Appalachian Speech: By Craig Hadley

[Army30th]

IMHO, anyone who tries to attempt to "affect" a Southern dialect is probably not going to do it very well, or at the very worst end up sounding like Larry the "you know who", without some vocal coaching from someone who was raised in the South. I live in NJ and still speak with a Southern NC accent. I get laughed at all the time. I guess I'll never be Jer-zee, thank God!

The honest to God only way to learn it, is to live there and hear it. And really listen. It's a beautiful sound.

[Rev]

True, William. The various Southern dialects are much more that a drawl with a few 'odd' words thrown in. Regional dialect, be it Southern or not, is more a complex tapestry composed of diction, enunciation, cadence, and other factors than a mere 'accent'. We Southrons can almost always spot someone mimicking a Southern dialect, even when well trained. There are a very few top rank actors that can pull it off. There are a few that can, such as Jean Smart. But, one reason they are able to do it is that they are working a script. They are not speaking stream of conscious.

[Hank Trent]

Well, I'll just toss this out. I'm from Ohio, with West Virginia parents. Always lived in those two states, except for teenage years in Massachusetts.

Last December, I was at Fort Gaines Alabama for a Christmas event, and was portraying a local carpenter preparing to build winter quarters at the fort. It was the first time I'd even been to Alabama.

A reenactor who really was a long-time Mobile-area resident talked to me quite a bit over the weekend, and when he asked where I was from, I told him in first person that I was born and raised in Mobile. He played along, or so I thought, but at the end of the weekend, when I talked to him out of character, he was shocked. He said, "I knew somebody was coming from Ohio and was going to be in first person all weekend, but I didn't know it was you." I think he was kinda disappointed the fort hadn't actually hired me to start reconstructing the old winter quarters.

I don't know if he was just being nice, but it sure seemed like he was serious. I wasn't actually trying to "speak with an accent," just trying to adapt to fit in with those around me. If indeed I unintentionally fooled him, I'm wondering if people don't pay that much attention to accents as long as they're kinda close, and pick up more on the whole package: natural tone of voice, mannerisms, confidence, consistency, etc.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Spinster]

Hank,

Pa wasn't woofing you, and he is always 'nice'--but your experiences of a southern accent does not have all the infinite variety at your disposal.

The backbayou, non-Cajun, coastal areas, do have sub-accents not unlike your own. Traveling east and upriver from Mobile, and sticking to the lower classes of a generation ago.......yep there you are.

My own normal accent is definitely educated southron mountain--I did not acquire the Upper Class, Lower Alabama accent until I was in college, and it was taught just as certainly as English and Chemistry.

[Curt Schmidt]

Hallo!

Are we "judging" the quality or effectiveness of our impressions based upon 20th/21st Century regional affectations/ accents, or 19th Century?

Curt

[Hank Trent]

Are we "judging" the quality or effectiveness of our impressions based upon 20th/21st Century regional affectations/ accents, or 19th Century?

Ironically, it can come full circle. From worst to best:

1) One's natural accent when it's obviously out of place for the portrayal

2) Adopting a sorta kinda okay accent that sounds believable in context

3) Theoretically perfect period accent--which ironically might sometimes sound hokey to modern ears.

I'd still say the goal is number three, but one had better make darn sure it sounds hokey because it is accurate and a real soldier from the period would have spoken that way, not because it really is hokey. As someone said, "Doing first person isn't a license to say 'tarnation.'"

However, I'd also suggest that as an easier intermediate goal, the second is better than the first.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Mountain_Guerrilla]

Curt

Interesting map / & thread.

Looking at the map I can see where my own people (after traveling here from Scotland & Ireland etc) followed primarily the "South Midland" route from SW Virginia & NW North Carolina, passing thru for a time in Central/Eastern Kentucky & East Tennessee into SE /SW Missouri but then my grandparents taking a turn northwards to western Washington state.

All the family (including myself) have grown up with that "South Missouri drawl", and though I was born in the Pacific NW have people all the time ask me if I am from the Midwest or South.

Rather than try to "put anything on" I just talk in my normal style, which includes a number of the words/phrases mentioned, probably because this is what I grew up hearing family speak. I have to admit though that if I get around someone who is from the region, or speaks in a "Southern" dialect that my own dialect tends to come out stronger. This is not a conscious effort on my part.

[tigerstripe37]

I have always wondered why people who live in my area often times have trouble understanding my speech patterns but according to Mr. Hadley's diagram breakdown my part of SWVA is right on the border of southern to southern midland so that may go a long way in regards to the explanation. I utilize many of the speech substitutes that yaw alude to but generally only in comfortable company i.e. neighbors and the like. Learn something new everyday. Thanks for the diagram Mr. Hadley.

Sincerely,
Brenton D. Boone

[tomarch]

I think the map may not tell the whole tale. Most of you folks are "back in the states" as they used to say in the Gold Rush. Out here in Calif. there is a whole region in the San Joaquin Valley made up of decendents of Dust Bowl refugees. As a result, you could mistake Bakersfields for Tulsa.

I spent near about twelve year livin' in Crawford Co., Arkansas and spent several more in E. Tenn and Ga.so I thought I could spot where an accent was from. I was talking to a renactor friend here in Santa Barbara and commented on what I thought was his Tennessee accent. He replyed "I wasn't born in Tennessee, I was born up in San Luis Obispo Co.!"

[nrandolph]

I live in the tip of the northern panhandle of West Virginia and grew up in the north central part of the state. One thing that I can depend on is the diversity of accents, even here in Hancock County.

I think I could come up with at least four variants of the general accent here in the county. In Upshur County, where I grew up, there were three variations that I can think of at the moment, but with less distinction between them as opposed to here.

Here in Hancock County, it runs the gamut from the Youngstown/Pittsburgh "Yinzer" accent to the hicky, Ohio Valley accent, on to a more "country WV/Ohio thing and then a mish-mash of all of the above. Then there's also a more northern "educated" type accent.

Always interesting to listen to folks speak around here!

Neil Randolph
1st WV