The distinction between
{{Refimprove|date=November 2007}}
Southern American English is a group of dialectThe term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by scholars of language. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other...
s of the English languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
spoken throughout the Southern region of the United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, from Southern and Eastern MarylandMaryland is a state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia to the south and west, Pennsylvania to the north, and Delaware to the east. It is comparable in size to the European country of Belgium. According to the U.S...
, West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
and KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
to the Gulf Coast, and from the AtlanticThe Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about 106.4 million square kilometres , it covers approximately one-fifth of the Earth's surface and about one-quarter of its water surface area. The first part of its name refers to the Atlas of Greek...
coast to throughout most of TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
and OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
The Southern dialects make up the largest accent group in the United States. Southern American English can be divided into different sub-dialects, with speech differing between regions. African American Vernacular EnglishAfrican American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
(AAVE) shares similarities with Southern dialect due to African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
s' strong historical ties to the region.
Overview of Southern dialects
The range of Southern dialects collectively known as Southern American English stretches across the southeastern and south-central United States, but excludes the southernmost areas of Florida and Texas.
This linguistic region includes AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
, GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
, TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
, MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
, North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, and ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
, as well as most of TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
, VirginiaThe Commonwealth of Virginia is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" because it is the birthplace of eight U.S. presidents. The geography and climate of the state are shaped by the Blue...
, OklahomaOklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,617,316 residents in 2007 and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
and West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
. It also includes southern MissouriMissouri is a state in the Midwest region of the United States bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. Missouri is the 18th most populous state with a 2008 estimated population of 5,911,605. It comprises 114 counties and one independent city....
, and north FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
(Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006).
Southern dialects substantially originated from immigrants from the British IslesThe British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include Great Britain, Ireland and numerous smaller islands. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and Ireland...
who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th centuries. The South was predominantly settled by immigrants from the West CountryThe West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
{{Fact|date=October 2007}} in the southwest of EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the dialects of which have similarities to the Southern US dialects. Settlement also included large numbers of ProtestantsProtestantism is a branch within Christianity, containing many denominations with some differing practices and doctrines, that principally originated in the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation. It is considered to be one of the major divisions within Christianity, together with the Roman...
from UlsterUlster is one of the four Provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island.Ulster is composed of nine counties: Antrim, Armagh, Down, Fermanagh, Londonderry, and Tyrone are part of Northern Ireland; while Cavan, Donegal, and Monaghan are part of the Republic of Ireland.-Terminology:The...
, IrelandIreland is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islets. To the east of Ireland, separated by the Irish Sea, is the island of Great Britain...
, and from ScotlandScotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. During the migration south and west, the settlers encountered the French immigrants of New FranceNew France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763...
(from which KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
, ArkansasArkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquin name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares a border with six states, with its eastern border largely defined by the Mississippi River. Its diverse geography ranges from the mountainous regions of the...
, LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
and western TennesseeTennessee is a state located in the Southeastern United States. According to the 2008 census, it has a population of 6,214,888, an increase of nearly 9.5% since 2000. Tennessee is the 14th fastest growing state in the US and is ranked 17th by population. It is ranked 36th by total land area. In...
originated), and the French accent itself fused into the British and Irish accents. The modern Southern dialects were born.
Phonology
{{IPA notice}}
Few generalizations can be made about Southern pronunciation as a whole, as there is great variation between regions in the South (see the different southern American English dialects section below for more information) and between older and younger people. Upheavals such as the Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
, the Dust BowlThe Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties was a period of severe dust storms causing major ecological and agricultural damage to American and Canadian prairie lands from 1930 to 1936 . The phenomenon was caused by severe drought coupled with decades of extensive farming without crop rotation, fallow...
and World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
caused mass migrations throughout the United States.
Older SAE
The following features are characteristic of older SAE:
- Like Australian English
Australian English is the form of the English language spoken in Australia.-Socio-historical linguistic context:...
and English English, the English of the coastal Deep SouthThe Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the antebellum period...
is historically non-rhoticEnglish pronunciation can be divided into two main accent groups: A rhotic speaker pronounces the letter R in hard and water. A non-rhotic speaker does not pronounce it in hard, and may not in water, or may only pronounce it in water if the following word begins with a vowel...
: it drops the sound of final /r/ before a consonant or a word boundary, so that guard sounds similar to God (but the former has a longer vowel than the latter) and stork like stalk. Intrusive /r/, where an /r/ sound is inserted at a word break between two vowel sounds ("lawr and order") is not a feature of coastal SAE, as it is in many other non-rhotic accents. Today only some areas like New Orleans, MobileMobile is the third most populous city in the Southern U.S. state of Alabama and is the county seat of Mobile County. It is located on the Mobile River and the central Gulf Coast of the United States. The population within the city limits was 198,915 during the 2000 census...
, SavannahSavannah is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Chatham County, Georgia, USA. Savannah was established in 1733 and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia...
, and NorfolkNorfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 234,403 as of the 2000 census, it is Virginia's second-largest incorporated city behind its eastern neighbor, Virginia Beach....
have non-rhotic speakers (Labov, Ash, and Bomberg 2006: 47-48). Non-rhoticity is rapidly disappearing from almost all Southern accents, to a greater degree than it has been lost in the other traditionally non-rhotic dialects of the East Coast such as New York and Boston. The remaining non-rhotic SAE speakers also use intrusive r, like New England and New York City.
- The distinction between {{IPA, as in horse and hoarse, for and four etc., is preserved.
- The wine-whine merger has not occurred, and these two words are pronounced with {{IPA|/w/}} and {{IPA|/hw/}} respectively.
- Lack of yod-dropping, thus pairs like do/due and toon/tune are distinct. Historically, words like due, lute, and new contained {{IPA|/juː/}} (as RP
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English and BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional dialects similar to that of other European languages...
does), but Labov, Ash, and Boberg (2006: 53-54) report that the only Southern speakers today who make a distinction use a diphthong {{IPA|/ɪu/}} in such words. They further report that speakers with the distinction are found primarily in North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
and northwest South CarolinaSouth Carolina is a U.S. state that borders Georgia to the south and North Carolina to the north. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence from the British Crown during the American Revolution. The colony was...
, and in a corridor extending from JacksonJackson is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County , but the city also contains areas in Madison and Rankin Counties...
to TallahasseeTallahassee is the capital of the State of Florida, USA, the county seat of Leon County , and the 133rd biggest city in the USA. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida in 1824. In 2008, the population recorded by the U.S...
.
- The distinction between {{IPA in marry, merry, and Mary may be preserved by older speakers, but fewer young people make a distinction. The r-sound becomes almost a vowel, and may be elided after a long vowel, as it often is in AAVE.
Newer SAE
The following phenomena are relatively wide spread in Newer SAE, though degree of features may differ between different regions and between rural and urban areas. The older the speaker the less likely he or she is to have these features:
- The merger
Phonemic differentiation is the phenomenon of a language maximizing the acoustic distance between its phonemes, presumably to minimize the possibility of misunderstanding.- Examples :...
of {{IPA|[ɛ]}} and {{IPA|[ɪ]}} before nasal consonantA nasal consonant is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The oral cavity still acts as a resonance chamber for the sound, but the air does not escape through the mouth as it is blocked by the lips or tongue...
s, so that pen and pin are pronounced the same, but the pin-pen merger is not found in New Orleans, SavannahSavannah is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Chatham County, Georgia, USA. Savannah was established in 1733 and was the first colonial and state capital of Georgia...
, or Miami (which does not fall within the Southern dialect region). This sound change has spread beyond the South in recent decades and is now found in parts of the MidwestThe Midwestern United States is one of the four geographic regions within the United States of America that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
and WestThe Western United States, commonly referred to as the American West or simply "the West," traditionally refers to the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. Because the U.S. expanded westward after its founding, the meaning of the West has evolved over time...
as well.
- Lax and tense vowels often neutralize before {{IPA
-Salary-celery merger:The salary-celery merger is a conditioned merger of and when they occur before , thus making salary and celery homophones. The merger is not well studied...
, making pairs like feel/fill and fail/fell homophoneA homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...
s for speakers in some areas of the South. Some speakers may distinguish between the two sets of words by reversing the normal vowel sound, e.g., feel in SAE may sound like fill, and vice versa (Labov, Ash, and Boberg 2006: 69-73).
Shared features
The following features are also associated with SAE:
- The diphthong
In phonetics, a diphthong, or , is a contour vowel—that is, a unitary vowel that changes quality during its pronunciation, or "glides", with a smooth movement of the tongue from one articulation to another, as in the English words eye, boy, and cow...
{{IPA|/aɪ/}} becomes monophthongA monophthong is a "pure" vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation; compare diphthong....
ized to {{IPA|[aː]}}:
- Most speakers exhibit this feature at the ends of words and before voiced consonants but not before voiceless consonants; some in fact exhibit Canadian-style raising
Canadian raising is a phonetic phenomenon that occurs in varieties of the English language, especially Canadian English, in which diphthongs are "raised" before voiceless consonants . becomes , while the outcome of varies by dialect, with more common in the west and a fronted variant commonly...
before voiceless consonants, so that ride is {{IPA|[raːd]}} and wide is {{IPA|[waːd]}}, but right is {{IPA|[rəɪt]}} and white is {{IPA|[hwəɪt]}}. Many speakers throughout the South exhibit backing to {{IPA|[ɑːe]}} in environments where monophthongization does not take place.
- Others monophthongize {{IPA|/aɪ/}} in all contexts, as in the stereotyped pronunciation "nahs whaht rahs" for nice white rice; these speakers are mostly found in an Appalachian area comprising eastern Tennessee, western North Carolina and Northern Alabama (the "Inland South"), and in Central Texas. Elsewhere in the South this is stigmatized as a working class feature.
- The "Southern Drawl", breaking of the short front vowels in the words "pat", "pet", and "pit": these develop a glide up from their original starting position to IPA| [j] , and then in some cases back down to schwa: {{IPA|/æ/ → [æjə]}}; {{IPA|/ɛ/ → [ɛjə]}}; {{IPA|/ɪ/ → [ɪjə]}}.
- The "Southern Shift", a chain shift
In phonology, a chain shift is a phenomenon in which a several sounds move stepwise along a phonetic scale. The sounds involved in a chain shift can be ordered into a "chain" in such a way that, after the change is complete, each phoneme ends up sounding like what the phoneme before it in the chain...
following on as a result of the Southern Drawl: the nuclei of {{IPA|/ɛ/}} and {{IPA|/ɪ/}} move to become higher and fronter, so that, for example, instead of {{IPA|[ɛjə]}}, {{IPA|/ɛ/}} becomes a tenser {{IPA|/ejə}}. This process is most common in heavily stressed syllables. At the same time, the nuclei of the traditional front upgliding diphthongs are relaxed: {{IPA|/i/}} moves towards {{IPA|[ɪi]}} and {{IPA|/eɪ/}} moves towards {{IPA|[ɛi]}} or even lower and/or more retracted.
- The back vowels {{IPA|/u/}} in boon and {{IPA|/oʊ/}} in code shift considerably forward.
- The distinction between the vowels sounds of words like caught and cot or stalk and stock is mainly preserved. In much of the South, the vowel found in words like stalk and caught has developed into a diphthong {{IPA|[ɑɒ]}}.
- The nucleus of {{IPA|/ɑr/}} card is often rounded to {{IPA|[ɒr]}}. becomes {{IPA|[d]}} before {{IPA|/n/}}, for example {{IPA|[wʌdn̩t]}} wasn't, {{IPA|[bɪdnɪs]}} business, but hasn't is sometimes still pronounced {{IPA|[hæzənt]}} because there already exists a word hadn't pronounced {{IPA|[hædənt]}}.
- Many nouns are stressed on the first syllable that would be stressed on the second syllable in other accents. These include police, cement, Detroit, Thanksgiving, insurance, behind, display, recycle, TV, guitar, and umbrella.
- The distinction between {{IPA in furry and hurry is preserved.
- In some regions of the south, there is a merger of {{IPA, making cord and card, for and far, form and farm etc. homonyms.
- The distinction between {{IPA in mirror and nearer, Sirius and serious etc. is not preserved. is replaced with {{IPA|/ɛ/}} at the end of a word, so that furry is pronounced {{IPA|/fɝrɛ/}} ("furreh"){{Fact|date=June 2008}}
- The distinction between {{IPA in pour and poor, moor and more is not preserved.
- The l's in the words walk and talk are occasionally pronounced, causing the words talk and walk to be pronounced {{IPA|/wɑlk/}} and {{IPA|/tɑlk/}} by some southerners. A sample of that pronunciation can be found at http://www.utexas.edu/courses/linguistics/resources/socioling/talkmap/talk-nc.html.
- Some older speakers that have a phenomenon resemblant of the trap-bath split. Where General American accents perscribe /æ/ and considerably liberal accents have /ɑ:/, Southern American English may have a new vowel diphthong /æɪ/, as in aunt /æɪnt/ and gas /gæɪs/.{{Fact|date=October 2008}}
Older SAE
- Zero copula in third person plural and second person.
-
- You [Ø] taller than Sheila.
- They [Ø] gonna leave today (Cukor-Avila, 2003).
- Use of the circumfix a- . . . -in'.
-
- He was a-hootin' and a-hollerin'.
- The wind was a-howlin'.
- The use of like to to mean nearly.
-
- I like to had a heart attack.
- Use of "yonder" as a determiner.
-
- They gathered a mess of raspberries in yonder woods.
Newer SAE
- Use of the contraction
In current English usage, contraction is the shortening of a word, syllable, or word group by omission of internal letters.In traditional grammar, contraction can denote the formation of a new word from one word or a group of words, for example, by elision...
y'allY'all, formerly spelled "You-all", is a contraction of the phrase "you all", and is pronounced as one syllable. It is used as a plural second-person pronoun. Commonly believed to have originated in the Southern United States, it is primarily associated with Southern American English,...
as the second person plural pronoun. Its uncombined form{{ndash}} you all{{ndash}} is used less frequently.
- When speaking about a group, y'all is general (I know y'all) —as in that group of people is familiar to you and you know them as a whole, whereas all y'all is much more specific and means you know each and every person in that group, not as a whole, but individually ("I know all y'all.") Y'all can also be used with the standard "-s" possessive.
-
- "I've got y'all's assignments here."
- Y'all is distinctly separate from the singular you. The statement, "I gave y'all my payment last week," is more precise than "I gave you my payment last week." You (if interpreted as singular) could imply the payment was given directly to the person being spoken to{{ndash}} when that may not be the case.
- Some people misinterpret the phrase "all y'all" as meaning that Southerners use the word y'all as singular and all y'all as plural. However, all y'all is used to specify that all of the members of the second person plural are included (i.e., it functions similarly to "all of you" in standard English), that is "all y'all" as opposed to "some of y'all"
- In rural Southern Appalachia an "n" is added to pronouns indicating "one" "his'n" "his one" "her'n" "her one" "Yor'n" "your one" i.e. "his, hers and yours". Another example is yernses it may be substituted for the 2nd person plural possessive yours.
- "That book is yernses."
- Use of dove as past tense for dive, drug as past tense for drag, and drunk as past tense for drink.
Shared features
These grammatical features are characteristic of both older Southern American English and newer Southern American English.
- Use of done as a redundant modal verb
In the English language, a modal verb is an auxiliary verb that can be used to change the grammatical mood of a sentence. The key way to identify a modal verb is by its defectiveness ....
between the subject and verb in past simple sentences.
-
- I done told you before.
- Use of done (instead of did) as the past simple form of do, and similar uses of the past participle in place of the past simple, such as seen replacing saw as past simple form of see.
- I only done what you done told me.
- I seen her first.
- Use of other non-standard preterits, Such as drowneded as the past tense of drown, knowed as past tense of know, choosed as the past tense of choose, degradated as the past tense of degrade.
- I knowed you for a fool soon as I seen you.
- Use of was in place of were, or other words regularizing the past tense of be to was.
- You was sittin' on that chair.
- Use of been instead of have been in perfect tense
In linguistics, the perfect tense is the past tense used to describe completed actions in the past.The perfect can be contrasted to the imperfect tense, which describes incomplete actions in the past...
formations.
- I been livin' here darn near my whole life.
- Use of double modals (might could, might should, might would, used to could, etc.--also called "modal stacking") and sometimes even triple modals that involve oughta or a double modal (like might should oughta, or used to could be able to.)
- I might could climb to the top.
- Preservation of older English me, him, etc. as reflexive datives.
- I'm fixin' to paint me a picture.
- He's gonna catch him a big one.
- Replacement of have (to possess) with got, or have to with got to.
- I got one of them.
- I got to get me one too.
- The inceptive get/got to (indicating that an action is just getting started). Get to is more frequent in older SAE, and got to in newer SAE.
- I got to talking to him and we ended up talking all night.
- Regularization of negative present tense of do to don't (instead of doesn't). This removed syllable in doesn't can also carry over to other words, turning wasn't into won't (or "weren't") or hasn't/haven't into h'aint or ain't.
- John don't like cake.
- He took a bite of my cake when I weren't looking.
- I h'aint seen him for ages.
- Merging of adjective and adverbial forms of related words (quick/quickly), generally in favor of the adjective. Similar adverbial uses include real to mean really or very, sure to mean certainly, and right to mean quite or fairly.
- He's movin' real quick.
- You sure are real pretty.
- I'm right tired.
- Saying this here in place of this or this one, and that there in place of that or that one.
- This here's mine and that there is yours.
- Using them or them there as a demonstrative adjective or noun replacing those.
- See them birds?
- Them's catbirds.
- Use of (a-)fixin' to as an indicator of immediate future action instead of intending to, preparing to, or about to.
- He's fixin' to eat.
- Existential It, a feature dating from Middle English which can be explained as substituting it for there when there refers to no physical location, but only to the existence of something.
- It's one lady that lives in town.
- Use of ever in place of every.
- Ever'where's the same these days.
Vocabulary
- Word use tendencies from the Harvard Dialect Survey:
- Likely influenced by the dominance of Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants and vending machines internationally. The Coca-Cola Company claims that the beverage is sold in more than 200 countries...
in the Deep SouthThe Deep South is a descriptive category of the cultural and geographic subregions in the American South. Historically, it is differentiated from the "Upper South" as being the states which were most dependent on plantation type agriculture during the antebellum period...
, a carbonated beverage in general is referred to as Coke, even if referring to non-colas. Soft drink and soda is sometimes used, usually in large cities.
- The shopping-cart at many stores as a buggy (or less often, jitney or trolley).
- Use of the term "mosquito hawk", "skeeter hawk" or "snake doctor" for a dragonfly
A dragonfly is a type of insect belonging to the order Odonata, the suborder Epiprocta or, in the strict sense, the infraorder Anisoptera. It is characterized by large multifaceted eyes, two pairs of strong transparent wings, and an elongated body...
or a crane flyInsects in the family Tipulidae are commonly known as crane flies. Adults are very slender, long-legged flies that may vary in length from 2–60 mm ....
(Diptera tipulidae).
- Use of "over yonder" in place of "over there" or "in or at that indicated place," especially when being used to refer to a particularly different spot, such as in "the house over yonder." Additionally, "yonder" tends to refer to a third, larger degree of distance beyond both "here" and "there," indicating that something is a long way away, and to a lesser extent, in an open expanse, as in the church hymn "When the Roll Is Called Up Yonder."
- Use of the phrase "chill bumps" instead of "goose bumps"
- Use of "eye
Eyes are organs that detect light, and send electrical impulses along the optic nerve to the visual and other areas of the brain. Complex optical systems with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, and 96% of animal species possess a complex optical system...
" to refer to a burner on a stove. "Watch out, the eye is still hot." (Referring to the "eyes" or removable burner cover plates on, now mostly obsolete, wood or coal-fired cookstoves.) {{Fact|date=January 2008}}
- Use of the word "bookbag" as opposed to "backpack."
Dialects
It has been said that one of the features which most distinguish the South from the rest of the country is speech.{{Who|date=March 2009}} However, contrary to popular belief, there is no single "Southern accent". Instead, there are a number of sub-regional dialects found across the Southern United StatesThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
which are collectively known as Southern American English. Still, these different varieties often share commonalities of accent and idiom easily distinguishable from that spoken in other regions of the United States and identify it as being "Southern", particularly to other Americans. Although different "Southern" dialects exist, they are all mutually intelligible, as are US and British English more broadly.
Atlantic
The Virginia PiedmontPiedmont, Virginia is a part of the greater Piedmont region which stretches from the falls of the Potomac, Rappahannock, and James Rivers to the Blue Ridge Mountains. The region is 50 miles wide, more or less, and 100 miles in length...
dialect is possibly the most famous of Southern dialects because of its strong influence on the South's speech patterns. Because the dialect has long been associated with the upper or aristocraticAristocracy is a form of government, in which a few of the most prominent citizens rule. This may be a hereditary elite, or it may be by a system of cooption where a council of prominent citizens add leading soldiers, merchants, land owners, priests, and lawyers to their number...
plantationA plantation is a large farm or estate, usually in a tropical or subtropical country, where crops are grown for sale in distant markets, rather than for local consumption. The term plantation is informal and not precisely defined....
class in the Old SouthGeographically, Old South is a subregion of the American South, differentiated from the "Deep South" as being the Southern States represented in the original thirteen American colonies, as well as a way of describing the former lifestyle in the Southern United States...
, many of the most important figures in Southern history spoke with a Virginia Piedmont accent. Virginia Piedmont is non-rhotic, meaning speakers pronounce "R" only if it is followed by a vowel. The dialect also features the Southern drawl (mentioned above).
Coastal Southern resembles Virginia Piedmont but has preserved more elements from the colonial era dialect than almost any other region of the United States. It can be found along the coasts of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. It is most prevalent in the Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia areas. In addition, like Virginia Piedmont, Coastal Southern is non-rhotic.
Midland and Highland
- South Midland or Highland Southern
This dialect arose in the inland areas of the South. The area was settled largely by Scots-Irish, Scottish HighlandersThe Scottish Highlands include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east...
, Northern and Western English, Welsh, and Germans.
This dialect follows the Ohio RiverThe Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. It is approximately 981 miles long and is located in the eastern United States....
in a generally southwesterly direction, moves from Kentucky, across far southern Missouri and Oklahoma, and tapers out in western Texas. This dialect is used by some people in Southern Illinois and Southern Indiana. It has assimilated some coastal Southern forms, most noticeably the loss of the diphthong /aj/, which becomes {{IPA|/aː/}}, and the second person plural pronoun "you-all" or "y'all". Unlike Coastal Southern, however, South Midland is a rhotic dialect, pronouncing {{IPA|/r/}} wherever it has historically occurred.
Due to the former isolation of some regions of the Appalachian South, the Appalachian accent may be difficult for some outsiders to understand. This dialect is also rhotic, meaning speakers pronounce "R"s wherever they appear in words, and sometimes when they do not (for example "worsh" for "wash.") Because of the extensive length of the mountain chain, noticeable variation also exists within this subdialect.
The Southern Appalachian dialect can be heard, as its name implies, in North GeorgiaNorth Georgia is the hilly to mountainous northern region of the U.S. state of Georgia. At the time of the arrival of settlers from Europe, it was inhabited largely by the Cherokee. The counties of North Georgia were often scenes of important events in the history of Georgia...
, North AlabamaNorth Alabama is a region of the U.S. state of Alabama, generally considered to include 12 counties: Cherokee, Colbert, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marshall, Morgan, and Winston, with a combined population of 958,247, or 20.84% of the state's population as...
, East TennesseeEast Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
, Middle TennesseeMiddle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee...
, Western North CarolinaNorth Carolina is a state located on the Atlantic Seaboard in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties...
, Eastern KentuckyThe Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. Kentucky is a Southern state situated in the Upland South, although the state is infrequently placed, geographically and culturally, in the Midwest. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a...
, Southwestern VirginiaSouthwest Virginia, often abbreviated as SWVA, is a mountainous region of Virginia in the westernmost part of the commonwealth. Southwest Virginia has been defined alternatively as all Virginia counties on the Appalachian Plateau, all Virginia counties west of the Eastern Continental Divide, or...
, Western MarylandWestern Maryland is the portion of U.S. state of Maryland that consists of Frederick, Washington, Allegany, and Garrett counties. The region is bounded by the Mason-Dixon line to the north, Preston County, West Virginia to the west, and the Potomac River to the south. There is dispute over the...
, and West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
. Southern Appalachian speech patterns, however, are not entirely confined to these mountain regions previously listed.
The common thread in the areas of the SouthThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
where a rhotic version of the dialect is heard is almost invariably a traceable line of descent from ScotsScots or Lowland Scots is the variety of Germanic language traditionally spoken in lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster. It is not to be confused with Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language varieties traditionally spoken in the Highlands and Hebrides....
or Scots-Irish ancestors amongst its speakers. The dialect is also not devoid of early influence from Welsh settlers, the dialect retaining the Welsh EnglishWelsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh...
tendency to pronounce words beginning with the letter "h" as though the "h" were silent; for instance "humble" often is rendered "umble".
A popular myth claims that this dialect closely resembles Early Modern or Shakespearean EnglishEarly Modern English is the stage of the English language used from about the end of the Middle English period to 1650...
. http://www.wvculture.org/history/journal_wvh/wvh30-2.html Although this dialect retains many words from the Elizabethan eraThe Elizabethan era was associated with Queen Elizabeth I's reign and is often considered to be the golden age in English history. It was the height of the English Renaissance and saw the flowering of English poetry, music and literature...
that are no longer in common usage, this myth is apocryphal. http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/%7Emcginn/LanguageMyths.html
This dialect is found throughout several regions of FloridaFlorida is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States, bordering Alabama to the northwest and Georgia to the north. It was the 27th state admitted to the United States...
and in south GeorgiaGeorgia is a state in the United States. One of the original Thirteen Colonies that revolted against British rule in the American Revolution, it had been the last of the Thirteen Colonies to be established, in 1733. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January...
. There are several different variations of the dialect found in Florida. From Pensacola to Tallahassee the dialect is non-rhotic and shares many characteristics with the speech patterns of southern AlabamaAlabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States of America. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its...
. Another form of the dialect is spoken in northeast Florida, Central Florida, the Nature Coast and even in rural parts of South Florida. This dialect was made famous by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsMarjorie Kinnan Rawlings was an American author who lived in rural Florida and wrote novels with rural themes and settings. Her best known work, The Yearling, about a boy who adopts an orphaned fawn, won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1939 and was later made into a movie, also known as The...
' book The YearlingThe Yearling is a 1946 family film drama made by MGM. It was directed by Clarence Brown and produced by Sidney Franklin. The screenplay was by Paul Osborn and John Lee Mahin , adapted from the novel of the same name by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings...
.
The dialect also has some distinct words to it. Some speakers may call a river turtle a "cooter", a land tortoiseGopherus is a genus of tortoises commonly referred to as gopher tortoises. The gopher tortoise is grouped with land tortoises that originated 60 million years ago, in North America...
a "gopher", a bassBass is a name shared by many different species of popular gamefish. The term encompasses both freshwater and marine species. All belong to the large order Perciformes, or perch-like fishes, and in fact the word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch." The collective name for a group...
a "troutTrout are a number of species of freshwater and saltwater fish belonging to the Salmoninae subfamily of the Salmonidae family. Salmon belong to some of the same genera as trout but, unlike most trout, most salmon species spend almost all their lives in salt water...
", and a crappie fish a "speck" or "bream" pronounced (brɪm).{{Fact|date=August 2008}}
Gulf of Mexico
- Gulf Southern & Mississippi Delta
This area of the South was settled by English speakers moving west from Virginia, Georgia, and the Carolinas, along with French settlers from Louisiana (see the section below). This accent is common in Mississippi, northern Louisiana, Arkansas, western Tennessee, and East Texas. Familiar speakers include Johnny CashJohnny Cash , born J. R. Cash, was an American singer-songwriter and one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century...
and Elvis PresleyElvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. A cultural icon, he is commonly known simply as Elvis and is also sometimes referred to as The King of Rock 'n' Roll or The King....
. Dialects found in Georgia and Alabama that are not Southern Appalachian have characteristics of both the Gulf Southern dialect and the Virginia Piedmont/Coastal Southern dialect.
{{main|Cajun French}}
Southern LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, southeast TexasTexas is the second-largest U.S. state in both area and population, and the largest state in the contiguous United States.The name had wide usage among native Americans, meaning "friends" or "allies"...
(Houston to BeaumontBeaumont is a city in and county seat of Jefferson County, Texas, United States, within the Beaumont–Port Arthur Metropolitan Statistical Area. The city's population was 113,866 at the 2000 census. With Port Arthur and Orange, it forms the Golden Triangle, a major industrial area on the Gulf...
), and coastal MississippiMississippi is a state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The state's name comes from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, and takes its name from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi . The state is heavily forested outside of the...
, feature a number of dialects. There is Cajun FrenchCajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana, specifically in the southern parishes of Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, Jefferson, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupée, Avoyelles, St...
, which combines elements of Acadian FrenchAcadian French is a variety or dialect of French spoken by francophone Acadians in the Canadian Maritime provinces, the Saint John River Valley in northern Maine, the Magdalen Islands and Havre-Saint-Pierre, along the St...
with other French and Spanish words. This dialect is spoken by many of the older members of the CajunCajuns are an ethnic group mainly living in Louisiana, consisting of the descendants of Acadian exiles...
ethnic group and is said to be dying out. Many younger Cajuns speak Cajun English, which retains Acadian French influences and words, such as "cher" (dear) or "nonc" (uncle). The French languageFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
can also still be heard in some parts of southern Louisiana.
{{Main|Louisiana Creole French|l1=Creole French}}
Louisiana Creole FrenchLouisiana Creole is a French Creole language spoken by the mixed Louisiana Creole people of the state of Louisiana. The language consists of elements of French, Native American, Spanish, and West African roots.-Geography:...
(Kreyol Lwiziyen) is a FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
-based creole languageA creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates from a mixture of various languages. The lexicon of a creole usually consists of words clearly borrowed from the parent languages, except for phonetic and semantic shifts...
spoken in LouisianaThe State of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state divided into parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
. It has many resemblances to other French creoles in the CaribbeanThe Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts...
. While Cajun FrenchCajun French is a variety or dialects of the French language spoken primarily in the U.S. state of Louisiana, specifically in the southern parishes of Orleans, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, Jefferson, West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupée, Avoyelles, St...
and Louisiana Creole have had a significant influence on each other, they are unrelated. While Cajun is basically a French dialect with grammar similar to standard French, Louisiana Creole applies a French lexicon to a system of grammar and syntaxIn linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing sentences in natural languages...
which is quite different from French grammar.
{{main|Yat (New Orleans)}}
This is spoken in and around the greater New Orleans area. It is referred to as YatYat is a unique collection of dialects of English spoken in New Orleans, Louisiana. The term also refers to those people who speak with a Yat accent...
, from the phrases such as "Where y'at?" for "How are you?"
Additionally, many unique terms such as "neutral ground" for the median of a divided street (Louisiana/Southern Mississippi) or "banquette" for a sidewalk (Southern Louisiana/Eastern Texas) are found here.
African-influenced
The following dialects were influenced by African languages.
{{main|Gullah language}}
Sometimes called Geechee, this creole languageA creole language, or simply a creole, is a stable language that originates from a mixture of various languages. The lexicon of a creole usually consists of words clearly borrowed from the parent languages, except for phonetic and semantic shifts...
originated with African AmericanAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
slaves on the coastal areas and coastal islands of Georgia and South Carolina. The dialect was used to communicate with both Europeans and members of African tribes other than their own. Gullah was strongly influenced by West AfricaWest Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries distributed over an area of approximately 5 million square km:*Benin...
n languages such as VaiVai language, alternately called Vy or Gallinas, is a Mande language. The majority of its speakers, roughly 105 000, are in Liberia with smaller populations residing in Sierra Leone. It is noteworthy for being one of the few sub-Saharan African languages to have a writing system that is not based...
, MendeMende is a major language of Sierra Leone, with some speakers in neighboring Liberia. It is spoken both by the Mende people and by other ethnic groups as a regional lingua franca in southern Sierra Leone....
, Twi, EweEwe is a Niger-Congo language spoken in Ghana, Togo and Benin by over three million people. Ewe is part of a cluster of related languages commonly called Gbe, spoken in southeastern Ghana and southern Togo. Other Gbe languages include Fon and Aja...
, HausaHausa is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 24 million people, and as a second language by about 15 million more.-Classification:...
, YorubaYoruba is a dialect continuum of West Africa with over 25 million speakers. The native tongue of the approximately 28 million Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and traces of it are found among communities in Brazil, Sierra Leone , northern Ghana Yoruba...
, IgboIgbo is a language spoken by some 18 million mainly Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria, in the region once identified as Biafra and parts of the Niger Delta. The language was used by John Goldsmith as an example to justify deviating from the classical linear model of phonology as laid out in The...
, and Kikongo. The name and chorus of the ChristianA Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic, religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, who Christians believe was the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and the Son of God.The term "Christian" is also used adjectivally to...
hymnA hymn is a type of song, usually religious, specifically written for the purpose of praise, adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek , "a song of praise"...
"Kumbaya"Kumbaya" is a spiritual song from the 1930s. It enjoyed newfound popularity during the folk revival of the 1960s and became a standard campfire song in Scouting and other nature-appreciative organizations.The song was originally associated with human and spiritual unity, closeness and compassion,...
" is said to be Gullah for come by here. Other English words attributed to Gullah are juke (jukeboxA jukebox is a partially automated music-playing device, usually a coin-operated machine, that can play specially selected songs from self-contained media. The traditional jukebox is rather large with a rounded top and has colored lighting on the front of the machine on its vertical sides...
), goober (Southern term for peanutThe peanut, or groundnut , is a species in the legume family native to South America, Mexico and Central America. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing 30 to 50 cm tall...
) and voodooLouisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, originated from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Voodoo religions which historically developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African-American population of the U.S. state of Louisiana...
. In a 1930s study by Lorenzo Dow TurnerLorenzo Dow Turner was an African American linguist who did seminal research on the Gullah language of coastal South Carolina and Georgia.-Early life:...
, over 4,000 words from many different AfricaAfrica is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area. With a billion people in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14.8% of the...
n languages were discovered in Gullah. Other words, such as yez for ears, are just phonetic spellings of English words as pronounced by the Gullahs, on the basis of influence from Southern & Western English dialects.
- African American Vernacular English
{{main|African American Vernacular English}}
This type of Southern American English originated in the Southern States where Africans at that time were held as slaves. These slaves originally spoke indigenous African languages but were forced to speak English to communicate with their masters and each other. Since the slave masters spoke Southern American English, the English the slaves learned, which has developed into what is now African American Vernacular EnglishAfrican American Vernacular English —also called African American English; less precisely Black English, Black Vernacular, Black English Vernacular , or Black Vernacular English —is an African American variety of American English...
, had many SAE features. While the African slaves and their descendants lost most of their language and culture, various vocabulary and grammatical features from indigenous West African languages remain in AAVE. While AAVE may also be spoken by members of other ethnic groups, it is largely spoken by and associated with blacks in many parts of the U.S. AAVE is considered by a number of English speakers to be a substandard dialect. As a result, AAVE speakers desiring social mobility typically learn to code-switchCode-switching is a linguistics term denoting the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals, people who speak more than one language, sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...
between AAVE and a more standardized English dialect. Liberian EnglishLiberian English is a term used to refer to the varieties of English spoken in the African country of Liberia. There are four such varieties:* Standard Liberian English or Liberian Settler English;* Kru Pidgin English;* Vernacular Liberian English....
is said to be at least partially based on AAVE, since that this type of English dialect was modeled after American EnglishAmerican English is a set of dialects of the English language used mostly in the United States. Approximately two thirds of native speakers of English live in the United States.English is the most common language in the United States...
and not British EnglishBritish English, or UK English or English English , is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere...
.
External links