Lending Voice to Thoughts

Oh darling. Welcome to Coastal Louisiana. Where if you're from SHREVEPORT you're from 'up North'.

Yes. Yes they do.

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... Yeah. Basically. Barring New Orleans, anyway.

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jheen.livejournal.com

Well... it's not so much that you're a Northerner as much as you aren't a *Southerner*. See, the South is from Georgia to Louisiana and they certainly have a way of life that doesn't match anyone elses. (Texas also tries to claim to be South, but they aren't to the rest of the South. They're part of that West with the cowboys and frontier towns.) Everything to the west and north is some other region and when you speak well.. incorrectly as they see it, you remind your conversationalist that you aren't a local. Now, depending on the prejudices of the person you're taking to, they might automatically classify you as a Northerner just because they feel that anyone not Southerner might as well be a Northerner. 'Course, for some of the rest of them, being one of those Hollywood weirdos (as quite of them of them think of Californians) isn't exactly gonna endear you any more than coming from New York.

Short version - it don't matter that you're just as South as they are, you're not a Southerner.

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dqbunny.livejournal.com

I was about to say, "Welcome to my life for the first 23 years!" Despite being born and bred in Alabama, folks claimed I was from up north because of my mostly neutral accent.

*sits back and just smirks in amusement*

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mmoneurere.livejournal.com

"The South" is still upset that even though we're as far south as they are, we sided with the Union. The California accent is also fairly similar to the Midwestern accent, which is definitely Northern; though we reduce some of our vowels even further on the west coast, and get even more rhythmic with our consonants (which is what gets heard as "talking fast").

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morgan-idril.livejournal.com

Geography lessons might help but truthfully I think enuncation lessons would be better. Why on earth do they have to slur, softly in to the damn phone so I can't understand a damn word let alone numbers. GAH!!!

By the way what are you using as glasses? I think I found a pair of yours in my black bag

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Short version - it don't matter that you're just as South as they are, you're not a Southerner.

I guess I just don't understand that mentality.

N was saying it's a family thing. People's Dads, Grand-dads and great-great-granddads have all lived on this land, this is where they've lived, this is where they've always lived, this is where their family are.

... Doing my own family genealogy, it was rare to find anyone who died where they were born. *Shrugs* It's not something I know. ^^;;

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Yeah, that's my only pair of glasses. Right now, m'going without. Which is okay, just makes things a little brighter in the daytimes.

We're having to mumble our words pretty bad, my speech patterns are going to be -really- interesting once we get back.

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So basically 'Us vs Them'.

Great. *facepalm*

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I remember reading back when I was living in L.A. that the 'So Cal' accent was neutral, except for talking fast.
My friends and I looked at each other and laughed. Cause we didn't talk fast.

OMG. I so totally get it now.

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rhythmic with our consonants

Huh. That explains why the vowels never seem to sound quite as like I think they should. Thanks!

Halfway between Tucson and Phoenix, Picacho Peak, has the honour of being the farthest west a Civil War 'Battle' took place.

.... Union Soldiers crept up one side, Confederate Soldiers crept up the other, surprised the utter crap outta each other, panicked, fired a bunch and both quickly ran away, is the description I've gotten about it.

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**headshake** Icka. I've lived out of the south for how many years? And what do I still use? "Y'all."

joisbishmyouga's totally right; anything Not-South is North. It's not so much a diametric opposite thing, though, it's more like... there's this part of the country that's bounded by a nonexistent dotted line, and it's called The South; and everything past that line is The North. That's all. Forget about trying to understand it, because if you didn't grow up with it you just won't.

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Sorry Auntie Icka. 'Tis only the truth.

Just wow them with your super-evolved vocabulary.

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*laughs* Same here! I'm from the Texas corner of Louisiana, but my linguistic tendencies come from my mother (Jackson, Mississippi) who got hers from my grandmother (Memphis, Tennessee) who got hers from my great-grandfather (a Yankee from NYC). Although lately it's been British influenced. Damn you BBC!

People around here swear I'm from up North because my accent is relatively neutral until they hear me break out a y'all. And when I travel, people are stunned to hear that I'm Southern.

Although I think that's because of the 'backwards Southern redneck' steriotype. They're not expecting... well, me.

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morgan-idril.livejournal.com

You need me to send them to you?

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purplevks.livejournal.com

Yeah, Us vs Them sums it up pretty well.

We moved away from the south when I was about 7, and aside from spending a few years just not talking because I was shy and no one could understand what I saying, I still slip in and out of a light accent. :D

It's great fun to go visit and confuse the heck out of people who aren't used to me. To quote a conversation my cousin had with someone else visiting from the north "She talks like you guys, and, dude, gravy, but every few sentences she sounds like us, What the fuck. *flail*"

...I confuse people. :D

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wren-chan.livejournal.com

Man, all these comments are so awesome. And yes, as Gen put it, Texas ain't South, it just tries real hard. XD WHat's really fun is that EVEN WHEN I WAS STILL LIVING IN HOUSTON WHERE I WAS BORN AND HAD LIVED ALL MY LIFE 'TIL LAST YEAR people would ask me where I was from.

Because I naturally slip into accents, so that I sound either like a) someone who has trained themselves into a perfectly neutral accent or b) like I'm from off the BBC....

....which is really fun when I use 'ya'll' and falls under c) I drift Suthun to make a point.

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marsdejahthoris.livejournal.com

I pick up the accent of whomever I'm talking to. This was especially funny when I sat next to a guy from Kenya for six months during the time I worked at Teletech. *I'm whiter than a Beluga Whale rolled in talcum powder.*

My natural accent is Midwestern, as near as I can tell, with a little Pacific Northwest folded in. I'm in northern West Virginia, which seceded from Virginia when Virginia seceded from the Union. Most common accent here is Appalachian. Which is twangier than Southern, generally.

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dverning.livejournal.com

Actually, the battle of Stanwix Station was the farthest west, about 80 miles east of Yuma: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanwix_Station

The "Battle of Picacho Pass" was the farthest west that had any fatalities (3): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Picacho_Pass

So here's irony for you on your whole "Northerner" thing. Arizona actually sided with the Confederacy. Tucson was the Confederate capitol.

Of course, it still doesn't get you past the perceptions. Out there, anyone who's not Deep South "ain't a Suthnah, so they's a Nawthnah." :-p

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jheen.livejournal.com

Ya know, I can see the family thing. I certainly know that I'm more likely to tell people my family is from Louisiana (my mom) than from upstate New York (my dad). And a good part of that is because of how many more ties I have in Louisiana. Like, I go visit my grandparents and I'll guarantee that at least *once* I'll randomly run into somebody at the grocery store and they'll stop me and say "You're Mona's kid! You look just like your mama. How's Miss Audrey (my grandmother) doing?"

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My point of view in all of this, really? Yes, it's very much "You aren't Southern" as opposed to "You are Northern." But there's a whole thing where there's a North vs South thing, but really, it's not just the South that does it. I've been teased and mocked for being Southern just because I was in a Northern region and the way I talked gave away I was Southern.

Southern people, while laid back in some areas, are really high-strung in others. Southerners generally like polite, lazy conversation. Talking about the weather and such is just as interesting as other things. They don't really like direct, opinionated conversation. It's not very polite and it also causes conflict sometimes. This is why Southerners have a reputation for being two-faced-ish. They're polite and whatnot when face-to-face with you but in quieter tones to someone else, they will talk about things that could be considered rather opinionated and rude.

That's been my experience anyway. The South is very close. Especially the Deep South--the area from Georgia to Louisiana. Close-knit and very on-edge about how people think of them sometimes. Especially if they're from the not-South. Because then they seem judging. Though it's probably mostly in people's heads.

I might be off in this, but... I can't tell you how many times I've been called dumb or redneck or racist just because I'm from the South and my "ya'll" marks me as Southerner.

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**snicker** It just struck me... Southerners have a completely Japanese approach to conversation! Talk-around-the-subject, sidle past it and discuss anything else-- recently I ended up not just once but *twice* being inadvertantly rude to a friend by doing just that. She had something she wanted to discuss; so we chatted onine and I did the talk-about-other-stuff thing while I waited for her to bring it up... and we ran out of time. It wasn't deliberate, but it WAS so instilled that it took some doing for me to recognize the problem-- I knew it was her subject and concern, and I'd been taught very firmly that you let the person with the concern bring it up first. It was rather funny, once we both figured it out.

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... oh wow, I never thought to compare it to the Japanese. XD But yes! It's very much like that! We just talk around the subject until it comes up on its own in a natural way. It's a slow process but yeah.

And really, I'm a more direct kind of person in conversation as opposed to most Southerners, so I've always committed those faux pas when speaking with fellow Southerners. They just get really tetchy when you do something rude like ask direct questions. XD

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**grins** Yeah, I know. **waves NW FL flag**

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Central Louisiana, baby! |D

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Panama City, me; you know, the Redneck Riviera!

From: (Anonymous)

I think most everyone else nailed it on the head, but it brought to mind some quirks of perceptions from my neck of the woods (Washington State.)

1) The 'Wild West' is to the East, yet we still call it 'The West'

2) Nothing that happens in Washington actually happens here. It happens in the District of Columbia (named as such to avoid confusion -_-; )

I always look at my mom funny when she says 'y'all'. She's also born and raised in Washington, but is the only one who uses it in our whole family (I think she picked it up while in the Reserves 30yrs ago.) I keep thinking she is saying 'yawl' and wondering why she is suddenly bringing boats into the conversation.

Weather Marmalade

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If yer supposed ta go round-about, then I just ROYALLY screwed up.

Had about 10 people suddenly swarm me, wanting their gifts for coming down, with none of the manners or politeness that I've seen down here thus far.
... I kinda accused them of not thinking on their own. Baa.

*ducks and covers* >_

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