Southern Fried Accents

It has been said that while there are many American Souths, in the end there is only one South.  It is true that this area is hardly homogeneous.  There is tremendous diversity in its landscapes, for example.  From sun-splashed beaches to mile-high mountain peaks, from lush subtropical forests to the only desert east of the Mississippi River, the South has enough variety to keep anybody curious about it occupied for a lifetime.  Geographically speaking, there is the Upper South, comprising of Delaware, Maryland, the Virginias and Kentucky; the Mid-South which is made up of Arkansas, Tennessee and the Carolinas; and finally the Deep South which takes in the remaining states.  But these three provinces still have an unmistakable Southern stamp on them which serves as the overriding unifying factor for this region’s identity.

When people think of American Southerners, they naturally divide them into two main demographic groups: black and white folks.  That is changing also with the great influx of Latino newcomers in recent years.  Spanish is being heard far more frequently now than it was when I lived here thirty-five years ago with most of the immigrants arriving, not from Cuba and the Caribbean, but from the American West, Mexico and Central America.  Asians are also coming in growing numbers.

Still, black and white folks make up the overwhelming majority of the population.  Their presence is more than just the natural result of the slavery that was sustained here for nearly two hundred fifty years.  Not all black Southerners were slaves and not all white Southerners were slave-owners or even free men.  Many whites came here originally as indentured servants while the first blacks accompanied the early Spanish and French explorers and sometimes led expeditions themselves.

It was the meeting, mixing, and in many cases, mating of these people that created something for which the South is world famous:  the Southern accent.  But even this very American form of speech has both a complex history and usage.  Like the South itself, there is no one and only Southern accent.  There are many and which one you hear depends on a wide range of factors.

First, it is important to understand that black and white Southerners speak in different Southern accents.  For white Southerners, their accent will depend a good deal on which part of the South they inhabit.  There is a difference between the way a Virginian will say something and the way an Alabamian will.  And there are variations even within the same state.  An administrator in Atlanta shouldn’t be expected to talk the same way that a mechanic in Macon would.  Furthermore, city dwellers’ speech is often markedly different from their rural cousins. 

These differences will be heard in the different voice inflections.  Some will drawl their words the way Andy Griffith so famously did.  Others will have the kind of crisp speech you might expect to hear in Washington D.C.  Occupations also play a big role in speech patterns as well.  Some people seem to take a long time to say anything while others shoot straight from the hip, er, lip.  My point is that you are as likely to run into white Southerners who talk like Rhett Butler as you are those who are more like Andy Griffith; or who sound a lot like Scarlett O’Hara as opposed to Reba McIntire.

With black Southerners there is the additional factor of different dialects.  Everyone has heard about Black English, or Ebonics as some like to call it.  I won’t get into all the issues with its usage here, but I will say that when Black English is combined with a black Southern accent, you get speech which makes the heads of those unaccustomed to it spin round and round.  There is also the very different and fascinating Gullah speech heard in South Carolina’s Low Country and Sea Islands.  I’ve known a few Gullah folk, or Geechees as they also call themselves, and found listening to them a remarkable experience.

When I lived in Colorado, very few of my friends and acquaintances ever heard me speak Black English.  One who did was my housemate Andy Gill who often overheard my telephone conversations with different family members back in the South.  Andy told me he couldn’t believe how the inflection, accent, and even volume of my voice would change during those conversations.  I would switch back and forth during the same chat depending on the topic.  Andy would listen while a strange smile played on his face as he saw a facet of my personality that otherwise was very well hidden.

One of the other rare occasions when my Colorado friends would hear my Southern accents come out was whenever I would read aloud from passages of Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  The book is one of my all-time favorites and one of the things that makes its humor come to life is when you allow the characters to speak in Southern accents, and that is how I would read.  I’ve had people tell me they never really had appreciated the humor, sarcasm and irony of the novel until they heard its characters talk in Southern accents.

Now that I am back in Alabama, I hear Southern accents all the time of course.  And while I have always enjoyed hearing it and speak that way far more frequently than I did in the West, there is still part of my mind that will occasionally wonder at what I am hearing.  I also am quite conscious of who my listeners are and that will have a strong impact on what kind of speech I will employ.

When I interact with white folks, I talk the same way I did in Colorado.  There is no trace of accent and I seldom will use the many colorful turns of phrase and colloquialisms which spice Southern speech.  I am friendly, but professional because I want to make a strong impression on the listener that I am serious and should be taken seriously.

With black folks, the setting is what matters.  If I am transacting business, then I am formal, but less reserved than I am with whites.  When the situation doesn’t involve anything really important, then I’m relaxed and as Southern as they come.  So whether I am greeting the postman bringing the mail, or chatting with a neighbor during the morning walk, or simply conversing with family and friends, I speak Black English in a Southern accent freely and warmly.

I am interested in hearing other Southern accents in their home areas.  Before the year is over I hope to travel to Atlanta, Mobile and New Orleans.  All of them are fascinating cities with much history and legend attached to them and their residents have some interesting ways of talking.  These cities are also very close to Birmingham and reaching them requires little effort.  Eventually I will also be traveling further afield and becoming reacquainted with the Appalachians of Tennessee, North Carolina and Virginia where some of the language has remained unchanged since the late seventeenth century.

“Who is it that gives man speech?” Moses was once asked.  The English language is a very rich one and I have been lucky enough to hear different variations of it in my native country, let alone to have encountered speakers from outside its borders.  But of all the variations of English I know, my favorite flavor is the one with a Southern fried accent.