Southern American accents, Such as in Mississippi, South/North Carolina, Georgia, Texas (And a plea for help!)
Hello everyone! I am a native English speaker from the U.S state of Wisconsin, so it's probably quite evident that I don't have any of the many southern accents (I'll clarify at the end), but I feel as though the accents of Good 'ol Dixie are often forgot about (or all grouped together as one accent) when someone is choosing which of the hundreds of accents English has to offer that they would like to speak with. First things first, There are three main groups that we can divide Southern accents into; rhotic, non rhotic, and Cajun. For those who don't know, rhoticity refers to whether or not the accent pronounces their "R"s all the time. Non rhodic accents tend to say the R's that are not at the beginning of a word more like "ah" or "uh", so instead of "over there" you get "ovah thayuh". Alright! So, I'll start off with a disclaimer. This list is not to be taken without a grain of salt, these accents often are used together in the same areas, and every state has its own form of Southern, this is ONLY a rough grouping based on my experience, and any corrections are highly appreciated! Now, a lot of the traditionally non rhodic areas of the south have been switching to more rhotic accents, but some of the notable places that still have some speakers of the non rhotic Southern accent are South Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia. The Rhotic areas of the south have a very strong R, like a Scotsman or Irish person might say it. I believe this accent is the most common one, both spoken and well known about particularly the version that is used in Texas. Areas in the Rhotic category are Tennessee, Texas, North Carolina, Kentucky (though not fully a Southern state), and Arkansas. The last category is Cajun, which is predominately spoken in Louisiana. The Cajun accent takes heavy influence from Canadian French, and tends to have a very nasally, monotone sound to it. I hope this helped you out a little bit, or maybe got you a bit curious on the topic of accents! But lastly, my plea for help! I've really been wanting to learn both the rhotic and non rhotic Southern accents, so if anyone out there is reading this who has one of those accents, and is willing to help me, please send me a message on Italki! Thank you!
