# Southern American accent (Georgia...)



## hamlet

Hey. Could you tell me what the particularities of that kind of accent are? I've kinda grown tired of the british stuck-up-upper-class accent I got and something that sounds like sawyer in that tv show would suit me well I think.


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## JamesM

Here's a web page that might interest you:
http://ask.metafilter.com/mefi/48382

I've always thought that the accent from Georgia (and parts of the Carolinas) was the most refined, elegant-sounding accent of all U.S. accents. Jimmy Carter is a good example of that accent, in my opinion (a non-Georgian, so take it for what it's worth.  ) The web page I cited has several more film sources for you, if that helps.

The speech is slow and measured and the Rs are soft, almost non-existent, in my experience. It has a relaxed, languid kind of pace to it and a sweet softness. The vowels are broad and open and the diphthongs are smoothed over. I've always enjoyed hearing accents from this region of our country. 

The Carolinas are a hodgepodge of accents, though. Maybe Georgia is as well. Maybe I'm only thinking of the "posh" Georgia accent. I don't know. I've never lived in Georgia. I know that I didn't hear the accent I expected when I traveled to Atlanta. Most of the people around me in Atlanta spoke with some variety of northern accent. I was disappointed.

P.S.  Who's Sawyer?  What tv show?


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## ash93

hamlet said:


> Hey. Could you tell me what the particularities of that kind of accent are? I've kinda grown tired of the british stuck-up-upper-class accent I got and something that sounds like sawyer in that tv show would suit me well I think.


 
British stuck-up-upper-class accent? Nobody I know has an accent like that and according to my friends I sound American.


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## palomnik

Actually, the southern accent in the USA is in many ways closest US accent to a standard south British accent, although a lot of Americans don't realize that until they stop to think about it.  It's one reason why some better known British actors played southerners when they had to do American - Leslie Howard of "Gone with the Wind" fame is probably the best known, but Michael Caine has played southerners too.

Georgia country accents are marked by a strange pronunciation of the vocalic "r's" - they say boid for bird, for example.


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## pidgeon

I know what you mean about the british stuck-up-upper-class accent like in films etc. but if you come to the UK, very few people speak like that. 

I think that when you are learning a language, you tend to speak it very well and you learn the formal aspect of the language, and then as you start to develop you can learn slang and you will speak faster and miss out letters, and that it is only then that you can really speak the language like locals, and are truly fluent.


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## gaer

hamlet said:


> Hey. Could you tell me what the particularities of that kind of accent are? I've kinda grown tired of the british stuck-up-upper-class accent I got and something that sounds like sawyer in that tv show would suit me well I think.


It might help if you could give us an example of someone famous who speaks with the "British stuck-up-upper-class accent" you have mentioned.

Regarding Georgia: I taught music in the southern part of Georgia for a few years. I met some very fine people there, but I would not describe the accent as pleasing in any way.

It was nothing like Jimmy Carter's accent, and it is important to know that Carter was anything but rich while growing up.

There are many accents in Georgia (and probably in all US states). Reading about accents is a waste of time, I think. It would be best for you to listen to someone who uses an accent that is admired and that appeals to you. 

Gaer


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## hamlet

I was referring to the way Hugh Grant for example speaks. I used to have that accent (the Brits I met were really impressed I was no native - though I make kind of a lot of grammatical mistakes) but I'm really trying to change it. (I have the feeling some of you are upset about me saying-stuck-up upper-class ^^ it was no insult of course)
In fact an accent I like is Josh Holloway's (Sawyer in Lost) but I'm so used to the british way that it's quite difficult to really understand how it works
in addition I got a problem with the pronounced "r" at the end of the words..so if anyone's got a tip


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## charisma_classic

When I studied theatre I had to learn various accents for various stage roles. I often used tapes by David A. Stern which teach speakers of English to speak English with a variety of accents. Each accent is broken down into the sounds that are the most distinguishing and then there are series of exercises for the actor to practice with. You can also find books with the same goal.

The character of Sawyer is actually from Tennessee, not Georgia. I am not sure how much of a difference that makes...


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## ernest_

I've listened to some of these tapes ("Acting with an accent," isn't it?). Maybe they are useful for an actor, but quite frankly you won't fool anybody with these. Even to me, that can barely recognise a particular English accent, sounded totally fake.
I think the best way to pick an accent is first learn the phonetics, and then do a lot of listening (the radio is your friend). But, most important thing, stick to a single accent! It is not trivial if you've learned Received Pronunciation to change to an American accent. It'd be a lot easier to learn some "lower-class" London accent, which you could use at will depending on the situation you were in.


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## call_me_the_alchemist

palomnik said:


> Actually, the southern accent in the USA is in many ways closest US accent to a standard south British accent, although a lot of Americans don't realize that until they stop to think about it.  It's one reason why some better known British actors played southerners when they had to do American - Leslie Howard of "Gone with the Wind" fame is probably the best known, but Michael Caine has played southerners too.
> 
> Georgia country accents are marked by a strange pronunciation of the vocalic "r's" - they say boid for bird, for example.



I was about to say the same thing too. I was reading a while back that the southern US accent is descended from various accents in southern England. I'm sure many people will reply to this and disagree, but there's a similarity. If you try imitating some varieties of southern English accents and slow down your speech, you get what sounds like an accent from places like Georgia, Tennessee, the Carolinas, etc. 

Also there are times when listening to Australians, it takes me a couple sentences to realize they aren't from the south. I mistook a woman from Texas once for being Australian but that was when she first started speaking.


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## Hockey13

It is no small task to learn a new accent. The ones who are often the best at it are natives who have heard the accent for a very long time and can figure out the subtle nuances. You might do better to stick with what you have. I don't think anyone worthwhile will think less or more of you based on your accent.

Also, having a refined accent is nothing to be ashamed of, though if you are truly not native, I find it a bit hard to believe that natives couldn't tell you weren't English. My Mom has been speaking English since she was little and only moved to the U.S. at age 25. She's now 48 and is fully Americanized and holds a high position at an accounting firm. She knows English better than a fairly large percentage of natives and she never misses out on an idiomatic or slangy expression. That said, she still has a slight German accent to go with her New York-New Jersey AE accent. I don't notice it much as her son, but others hear it. Your Swiss accent will probably be what people notice more.


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## gaer

Hockey13 said:


> It is no small task to learn a new accent. The ones who are often the best at it are natives who have heard the accent for a very long time and can figure out the subtle nuances. You might do better to stick with what you have. I don't think anyone worthwhile will think less or more of you based on your accent.
> 
> Also, having a refined accent is nothing to be ashamed of, though if you are truly not native, I find it a bit hard to believe that natives couldn't tell you weren't English. My Mom has been speaking English since she was little and only moved to the U.S. at age 25. She's now 48 and is fully Americanized and holds a high position at an accounting firm. She knows English better than a fairly large percentage of natives and she never misses out on an idiomatic or slangy expression. That said, she still has a slight German accent to go with her New York-New Jersey AE accent. I don't notice it much as her son, but others hear it. Your Swiss accent will probably be what people notice more.


There are a few talented people who master new "accents" as adults.

I knew a lady from Germany who spoke with a completely convincing US accent. In fact, when she made mistakes, they were typical American mistakes.

I don't think a Tennessee accent sounds at all like a Georgia accent, so confusing them would be something that people would do who have not had personal contact with people from either state.

The guy who plays "Apollo" on the new Battlestar Galactica series, Jamie Bamber, has a strong British accent, yet on the show I had no idea. His accent fooled me completely. To this moment I don't understand how he manages the change!

Gaer


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## mrtom2985

I'd love to be good enough at a language to be able to choose my accent! One thing I will add is that if you're trying to model yourself on the average English person, then Hugh Grant is definitely NOT the way to go!

With regards to the "r" sound at the end of words, you need to remember that in UK English, in most cases, when preceded by a vowel e.g. "ir", "er", "ar", "or", "our", this makes the last syllable of the word a "neutral" sound (fairly similar to the "e" sound in French e.x. "Au r*e*voir", but softer and less pronounced). The best thing to do would be to look for an online dictionary with sound samples, and listen to words like "colour", "calendar" and "flower". You will hear that they all have this same sound at the end of the word. Or if you had some English friends to ask, that would be even better. As long as they don't have a strong accent from somewhere like London, Liverpool, Bristol or Newcastle though, as they will pronounce it differently!


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## difficult cuss

Hamlet, you are on your way to having a US manner of speaking with your use of " I got a problem". I have heard US English usage of "got" instead of "have" many times (such as "do you got a burger"). 
I agree with mrtom2985, please do not confuse blubber-mouthed Hugh Grant with an average English accent, he makes me shudder.


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## hamlet

concerning Hugh Grant that's precisely what I call stuck-up accent now you see what I mean.

as to the "r", in BE I've got no problem to pronouce this sound but in AE I have because you pronounce it each time (e.g. "rare" is easier to pronounce in BE don't you agree?)

But what are in fact the phonemes (you call them so right?) of those southern accents (so Georgia, Tennessee.. I can't tell the difference between those 2)

thanks by the way


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## Hockey13

difficult cuss said:


> Hamlet, you are on your way to having a US manner of speaking with your use of " I got a problem". I have heard US English usage of "got" instead of "have" many times (such as "*do you got a burger*").
> I agree with mrtom2985, please do not confuse blubber-mouthed Hugh Grant with an average English accent, he makes me shudder.


 
If ever we use "got" without "have" (have you got a burger), we certainly don't append it with "do." Do you got a burger sounds a bit extended and long. "You got a burger?" or "Got a burger?" sounds infinitely more colloquial as it implies you've just chopped off the "have."


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## hamlet

I've heard "do you got it?" on many occasions


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## Hockey13

hamlet said:


> I've heard "do you got it?" on many occasions


 
It's possible, but it's either uneducated or not from my part of the country. "Have you got it" sounds much better.


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## clairanne

hi

I think Hugh Grant has a wonderful accent -in fact I think Hugh Grant is wonderful!!!! I don't think he is "stuck up" I know many people with far more "affected" accents than his. If I had to choose an English accent to copy he would be on the list as he sounds educated without sounding superior. In my experience it is the minor privately educated people who have the strongest "posh" accents and these are the sort of people who get labelled "snobs".
English is definitely mellowing though, even the Queen does not have as strong an accent as she used to have and Prince Edward sounds like many of my friends - we are definitely not upper class.

As for American accents - I do not personally like Jimmy Carter's accent and always thought of him as vaguely "country bumpkin", but I do like Bill Clinton.


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## hamlet

clairanne said:


> hi
> 
> I think Hugh Grant has a wonderful accent -in fact I think Hugh Grant is wonderful!!!!



you're a girl...


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## clairanne

Hi

Thanks for that comment - I used to be a girl!!!!!!!!! but now I am a Grandmother.  
I think an educated English accent is acceptable anywhere and can think of no reason at all why anyone should be ashamed or concerned about having acquired one.  To me it is a definite plus and ticks all the boxes. Do you live in US?


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## gaer

difficult cuss said:


> Hamlet, you are on your way to having a US manner of speaking with your use of " I got a problem".


Much of the time "I got" is just a sloppy way of saying: I've got.


> I have heard US English usage of "got" instead of "have" many times (such as "do you got a burger").


No one I know says, "Do you got a burger?"

If you hear a lot of people say this, you are in the company of very uneducated people. 

Gaer


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## gaer

clairanne said:


> I do not personally like Jimmy Carter's accent and always thought of him as vaguely "country bumpkin", but I do like Bill Clinton.


Jimmy Carter said that he spent most of his time in the company of very poor children (and occasionally adults). He was surrounded by share-croppers. Carter does not have what would ordinarily be called an "upper-class Georgia accent". 

Gaer


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## stranger in your midst

Why don't you try a regional British accent, or Scots or Irish, rather than American. Too may non-native English speakers already have American accents. And, let's face it (sorry, guys, but it's the truth), the Americans are hardly well received abroad today. Everyone loves the Scots and Irish, however. A Scottish accent is probably easiest - pure wovels (few diphthongs), hard consonants, lovely trilled r's and, of course, the beautiful Scottish 'ch' sound as in 'loch' (pronounces like German 'loch' except meaning l'lake' as opposed to 'hole').

If you want a regional English accent, I would suggest the West Country is the most melifluous - think Cornwall or Bristol.


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## PianoMan

I think an attempt at an American accent is fine, although you shouldn't be ashamed of a British accent, of course being taught English in Europe, I assume that's the method they use (contrary to Spanish-speakers of Mexico learning English with an American accent).  Either way, I think that if you want to get a good idea of a largely used American accent use a more Northern one.  Its easier to find more people who talk that way and many prefer it (with all due respect to the South).  It's a good combination between "stuck-up" British (which I don't believe a British accent is) and a rural dialect.


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## clairanne

hi

I'm sorry but us British "Southerners" with our country vowels are always picked on as being stupid, take Dawn French's comedy scetches for example, and Bristol is best known for it's red light district so I don't think it is a very good idea to encourage anyone to acquire such accents artificially. Scottish can be difficult as well so I am told by my scottish singing teacher. She is very touchy about her accent and makes it very clear that she is from Fife. She thinks a Glasgow accent is the lowest of the low and wouldn't even be introduced to a friend of mine from there. Admittedly she is elderly.
Really the most important thing in speech is to be understood and we should be embraced for our differences. I have never met anyone who sneers at a foreign accent, most of us do not even attempt to speak any language other than our own. I think the best thing to do is to learn a neutral BBC type english and let your own accent show through. You will pick up traces of accents and dialects from wherever you live naturally and that is what makes language fun.


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## ash93

clairanne said:


> hi
> 
> I'm sorry but us British "Southerners" with our country vowels are always picked on as being stupid, take Dawn French's comedy scetches for example, and Bristol is best known for it's red light district so I don't think it is a very good idea to encourage anyone to acquire such accents artificially. Scottish can be difficult as well so I am told by my scottish singing teacher. She is very touchy about her accent and makes it very clear that she is from Fife. She thinks a Glasgow accent is the lowest of the low and wouldn't even be introduced to a friend of mine from there. Admittedly she is elderly.
> Really the most important thing in speech is to be understood and we should be embraced for our differences. I have never met anyone who sneers at a foreign accent, most of us do not even attempt to speak any language other than our own. I think the best thing to do is to learn a neutral BBC type english and let your own accent show through. You will pick up traces of accents and dialects from wherever you live naturally and that is what makes language fun.


 
I completely agree with Clairanne on this one. A neutral accent has always appealed to me (Although I myself speak halfway between "stuck-up-British" and American according to many friends + my dad) It keeps people guessing where you're from and if you make mistakes in language, nobody would notice too much. Just speak naturally in your own accent without trying to copy anyone else's and you'll have something that suits you perfectly.


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## mjscott

Whatever you do to change your accent, please focus time and dedicated effort to change it. The most frustrating annoyance on stage is to listen to someone who goes in and out of an accent with inconsistency. After a while, you are only listening for the next time the actor will "slip up"--not to the conversation in the script! I have never heard anyone try out an accent in real-life, but I would imagine that resulting inconsistencies would bring about similar results.


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## hamlet

well basically I have the RP accent. Can you tell me the differences of pronunciation between RP and a pure Georgian accent (thats the one I've chosen)? So phonemes etc.. thanks again


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## GAdixiechick

The man that plays Sawyer (very good show, btw. you have good taste) is from Smyrna, Georgia, which is about five or ten minutes away from Marietta, where i live (depends entirely on traffic. this is atlanta, after all LOL).

Gotta love our good ol' boys. LOL

there are distinct differences to each region's accent...and there are a LOT of regions, even within one state. For someone who is used to hearing them, it's easy to tell the difference. but to someone who isn't used to hearing them, it all sounds the same. 

Telling a Georgia accent from an alabama or kentucky accent for a non-southerner would be like an american trying to tell the difference between the accents of northern and southern britain.

Basically, the most important thing to remember is that we add syllables almost wherever we can and we speak slowly (it's cause of the heat. believe me when i say that it affects EVERYTHING). 

Really, the only way you're gonna be able to emulate it with any accuracy is if you come over here and hear it for yourself.

just remember when you come down here, so you're not suprised: there's a reason why we say "if you're from the South, we don't ask if there's insanity in your family; we ask which side." LOL


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## Sepia

ernest_ said:


> I've listened to some of these tapes ("Acting with an accent," isn't it?). Maybe they are useful for an actor, but quite frankly you won't fool anybody with these. ....



Oh, yes you can! And sometimes you have to make people believe English is your mother tongue - unless you want (mainly) Americans to treat you like a complete idiot once they detect some foreign accent. And the way to do it is to pick some accent that is compatible with your native accent.


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## Hockey13

Sepia said:


> Oh, yes you can! And sometimes you have to make people believe English is your mother tongue - *unless you want (mainly) Americans to treat you like a complete idiot once they detect some foreign accent*. And the way to do it is to pick some accent that is compatible with your native accent.


 
Frown frown frown. We are not the only xenophobes in the universe. We just happen to be xenophobes who speak the lingua franca of the day.


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## Sepia

Hockey13 said:


> Frown frown frown. We are not the only xenophobes in the universe. We just happen to be xenophobes who speak the lingua franca of the day.



I am not saying they are unfriendly - probably rather the opposite - but it is really a nuisance when people speak to you as if you were mentally retarded. I suppose it is beyond somebody's imagination that a person can speak and understand a foreign language well. Whatever it is, it can be a PitA.


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## Hockey13

Sepia said:


> I am not saying they are unfriendly - probably rather the opposite - but it is really a nuisance when people speak to you as if you were mentally retarded. I suppose it is beyond somebody's imagination that a person can speak and understand a foreign language well. Whatever it is, it can be a PitA.


 
I completely understand. I hope I one day don't speak louder to you hoping that will hammer the understanding of a native into your head.

We could also speak German if you like.  

To stay on topic in a remote way, GAdixiechick's explanation for why southerners speak slowly is, perhaps, a bit anecdotal. It is hot in other places as well and they speak quickly or at a regular pace there. See: Mexico.


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## winklepicker

hamlet said:


> Hey. Could you tell me what the particularities of that kind of accent are? I've kinda grown tired of the british stuck-up-upper-class accent I got and something that sounds like sawyer in that tv show would suit me well I think.


 
Is it worth suggesting that instead of trying to cultivate a bogus accent you instead throw in some regional vocabulary or speech patterns? If you wanted to go Cornish, you could call everybody 'my handsome': _'How are you today, my handsome?'_ (pronounce it 'moy ansum'). One of our Italian students adopted the stereotypical British 'jolly' - as in _'Jolly nice day, what?'_ as it amused him.

The BBC website has a brilliant collection of regional language and soundclips here. Have a listen to some of them. I truly think you'd find it easier to amend your existing Hugh Grant accent (attractive to some ladies, as we've seen!) to something closer than southern AE.

It is the variety that makes accent attractive. Once when I was in North Carolina (a place I'd gladly live) a not unattractive lady heard my Brit accent and said to me:

'Ah jes' lurv t' hear y'all talk' _(take three minutes to say this sentence, make it sing-song, and stretch talk to about five separate syllables )._ I would have died for her on the spot!


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## winklepicker

winklepicker said:


> The BBC website has a brilliant collection of regional language and soundclips here. Have a listen to some of them.


 
PS This quiz with soundclips is brilliant fun!


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## winklepicker

winklepicker said:


> If you wanted to go Cornish, you could call everybody 'my handsome': _'How are you today, my handsome?'_ (pronounce it 'moy ansum').


 
Or if you wanted to sound like the people who live around Panj, you could put 'now' on the end of every sentence - but pronounce it 'nye'.

'Have you been down the shops today, nye?'

Or possibly I'm stereotyping here..


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## Hockey13

winklepicker said:


> It is the variety that makes accent attractive. Once when I was in North Carolina (a place I'd gladly live) a not unattractive lady heard my Brit accent and said to me:
> 
> 'Ah jes' lurv t' hear y'all talk' _(take three minutes to say this sentence, make it sing-song, and stretch talk to about five separate syllables )._ I would have died for her on the spot!


 
While I find the story great, I don't think I've ever heard a person from North Carolina say "lurv."  Also turn that "talk" into "tawk" or even "towuhk." I can imagine it's difficult to hear the differences as much as it is hard for me to hear BE regional differences.


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## GAdixiechick

Hockey13 said:


> To stay on topic in a remote way, GAdixiechick's explanation for why southerners speak slowly is, perhaps, a bit anecdotal. It is hot in other places as well and they speak quickly or at a regular pace there. See: Mexico.



it's true that other places are equally as hot, a lot of them hotter. the major difference is that it's also humid, EXTREMELY humid. 90 degrees in california isn't the same thing as 90 degrees here.

any place with this much humidity (many south american countries, for example) support my arguement. 

Hot weather, the sun beating down on you, and the air so wet that you feel like you can't breath....talking isn't high on your list of priorities. Whatever you have to do, you do it slow. every country and state that is like ours does this. 

Thank god for the air conditioner.

but it also has to do with the people who settled this region. Mostly, it was scottish, irish, etc. therefore, the way we shape our words is actually fairly close to the way they shape theirs.


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## Hockey13

GAdixiechick said:


> every country and state that is like ours does this.


 
I don't agree with this.



GAdixiechick said:


> Thank god for the air conditioner.


 
I agree with this.  



GAdixiechick said:


> but it also has to do with the people who settled this region. Mostly, it was scottish, irish, etc. therefore, the way we shape our words is actually fairly close to the way they shape theirs.


 
I really agree with this. It's not as if southerners speak in slow motion. You can't convince me of it...I've been down there too long.


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## jabogitlu

> 'Ah jes' lurv t' hear y'all talk' _(take three minutes to say this sentence, make it sing-song, and stretch talk to about five separate syllables )._ I would have died for her on the spot!



Ah, you're letting your British show through   It would be 'lowuv' as 'lurv' would be pronounced close to "curve."

I probably talk close to her, because I've lived on the Tennessee/North Carolina border (in the mountains, in fact) all my life.  Hopefully I won't make you die, though. *grin*

Oh, to the OP.  There are a myriad of Southern accents, and don't let anyone ever tell you different.  If you're trying to emulate a certain Georgia accent, the only true way, I feel, to get it down is to go live there and speak - a LOT!  But don't live around Atlanta, there are too many non-natives.  Go Southern Georgia! 

Or else come up to northeast TN (Greene/Bristol)/northwest NC(Madison/Asheville).  I'm quite biased, but I think this is the loveliest of the Southern Accents, save the Coastal Carolinars.


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## hamlet

Does this accent (I mean Georgian) have what's called a 'wh-cluster reduction'? (see top of this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yod_coalescence#Yod-coalescence)


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## JamesM

hamlet said:


> Does this accent (I mean Georgian) have what's called a 'wh-cluster reduction'? (see top of this page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yod_coalescence#Yod-coalescence)


 
I can't speak specifically for Georgia, but southern accents in general, in my experience, actually have a clear distinction between "whine" and "wine", for example.  A lot of air is expelled on the "wh" sound (which really sounds more like "hw", if you think about it.)


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## hamlet

In this SA accent, according to what I know, you gotta pronounce all the R's, and rather heavily in addition. How do you manage to say things like 'other than that' quickly? Do you still pronounce the R in other? I'm asking this because I can't do it! That kind of things was a darn lot easier when I spoke like a Brit...


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## JamesM

I found a small sample recording of a Georgia accent.  I thought you might be interested:

http://www.classbrain.com/artstate/publish/speech_accent_georgia.shtml


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## Hockey13

hamlet said:


> In this SA accent, according to what I know, you gotta pronounce all the R's, and rather heavily in addition. How do you manage to say things like 'other than that' quickly? Do you still pronounce the R in other? I'm asking this because I can't do it! That kind of things was a darn lot easier when I spoke like a Brit...


 
Indeed, it might be one of the only things pronounced in the sentence...

Othurn that.

That's how I would immitate someone from North Carolina. I can't speak for the other states. James, I think the whine-wine merger happened in the northern Bible-belt states. Nobody I've met here in North Carolina says hwine. I believe they say it in parts of texas and a bit further to the east. It seems much more of a deep, deep South thing to do. There's a great map on it on Wikipedia that apparently proves me wrong:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Hw-w_merger.svg

However, I never trust the color purple...or is that pink?


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## jinti

hamlet said:


> How do you manage to say things like 'other than that' quickly? Do you still pronounce the R in other?


For me (not a Southerner, but still...), it comes out more like "_othernnat_".


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## hamlet

And for "For the...", would a Southerner say "Foruh..."?


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## hamlet

So would they or not? I find it quite difficult to say "for the" and pronounce the 'r' without making it sound like forathe


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## hamlet

Moreover, can someone explain to me what "Southern drawl" actually means`?


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## Mlle Smith

gaer said:


> Regarding Georgia: I taught music in the southern part of Georgia for a few years. I met some very fine people there, but I would not describe the accent as pleasing in any way.


 
I have to agree.  When I first read the question, I was a little shocked that of all the US accents, they had chosen the Georgia accent.  Well, to each their own.  I suppose there's beauty in everything if you look deep enough.  Personally, the accent makes me cringe a bit.  

I was reading the site for a documentary that was on PBS about accents and they said the US accent that comes closest to that of the BBC English/accent is the US accent from the Northeast region...I've read several takes on this on this forum, as everyone seems to have a different opinion on this...

But after traveling overseas in Europe, I'm actually inclined to agree. 

My family is from the south, but my sis and I have always made a concerted effort to never absorb their southern accents.  Heehee!


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## JamesM

hamlet said:


> So would they or not? I find it quite difficult to say "for the" and pronounce the 'r' without making it sound like forathe


 
It's very difficult to go through the hundreds of subtle nuances of an accent by typing each one out.  I think you're trying to learn an accent by reading a description of it, and that's very unproductive. It can only be acquired by listening, in my opinion.

To answer your question, though, there wouldn't necessarily be an "r" sound at all. "r" drifts to "ah" in many southern accents and in others it is dropped entirely. These two treatments of the "r" sound can also appear in the same accentl, depending on the surrounding context. 

To make a long story short, it would more likely be "foah-thuh" or "foe-thuh" or even "foe-duh", but not "fora-thuh".


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## hamlet

After hearing it couple times, I have the impression Southern guys sometimes pronounce "s" like "sh" ("You esh" instead of "U.S."). Could someone from GA, SC, NC or TN confirm?


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## Imperialista_Yanqui

I am in Valdosta Georgia, and I lived in Bainbridge,Ga. for a large part of my life. I am at home anywhere south of the Mason Dixon Line. I am a true South Georgia Cracker. I think only an endentulous  person with a plug of tobacco in his mouth  would  make  a sh  noise like you are describing. 

ADD...in this area anyway. The phonetic phenomenon that you are describing is not part of our very specific geolect in Valdosta and Bainbridge.


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## Imperialista_Yanqui

Wait, I do know some people who say brEn der  for Brenda. It is very stigmatizing. Even in the rural south there are less prestigious dialects and accents. You could really wow people with an AAVE accent from rural south Georgia.


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## hamlet

would southern people tend to say "organ-ah-zation" or "organ-eh-zation", "duh-mension" or "dah-mension" (dimension)?


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## Forero

Southern vowels are famous for at least two peculiarities:

1) Southern drawl: complicated vowels (diphthongs, triphthongs).  "Talk" (no "l" sound) can be pronounced with a glide from an open "ah" to something like a schwa and on to a sound like French "eau".  "Dog" has the same vowel(s).  "Bed" can have two syllables, like bay followed by a schwa and a "d".  "New" includes a "y" sound between the "n" and the long "oo", which is a diphthong itself.

2) Southern twang: nasalized vowels, including diphthongs.  "Thank" may have a "y" offglide before the "nk".  "Thing" may have a nasalized long "a" sound instead of an "i".  "Won", "want", and "wonder" may be pronounced "w" + French "an" + schwa + "n".  Where I live, "en" merges with "in" so that "ten" and "lent" sound just like "tin" and "lint".

Also, some Southern AE is "r"-less, like British except that the "r" is never flapped ("very" has the AE "r" sound, not the British "veddy") and "bird" is generally not diphthongized ("boid").


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## Harry Batt

Well, I hate to be tardy on this question but the Southern accent that sounds best to my ear is from Virginia. I am unable to furnish an example. I can't think of a celebrity with a Virginia accident.


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## hamlet

Ok those were great answers, but could tell me how a Southerner would pronounce the "i" in "organ*i*zation"?


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## Imperialista_Yanqui

I tend to say or guh nuh ZAY shun


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## hamlet

and is your accent typical or a little Atlanta-ized?


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## Imperialista_Yanqui

I live in Bainbridge and have never lived in the metro Atlanta area. There are those in Atlanta who have extremely thick southern accents.


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## hamlet

yet another question : would a Southerner (from GA, SC, etc not Texas) pronounce "Sam" more like a Brit : "Sam" (sӕm) or more like this: "Seh-hm"      (sĕ'əm) ?


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## Imants

hamlet said:


> yet another question : would a Southerner (from GA, SC, etc not Texas) pronounce "Sam" more like a Brit : "Sam" (sӕm) or more like this: "Seh-hm" (sĕ'əm) ?


I'd say the second one.

In fact, the breaking of lax vowels -the so called "southern drawl"- is one of the salient features that distinguish the Southern (American) accents.


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## JeffPSU

I'm not sure why Hamlet specified Texas as something different -- the salient features of a Texas accent are found throughout the South. Because Americans are so mobile, "pure" accents are rare.  But the heavily dipththong-ized vowels occur throughout the South, including Texas: "sæ'-yum". 

The classic "Hollywood" deep-south accent of Georgia, with its silent final 'R's, is in large part an upper-class accent of the old south.

The more common working-class accent, with emphasized final 'R's, is still widespread in the Southeast, and is more or less standardized in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and much of the central United States.


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## Tararex

A bit late to the discussion - but I believe the accent you're searching for is the one used in the "Middle Georgia to Savannah coastal" areas of the USA. 

I am in complete agreement that this accent is the most sophisticated  and easy on the ear of all American accents but unfortunately this way of speech is quickly dying out.  View the film "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" to hear examples of this lovely accent which neither "drawls or twangs" in the unpleasant fashions of more commonly found southern accents.  

For an example of the Georgia coastal's replacement, watch "shock commentator" Nancy Grace with her generic middle class Georgia accent.


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## Adge

As a (almost) native Georgian, I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in here.  That beautiful classy Georgia accent is found mainly in older people from Savannah, as Tararex said.  I wouldn't say middle Georgia though, I live only about 45 minutes west of Savannah and no one around here speaks the same way.
I grew up in metro Atlanta where absolutely no one was from there, and I have kind of a hybird Appalachian/South Georgia accent from starting school in North Carolina.
I have to say besides the old Savannah, my favorite southern accent is from Tennessee.  I know a lot of people from there that have very a soft, pleasant accent that's pretty similar.


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## KHS

This website, initially put together for actors, allows you to access an enormous variety of English accents from around the world:

http://web.ku.edu/idea/

(It is not a direct link to audio.)
_
<<Mod note - This site is included in the sticky thread at the top of this forum:
7. Listen to English as it is spoken in accents from around the world.__
__ Click *HERE*
... end of note.>>_


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## Tararex

Adge, I have a home about 50 miles east of Macon where I often hear speech very close to the Atlantic Georgia accent, although generally only in the older population. Perhaps it's an anomolous local pocket?  It honestly makes me want to cry sometimes that this accent is being lost.  

My own accent has lately been tagged as "Coastal South Carolinian", which I find quite strange as I was raised on the NJ shore and have spent the majority of my adult life in Coastal Mississippi and Florida.  A "Coastal" parallel of some type being picked up?  Oddly enough, I can mimic a Georgia accent better than my Georgia born husband who can't shake off the Mississippi influence.  

Yanqui, "A public school educated person from Britain would avoid get/ got etc. like the plague".  Exactly what's your point here?  American English correctly uses "get/got" at all levels of the social strata. "Get" implies an additional level of action that "have" doesn't. Got it?


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## Adge

Tararex- I realized after i wrote that that I have a friend who grew up near Macon and has a very similar accent.  She's one of the few people my age (early 20's) that I've ever heard speak like that.  Maybe y'all do have a special local pocket.

Coastal SC is interesting...I guess I only ever go to the southern end of the coast near Hilton Head, and I think the locals there don't sound any different that those around Tybee and Savannah, but I don't know how it would sound further north.

I have a pretty strange hybid accent of Appalachian NC where I started school and south Georgia where I live now, even though I lived most of my life in Atlanta and my parents are midwesterners who speak pretty "standard" American English.  Funny how accents work.


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## cuchuflete

While writing about most anything with the most tenuous link to the American South may be entertainng, the thread topic is restated here: 





> *Southern American accent (Georgia...)*
> Hey. Could you tell me what the particularities of that kind of accent are?



Posts on other topics belong in their own threads or somewhere other than this forum.


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## sexyfelon

I was born and raised in rural areas of Tennessee and have often been described as having a semi Georgian accent. To myself no such accent exists but I have been searching for female Georgian accent samples to compare to. Does anyone have any resources that cover this subject that would be of help to me?


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## spatula

hamlet said:


> I was referring to the way Hugh Grant for example speaks. I used to have that accent (the Brits I met were really impressed I was no native - though I make kind of a lot of grammatical mistakes) but I'm really trying to change it. (I have the feeling some of you are upset about me saying-stuck-up upper-class ^^ it was no insult of course)
> In fact an accent I like is Josh Holloway's (Sawyer in Lost) but I'm so used to the british way that it's quite difficult to really understand how it works
> in addition I got a problem with the pronounced "r" at the end of the words..so if anyone's got a tip


 
This is by far the strangest question I've seen on this site . Surely you learn about an accent by listening to it being spoken rather than asking people to spell pronunciations out for you? The other advantage is that you will learn infinitely more about the idiosyncrasies of that region's language which, I would argue, is a vital element to adopting an accent convincingly. 

If, as you say, you currently (at the time of writing - I note that this was first posted some time ago, so Lord knows how you sound now) are a Hugh Grant sound-a-like (albeit with your self-confessed grammatical errors), then isn't it going to be _slightly ridiculous_ to be using his style of language with a Southern US accent? Don't you think half the battle is learning about that particular style of language first rather than just concentrating on phonetics? It's either by spending time in a region or being around people from there that all of this comes together _naturally._

It doesn't sound like you have a reason for wishing to affect an accent that you have no connection with (eg you're not an actor, are you?), so I'm very confused as to the way you're going about this. Particularly if you are the linguist you say you are. On that note, I haven't met a person *yet* who can totally disguise a different mother tongue. Actors may be versatile, but they have a script and voice coaches who train them on each word. Without this, you'd have to rely on knowing the nuances (both pronunciation and style) yourself, which is a very, very tall order.

Good luck with your desired accent; it's certainly a beautiful one when it comes from a native.


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## tchimpoi

Does anyone know if "hey" instead of "hi" is a Southern Dialect?
Tchimpoi


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## sandpiperlily

tchimpoi said:


> Does anyone know if "hey" instead of "hi" is a Southern Dialect?
> Tchimpoi



No, this is common in informal speech across the US.


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## kalamazoo

To me this seems kind of misguided. It's very unlikely that a non-native speaker of English can ever speak without an accent unless they learned in childhood.  I have a German friend who not only has been in the US for over 40 years and speaks perfect Engish but who is even herself a professional speech therapist, and even she has a very slight accent.  You might not hear it right away and you might not recognize that it's a German accent, but you would definitely still hear it.  I don't see any point in a native French speaker trying to sound Scottish or Irish or Georgian. Frankly, most native English speakers will probably immediately just hear the French accent.And if you are meeting English speakers who say they dont hear your accent, either they are tone deaf or they are being polite.  (On a different website I have seen British English speakers make jokes about French speakers who think they have perfect English accents.)


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## Pedro y La Torre

kalamazoo said:


> To me this seems kind of misguided. It's very unlikely that a non-native speaker of English can ever speak without an accent unless they learned in childhood.  I have a German friend who not only has been in the US for over 40 years and speaks perfect Engish but who is even herself a professional speech therapist, and even she has a very slight accent.  You might not hear it right away and you might not recognize that it's a German accent, but you would definitely still hear it.  I don't see any point in a native French speaker trying to sound Scottish or Irish or Georgian. Frankly, most native English speakers will probably immediately just hear the French accent.And if you are meeting English speakers who say they dont hear your accent, either they are tone deaf or they are being polite.  (On a different website I have seen British English speakers make jokes about French speakers who think they have perfect English accents.)



I'd agree with that opinion. Most people will never master the accent of their chosen language (or country). From what I've found, mastering a foreign accent is an innate skill. You either have it or you don't (presuming you haven't learnt it as a child).

I know many French people who have been learning English for twenty or thirty years (with interspersed periods of living in English-speaking countries) and who have immediately recognizable accents. On the other hand, I know one girl who started learning German two years ago, and from what the natives tell me, manages to produce near perfect native pronunciation.


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## kalamazoo

People can have quite good accents in a language they are learning but it's still almost always clear they are not native speakers ("near-perfect" is not the same as perfect!). In my observation, Turks in the US do the best at having almost perfect AmE accents.  German, French, Italian and Spanish speakers almost always have noticeable accents even if their English is excellent and their accents are slight.

So to get back to the orignial question, I don't think a non-native speaker should really try to adopt a different regional accent wholesale  - it probably won't work and no one will think you are Scottish or Irish or Georgian anyway.  But making some modifications to your accent should be possible.


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