Southern Drawl

[jaxind]

After everything with Sessions, Moore, and others, now anytime I hear or see a white man speaking with a southern drawl, I am just repulsed! The person could be a Democrat, but my first reaction is visceral, and I get completely turned off to what the person is saying! Does anyone else feel this way?

[guillaumeb]

1. We all speak with an accent.

Chris Christie repulses me.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

2. I'm from NYC and I'm not fond of NYC accents.

[hlthe2b]

3. I lived quite a while in the South and found that not all Southern accents are even remotely alike

There are a lot of varieties and while a few do trigger me a bit, others do not.

But, yes, the accents of Sessions, Louis Goehmert, and former Texas Senator Phil Gramm DO make me grind my teeth, hearing them..

[area51]

17. Though Gramm was a TX senator,

I think he got his accent from Georgia.

[Docreed2003]

51. This!

In fact, having grown up in TN, I can attest to the fact that even in TN there are distinct geographic accents. If you throw in the rest of the south, the accents are so distinct to specific areas, I could pinpoint within a hundred mile radius of where someone is from just based off the accent.

[CTyankee]

61. I'm a third generation Texan and it always seemed to me that the north Texas accent

(once my accent) was similar to the Tennessee accent. I know it sounds odd...

[Docreed2003]

80. Well Tennesseans did help settle Texas so it kinda makes sense!

[CTyankee]

90. I think there is something to that. I have a friend from Nashville and her accent

is very similar to the accents I heard in Northeast Texas growing up.

[Larrybanal]

55. accents are one thing

but this studied effete drawl makes me cringe

[hlthe2b]

56. There are some who linger on the "drawl" so long that my inate impatience overwhelms me.

But, then, I am not (admittedly) a very patient person.

[Ineeda]

4. My dad was from east Texas

He had a not-quite traditional southern accent that I loved. (I'm a Yankee, through and through.) But I agree that with recent events, there's a real creepy element to southern accents.

[CTyankee]

62. see my response here (#61)...what do you think about my sense of east TX

and Tennessee.

I was born and raised in Dallas but went east to school and was gently reprimanded by my aunt who said at the time "All your people are southern people."

[Ineeda]

70. Dad was from the Gulf coast, south of Houston

And other than rare visits as a child, my exposure to the region was limited so I can't verify your assessment (though I'm sure it's accurate.) It bothered me that occasional racial slurs, especially regional ones like the N-word and "wetback", slipped so easily off my dad's tongue, because he was a generally kind man. He was born in 1920 and not well-traveled, so maybe it was generational ignorance and unconscious White Privilege rather than a vicious bigotry. I'd like to think that anyway.

[VOX]

91. My Dad was from West Texas...

The accent is on that end of the state is twangy, and a bit more nasal than throaty. More Western than Southern.

While I have a deep voice, and am not a Texan, I’ve often heard other say they detect a bit of my Dad’s West Texas twang in some of my words.

[Leith]

5. Not Me

I lived in North Carolina for 5 years a couple decades ago. I talked to many perfectly good southern men with that accent. My coworkers were intelligent, dedicated, and professional. I no longer associate the southern accent with anything but the type of people I knew there.

Oh! And the Liberal Redneck.

[ms liberty]

33. I saw him Saturday night in Charlotte

He's on tour with two other southern comedians that he writes with named Cory Ryan Forrester and Drew Morgan - its the guys who are in the latest bit with him about the gay nudist camp gig.They're calling it the WellRed Tour. They were all great, really funny. I knew Trae Crowder would be, but I didn't know anything about the other guys, which made it even better when they turned out to be as good as Trae!

[greymattermom]

6. I love Jimmy Carter's accent

his voice is so soothing.

[Lochloosa]

7. Down here we think ya'll have the accent

[Skittles]

18. I am curious

I can do a perfect southern accent.....can you do a perfect northern one? (disclaimer: I grew up as a GI brat, moved around a lot)

[panader0]

21. I am curious too in a different way. I was an Air Force kid.

Born in S.F. but lived all over. Texas, Nebraska, Morocco, Hawaii,
Arizona, Oregon and more. Traveled overseas quite a bit. I am unsure
if I have an accent, a regional accent. I can drawl ( Jeannie is a Texan),
I can border talk (I live 12 miles from Mexico), I can jive talk with my
band mates. I just try to be succinct and humorous. I mix it up for fun.
I wonder what accent people like DFW have--who speaks many languages.
The southern accent doesn't bother me a bit, nor the Boston, or the Minnesota.

[Skittles]

25. heh

I can do all kinds of accents (starting with my mum, who was a Brit) but after years in the south, I have never heard anyone with a drawl do a convincing northern accent - not even close

[SouthernIrish]

20. You're right

Southerners are stereotyped quite a lot. Others may think that because we talk slower than most, that we are less intelligent. I have met people from other areas of the U.S. that remark on how friendly people in the south are. That is mostly true. Of course we have our ignorant rednecks, just like other places do.

I see remarks on here about how all the Republicans need to move to the south, and the rest of the U.S. can be for the Democrats. I find that offensive. I love the south. I was born and raised in Tennessee and while we have a lot of Republicans and Religious nuts here, it is still home. You have to have a pretty thick skin to be a Liberal in this area. My family and I will keep fighting for our Liberal causes.

So when some on here talk about people from the south and our grating accents, you might want to remember what being a Democrat is about.

[hlthe2b]

46. and most are really charming...

I pick up accents subconsciously... Though I started out with what is considered the "merger" type speak of the Midwest--that most consider free of discernible accent (and thus was long emulated by newscasters on the National level), a few years living in the deep South gave me a lingering soft Southern accent. A short time in Ireland even gave me a bit of that for a while on return--or so I am told and my speaking "rhythm" changed after time in Asia, I'm told.


Generally, I think accents are just a fun feature of American society. However I did have to work on it a bit when I returned to doing a lot of technical public speaking, as I found people were focusing on figuring out the accent, rather than hearing what I was saying. I realize that I do that too.

[smirkymonkey]

8. I'm not proud of it, but I have an automatic negative response when I hear a white man

speak w/ a southern accent. I don't seem to react so strongly when it's women or people of color for some reason. It's just instinctual. It's not right, I know, but I just associate the accent w/ bigoted, ignorant white, male politicians and religious nut-cases.

[LanternWaste]

63. No. It's the opposite of instinctual

"It's just instinctual..."

No. It's the opposite of instinctual; it's simply a learned behavior predicated on bias we all of us have control over should we so choose.

[ironman25]

9. I feel absolutely the same way.

I am a 64 year old white male and work with truck drivers from different parts of the country. I get disgusted when a white guy that talks with a heavy southern accent is at my window I want to puke. It is even worse if they tell me to have a blessed day. If I were a black man doing the same job would I receive the same comment? I don't think so. With me it is not just the southern drivers but the ones who make sure to let me know how "Christian" they are. Bill Clinton was not worth the air he breathes because he had extramarital consensual sex. Yet Trump has bragged about all his conquest (which were probably paid for) and how he just grabbed women. I am sick of the southerners (not all, don't want to stereotype) and the religious right who bend their moral for the Republican Party. I just want them to admit Bill O'Reilly is their lord and savior.

[cwydro]

15. Trumps accent makes me want to hurl.

I’ll take Clinton or Carter any day.

[Orrex]

58. I would rather hear a boar get a chainsaw colonoscopy than listen to Trump

[cwydro]

66. Ouch!

But i agree!

[Orrex]

68. LOL. Next to Trump, the "worst" southern accent sounds like nightingales (nt)

[Hortensis]

24. Well, bless your heart....

[cwydro]

67. Ditto!

[NurseJackie]

10. I hear ya... only for me, it's not a Southern accent that grates my nerves.

(I'll just leave it at that.)

[DemocratSinceBirth]

11. I didn't mind Jimmy Carter's or Bill Clinton's accent.

[ClarendonDem]

12. Yep

Jersey accents grate on my nerves. Can't trust those folks.

Are you just repulsed by white men with a southern drawl? Because everyone I know from the south, regardless of race or skin color, has the same drawl (depending on where they are from of course - Alabama sounds different from North Carolina sounds different from Texas).

[cwydro]

13. Wow.

Seriously?

[Hortensis]

27. Bless her heart?

[cwydro]

14. Nice.

Where are you from?

[GusBob]

57. I am guessing the Ukraine

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

16. I'm on the other end of that.

I speak with a southern drawl and I'm well aware that, at 54, I look like the guys we see holding misspelled asinine signs, or even assault rifles. I look like the guy we see in pictures withe the drumpf bumper stickers or picketing a Planned Parenthood facility.

Knowing that bothers me. I sometimes see people of obvious different faiths and/or people of color kind of give me the skunk eye when I hold a door for them or gesture for the to enter an elevator before me. That bothers me. That I know they think I might be "that guy".

I see guys that look like me, in conversation, using the the n word or other vile slurs, notice that I've overheard some of their talk, and give me a knowing wink or nod. As if it's a natural presumption the my bias's and opinions match theirs. That really bothers me.

So yes, other people feel that way. I see it every day.

Myself? I'm actually about as far left and liberal as one can be.

[Larrybanal]

59. listen to sessions words

it is difficult not to think he isn't the brightest bulb and his memory sucks

[Hayduke Bomgarte]

71. I know and

I get it, although I believe he is a dumb ass, but has as good a memory as anyone. He, like the rest of his gooper crime syndicate, is merely a bald faced liar. A poor one at that.

[moriah]

19. I hear it every day around me. Grew up with it.

Even though Dixie Carter herself was conservative and agreed to say many of her character's famous political rants in exchange for them writing in an opportunity for her to sing in another episode (great way to negotiate, and obviously if she disagreed too much she'd have made them change it)....

Here's some Southern accent saying some very correct and accurate things. Some ear-bleach, if you will. It's really sad we're still debating stuff we were in the 80s today, but replace her discussion of saluting with kneeling and it's pretty spot-on:

Also, a funny, which I look forward to reposting once Trump leaves office (because sadly, she was wrong, we do have to care now)....

[Bayard]

22. Kentuckians don't drawl

We just don't talk real fast. But anything spelled with an "i", gets pronounced like its, "ah". So five, becomes fahv. "Hi", can sound like you've getting laughed at. When I lived in MN and CA, I used to get requests to, "talk for us". Or just--you're not from around here, are you? My ex used to say when he moved to Louisville (proper pronunciation, "Luavul&quot , and when he was asked if he wanted ass in his tea, he wasn't real sure of what to say.

I do get some blank looks here with any word more than 3 syllables though. My parents were both from South Carolina. My dad had a soft gentlemanly accent. Very different accent than GA or TX.

[nolabear]

23. ...

[Kirk Lover]

26. I like the southern drawl and I enjoy these regional differences and it would really

be boring if we were all the same. But I refuse to judge all southerners by the actions of some of them. So I won't judge the drawl but the content of the drawl-ee's character.

[Hortensis]

31. Me too. :) After we moved to Georgia from California,

though, asking some rural neighbors to repeat "it" a third time because sometimes I simply couldn't understand was really embarrassing. I learned to retreat to smiling and nodding for a while, and if it came off odd now and then no one ever let me know.

It actually took me about two years just to be able to say our town's name properly. Californians tend to enunciate in the front of their mouths, and the second syllable of our town's name has to somehow lose a couple consonants and just be allowed to flow backwards toward the throat. Nothing to it, but for me any effort to say it right guaranteed defeat.

[sarah FAILIN]

49. Thank you!

Here lately it seems like everyone assumes we are all inbred hillbillies and we are not.

[LisaM]

28. I generally enjoy regional accents.

The problem with these guys is what they're saying. They're tarnishing their accents with the garbage they're spewing.

[Hekate]

29. Not any more. The accent grated during the 1950s-1960s when deployed by George Wallace and...

...Bull Conner.

But I got over that. LBJ came along. Bill Clinton came along. Molly Ivins hove into view, as did Anne Richards. Jimmy Carter.

Use your head -- we're supposed to be better than that.

[raccoon]

30. You need to get out more. Nt

[Igel]

32. Or less. n/t

[Turbineguy]

34. I worked for a New Orleans company

for a while. Whenever I would explain some new (mis)management edict I would lapse into that drawl. I realized one day that it really was not a good thing to do. There are lots of people who talk that way that are anything but fools.

[Hekate]

35. I haven't lived in very many regions, but we have this thing called TV. There's all kinds of ...

...regional accents, some mild and some very strong. My original home state has something called, variously, pidgin or da-kine. Some is just a regional accent, but some is a genuine Creole (look up linguistic definitions; it's fun) that outsiders can't understand.

Expand your mind. For me, it's the person speaking who is objectionable -- or not -- regardless of accent.

[Golden Raisin]

36. Total and visceral turn off for me.

Cannot stand the ubiquitous use of "y'all". "Bless your heart" and "Have a blessed day" are also triggers. Falls on my ears as false, phony and syrupy.

[Binkie The Clown]

37. I was born and raised in a region that doesn't have an accent.

At least I never noticed any friends or family speaking with an accent.

(Actually, my accent is called "Standard American Broadcast English", or "Network English".)

On Edit: To answer the OP question, yes, I do have a deep visceral negative reaction to the Southern drawl. Always have had. I guess that makes me a bigot of sorts.

[sarah FAILIN]

50. You should hear Jason Kander speak

He didn't think he had an accent either.

[Blue_true]

38. Well, I am a southerner.

[CherokeeDem]

39. There is an old saying....

....never judge a book by its cover.

I am from South Carolina, and I have an accent. I've been a Democrat and a champion of human rights all my life. My parents and their Southern accents marched in the civil rights movement.

It is not advisable for anyone to judge someone based on such trivial and petty reasons.

[thucythucy]

40. Lenny Bruce actually did a comedy routine on this.

Said if Albert Einstein had spoken with a southern accent, we'd never have beat the Germans to the bomb.

"Let me tell you all 'bout nukular fishin'"

"Get out of here, you yokel!"

Lenny was against prejudice of any kind.

[peacebuzzard]

41. When there is an intelligent, articulate southern accentuation like Al Gores

I find it is rather melodious and rhythmic.
When it’s a vile Sessions or Moore I am vehemently repulsed.

The intonation is of importance to my acceptance or rejection of the speaker.

[KentuckyWoman]

42. I'm the same way with Jersey and NY accents

they always sound mad and rude to my Kentucky ears.

[smirkymonkey]

95. The thing is, what most people hear as NY, Jersey and even Boston accents are really

the accents of the working class and/or uneducated, either that or people that never really left their "townie" neighborhood, even though they might have gone out and made it in the world. I know a lot of people that were born and raised in all three places who don't have a hint of those accents. I am wondering if it is the same thing in the south.

[LeftInTX]

43. Ted Cruz's really gets to me

Rick Perry not so much.

Cruz's is disgusting and nasal.

[CanonRay]

44. A soft Southern accent is very nice

I'm thinking Tennessee, Kentucky. Virginia

[raven mad]

45. LOL! Up here, I always get accused of a Southern accent.

Then I go to the deep South to visit? LOL! I'm a damnYankee!

[cwydro]

47. Cannot stand a Boston accent.

[DrDan]

48. how progressive of you

[Docreed2003]

52. Southern accents arent one size fits all

Most Southern accents are extremely regional, just as accents in the Midwest or New England are very different. Having grown up in the south, I can usually pinpoint within a hundred mile radius where someone is from based off their accent. The same holds true for New England...we lived in RI for years and I can pick out a Rhode Islander vs othe N.E. accents easily.

[cwydro]

53. Yes indeed.

In N.C. where I live, accents vary from cities to towns, rural to urban, mountains to coast.

Anyone who thinks that a Southern accent is the same everywhere is a dang fool.

[CTyankee]

73. Does CT have a regional accent? I am here in New Haven and there doesn't appear

to be any particular accent that would identify us as being from CT. MA is a different story. My son in law is native Bostonian and we used to tease him about his accent but I don't hear it now. His parents, OTOH, seem to. His name is Richard and his mother calls him "Richaaad."

[Docreed2003]

76. CT is a unique one...

To me, most of the folks I know there have an amalgam of the RI accent and NY accent. My mother has some dear friends who live in CT and they pronounce her name, which ends in “a” as “Er”....adding the R at the end. It’s funny.

[CTyankee]

79. Funny, not one of my CT friends sound like they are from NY. I don't know what a

RI accent is.

[kwassa]

88. RI is a mixture of Boston and Brooklynn

I went to college there.

Real conversation:

"Did you see all the gods at the factory across the street?"

"Gods?"

"Yeah, gods."

"You mean like Jesus, Buddha, ....."

"No, gods with guns!"

"Oh, guards!"

"Am I that bad?"

[raging moderate]

54. Just listen to Jimmy Carter for awhile.

Or somebody from the Southern Poverty Law Center. ETC. Sometimes the bullies of a region are so loud and pushy that they make it seem as though everyone there must be like that. Just remember that kind hearts are everywhere, beating together through the night, generating the light of the daybreak that surely will come.

[easttexaslefty]

92. Exactly

[Demsrule86]

60. No. I have relatives who speak with a Southern accent. My hubs has a New York accent.

[easttexaslefty]

64. I be pretty screwed if I felt that way

Almost everyone in my neck of the woods have a southern drawl. Some of us are even good people.

[Orrex]

65. Your reaction is unfortunate

It's more or less exactly the same reason that others give for hating the "black accent," because they once heard some objectionable person talk that way.

I suspect that it is on some level a natural human response, but it is nevertheless unfortunate.

[Iggo]

69. Nah, it's just an accent.

[Paladin]

72. We've got a New York street-hustler in the White House.

Far and away the worst "president" in this country's history. Shall I walk away from all New Yorkers because of this?

Here in Texas, the very people I know who made a life-long practice of trashing "Yankees" are the individuals who enthusiastically backed trump. There's some nasty irony for you to chew on, while you find another Southerner to hate.

[Solly Mack]

74. I have a Southern drawl. My family seems to think I no longer do, but I still hear it.

I lived a long time outside the South until recently. I like my Southern drawl.

You might want to skip my posts in the future as the words that flow from my head to my fingers are carried on the breeze of a southern drawl. The thoughts, all with a southern drawl, precede the deed, so to speak.

Wouldn't want to be the cause of your visceral indigestion. One should always take great care in preserving a balanced constitution.

You have a nice day now, you hear.

[mulsh]

75. Please allow Mr. Bruce to support your position.

[link:

|

[TBA]

77. Listen to the Liberal Redneck as an antidote (Search youtube)

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

78. Hearing Jeff Sessions *specifically* grates on me.

It's not really the accent - which when he speaks seems so exaggerated that it's comical - it's just him. I used to work with a guy from (I think) rural Georgia whose accent was so strong he was almost impossible to understand, and that was sort of weird because I kept having to ask him to repeat himself. Otherwise accents are just interesting, and it's kind of fun to try to identify them. Even in the Midwest you can narrow down where someone is from - Chicago and Detroit have distinctive accents; Minnesotans, particularly if from the north, have an accent that probably has a Scandinavian origin (here in Minneapolis it's not so noticeable, and nobody really sounds like a character from "Fargo" ). Iowans sound a little different from Minnesotans, and Nebraskans also have a distinctive accent, though I'm not sure I can describe it. I'm sure a linguist could explain all these differences.

[snooper2]

82. If you would actually respond to a reply or two it wouldn't be so obvious

Just fyi


It is actually on page 4 section 3 of the training doc....

[GulfCoast66]

83. An anti-Southern post on DU. It must be Wednesday.

Coming tomorrow: Let’s bash Florida Man.

Funny how even liberals find a way to stereotype on DU and not get hidden.

Have a nice day.

[ornotna]

94. Florida man

Is always in season.

[skypilot]

84. Only when Kevin Spacey did it...

...on House of Cards. It's the reason I stopped watching that show part way through the first season. Southern accents don't generally bother me but his was so overcooked and he often directed it right at the camera/viewer. It was during one to these "breaking the fourth wall" moments that I turned the show off for good.

[Orsino]

85. It's the new vocal fry.

Favored by white republican men, it's even been deployed by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama when they want to seem folksier.

[lagomorph777]

86. I've always found it hard to overcome that same prejudice in myself.

Having lived through the civil rights movement in the 1960s, every southern white man I saw on TV was an evil idiot, so I came to associate the accent with evil.

I do try hard to listen though, because sometimes my prejudice is dead wrong. And I don't want to be one of "those" people.

[Snotcicles]

87. As long as they don't say something impordent. nt

[el_bryanto]

89. Well I still love Foghorn Leghorn. nt

[ornotna]

93. No

Get over it, seems silly.