My Accent

Since I spent the first 27 years of my life in Mississippi, I have a bit of a southern accent. Although, I lost quite a bit of it while i was living in the blandly accented Pacific Northwest, I seem to have gained a bit of it again living in Germany.

The most noticable aspect probably are my vowels, which i'll try to appoximate here. They are all diphthongs except for the vowel I.

AEY
EEY
I
O-OW
and
YUUW

Perhaps, the most noticeable aspect of the southern accent is the use these and other diphthongs. Often where most Americans would place a simple vowel, I will substitute a diphthong, and vice-versa. Using these vowels makes a southerner's speach have alot of somewhat melodic dips and glides in his words.

The short a sound is sometimes followed by a schwa sound. E.g., the word cap is pronounced similar to CA-uh-P. However, the uh sound is very faint and not emphasized.
Similar for the short i sound. E.g., I'll pronounce lift as li-uh-ft, again with the uh taking much less emphasis than the li.
Whereas the diphthong oi which is pronounced by many Americans as a trivocal, I pronounce it as a bivocal. E.g., oil is pronounced by many Americans as oh-ee-ul, but I pronounce it as oh-ul.
The words on and off get different initial diphthong sounds. On gets a long o followed by a w sound -- a homonym to the word own containing a hard w sound. The word off gets a back vowel aw sound, again with a hard w sound.
I make another exception with the vowel that most americans diphthong-ize. Most Americans make the long I sound into a diphthong. I do as well normally but rarely at the ends of words. When most Americans say the I sound in why or buy, they are really saying WI-EEY and BI-EEY, but I tend to omit the dip.

Although, I still pedantically pronounce my wh's differently than my w's, and my back low vowels differently than my middle high vowels. I.e., cot != caught, and witch != which; weather != whether; wale != whale. I also tend to pronounce the l's in such words as help, walk, and talk. This seems to be especially true when I talk slowly.

I generally pronounce en the same as in and em the same as im. Thus, pin and pen are indistinguishable, as are gem and Jim. This should not seem strange when you realize that almost everyone pronounces er and ir the same.

For me, the present indicative verb conjugation is as follows.


                I   go        we   go
                you go        yall go
                it  goes      they go

I prefer double modals to the more awkward, standard American expressions. E.g., I'd say, "I might could do that," rather than, "I might be able to do that."

Another interesting aspect of modals is that the word have is pronounced differnelty when it means must than when it means posess or as an auxiliary verb.

When have means must it is pronounced haFF: I have to do something.
When have means posess it is pronounced haV: I have only $5 in my pocket.
And have is pronounced haV in the sentence: I have been there many times.

Southerners use several words and expressions which were commonplace to English at one time but have fallen out of todays standard usage. Three examples quickly come to mind.

Fixin' to -- meaning preparing to, or on the verge of, or will be doing it immediately. E.g., I was just fixin' to call you back.
Reckon -- to think, believe, or suppose. E.g., Do you reckon the file's corrupted?
And yonder, a place located about 5 to 10 seconds away (by foot usually). E.g., Stand over yonder while I light these fire crackers.

Also, it seems that many times the t's will become d's or become glottal stops or simple disappear altogether. That should not seem so unusual if you think of words such as listen or soften.

The words latter and ladder sound alike.
The word Atlanta sounds like A'lanna.

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