Worldwide Accent Project- (North) Georgia, USA

[TheFiestyhick]

i don't mean to be mean but what was the point of that? U were reading that trying to sound "neutral"...haha....that aint how folks in N Georgia talk?? they sound like that guy TheDaltonboli.

U were not just sounding neutral while reading but u seemed like u were being graded for a speech class or something..hahaha..it wasn't even natural, man...lol...i aint sayin u sounded bad, just saying u didn't represent N Georgia.

[elgozador]

Another interesting thing about educated southerners is a strong awareness of the southern "i" diphthong. People will pronounce a standard diphthong in monitored speech (like in your reading). However, in unmonitored speech, you hear the typical "nice, bright lights shine at night" southern "i" sound that sounds like "nass, brat lats shan at nat." This is one of the only things that the average educated southerner turns on and off depending on environment.

[elgozador]

I'm from southwest Georgia and I have a master's degree in linguistics. South Georgia sounds nothing like Gone with the Wind. Perhaps south Georgia used to sound like that, but modern south Georgia English is more redneck / white trash sounding... :) I wish people really did talk like Tennessee Williams or Scarlet, but nobody sounds like that. It's much uglier and more foolish sounding. The truth hurts! ;)

[TheFiestyhick]

@elgozador haha--yeah, u are definitely right. that bull they pull in movies like Streetcar are like from another planet cuz no one talks like that and in the movies they seem to make it seem like people talk like that.

[TheDaltonboii]

im from dalton and i have to admit i do have an accent

[gestalt100]

@TheDaltonboii My dad lived in south Atlanta during the 50s and 60s and he doesn't have a discernible accent to other southerners, however, to someone from outside the south, he sounds southern. Isn't it funny how we discern a lack of an accent? There's always an accent. Our accentless American English comes from the news media.

[TheDaltonboii]

@gestalt100 yea like whenever i just regularly talk i dont hear an accent or when other people from the south talk i dont hear it but if i record my self and play it back i can hear it a lil bit

[TheDaltonboii]

anyway i have a video of one of these on my profile u should go check it out and see if u can tell anything

[gestalt100]

@TheDaltonboii lol Your accent is really strong. I'd have to say that my accent was muted when I was at college because it's college, there're people from all over. I can keep an accent for a day. I was talking to these British people on Skype all day and when I started talking to my friends again my southern accent melded with the British and became..... Australian. That's as southern as you can get. lol

[TheDaltonboii]

@gestalt100 haha alright

[gestalt100]

@swear1down1blud Thanks, your accent is quite strong; it's something I haven't heard before, it's a bit like BBC standard but heavier (Monty Python must be Londoners). You must know of the age old 'news standard' of accent, that represents a whole country. I hope that mine is not too country-southern or too neutral (rural accents are the best representation of diversity, I can't really tell. I'm glad that foreigners can discern all of U.S.A. from that darn so. Cal accent epitome of neutral!