question for people from the south

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Also, newscasters never use "bring/brang/brung."

Why would they? They are not actors on the Beverly Hillbillies.

What do you have against people who use strong language?

[Indy Texas]

From what I've noticed living in Texas, many of the young people who have strong accents only acquire them in middle school or high school when they start forming into cliques and being "country" is the cool thing in their circle of friends. The "popular", preppy, artsy, anime obsessed, etc... groups never had noticeably Texan accents, even though they would live in the same neighborhoods as those who did.

I remember running into a girl I had attended elementary school with when I was in college and home for summer. She didn't have an accent when we were young but now speaks with a pronounced drawl. (She continued to live in the same part of Houston I did during the interim period, just attended different schools). I kind of wanted to call her out on it because at first I honestly thought she was faking it.

[All Along The Watchtower]

All that I know is that George W Bush had the lamest fake Texan accent in politics.

[jimrtex]

All that I know is that George W Bush had the lamest fake Texan accent in politics.

Both Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather were from Houston.  So a Houston accent is really like RP for the USA.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Both Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather were from Houston.  So a Houston accent is really like RP for the USA.

I always thought of Dan Rather as having sort of a Southern accent - sort of like the guy from the old TV Guide commercials from the '70s. Actually the TV Guide guy had more of a Southern accent than Rather did.

[old timey villain]

In metro Atlanta, the strength of a southern accent is a class thing, at least among young people. Kids who grew up in upper income suburban areas tend to not have as strong of an accent- that also might be a result of the "de-southernization" of a lot of wealthy suburbs like Alpharetta and East Cobb. Then the kids who grew up in the less prominent suburbs, usually farther out, have more of an accent. A lot of them are native Atlantans who moved out because it was cheaper to live there. So it's more of a regional difference born out of class differences...if that makes sense.

In the rest of Georgia, pretty much everyone has an accent, but there are also class differences. For a more refined Georgia accent, think of Jimmy Carter (non rhotic) and for a more common Georgia accent, think of Paula Deen (rhotic and more gutteral). They're both from SW Georgia.

[old timey villain]

And yes, as some of you said, there are people who "fake it till they make it"

I knew kids growing up who were part of prominent, educated, well-off families in my town. But they got it in their heads that they wanted to be a redneck, and the first thing that changed was their accent.

And then there were the kids from some "down home" type families (mostly theater kids) who decided they wanted to be more cosmopolitan, and you could tell they were actively trying to get rid of their accent. They would always slip up though.