New research by an associate professor of linguistics at NC State, Robin Dodsworth, indicates that the infamous Southern accent is gradually vanishing from North Carolina. I say “infamous,” because the Southern drawl’s generally less than flattering reputation is likely a primary reason for its disappearing.
Dodsworth herself said, “[People in southern cities want] people who are from the North to respect them so they’re not seen as stupid or lazy,” the Duke Chronicle reported.
Southerners have a certain history of trying to escape the past. Different people cope with the tragedy of Southern history in different ways. Some ignore the South’s perpetuation of slavery and history of deep-seated racism entirely (a problematic way to go about it, to say the least), many come to terms with their shared pasts and try to overcome it in a positive way and others refuse to even identify as Southern. In attempts to distance ourselves from our indisputably horrific backstory, we are losing a key part of what distinguishes us as Southerners.
Strong Southern accents have often been stigmatized in other regions of the United States, particularly in the North, where many categorize Southerners as backwards, uninformed conservatives. This type of generalization is harmful as it pertains to any sort of group, and casually conflating ignorance with the entire Southern population fails to acknowledge the diversity of people in the South, as well as the fact that, yes, Southern people can be intelligent citizens.
The recent deterioration of the Southern accent ties into larger trends of classism as they relate to the cultural regions of the United States, particularly how the societies perceive seemingly inherent differences between the different regions. The sides cemented during the Civil War are still present—the North against the South, the modern versus the antiquated, the wealthy versus the impoverished, the winners versus the losers.
Broadly speaking, when we think of the South, we imagine empty fields, overalls, poverty and a lack of industry. When we think of the North, we imagine skyscrapers, busy people and lush apartments. The far-reaching disparity American society draws between the two regions stems partly from our automatic privileging of the richer over the poorer.
We continue to prolong biases based on which side of the Mason-Dixon Line we fall on, and this is reflected in the continual abandonment of the Southern drawl. The society of the United States inherently prizes “Northern” contributions over “Southern” ones, so, to this extent, Southerners are learning to discard their accents in order to gain human recognition.
Why allow popular culture to shun you as an uneducated, uncivilized hick? Do Southerners deserve this reputation? Perhaps as much as Northerners deserve to be characterized as heartless and mean. Receiving respect is as easy as changing your voice. If a person’s impression of you comes down to something so arbitrary, something that holds no meaning on its own; shouldn’t this perspective be reevaluated and reworked?
Though it may seem as though not much is being lost in this circumstance, we’re currently witnessing a mass (albeit gradual) assimilation of language because we shame people for the manner in which they talk. You should be able to speak however you like; Southerners shouldn’t have to suppress their natural accents in order for others to view them as being of equal footing.
