I found this rather amusing today on AOL. Hey Ya'll, is Southern Drawl Spreading? And what exactly is spreading? I mean anyone from the south will tell you, we all speak differently. It may all sound Southern, but it's different. Ranges from Scarlet to twang. And even the same accent sounds different depending on the octave of the voice uttering it. On my Daddy, the accent was smooth and mellow. Would melt butter on a winter's day. On me, well....it could get to be nerve wrecking. And we can all pour it on when we want to...or ease it up. And is it the accent spreading, or the vernacular, the actual words and phrases we Southerners are known for? Or a combination?
I remember being in San Francisco when I was about 15 for a summer vacation. People would gather around just to listen to me talk!! Strangers! Mostly men. I've never had a desire to loose my accent. To change my cadence. To adopt another culture's vernacular. Even when years later in phone conversations, uppity Yankees (now you aren't all that way....but they seem to recruit them for the telephone) tried to start talking down to me as soon as they heard my voice. I'm proud of my accent. Proud of the vernaculars I have mastered. Why just in my marriage I had to learn the whole oilfield lingo thing of pumpers, horsesheads, pushers, fishers, etc. And I have absorbed the brand that is part and parcel for Caneyhead; battrey instead of battery, I hope you do it for I'll help you, and the ever popular among young men: yes'er dl'babe. Strictly translated: Yes, sir, doll babe and signifying that he certainly intends to do it or agrees wholeheartedly.
I don't care. Copy, mimic, adopt all you want. Have fun and enjoy yourself. Just remember, it's the walk that makes the man (woman) not the talk. So be very careful what parts and portions you use until you are sure you have the gonads to back it up. If not, it could land you in a whole heap of trouble. (And if you are clueless as to what gonads are don't even bother trying.)
Remember the cowboy craze that swept the nation right after Urban Cowboy (where they mispronounced Spurger...Travolta said "spur-jer". Anyone north of IH-10 can tell you it should be "spur-grrr".)? There are still "real ones" and "pretend ones". Or like Barbara Mandrel's song about being country when country wasn't cool. "We took a lot of kidding, cause we never did fit in, now look at every body trying to be what we were then."
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