I'm not from Virginia, by Southern standards. I lived in Virginia, but I'm from Georgia, since most of my family is in/around Georgia. (That's a fine detail, but an important one, to not just Southerners; it's just that Southerners have that way of putting it, from what I understand.)
Virginia is a crazy place, though. There's Northern VA, where... well, that's not really the South. It's not really anything. It's its own place. Its own reality, even. Tidewater -- south to Fredericksburg and down into Caroline County, and east from there to Dahlgren and that area, and you'll still hear a strongly Scots-inflected tone in the accent. It's rhotic, so you'll hear the r's, but you'll also hear people saying they're going "oot to the hoose". Then you get down to Richmond, where it's a more classic Tidewater stereotypical/known Southern accent... and if you head east into Norfolk, whew! Don't ever get none of them mad, or you won't be able to understand two words in ten. They're right up there with coastal Mass on the incomprehensibility scale.
A'course, if you head west from Fredericksburg, through Orange County and into the foothills -- from about Charlottesville up along the I-81 stretch -- you'll hear Appalachian creeping in to mix with the Tidewater drawl. Phrases will start changing, humor shifts, and people are friendly if you have an accent yourself but not so friendly otherwise, especially if you're driving a fancy car or look like you're too good to ever do a lick of work yourself. West from Richmond and points south, you're heading into a more Carolina-inflected accent, and once you get over the I-81 band and into the Appalachians proper, it's a whole 'nother world. The East Tennessee drawl is strong in them parts, but not surprising given you're only a stone's throw from the border. Visiting Blacksburg, and I'd hear accents that weren't too far off the East Tennessee (Jonesboro/Knoxville) accent my grandfather had (and that my mother inherited).
People used to be surprised, in New England, that within a year of living there I could peg someone's hometown based on their accent. Nothing new to me, since I spent my childhood pegging accents as a means to determine whether someone was local or a newcomer. Once you learn the peculiar quirks of a certain accent, it's easy enough to identify it no matter where you hear it.
And it's one reason that Brit actors trying to do "a standard American accent" drive me bonkers, because they tend to pick up accent-inflections from a variety of places, so they sound awfully schizo to me, like one second they're from just northwest of Boston, and the next few words they're from northeastern Pennsylvania, and then suddenly they're from the Tidewater. It's not that the individual accents are wrong or bad... just that there's too many of them. Few actors really have an ear for accents. They can do mimicry, but that's not the same as listening to the cadence and understanding how it flows.
The irony, of course, is that I am completely tone-deaf when it comes to mimicking accent/cadence in other languages. Other people tell me I speak with an accent, and I can't hear it at all. It's like I can't inflect my voice differently -- I can't do mimicry. But after finding out my Chinese professor was raised in Shanghai, and he admitted he spoke with a strong Shanghai accent outside of class, I've actually pegged Shanghaiese when overhearing them speak. Yet I couldn't duplicate that sound for the life of me.
Or maybe that's just like the difference between identifying spices in the food, versus actually being able to cook.
Ah, one other thing: Northern Virginia, yeah, you'd tamp down the accent. Anywhere else in Virginia (the "real" Virginia, really) to not have an accent just might render you a bit of an object of suspicion, like you were putting on airs. You'd drop the accent if you went into DC, of course, but local level, there's been a push over the past twenty or so years to sort of revel in one's accent, at least within each region. It marks you as an insider, as part of the in-group (because you'd better believe Southerners can tell when you're faking it!)... and politicians are the ultimate insiders. Some of the strongest accents I've heard are in political stump-speeches. (Plus #42 and #43 also had major influence in people seeing "folksy" Southern talking as friendlier, more approachable, more "regular-person-like".)
I have no idea whether SAE exists. If it does, it's in schools and national-corporate offices, and possibly at the desks of nationally-broadcast anchorpeople. In the street? Don't know as I've ever heard it, but some say even the rarest critters can hold on for a long time, no matter how many people are convinced that extinction has already come and gone.
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Date: 4 Feb 2011 06:07 pm (UTC)Virginia is a crazy place, though. There's Northern VA, where... well, that's not really the South. It's not really anything. It's its own place. Its own reality, even. Tidewater -- south to Fredericksburg and down into Caroline County, and east from there to Dahlgren and that area, and you'll still hear a strongly Scots-inflected tone in the accent. It's rhotic, so you'll hear the r's, but you'll also hear people saying they're going "oot to the hoose". Then you get down to Richmond, where it's a more classic Tidewater stereotypical/known Southern accent... and if you head east into Norfolk, whew! Don't ever get none of them mad, or you won't be able to understand two words in ten. They're right up there with coastal Mass on the incomprehensibility scale.
A'course, if you head west from Fredericksburg, through Orange County and into the foothills -- from about Charlottesville up along the I-81 stretch -- you'll hear Appalachian creeping in to mix with the Tidewater drawl. Phrases will start changing, humor shifts, and people are friendly if you have an accent yourself but not so friendly otherwise, especially if you're driving a fancy car or look like you're too good to ever do a lick of work yourself. West from Richmond and points south, you're heading into a more Carolina-inflected accent, and once you get over the I-81 band and into the Appalachians proper, it's a whole 'nother world. The East Tennessee drawl is strong in them parts, but not surprising given you're only a stone's throw from the border. Visiting Blacksburg, and I'd hear accents that weren't too far off the East Tennessee (Jonesboro/Knoxville) accent my grandfather had (and that my mother inherited).
People used to be surprised, in New England, that within a year of living there I could peg someone's hometown based on their accent. Nothing new to me, since I spent my childhood pegging accents as a means to determine whether someone was local or a newcomer. Once you learn the peculiar quirks of a certain accent, it's easy enough to identify it no matter where you hear it.
And it's one reason that Brit actors trying to do "a standard American accent" drive me bonkers, because they tend to pick up accent-inflections from a variety of places, so they sound awfully schizo to me, like one second they're from just northwest of Boston, and the next few words they're from northeastern Pennsylvania, and then suddenly they're from the Tidewater. It's not that the individual accents are wrong or bad... just that there's too many of them. Few actors really have an ear for accents. They can do mimicry, but that's not the same as listening to the cadence and understanding how it flows.
The irony, of course, is that I am completely tone-deaf when it comes to mimicking accent/cadence in other languages. Other people tell me I speak with an accent, and I can't hear it at all. It's like I can't inflect my voice differently -- I can't do mimicry. But after finding out my Chinese professor was raised in Shanghai, and he admitted he spoke with a strong Shanghai accent outside of class, I've actually pegged Shanghaiese when overhearing them speak. Yet I couldn't duplicate that sound for the life of me.
Or maybe that's just like the difference between identifying spices in the food, versus actually being able to cook.
Ah, one other thing: Northern Virginia, yeah, you'd tamp down the accent. Anywhere else in Virginia (the "real" Virginia, really) to not have an accent just might render you a bit of an object of suspicion, like you were putting on airs. You'd drop the accent if you went into DC, of course, but local level, there's been a push over the past twenty or so years to sort of revel in one's accent, at least within each region. It marks you as an insider, as part of the in-group (because you'd better believe Southerners can tell when you're faking it!)... and politicians are the ultimate insiders. Some of the strongest accents I've heard are in political stump-speeches. (Plus #42 and #43 also had major influence in people seeing "folksy" Southern talking as friendlier, more approachable, more "regular-person-like".)
I have no idea whether SAE exists. If it does, it's in schools and national-corporate offices, and possibly at the desks of nationally-broadcast anchorpeople. In the street? Don't know as I've ever heard it, but some say even the rarest critters can hold on for a long time, no matter how many people are convinced that extinction has already come and gone.