December 2, 2003
DEATH OF THE DRAWL
My daughters talk like Valley girls. Their friends talk the same way. The boys sound like surfer dudes. I believe the Southern accent, and regional accents in general, will perish with the boomer generation.
When my daughters were very small I moved them to Memphis. When their original Geechee drawl they inherited from their grandmothers combined with that Memphibian thing they had some ass-kicking accents. No twang, though. North Georgia is twang. Savannah is drawl. Mobile is twang. Richmond is drawl. Texas is Texas. Mississippi is indescribable. All different, as different as soda brands. No actor ever gets that, except perhaps Kenneth Branagh in Gingerbread Man. Hearing a Charlize Theron Savannah accent is to feel one's family jewels in a vise, for instance.
I wander. My children's generation will have no accents other than the universal accent delivered to them by Lizzie McGuire or Sabrina the Teenage Witch. And I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Stigmas attach themselves in the working world. My Savannah accent is long gone, leached out by years in a work environment populated by peoples of all geographical stripes. It's a defense mechanism, and a subliminal need to develop common bonds, I suppose.
It's still a shame. Accents of all kinds are great devices for embellishment and nuance. I love the way my Rhode Island salesman talks about a great Patriots game, for instance. It wouldn't sound the same from an accent neutral punk like Bob Costas. Listen: there are hordes of pointy-headed anthropology majors out there bemoaning and decrying the loss of languages around the world. They devote their lives to the recording and salvation of bizarre esoteric dialects from the Amazon basin to Uzbekistan to the Aleutian Islands. And that is all well and good. These languages should be preserved for posterity as wonderful relics of the parochial days of civilization. Hell, I wish I could speak Aramaic, at least in a bar in Alma, Georgia. These same anthropologists strive to save the Geechee and Gullah dialects of Georgia and South Carolina, because they are rooted in ancient African tribal languages. However, if you ask one of these folks why they don't bother to preserve the unique patois of the quintessential Charleston stevedore, or the elderly North Carolina tobacco auctioneer, they look at you like you're crazy.
A couple of bourbons and I can comfortably lapse into the old ways. I think I'll record some of this possum talk for posterity. For The Children, damn it! They deserve no less. I wonder if I can get a Smithsonian grant to oil the works, so to speak?
Everything is worth preserving, with mine and yur tax dollars, as long as it has nothing to do with white males of European descent.
Posted by: Jack Straw at December 2, 2003 11:57 PMAccents will persist; it's just that your kids will be able to mix n match more. They'll have the accent at their disposal when needed, and will be able to sound like a SoCal Valley kid if need be too.
And just think, we used to hold actors in high esteem because of the ability to do that!
Posted by: PJ at December 3, 2003 2:30 AMI love accents. I love the Chicago accent, the Boston accent, the Minnesota accent, the Louisiana accent, the Georgia accent...etc.
I used to think I didn't have an accent cause I was raised in California for the most part when I was younger.
Then in the 3rd grade we got a new girl from Oklahoma. We used to hang on to every word she said because of her accent. One day she said, "I don't have an accent, Y'ALL have an accent."
That's when I came up with my new answer for people who wrote me but had never met me: Do you have an accent?
That depends on where you come from.
I hope we never totally lose all those wonderful accents. It would be a damn shame.
Posted by: Serenity at December 3, 2003 2:38 AMIf I'm up north, people say I have a southern accent; when I'm down south, they say I have a northern accent.
Over here in the UK...the English say they don't have an accent, and I just sound plain ol' funny, and they love to hear me talk. Funny, isn't that what we say about the English, Bwahahaha! ;)
Posted by: Laura at December 3, 2003 3:20 AMSad, but true. Exposure to the Hollywood/TV versions of inauthentic regional accents will blunt the fine distinction in small spoken differences. I can tell you the difference between CAW-fee (Long Island)and CAH-fee (Philadelphia), but my children can't, and TV can't either.
Posted by: Suzette at December 3, 2003 6:55 AMI tell myself that the valley thing is temporary.
(My 7-year-old occasionally lapses into it...)
Just be thankfull they don't talk like Eminem.
Posted by: chris at December 3, 2003 10:47 PMWhite ghetto trash is an awful affectation. So is Valley speak. They'll get over it.
Someday, they'll have beautiful speaking voices. You'll be glad to claim them as your own. It just takes time.
Like, oh my gawd! Toadally (that's how it should sound, if it's done right), fer shuuuuuuure. Like, way cool!
Don't ask.
Posted by: Da Goddess at December 4, 2003 1:09 AMI love accents, all kinds. Especially Texas now that I'm exiled in south florida.
Sometimes I'll tune to Dr.Phil just to hear his affected Texas twang.
And yeah, that Valley Girl stuff wears off after awhile. Wow, won't the 80's ever die? ;)
Posted by: pam at December 4, 2003 8:31 AMAll accents homogenize over time, with better communications. I don't have nearly the Boston accent my father does. Then again, he grew up before TV, so the only people he grew up listening to were those around him locally. Eventually, all the regionally accents will be gone. My only question is when are the English going to start spelling like we do?
Posted by: sama at December 4, 2003 9:56 AMAccents are cool! But it's true, TV will tend to blunt lingual shifts and accents. Not completely, I figure.
Posted by: Jay Solo at December 4, 2003 11:34 AMYah der, hey?
Damn betcha!
Yah think?
you want an accent? Go check out the Wandering Hillbilly...DANG..
Posted by: Eric at December 4, 2003 5:24 PMUs native Californians don't have accents, you know. It's everyone else who has them.
Posted by: Anna at December 5, 2003 10:58 AM