Velociworld

Oh man I know whatcha mean. My Mom had a sweet slow purty Mississippi accent that would put a rattlesnake to sleep. My Dad has a harsh fast-talkin' Piedmont Georgia accent that can get on yer nerves. Did you ever see the movie "No Time for Sergeants"? Knotts and Griffith had distinctly differing kinds of Southern accents. I think Knotts had the irritating Piedmont one, but am not sure, it's been a long time. Sadly, I grew up in Dade County, FL, and watched too much TV when young. I tend to sound like a DY, God help me.

P.S. I read the book, too. The movie is *sorta* close to the book, for a movie.

This is a subject that is extremely interesting to me. I love listening to the mosaic of accents (genuine dialects are rare) that exist, as you point out, often in small yet identifiable regions. However, the differences among accents were definitely more pronounced when both television and I were young.

Back then the differences among the accent of someone from the Ironbound section of Newark (a/k/a "Down Neck"),someond from Jersey City, and someone with the distinct twang (but not a "Sourhtern" twang) of someone from South Jersey were clear as a bell and just about universal.

While these differences are fading, they are still discernable, but nowhere near universal.

I can also hear clear differences among "Southern" accents, even though I cannot generally tie them to a specific locale as someone familiar with area would be able to do.

To my Yankee ear, you, Eric, Rob, Catfish, Rick, and Georgia Georgia all have "Southern" accents, but none of you sound the same to me. For example, you sound the most "Northern," but a Northerner would spot you in a second as being from the South.

I also think that often the local accents are still there, but are, to a greater or lesser degree, hidden either by business necessity or habit. They appear, again, to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the situation and the audience. When I am surrounded by the Usual Suspects, I naturally slide into the Down Neck mode (i.e. Sopranos-speak), which is not how I would speak, for example, in a courtroom.

I used to like to think that my "professional-speak" is completely devoid of a New Jersey accent, but I know better now, after having been tagged instantly and often as a Jersey Guy when speaking "professionally" with people from elsewhere.

Sorry for rambling, but I do find the subject to be fascinating.

YYYEEEEEEEEEHAW. You know, I've never said that before...yet I hear it all the time.

I know what you mean about fadin' accents, but there's something thats been botherin' me for quite a while now. Can anyone explain to me how Jeff, and Ward Burton could've possibly learned to speak from the same set of parents?

With the children it's an AFFectation. It's been going on long enough, and I've been watching it with interest, that we can now determine that 99% of them revert to the accent of their region somewhere in their late 20's or so. As far as dialects being rare, try telling that to some yankee when he's fixin' to tump over his grits at dinner and has to wait until supper to get more...

It is the same all over. My father was raised in extreme southwestern Pennsylvania that has a dialect all it's own as well. His sisters have it in abundance but my cousins much less. It's a shame because conversations with the lilt and language of a region are like spices in a recipe. One reason I like watching the old "On the Road" shows with Charles Kuralt is the great accents of America twenty and thirty years ago.

Perhaps, it does not help that t.v. has often dislayed those with a Joisey accent as mafia, and those with Suh-thun accents as stupid.

The only ones that seem to get off fairly easy are the mid-westerners. Yah?

I wholeheartedly agree.

My nomination for worst Southern accent in a movie, btw, is Nick Nolte in "The Prince of Tides."

No. What's worse is listening to an actor try to speak with the old native New Orleans (N'wahlins) accent. It's very different from Cajun or any other Louisiana accent. It almost sounds Brooklyn-esk. Dennis Quaid tried it in the movie The Big Easy, but it wasn't quite there IMO.

Nawlins is almost indistinguishable from Brooklynese to me. Nothing like Cajun.

The NOLA accent is a bit subtle and must be truly listened to in order to appreciate the difference between Brooklyn. It has a lot of the same qualities but is slower. A friend of mine from NOLA told me once that when he was in the service "dey all taut I'uz frum Brucklin, but dat I wuz retahded."

Oh, cool topic.

I always get asked if I'm from "down South". I love that. Better to be thought of as Southern, than assumed to be from New Yawk.
Know what I mean?

And, my Gawd... these Philly accents I'm being exposed to at work- gah!

Everyday, 49 times a day, I hear the waitstaff requesting "beggles" from the line cooks. (As opposed to "bagels"...)

And, this one chick kept going on one day about her daughter's friend's "furret". Only after hearing what the creature had done, was I able to figure out she meant "ferret", fer Pete's sake.

Oh, and that piece of shit football team they have here is called the Iggles, too, by the way. (Dallas fan here, mostly just to piss people off. *grin*)

What is it wit' dese people?

What it is with them, Stevie, is that they do not listen to themselves talk.

Robert Heinlein, at least, was honest enough to admit that the "Corn-Belt Rasp" he learned at his mother's breast hurt the ears of not only all nearby, but those who have to listen to it as (retch) "standard" American English on the TV and Radio.

There are hopeful signs, though. Neal Boortz allows his assistant Mrs. Skelton to speak as herself on the radio.

I have lived in Northern Jersey all my life, and I have never, ever heard anyone from here say "Joisey." I know of a couple old-timers from Jersey City say something that sounds more like "Jaisey," but never, "Joisey." Someone from Brooklyn might say "Joisey," but no one from here says that.

As for depicting the Jersey accent as sounding like the Sopranos, that's pretty accurate, at least for the part of Jersey where I live (which is the place where the Sopranos "live"). That's not the case for Carmella, who sounds more Yorky to me when she puts two syllables in the word "here." (HEE-ah). North Jersey folks would say "heah".