when did the southern accent happen in the united states?

Question

in other words i have watched many revolutionary war movies which supposedly took place around 1776-1782 and when they are dealing with the southern colonies they never portray an accent....fast forward 90 years or so to 1861 and the civil war and the accents for every southerner is so strong and SOUTHERN SOUNDING.... so when did the strong southern accent come along? was there one to be heard in 1776 but they just dont convey it in the movies? help me out with this one...

Answer 1

The Southern accent developed over time. The Scotch Irish (or Scot Irish) who came to America in the early 1700’s. They were both Scottish and Irish after large populations of Protestants were granted land tracts in mostly Catholic Ulster County in Ireland. After a while the conflict became too great between the two factions. Many Scotch Irish immigrated to America. Of course, the UK saw this as an opportunity to rid themselves of their more criminal elements. Many of these “less desirable” settled in Pennsylvania but eventually moved to the more desolate (and less “law and order”) Appalachian mountains. They took their accents with them.

Marry this brand of “The King’s English” with the influence of the French, Spanish and Creole influenced slave pidgin coming up through Louisiana, and what you get is the Southern Accent.

It is interesting to note is that many scholars consider it to be Southern white women who most propagated the accent. Being that they were generally less educated and spent more time with slaves and children, it was natural that they developed the strongest accents – and passed them on.

Also, since King James lived at roughly the same time as Shakespeare and since accents tend to change more slowly when a population is more isolated, it is considered that a rural Alabama native may actually sound more like Shakespeare than would a modern day Londoner!

Answer 2

Movies are never a good portrayal of what's actually happening in the pronunciation of people in the States. You have to remember that the accents of people in the movies are not how people actually spoke at the time, but how the audience expects the people to have spoken. If the movie is about the South, then the people will speak like the audience thinks people in the South are supposed to speak. Otherwise the audience won't go to the movies because they'll think it's not "realistic".

In answer to your question, the accents of American English have been developing and diverging over time. People during the Civil War probably didn't sound like people from the South today. It's actually a pretty interesting question and you probably don't want me to go into the full detail here, but accents are continually changing. It's just that the accents in different parts of the States are changing in different directions. I happen to work with a linguist who is one of the experts on the accents of American English so if you want more detail send me an e-mail and I'll send you a few links.

The people who settled the American colonies were from England, but they may have been from different parts of England, too. There are many different accents used in England. So maybe all of the colonists didn't start out with the same accent, either.

The previous answerer is also correct that the Scotch and Irish people who settled in the U.S. had a major effect on the way that people speak today. I appreciated the reminder.

Answer 3

Actually the southern accent sounds much like the speech of the irish, english, scotch immigrants that first populated the south. It didn't develop, it arrived here and stayed. Some poeple who made movies don't know that.

Answer 4

Wel, my family moved to Tennessee in 1810....so, soon after that.