LINGUIST List 16.3388

Sun Nov 27 2005

Media: Whither the Southern Accent?

Editor for this issue: Megan Zdrojkowski <meganlinguistlist.org>

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Directory

        1.    Mike Matloff, Whither the Southern Accent?

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Message 1: Whither the Southern Accent?
Date: 23-Nov-2005
From: Mike Matloff <michelhooyahoo.com>
Subject: Whither the Southern Accent?


Here's an interesting article on accent/dialect change in the Southern U.S.
Several linguists are quoted.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051123/ap_on_re_us/southern_identity_accents

'Across the fast-growing South, accents are under assault, and not just
from the modern-day Henry Higginses of academia. There's the flood of
transplants from other regions, notions of Southern upward mobility that
require dropping the drawl, and stereotypes that 'y'alls' and 'suhs' signal
low status or lack of intelligence.'


Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition
Sociolinguistics