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Lauri Waring Peterson, former costar on the Real Housewives of Orange County is a recent popular culture figure with a slight Western drawl. IIRC, Lauri grew up on a farm in Idaho.
When I lived in Arizona, I used to hear a similar accent to Lauri's among Arizona natives, especially those over 40. However, due to the high proportion of Upper Midwestern transplants in Arizona, the syllable in the word "on" among Arizona natives typically rhymes with "Don" instead of "Dawn" that you often hear in California.
Two things are happening. One, yes, regional accents are dying off, as more and more people, like Don Williams, "learn to talk like the man on the six oclock news".
Second, most Americans are now well-traveled enough that they hear regional accents in their own confines, and they become less noticeable the more you are exposed to them.
Not in Minnesota, though. Young people have just as much of an accent as older people. Its thicker up north obviously.
It is true to an extent for suburban Texas, but not rural Texas. Hell, rural Texans are proud as f*** of their country roots and rock the hell out of their country accents. Young suburban Texans definitely sound milder than their parents, though. Though I've heard of older people who claimed that they had a mild accent when young but it got thicker as they aged. I could see that happening. As you get older you care less about "seeming hip" so you talk more naturally.
Not in Minnesota, though. Young people have just as much of an accent as older people. Its thicker up north obviously.
It is true to an extent for suburban Texas, but not rural Texas. Hell, rural Texans are proud as f*** of their country roots and rock the hell out of their country accents. Young suburban Texans definitely sound milder than their parents, though. Though I've heard of older people who claimed that they had a mild accent when young but it got thicker as they aged. I could see that happening. As you get older you care less about "seeming hip" so you talk more naturally.
I've also noticed quite a few Texans who can talk with a neutral accent but prefer to talk with a Texan accent with other native Texans and use the neutral accent when talking to people from elsewhere.
I don't know about the west but here in RI I can definitely hear that my younger neighbors are adopting more of a "TV" accent. I think they associate the old RI main accent with a lower economic or social class so they are striving to get rid of it. But if I go downtown, I can still hear the old RI accent. And if you've lived here all your life, you can detect a kind of 'micro-accent' depending where people grew up. I still hear the kids downtown talking with what, to my ears, sounds like the worst of the worst of the RI accents. I know, I know, even though I've grown up around here, there's a certain accent that just sounds like nails on a chalkboard to me. I've moved around a lot and tried to get rid of my own, but the older I get and the more tired I become, I revert back, depending on the day.
The western 'cowboy' accent is still relevant in rural Arizona from what I notice. There's some of it in pockets of Flagstaff and Prescott area. In Kingman, Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City, the accent is still around.
I've heard it from time to time when off the beaten path in central California.. also a few times when I traveled in Idaho, Wyoming, and Colorado. Personally, I call it the "Modest Mouse" accent, since the lead singer of that band has it (he grew up in a small town in Idaho which probably has similar accents as rural central WA.) It's similar to the accent in West Texas (where I live now) and New Mexico though it's a bit different than the Southeast accent (which we traditionally think of as the "Southern" accent.)
Years ago (before I lived here) my mom dated a guy from Idaho who very much had a cowboy accent. When I hear older people talk around here they so much remind me of that guy, even if I hadn't thought of him in ages.
Sometimes there is (fantasy) talk of merging the eastern halfs of WA and OR with Idaho. It will never happen but it would actually be a good fit culturally.
I've also noticed quite a few Texans who can talk with a neutral accent but prefer to talk with a Texan accent with other native Texans and use the neutral accent when talking to people from elsewhere.
I can vouch for this. My husband is a native Texan. He's very well traveled and has a professional position at work. He can totally turn that cowboy drawl off and on at will.
Depends. Some of the old time cowboys in western nebraska have a pretty strong one, but I think as Nebraska has shifted more towards being more urban centered the speech has mostly become like the rest of the midwest. I do notice among some people that there's a drawl closer to kansas. If you watch interviews with Larry the Cable Guy he talks about it. He plays up the southern accent since he moved to Florida in his late teens, but his real accent is midwestern, but kind of a country type accent that i've hear in the area where Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, and Nebraska meet.
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