I dislike the Texan accent (Austin, El Paso: restaurants, area, cities)

[catman]

Yes, a gold star for you. Louis Armstrong did perform Sleepy Time Down South, although so did lots of others. He probably had the definitive version. Got to love Louis!

North Dallas (specifically I-635, the LBJ loop NW quadrant) lived down to its reputation last night. I had to drive to a country club, play a gig and come home to Ft Worth. That traffic is merciless on Friday night!

[Bass&Catfish2008]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

Solytaire,

This (bolded) part brings to mind almost verbatim what a life-long friend of mine once told me. He was public relations director at Stephen F. Austin University (Nacogdoches) and, during that time, got to be friends with a professor who was originally from Georgia.

According to my buddy, the prof said that when he first found he had the job and would be re-locating, his whole concept of Texas was based on what he had seen in western movies. In fact, he was looking forward to what he fully expected would living in wide-open spaces, ranches, and such. Instead, as the Georgia guy put it (as best I can recall), "I was very surprised to find I was still in the Deep South...there is really not much I can think of any different all the way from my hometown in Georgia to here..."

Anyway, yeah, that "Lower South" accent is very prevelent in East Texas. In most of the rest of the state (exceptions being in areas with lots of northern transplants, or very upper-panhandle and trans-pecos), the Southern American English sub-dialect is more akin to that found in the the Upper South states (particularly eastern Tennesee and far northern Alabama, reflecting settlement patterns). That is, a "twangy" quality as opposed to a softer "drawl". The former accent is often associated with country music singers (not suprising, since a disproportionate number of country music artists come from a "cresent" extending from Virginia/West Virginia thru Kentucky and Tennessee and down thru Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas).

Oh well, time to get to work. See all y'all this weekend!

As always, great observations here my good Texas Friend.

[doctorjef]

The old fashioned twanginess in the Central Texas accent is something IME that one hears perhaps primarily in Central TX natives who are well over 40 years of age. When I moved from Lubbock to Austin in 1974 it was still very common and I can recall hearing it in people who at that time were in their late twenties. I spent enough time travelling between Virginia and Texas as a kid on routes going through both the deep South and the upper South that I heard a variety of regional Southern accents (also lived for a time in northeast Louisiana), and the Texas speech in North and Central Texas seemed to me most like what I heard in Tennessee. OTOH, the speech in West Texas, the South Plains and Panhandle is quite different and to my mind doesn't compare directly to any speech elsewhere in the South -- it seems to me to be a Southern regional accent sui generis.

[viv103]

I just want to say one thing.....we are not Southerns and we don't have a Southern accent...we are Texans and we have a Texas twang/accent...love it or leave it. I am a home grown Texan....lived in several cities in Texas and we might sound a little different but in our hearts we are all the same. This is a great state and I'm happy with the way I sound and thankful to have been born here.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by viv103

I just want to say one thing.....we are not Southerns and we don't have a Southern accent...we are Texans and we have a Texas twang/accent...love it or leave it. I am a home grown Texan....lived in several cities in Texas and we might sound a little different but in our hearts we are all the same. This is a great state and I'm happy with the way I sound and thankful to have been born here.

Your obvious Texas pride is admirable and I definitely share in it.

However, for all its autonomy in legend, the speech spoken by most native Texans falls under the broader classification of what is known as Southern American English. Given settlement patterns, such only makes sense. There is no such thing as a single Southern accent, anyway -- rather many different sub-dialects (although it is often erroneously considered to be that classic "moonlight and magnolias" dialect of parts of the Deep South...the so-called "Plantation accent"). This is not just my opinion, but the conclusions of professional linguists in the most extensive survey ever done on Texas speech.

Here are a couple of interesting links on the subject (along with a couple of excerpts from each):

Do You Speak American . Sea to Shining Sea . American Varieties . Texan | PBS

Perhaps because of the sense of the state’s uniqueness in the popular imagination, Texas English (TXE) is often assumed to be somehow unique too...Actually the uniqueness of TXE is probably more an artifact of the presence of Texas in the popular imagination than a reflection of linguistic circumstances. Only a few features of Texas speech do no occur somewhere else. Nevertheless, in its mix of elements both from various dialects of English and from other languages, TXE is in fact somewhat different from other closely related varieties...

As the settlement history suggests, TXE is a form of Southern American English and thus includes many of the lexical, grammatical, and phonological features of Southern American English.

Do You Speak American . Sea to Shining Sea . American Varieties . Texan . Drawl | PBS

The most basic explanation of aTexas accent is that it’s a Southern accent with a twist,” said Professor Bailey, who has determined that the twang is not only spreading but also changing. “It’s the twist that we’re interested in.” The preeminent scholar on Texas pronunciation, Bailey hails from southern Alabama; he has a soft lilting drawl that, for the sake of economy, will not be phonetically reproduced here but is substantially more genteel and less nasal than Bob Hinkle’s twang. The broadly defined “Texas accent” began to form, Bailey explained, when two populations merged here in the mid-nineteenth century. Settlers who migrated from Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi brought with them what would later become the Lower South Dialect (its drawl left an imprint on East Texas), while settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky brought with them the South Midland Dialect (its twang had a greater influence in West Texas). Added to the mix of Anglo settlers from the Deep South and Appalachia who began talking to each other was an established Spanish-speaking population and an influx of Mexican, German, and Czech immigrants. “What distinguishes a Texas accent the most is the confluence of its influences,” said Bailey.

Anyway, better get back to work! God bless Texas!

[Upper_D_Robb]

Originally Posted by capcat

I like that.

well, I'm glad I could contribute something positive to this most interesting discussion.

Upper D Robb, from near Philadelphia

[AlGreen]

there is no ONE Texan accent. different regions of the state have different accents. dallasites don't have the same sound as houstonians

from my personal experience, eastern texans (including houston) sound just like most southerners

and anyone who thinks that some texans don't speak with as heavy a drawl as someone from georgia obviously hasn't met the right texan

[blkgiraffe]

Originally Posted by AlGreen

there is no ONE Texan accent. different regions of the state have different accents. dallasites don't have the same sound as houstonians

from my personal experience, eastern texans (including houston) sound just like most southerners

and anyone who thinks that some texans don't speak with as heavy a drawl as someone from georgia obviously hasn't met the right texan

Um no.....


Georgia accents are different to me.

[AlGreen]

Originally Posted by jluke65780

Um no.....


Georgia accents are different to me.

well that's you, sir. but i know what i know

just thinking about how general larry platt sounds JUST like my uncle ken who was born and raised in cameron

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by AlGreen

there is no ONE Texan accent. different regions of the state have different accents. dallasites don't have the same sound as houstonians

from my personal experience, eastern texans (including houston) sound just like most southerners

and anyone who thinks that some texans don't speak with as heavy a drawl as someone from georgia obviously hasn't met the right texan

I very much see and agree with your general point, Al Green, but just wanted to quibble a hair by mentioning that just as there is no single "Texas accent", there is no single "Southern accent" either. So to say that most East Texans sound like most other Southerners seems to suggest that most of our southeastern cousins sound the same as well.

As it is, the broad classification of Southern American English embraces so many different sub-dialects as to be staggering. For some reason, probably Hollywood plays a role in it (no pun intended) when people think of a "Southern accent" the sound imagined is that stereotypical "moonlight and magnolias" speech of Gone With the Wind fame (which is silly in itself, as very few of the players were even from the South! LOL).

Oh man, there are even broad differences between north and south Alabama. In fact, one of the most noteable experiences ever related to me was by a distant cousin/friend who was originally from north Alabama. She married and moved with her husband to central Mississippi. She got a job with the school district and shortly after, a co-worker asked where she was from. It was a friendly question and she deflected in the same jocular spirit with "What makes you think I am not from here"?

The other lady said her accent just didn't mark her as from that part of Mississippi. Finally, S. said she was originally from north Alabama. The other smiled and said something like "I was going to guess either north Alabama...or Texas!" LOL

Personally, I think the single most distinguishing thing about Southern American English (which obviously includes most of Texas) is not so much the dialect (although that is a large part of it) but the idiom and the use of double-modals. That is, "fixing-to, might-could, coke for most soft-drinks, the use of the 2nd person plural pronoun y'all, etc"

Here is an interesting link that gives some overview of SAE:

Southern American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia