Is virginia southern? (Richmond, Roanoke, Lynchburg: living in, restaurants, military)

[Virginian1984]

I live in Virginia, and i must say it does not seem southern as when i get into the Carolinas or Tennessee.

Would you still consider Virginia a southern state culturally? I understand that it is traditionally southern but even geographically it is in the middle of the country.









Most religious states

http://friendlyatheist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/map.jpg (broken link)







Frequency of either "Y'all" or "You all" to address multiple people, according to an Internet survey of American dialect variation.











The merger of pin and pen in Southern American English. In the purple areas, the merger is complete for most speakers.



So what do you think?

[Frank_Carbonni]

Depends on what part of Virginia. Nobody will claim northern Virginia is Southern, but you'd have an excellent case for the rest of the state.

[Crown Vic...]

Overall yes, once you get south of Dumfries your in the south.

[Virginian1984]

Originally Posted by Crown Vic...

Overall yes, once you get south of Dumfries your in the south.

Richmond doesn't really feel southern to me.

[Crown Vic...]

Originally Posted by Virginian1984

Richmond doesn't really feel southern to me.

It has an east coast vibe to it, so does the VA beach area, but it still leans more southern.

[Virginian1984]

Originally Posted by Crown Vic...

It has an east coast vibe to it, so does the VA beach area, but it still leans more southern.

So you're saying it has more of a mid Atlantic feel to it?

[Crown Vic...]

Originally Posted by Virginian1984

So you're saying it has more of a mid Atlantic feel to it?

Yea, but once hit the DC inner suburbs things start to change and your officially in the fast paced Bos-Wash corridor.

[ReluctantGardenStater]

Richmond and south I consider Southern.

Richmond has many Southern restaurants, its Marlboro country, and it was the capital of the Confederacy, after all.

Northern Virginia is not the real Virginia anyway, so it belongs to the Northeast, along with thoroughly Yankeefied Maryland and Delaware, on up.

[Kbank007]

Southside Va (Farmville, Danville, Blackstone, Martinsville, Emporia), Central Va around Lynchburg (Appomatox, Amherst), have an old south feel to them (more southern feeling than some places in NC) and many people are still living in the civil war. I have heard people be referred to as yankee's there before and I have known people who did civil war reinactments. We also participated in Dixie youth sports for little league which starts in VA, and goes south, and many people were in the National League for Junior Cottilions (traditional southern practice). The southern accents are also pretty strong for many in central, southside, and southwest VA. Take a trip to any of the places I listed above and you will hear a stereotypical drawl from many people that you would expect further south. Southwest VA (Roanoke, southwest of that area) also has the mountain south culture that is similar to Tennessee and Eastern Ky. You probably would not be able to distinguish the accent difference from someone from southwest VA from eastern TN for example. I also think Richmond still has some southern culture left although not the level of the areas southwest of it. There is a unique southern accent among some Richmond Va natives and the pace of life feels more relaxed than in 757 and Northern VA. The tidewater area of VA has an influx of military and has a southern mixed with mid atlantic feel. Many people in the suburbs of 757 VA still have southern accents (Surry county, Isle of Wight, etc). Northern VA is purely mid atlantic. That is my opinion/assessment of Virginia. Overall the official Virginia.gov website sums it up best when it describes VA as the gateway to the south that is sometimes referred to as mid atlantic.

[ABQConvict]

Maybe you need to redefine what Southern is.

I mean, if you use Alabama as the litmus for Southern-ness, Virginia is not going to seem very Southern. On the other hand, people from New York, New England, California, etc. will see a lot of differences in Virgina that they will attribute to the fact that Virginia is, culturally, Southern.