Accent Leveling, When Dialects Push Against Each Other

Hey, you have A Way with Words.

I’m Sheila, and I live in Kentucky.

I went to school in Cincinnati, and then I moved to California and lived there for years.

And then I came back, and all of my friends and family have Southern accents, which I love.

It makes me feel like I’m home.

But I’ve been working on the Western Kentucky University campus,

And the students don’t seem to have a Southern accent.

And even though they, like 70% of them are from Kentucky,

They don’t have a Southern accent.

And I thought that was really weird.

And I was wondering if the Southern accent was a dying thing or something.

Okay.

This is a good question here.

Martha, let me ask you, when you go back to Kentucky,

Do you notice anything similar?

When you encounter young Southerners?

Yeah, yeah.

I’m from Jefferson County, Louisville.

So it’s kind of a mix there.

And what I find is that, you know, the older folks,

Many of the older folks have quite a strong accent.

But I think you’re right.

I think younger folks often sound more,

I was going to say neutral, but that’s not the right word.

They don’t sound like what I remember.

Right.

You know?

And I think both of you are exactly right, but also just a little not quite right.

I hesitate to use the word wrong there.

And so one thing that is happening, we know for sure, is what’s called accent leveling, where the extremes of a regional accent.

And there’s more than one Southern dialect, so we’ll just note that from it.

But the extremes of a dialect or an accent are kind of reined in.

And people sound a little more generic.

But they level across their region or they level across their geographic area.

They don’t necessarily level at a national stage, right?

They’re not all going to sound like they’re from California real soon or Nebraska.

And so the part where you’re not quite right, but this is not really an issue,

Is that they’re getting new Southern dialect features.

So the old one is disappearing and the new one is coming on.

And it’s still Southern, and it’s still different from the Midwest and the Northeast and the West.

So when you say that you’re not hearing what you used to hear, the accent that you grew up with,

That probably is true.

But you’re also hearing a new accent that your young people are growing up with.

Your old markers for what a Southern voice sounds like are changing.

Your old indicators.

So it’s kind of like when you went from, say, a speedometer that had an actual needle to a speedometer that was just a digital readout.

They’re both telling you something, but in a different way.

That’s an interesting way to put it.

There’s a lot at play here.

One of the things that’s happening is that many major Southern cities have had enormous growth over the last 30 to 40 years.

We’re talking mid-double digits, just incredible numbers of people.

And those people aren’t necessarily just coming from other parts of the South.

Or if they are, they might be bringing other dialect features with them.

So when you get a lot of new people in an area, things happen.

So places like Atlanta and Charlotte and Nashville and Dallas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, they’re all seeing a kind of leveling.

But they’re still very Southern, at least from a linguistic point of view.

That’s interesting.

And they’re not only coming from all over the U.S., they’re coming from all over the world.

That’s right.

A place like Atlanta or Houston has huge, wonderful immigrant populations.

They bring their own language things, and they have their role in language change.

Yeah, Louisville too, for sure.

So, yeah, Sheila, I think you notice something that’s actually happening,

But what I would say is keep your eyes open for the new thing that’s very Southern that nobody else is doing.

Okay.

All right, well, I hope that helps.

This is such a big topic, Sheila, and I’ve only really touched upon the barest surface of it.

But just trust that the Southern dialects are still there.

They’re just becoming new Southern dialects.

That’s really interesting.

All right.

Well, take care of yourself, and thanks for calling us.

We really appreciate it.

I really, really enjoy your show.

So I’m honored.

Thank you.

Oh, thanks.

Call us again if you have anything else to report about the details.

The field work that you do with those young WKU students.

Yeah.

I had all my friends at Western.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Bye.

What have you noticed about the accent in your part of the world?

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