2006-07-23 15:27:32 · 11 answers · asked by Anonymous in Travel ➔ United States ➔ Houston
"try" being the operative word.
2006-07-23 15:30:06 · update #1
Matthew is not from Houston.
2006-07-26 14:02:24 · update #2
Because it gets made fun of. Southern accents have a stigma attached to them. People in general think that if you have a Southern accent you're uneducated, which is untrue in a lot of cases. Believe it or not, we Southerners aren't the only ones who try to hide our accent. People in the North of England will sometimes hide they're accent to sound more posh in certain situations.
2006-07-25 11:24:24 · answer #1 · answered by LEG 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm from Texas, Houston to be more exact. I don't think I've ever met a Houstonian with a "Texas" accent. I think most people with the accent tend to be from the smaller areas of Texas. I don't think anyone tries to hide their accent. In fact, I think the media exaggerates the accent because that's how they identify Texans. Not all of us have an accent it's a stereotype, but I must admit most of us do use "y'all" and I guess anyone using the term, no matter where they are from would sound like they have a southern accent.
2006-07-25 12:42:13 · answer #2 · answered by UT Longhorn 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Y'all are SO cute! Let me clue y'all in on how this regional accent thing works...
Decades ago, large corporations learned that NObody can take a regional accent out of their region...and not be met with derision. Seriously. They did these tests where they asked people to watch (and listen) to a series of short videos of different people speaking, and to write down the adjectives they believed would apply to each individual speaker. Amazingly enough y'all, every time a person from outside the listener's region was speaking the adjectives were all the same...and NOT good, at all. So... these corporations (which, BTW were mostly up north) began hiring speech therapists to help teach everyone how to speak what they called "generic speech". That is, clearly American, but not clearly yankee, southern, west coast...whatever. They had to. You wouldn't want to send someone from, say, NYC, down to Houston who--just by speaking--would offend his listeners, and vice versa. (Think about this, now, it makes sense...in dollars).
Today, as a rule many Texans, and others, can and do affect a milder speech pattern when out of the home-region. Besides, there are a number of distinct "Texas accents"--East Texas is WAY different from West Texas, and so on. Just like Arkansan is distinct from Georgian, and Louisianan and that from Cajun, and on and on.
Does this help?
(quick example: Matthew McConnehay (?) and Patrick Swayze. Think about these two sound when they speak. Now, bear in mind that they're both Houston boys. Get the idea?)
2006-07-24 14:48:10 · answer #3 · answered by stevenB 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I dont' think just because they are from Texas they are trying to do this. I believe it is the way the media wants to sound when they report/ or act.
It would be the same for New Yorkers....or Louisiana...etc.
Depending on what part of Texas they are from will most likely have a factor in how strong their accent will be.
For example: I can tell if a person actually lives in the same "town" I do, or if they live in one of the areas around mine.
2006-07-24 14:13:11 · answer #4 · answered by Paige 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We don't "try," but the media makes so much fun of our drawl. Actually, the accent that is faked to sound like a Texan is more what one would find in VA or MS! Just which celebrity might you be referring to as "trying" to hide it; Rene Zellwegger, Lance Armstrong, The Quaid Brothers, Sandy Duncan, Steve Martin, Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather, Matthew McC, Patrick Swayze (his mother was my dance teacher when I was little),...?
2006-07-26 15:00:59 · answer #5 · answered by Sherry K 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I've never noticed.....and I don't think that they do. Most reporters and such from Texas have to be able to speak clearly so everyone can understand them. But other than that, I don't think they do.
2006-07-24 13:58:57 · answer #6 · answered by lojack 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Texas accent = viewed as hillbillies
2006-07-24 16:14:00 · answer #7 · answered by herbst01k23h 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We do not hide our accent. No offense but do you think we sound like hillbillies? Cause we don't we talk like every average american.
2006-07-26 18:13:27 · answer #8 · answered by williamwmass@sbcglobal.net 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
im from Texas ***** with a capital t we dont hide our accent yall do ho
2006-07-25 01:25:04 · answer #9 · answered by me 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
like who?
most of them are not Texas Natives....
2006-07-26 15:41:59 · answer #10 · answered by ellisd1950 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋