If the South had won the war of Northern Aggression, would "Southern accents" be popular these days instead of

Question

thought of as being from a "lower class, or an uneducated class?" Now, I know that there are some Southern people with accents that are not considered to be "dumb Southerners," but these are almost always people with money or education. The Civil War, or War of Northern Aggression, caused the South to move into a "backward" era that exists even to this day. This poverty still exists in the South, causing people to "make fun of" Southern accents. Desirable accents almost always follows money. Undesirable accents almost always follow poverty. Wht do you think?

Answer 1

My Southern accent is mighty popular when I have to talk to yankees ... and thanks for correctly referring to it as The War of Northern Aggression. I love it when people get that right!! "Civil War" is two factions fighting for control of a central government, which is NOT the case in 1860. We were simply fighting for our RIGHT to self-government. And while slavery was an issue, it was taxation that started it all. FYI, Lincoln offered to keep slavery legal, if only the Southern states would stay in the Union. Ya'll should read more history, and rely less on the media bytes you hear on TV ....

Answer 2

There is a little book that you can read entitled IF THE SOUTH HAD WON THE CIVIL WAR.

Warren15 is totally wrong and he does not know how to spell Ciao, which is used in both Italian and Portuguese.

Having had a job of selling text books to professors in New York City, and having come from the mountains of Tennessee, I found that people from the other side of the Hudson think that they know everything and no one between the Hudson and the Pacific Ocean knows anything.

I found, however, that the axiom "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" was absolute truth and that the people of the NE were super gullible and not all that bright.

I was selling an American politics book into political science courses that was designed for high school courses in Texas. I found myself in a conversation with one of the most reknown historians in American History correcting errors in things that he said to me - it was simply the most amusing era of my life, I loved going to work in NYC, I knew I would be called Hokey, stupid, uneducated, but then in the end, I sold more text books in NYC than my two predecessors, both having gone to Ivy League Universities - whatever method you use to control an interview will work and you will sell.

As for Southern Accent, I never had one, I grew up with a different language, Appalachian English - radically different from a three sylable Ye ee s spoken in the Mississippi Delta region.

Answer 3

I agree. I am originally from Minnesota and have been living in Texas for 13 years. When I first moved south I was horrified at the accents and the term 'y'all'. I vowed never to be caught using the term...boy was I dumb! I use it all the time now.

Now I have the opposite problem. When I return home to Minnesota for a visit, I cringe at the Minnesota accents.

I am still surprised at the number of southerners who still characterize the Civil War as "Northern Aggression" and claim it was about states rights and not slavery...

Answer 4

Who thinks of southern accents as "lower class, or uneducated?" I grew up in the south. I have a unique accent, a combination midwestern / northeastern / southern accent.

The southern accent can actually be traced back to traditional English accents.

I find the southern accent and dialect to be engaging. I don't think it's southern that necessarily makes one sound lower class or uneducated. I think its whenever the listener hears an unfamiliar dialect. We make an instant judgment about the unfamiliar accent and assign all kinds of classes and labels based on our opinions.

"Honey, just cuz I talk slow doesn't mean I'm stupid." -- Jake Perry (portrayed by Josh Lucas), from "Sweet Home Alabama"

Answer 5

Southern accents ARE popular with Hollywood and the media because it's a fast, easy way to utilize character stereotypes.
IT IS TOTALLY WRONG, to equate ignorance with the Southern accent, but it's done all the time. I'm proud of my Southern accent, and I especially love my husband's Virginia accent. He's absolutely darlin'!

Answer 6

No, the southern accents would not be popular, remember the influx of immigrants that poured into the northern and western states, they would not have picked that accent up. 'Tis a shame you southerners lost your "War of Southern Arrogance" ain't it Jethro?

Answer 7

The War of Northern Aggression? Sounds like you have some history to learn. Is that a hooded robe in your closet?

Answer 8

Of course. And may I add, if the French would have won the French Indian War in 1715 we would all be speaking French today instead of English.

Answer 9

I believe that not only the "southern accent" would have been popular but slavery too!

Answer 10

Check your history, dude. It was the South who was the aggressor, not the North. Nice try.

Chow!!