Southern American English

Southern American English is a dialect of the English language spoken throughout the Southern region of the United States, from central Kentucky and northern Virginia to the Gulf Coast and from the Atlantic coast to eastern Texas. Southern American English can be divided into different sub-dialects (see American English), with speech differing between, for example, the Appalachian region and the coastal area around Charleston, South Carolina. The South Midlands dialect was influenced by the migration of Southern dialect speakers into the American West. The dialect spoken to various degrees by many African Americans, African American Vernacular English (AAVE), shares many similarities with Southern dialect, unsurprising given that group's strong historical ties to the region.

Different Southern American English dialects

In a sense, there is no one dialect called "Southern." Instead, there are a number of regional dialect found across the Southern United States.

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Virginia Piedmont

The Virginia Piedmont dialect is possibly the most famous of Southern dialects because of its strong influence on the South's speech patterns. Because the dialect has long been associated with the upperclass or aristocratic plantation class in the South, many of the most important figures in Southern history spoke with a Virginia Piedmont accent. Virginia Piedmont is non-rhotic, meaning speakers pronounce "R" only if it is followed by a vowel (contrary to New York City English, wherein non-rhotic accent is now mostly used by middle- and lower-class speakers). In addition, when the "R" sound comes after a vowel the sound becomes UH (meaning that brother is pronounced like "broth-uh"). The dialect also features "aw" sounds becoming a slided sound "ah-aw." This results in the words "four dogs" sounding like "fo-uh dahawgs." Due to the frequently extended nature of the pronunciation of such sounds in comparison to other regional variants, this phenomenon is frequently referred to as drawl, and the dialect, by extension, Southern Drawl.

Related Topics:
Aristocratic - Plantation - Non-rhotic

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Coastal Southern

Coastal Southern resembles Virginia Piedmont but has preserved more elements from the colonial era dialect than almost any other region of the United States. In addition, like Virginia Piedmont, Coastal Southern is non-rhotic.

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South Midland

This dialect arose in the Appalachian and Ozark Mountains. The area was settled by the Pennsylvania Dutch and has retained a number of elements of Elizabethan English (the language spoken by Shakespeare).

Related Topics:
Appalachian - Ozark Mountains - Elizabethan English - Shakespeare

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Ozark

This dialect developed in the heart of the Ozark Mountains. The dialect was made famous as the one supposedly spoken by the Beverly Hillbillies.

Related Topics:
Ozark Mountains - Beverly Hillbillies

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Southern Appalachian

Due to the isolation of the Appalachian regions of the South, the Appalachian accent is one of the hardest for outsiders to understand. This dialect is also rhotic (unlike most of the Southern dialects), meaning speakers pronounce "R"s whereever they appear in words.

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Gullah

Sometimes called Geechee, this creole language originated with African American slaves on the coastal areas and coastal islands of Georgia and South Carolina. The dialect was used to communicate with both Europeans and members of African tribes other than their own. Gullah was strongly influenced by West African languages such as Vai, Mende, Twi, Ewe, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Kikongo. The name and chorus of the Christian hymn "Kumbaya" is said to be Gullah for come by here. Other English words attributed to Gullah are juke (jukebox), goober (Southern term for peanut) and voodoo. In a 1930s study by Lorenzo Dow Turner, over 4,000 words from many different African languages were discovered in Gullah. Other words, such as yez for ears, are just phonetic spellings of English words as pronounced by the Gullahs, on the basis of influence from Southern & Western English dialects.

Related Topics:
Creole language - African American - Slaves - West Africa - Vai - Mende - Twi - Ewe - Hausa - Yoruba - Igbo - Kikongo - Christian - Hymn - Kumbaya - Jukebox - Peanut - Voodoo - 1930 - Lorenzo Dow Turner - Africa

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Gulf Southern

This area of the South was settled by English speakers moving west from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas, along with French settlers from Louisiana (see the section below).

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Louisiana

Louisiana features a number of dialects. There is Cajun French, which combines elements of Acadian French with other French and Spanish words. This dialect is spoken by many of the older members of the Cajun ethnic group and is said to be dying out. Many younger Cajuns speak Cajun English, which retains Acadian French influences and words, such as "char" (dear) or "nonc" (uncle). The standard French language can also still be heard in Louisiana, along with different mixtures of all of these dialects and languages.

Related Topics:
Louisiana - Cajun French - Acadian French - Cajun - French language

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