Funny things, words.
Funny, indeed. With only a little over 300 miles from one end of this state to the other the dialect and accent changes along the way can be significant.
Funny things, words.
I cannot recall the movie but in it a guy joked that his wife (a southern belle) had the ability to turn a one syllable word into a five syllable word and it took her a long time to complete a sentence filled with one syllable words.I never thought American English sounded “twangy”, but that is the common adjective i hear describing it over here. I suppose it is just like Germans who don’t understand it when people say their language sounds “guttural”. Nor have I ever understood the supposed charm and magic Commonly associated with French. I think many of these stereotypes say more about the wishful thinking of the people using them than about the language being described.
In that post I used the term "redneck" so it would conjure the stereotypical, derogatory, humorous connotations that come to most minds when they read or hear the word because my own "southern" accent sounds to my ear very much like the generic "southern" accent used by actors cast to play a character from the American south who can't replicate an authentic accent from a specific region. I am aware there is a difference between being "southern" and being "redneck", and I apologize most sincerely if I've offended any Lounge members.Al, never one never one to generalize are you? Southern” and “redneck” don’t always go hand in hand, though I generally fit that description.
I am aware there is a difference between being "southern" and being "redneck", and I apologize most sincerely if I've offended any Lounge members.
I don't know why, because no one in my family has ever lived in the American "south", but put me with anyone who has a "southern" (American) accent and suddenly I'm as redneck as they come, y'all. It isn't intentional or even voluntary, I just begin speaking with that accent and usually don't even realize I'm doing it until someone brings it to my attention. And for whatever reason I do the same thing when I'm really tired--this "southern" drawl just sort of invades my normal speech patterns. I have no idea why.
I cannot recall the movie but in it a guy joked that his wife (a southern belle) had the ability to turn a one syllable word into a five syllable word and it took her a long time to complete a sentence filled with one syllable words.
Funny, indeed. With only a little over 300 miles from one end of this state to the other the dialect and accent changes along the way can be significant.
"Redneck" is a word we never heard or used up here until the "redneck" craze of the late seventies -- "Smokey and the Bandit," "Dukes of Hazzard," and all such yee-haw nonsense as that. Nobody up here ever identified with "rednecks" or "redneck culture" until they learned about it from movies and TV, and then suddenly there it was, to the point where all the pseudo-Southern accoutrements pushed out our own native working-class culture. It bothered me a lot while it was happening, and it still bothers me today.
I don't consider the word offensive so much as I consider it, as applied to New England people, ridiculous and affected, especially since it's sold to people like a commodity. Which makes these so-called "rednecks" as authentic as all the hipsters and Hot Topic scenesters they position themselves in opposition to.
There are a lot regional sounds in American English -- I'd associate "twangy" with an Oklahoma accent, the sort of sound that became a stereotypical "Western" accent as heard in cheap cowboy movies of the thirties and forties. Northeastern accents tend to be harsh and nasal, especially to European ears, but are in no way "twangy."
That too happens to me, though not as easily as some. I know when I spent a Summer working a loading dock in Chicago, I developed a sort of light Hispanic accent subconsciously despite being a white kid from the edge of rural Illinois and the southwest suburbs.As a Canadian with what is considered a 'neutral' accent....hence the popularity for a while of Canadians as news anchors.(Peter Jennings et al) I tend when I travel and am in a place for an extended period to pick up the accent and bring it home. It is especially true when I travel in the southern US or Ireland and Scotland....land of the broad accents. I come home with the drawl, the lilt, the slang and it sticks for a few weeks after I arrive home.
It's not just psychology, it's an adaptive evolutionary trait commonly found among primates. In order to better adapt to our environment, humans (and even some monkeys have been known to adopt dialects when introduced into a different group) will adapt their vocalization to whichever area they're in so that they may better fit in with that group.Psychology, I guess. Maybe you're usunig the same part of the brain that is affected by what they call "foreign accent syndrome". I've seen documented medical cases where someone has had a knock on the head and thereafter gone from their own accent to speaking with a German or even Chinese accent. The human brain is a fascinating and wodnerful thing we still don't understand the half of!
That's something that happens here in Illinois, too. Rural working class people seem to identify with Deep South culture far more than they do any kind of Illinoian culture, whatever that may be (booing Green Bay on Sundays?). I have three documented ancestors who fought for the Union Army for Illinois, yet there's two houses on my block that proudly display Confederate battle flags in their garages."Redneck" is a word we never heard or used up here until the "redneck" craze of the late seventies -- "Smokey and the Bandit," "Dukes of Hazzard," and all such yee-haw nonsense as that. Nobody up here ever identified with "rednecks" or "redneck culture" until they learned about it from movies and TV, and then suddenly there it was, to the point where all the pseudo-Southern accoutrements pushed out our own native working-class culture. It bothered me a lot while it was happening, and it still bothers me today.
Subculture, its looks and its portability is a fascination of mine. Travelling in the Navajo nation's small towns and seeing the disaffected teens hanging about that had adopted big city America gang looks, down to the coloured 'doo rags' and rap music struck me as sad. Then in Scotland seeing the skate board kids affecting the identical look that one sees at every skate park in America struck me as just funny. I think youth rebellion is a positive thing but sad that in their rebellion they have to look identical and so easily identifiable as a member of such rebellion.The kids have a word for people who obsessively identify with a culture with which they have no personal connection whatever -- "weeaboo," which originally meant someone who was so obsessed with anime that they identified beyond all reason with a stereotyped anime fan's idea of what Japanese culture was supposed to be. I suggest a similar term for a Northern Southerner might be "y'allaboo."
It's not just psychology, it's an adaptive evolutionary trait commonly found among primates. In order to better adapt to our environment, humans (and even some monkeys have been known to adopt dialects when introduced into a different group) will adapt their vocalization to whichever area they're in so that they may better fit in with that group.
That's something that happens here in Illinois, too. Rural working class people seem to identify with Deep South culture far more than they do any kind of Illinoian culture, whatever that may be (booing Green Bay on Sundays?). I have three documented ancestors who fought for the Union Army for Illinois, yet there's two houses on my block that proudly display Confederate battle flags in their garages.
Subculture, its looks and its portability is a fascination of mine. Travelling in the Navajo nation's small towns and seeing the disaffected teens hanging about that had adopted big city America gang looks, down to the coloured 'doo rags' and rap music struck me as sad. Then in Scotland seeing the skate board kids affecting the identical look that one sees at every skate park in America struck me as just funny. I think youth rebellion is a positive thing but sad that in their rebellion they have to look identical and so easily identifiable as a member of such rebellion.
Ha ha. What will they think of next? What a freak show. I suspect that your analysis is spot on.You'll sometimes see this flag streaming from the bed of a jacked-up pickup truck with rubber testicles dangling from the trailer hitch.
The popular local variation of the Confederate flag features a hand flipping the finger superimposed over the bars. A large and conspicuously white finger.
You'll sometimes see this flag streaming from the bed of a jacked-up pickup truck with rubber testicles dangling from the trailer hitch. Suggesting, perhaps, that the whole persona is a matter of extreme overcompensation for certain inadequacies.
Oh, please. I've worked with people who have relatives living in "the south" who are still waiting for The South to "Rise Again!!!"Whenever I see someone post that flag on FB I usually reply with something like this (and I have several that are similar):
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