What is the true Divide Line between the North and the South? (areas, cities)
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I'm not arguing that there may be Southern sounding accents scattered there, but if you are talking about the real South, or maybe the "core" South, I think most people just include Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, North & South Carolina, most of Texas, Oklahoma, and Kentucky, the Florida panhandle, and southern Virginia and Missouri. A lot of people just count the former Confederate states. Some sources probably wouldn't include all of those. I've heard of people from the Deep South who consider Tennessee to be a border state, as crazy as that sounds.
A good chunk of Illinois is Baptist, as are parts of Southern Indiana, but in any case, religion by itself is not what determines North vs. South. Catholics exist in great concentrations in Texas, Louisiana, and Florida. In any case, I mostly agree with what you are saying, but the Bible Belt does extend into the Lower Midwest. The parts of Southern Indiana near Louisville are pretty definitively Southern. Less than 25% of Missouri is definitively southern...and what is is pretty sparsely populated.
As far as in Ohio, Cincinnati is pretty solidly Midwestern. That whole part of Kentucky jutting up into the Cincy area is more like Ohio than Kentucky.
First of all, I never said that religion was the definitive attribute of what was and wasn't Southern; I simply used that attribute as one example showing how the culture is different north of the Ohio River. I could have instead used architecture, accents, etc.
Second, you are wrong about Southern Indiana being "definitively Southern". There is no part of Indiana that is, or has historically, identified with the South.
This map does not agree with you about religion, either.
Note how the ancestry changes near the Ohio River
Again, Ohio River...
There were no major Civil War battles in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio because it was not a contested area
First of all, I never said that religion was the definitive attribute of what was and wasn't Southern; I simply used that attribute as one example showing how the culture is different north of the Ohio River. I could have instead used architecture, accents, etc.
Second, you are wrong about Southern Indiana being "definitively Southern". There is no part of Indiana that is, or has historically, identified with the South.
This map does not agree with you about religion, either.
Note how the ancestry changes near the Ohio River
Again, Ohio River...
There were no major Civil War battles in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio because it was not a contested area
The regional dialect map you posted is wrong, wrong, wrong, at least in the case of Southern MO having a "southern mountain" dialect.
That map indicates I should have one, based on where I am am from, and I dont, nor does anyone I have ever heard from that area.
The regional dialect map you posted is wrong, wrong, wrong, at least in the case of Southern MO having a "southern mountain" dialect.
That map indicates I should have one, based on where I am am from, and I dont, nor does anyone I have ever heard from that area.
Right! People in Philly and Pittsburgh do not sound anything a like. Philly does not have a Midland dialect. WTH?
Right! People in Philly and Pittsburgh do not sound anything a like. Philly does not have a Midland dialect. WTH?
FWIW, I've read before that the Philadelphia dialect is the precursor to "general American," which as we know is the accent of people in the Midwest in general. So maybe that is what this map is referring to. Not sure though.
Extremely broad map. Houston and DC have the same accents. No sir. New Orleans has the same accents as Dallas? Laughable.
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