Monday, May 23, 2011

Southern Accent: A Thing of the Past?


I don't mind Southern accents unless they're too extreme and just sound like the person's purposely trying to sound ignorant. They swear they can't help it, but when their mouths have to contort to say certain words, it would be much more simple just to talk and forget about the "hey, Andy!"

Mom "hailed" from Goldsboro and was given grief for in her words, "putting her best foot forward." I know another lady in my church who's like that and that's what I call true Southern Belles. Ladylike with no trace of "fiddle dee dee!"

On the other end of the spectrum is the "ebonic" accent, yom sane? Why do people want to sound ignorant? Beats me. All you have to do is listen to the content of my speech some times to give away my flaws. I surely don't need to add a weird accent to it.

Of course, as a kid, spending my summers and every other weekend in Wilson (NC) I would pick up the accent and kids back in Falls Church would say, "Why are you talking funny?" I guess it comes with being a mimmick. You start off doing a character voice and wind up just speaking that way.

In radio, when I started, it was a "non-regional" sound they were looking for. Johnny Dunn, a deejay on then, WRNC in Raleigh told me I didn't have a regional accent and that would be in my favor. To me, deep southern accents only work on like a bluegrass show or something. But a local talk show co-host woman has a pretty thick accent and when she laughs, my Lord, she sounds like the Wicked Witch of the West!

Then you get these guys like her partner who has no bottom to his voice so he grunts to try to make up for it. Sound's ridiculous.

I hope the charming, southern accent never dies, and the Gomer Pyle thing goes the way of television re-run syndication. Shizzayam!

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