How to lose a regional southern accent?
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Anonymous
No, sadly it’s been studied and the overwhelming impression both southern and New York accents give is that the speaker is less intelligent. It’s not opinion, it’s impression. |
Anonymous
Fair point. |
Anonymous
| I work with someone with a notable regional southern accent. Occasionally there are words I misunderstand because of the accent but the accent itself is not a big deal. What makes her sound less knowledgeable and less confident is the extreme drawl and how long it takes to finish a sentence. She also often ends sentences on an upward swing which sounds questioning or herself. If you do that, I’d focus on those things over the accent itself. |
Anonymous
| Just listen to how other people talk and pick an accent you like. Talk that way long enough and eventually it will become second nature. I am from the south and when I lived overseas with a bunch of expats as a kid, they made fun of my accent. So, I started talking like a lot of the actors I hear in movies (think like captain america, whatever that accent is). 30ish years later I feel like this has always been my accent except when a thread like this makes me remember it used to be southern. |
Anonymous
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shaping an opinion of someone based on their accent, you people are horrible. Do you freely admit this about other kind of accepts (hispanic, Chinese, German, etc)? But this is ok, to say someone with a Southern accent sounds less intelligent.
What a bunch of snobs. And you probably declare yourself as really open minded and accepting. Unreal. |
Anonymous
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I’ve lived in DC, Connecticut, NYC, and Baltimore. My accent changes with my environment, and to some extent p, with the topic.
So If I wanted to develop a more consistent Mid-Atlantic accent, I would spend more time with people who speak with that accent and it would happen naturally. |
Anonymous
Depends on what kind of southern accent it is. Many send chills down my spine. I can just imagine the KKK robes and the police dogs. |
Anonymous
“All y’all” is for emphasis. It’s not “silly” — it’s functional. If you don’t need or don’t get the functionality, that’s on you. |
Anonymous
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I grew up in a blue collar family from the Bronx. When I started college here in DC, I was completely startled by both how differently I realized I sounded from my classmates and by my classmates reactions to how I spoke. I felt like my accent walked into rooms before I did. It’s not fun to realize people are giggling at you while your speak with them.
I worked consciously to lose it. It was almost gone by graduation. Dating an educated man from a southern city helped me understand different ways of saying words. I’m glad I worked to lose my accent. It was clear to me that my accent was distracting to people. Unfortunately, now people don’t believe me when I tell them where I am from. |
Anonymous
Jealous much! |
Anonymous
It’s actually been proven, PP. no one is saying we feel this way. There are countless studies on it. Calm down and look it up. |
Anonymous
Jealous of what? |
Anonymous
What's proven? That people with Southern accents are treated as if they are stupid and that people form baseless prejudices against them simply because of their accent OR that they actually are stupid. The countless studies prove what? Maybe instead of telling me to calm down you can write a better explanation. I stand 100% by what I said, so maybe take a hard look in the mirror. All the "open minded" "progressive" "love everyone" "everyone is welcome" blue voting people seem to think it's perfectly find to make assumptions and statements about southern accents. Why? Do you use the word redneck? hillbilly? hick? If so, why is that ok? It is disgusting. So stop patronizing me and deflecting. |
Anonymous
I prefer the hard Boston accent which I find to be pretty cool. |
Anonymous
Seem therapy. |