). Tangier Island: place, people, and talk. Cranbury, New Jersey. Associated University Presses.
  • Wolfram, W, & Schilling-Estes, N. (2006). American English. Malden, Massachusetts: Blackwell Publishing.
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