Older Southern American English: Difference between revisions

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The Old Virginia accent is one that is primarily heard in Southern American English, especially in the Commonwealth of Virginia. An Old Virginia accent takes a strong southern accent, and adds typical words that are pronounced differently, such as "out" and "house."

There are varieties of an Old Virginia accent, varying from strong to weak. One with a weak Old Virginia accent will have a southern accent accompanied by a slight drawl to the ending of words.

Characteristics

Southern and south midland accent characteristics include:^[1]

"drawl" [lengthening, fronting, and raising vowels]
/ai/ > /æ:/ in find, mind
/oi/ > /o/ in boil, oil
/u:/ > /yu:/ in due, tuesday
au/ > /æu/ in out, doubt
/e/ > /ei/ in bed, head
/e/ > /i/ in pen, ten
greasy > greazy
carry > tote
dragged > drug
you > you all, y’all

History

As the "original" colonies, Virginia and Massachusetts were settled mostly by people from Southern England, especially London.

The Boston, Massachusetts, Richmond, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina areas maintained strong commercial and cultural ties to England. Thus, the colonists and their descendants defined "class" according to London's connotation. As the upper class London dialect changed, the dialects of the upper class Americans in these areas changed. One example, is the "r-dropping" of the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, resulting in the similar "r-dropping" found in Boston and parts of Virginia today.^[1]

Famous Old Virginia accents

Some famous people who speak with this accent are U.S. Congressman Virgil Goode and Mayor of Richmond and past-Governor of Virginia L. Douglas Wilder.

External links

Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by a Richmond, Virginia native, featured in the George Mason University Linguistics program Speech Accent Archive.
"Dialects of English," by Dr. C. George Boeree, featuring Southern and south midland accent of American English
"Virginia’s Many Voices," Fairfax County, Virginia Library
International Dialects of English Archive, "Dialects Of Virginia"
"A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics at University of Pennsylvania

References

^ ^a ^b "Dialects of English: American English," by Dr. C. George Boeree, accessed August 23, 2010

[boeree-1] "Dialects of English: American English," by Dr. C. George Boeree, accessed August 23, 2010

[1]

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 * [http://accent.gmu.edu/browse_language.php?function=detail&speakerid=795 Example of an old Virginia accent spoken by] a [[Richmond, Virginia]] native, featured in the [[George Mason University]] Linguistics program [http://accent.gmu.edu/ Speech Accent Archive].
 * [http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/dialectsofenglish.html "Dialects of English," by Dr. [[C. George Boeree]], featuring ''Southern and south midland'' accent of ''American English'']
+* [http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/niceandcurious/manyvoices.htm "Virginia’s Many Voices," [[Fairfax County, Virginia]] Library]
+* [http://web.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/virginia/virginia.htm ''International Dialects of English Archive,'' "Dialects Of Virginia"]
+* [http://www.ling.upenn.edu/phono_atlas/NationalMap/NationalMap.html "A National Map of the Regional Dialects of American English," by William Labov, Sharon Ash and Charles Boberg, The Linguistics Laboratory in the Department of Linguistics at [[University of Pennsylvania]] ]
 ==References==