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Memphissunrise Posted 19 years ago
Speech & Pronunciation

Do you think that a Southern Accent makes someone dumb?

I was born in Memphis, and moved to Mississippi when I was five, and it was there when I developed my strong southern drawl. By the time I was ten I moved to Savannah, GA where I always got grief about my accent. However, the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened was when I was flying to Memphis to visit my mom, and there was a woman from Baltimore sitting beside me and asked, “How are you?” I simply replied “Fine how about you?” she had a sneer look on her face and started talking very slowly to me using a phony southern accent, and that pissed me off. Yes, I have a heavy southern accent, but that does not make me unintelligent.

How about you, do you think that a southern accent makes someone dumb, or have you had any incidents where people talked down to you because of a southern accent?
  

Top answer

Not at all-- you just met a linguistic bigot. Many other people, including me, love the southern drawl.

— Mister Micawber

  • Not at all-- you just met a linguistic bigot.
  • Many other people, including me, love the southern drawl.
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34 Answers
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Not at all-- you just met a linguistic bigot. Many other people, including me, love the southern drawl.
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Me too. I've also heard that, more often than not, Southern accent gives an impression that you are friendly, honest, and reliable person.
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People are prejudiced about all kinds of things, but hopefully you won't find many people on these boards who judge others by the way they pronounce their words.
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MemphissunriseBy the time I was ten I moved to Savannah, GA where I always got grief about my accent.
Hi Memphissunrise
I'm a northern fan of "the" southern drawl. It surprised me that you wrote that you got grief about your accent in Georgia. From my "northern" perspective, I would expect people in Savannah to speak with a southern drawl too. So
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Well, I hate to say it, but Mississippi and the central Louisiana areas probably has the most stigmatized accent - it screams "redneck" to a person who is inclined to be prejudiced about these things in the first place. (Although Peyton Manning is doing his best to contradict that.)

Savannah and Charlotte have "dawls."

I have a latent Southern accent - my father is from the Sou
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Southern accents rock! Well, actually I like most accents, generally speaking.
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Do you think that a Southern Accent makes someone dumb?
You can't be serious. (And being dumb doesn't make you speak with a southern accent either.)

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I moved from North Carolina to Los Angeles. I do not have a thick Southern accent, but some people (who grew up on the West Coast) think that it is the epitome of a Southern accent. In the South people never thought I was native to the area and people on the East Coast don't hear it or think twice about it.  In SoCal I get a lot of grief over the slight accent that I have... and I  have to say th
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yes. i think southern accents make people sound conservative and backwards. it must be a preconceived idea i have or something... but it seems that most southern people i meet do meet that criteria anyway.
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Anonymous yes. i think southern accents make people sound conservative and backwards. it must be a preconceived idea i have or something... but it seems that most southern people i meet do meet that criteria anyway.

Really? Most of the Southerners you meet are backwards? You need to get out more. Most of the Southerners I know do know that "I" should
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