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I think the regional accents can reappear later in life sometimes too. When people get out of school/college and find jobs locally, they will start picking up speech patterns from the older generations. It is easier to avoid the regional accent when you are younger and mostly conversing with younger people. When you get out into the workforce, it is easier to fall into the regional accent. That has been my experience, anyway.
Not really, but Popular areas for Transplants, like say Fenway/Kenmore in Boston woul have a lower occurance of the Boston accent becasue of the massive amount of BU/BC/Harvard grad and undergrad students, many of whom are from other parts of the country, as well as the recent grads who still live in that area, same with countless areas around the Nation like Midown Atlanta, or University City in Philly.
The only people in KC and STL who have southern accents are transplants, just like any other city in the nation. Both cities are Midwestern and not Southern.
There is a southern accent though, while not everyone has it, a large percent do in both those cities (among natives as well). Even small towns in Northern Missouri typically have a noticeable southern accent.
You`re not Northern, Southern, or Western, you`re just plain -American-. Your national identity is more important than your local identity, because you don`t really have a local identity. You might be from the region in that map, which is defined by this kind of accent, but you could easily not be. Or maybe you just moved around a lot growing
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RonnieJonez
There is a southern accent though, while not everyone has it, a large percent do in both those cities (among natives as well). Even small towns in Northern Missouri typically have a noticeable southern accent.
That is not a Southern accent you are hearing...it's South Midland dialect, the dialect of the Southern Midwest. Most of Missouri, most of Kansas, over half the states of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, and from my own experience, far southern Nebraska and far southern Iowa, and even a small portion of Eastern Colorado speak this dialect. It has a noticeable twang, but lacks too many characteristics of Southern dialect to be considered southern.
As far as people born after 1989 speaking regional dialect, there are MANY people born after 1989 that do that. However, from what I've observed, it seems like the areas where this is most common are in the Upper Midwest and Deep South. General American I believe started to make regional dialects less common right starting around after the Baby Boomers.
Baby Boomers almost all speak their regional dialect. Generations born in the late 1960s to the present day have a tendency to embrace General American more than their regional dialects, and what dialect is used by younger people is not nearly as thick and drawled out as previous generations.
In cities, it's pretty uncommon to find somebody born after 1989 speaking the regional dialect. In rural areas however it's still fairly common.
Location: Jefferson City 4 days a week, St. Louis 3 days a week
2,709 posts, read 5,097,146 times
Reputation: 1028
Quote:
Originally Posted by RonnieJonez
There is a southern accent though, while not everyone has it, a large percent do in both those cities (among natives as well). Even small towns in Northern Missouri typically have a noticeable southern accent.
You have no clue what you are talking about...southern accents in both St. Louis and Kansas City are very uncommon. General American is pretty close to the norm in both these cities, especially among younger generations. African Americans are the only people that speak even close to the southern accent. I wish I had seen this post earlier, then I wouldn't even have bothered to respond to your other ones. The accents you hear in small towns in Missouri (2/3 of the state) are heard in over half of Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, all of Kansas, southern Nebraska, southern Iowa, and Eastern Colorado. It has southern influences, but not nearly enough to be called a southern accent. St. Louis has actually undergone the Northern Cities shift, and the St. Louis traditional native dialect is not southern. I suggest doing research to back up your viewpoints before you go forcing your opinion on others here. If it were a choice between you and the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Linguistics, I'd choose the latter
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