Southern accents

In an article about Kevin Spacey's "Southern" accent in House of Cards, several linguists analyzed the features of Southern speech and found Spacey's character's accent inauthentic.

After reading it, I gave Mike a Southern-accent authenticity quiz and he scored 100.  There are, however, many variations within any Southern state.

In general, Southerners, like Mike and me, pronounce "pen" and "pin" the same way.  We say "tawk" instead of "talk."  We leave off Rs and Gs at the end of many words that end with R and G, even though we hear Rs and Gs in our heads. Accent has to do, the linguists say, with the position of the tongue in the mouth when babies imitate the speech of the people who teach us to tawk.

In a college speech class, I once took a test in which we were to write the "correct pronunciation" of 100 common English words.  I missed "ON" and "PEN"--pronouncing ON with a long O, instead of AAN, and PEN as PIN.

Yesterday  I bought a package of multi-colored folders.  "Mighty pretty!" Mike said--an expression I hadn't heard since my daddy used to say,"You look mighty pretty, Sugar."

Southern cooks used to urge their guests and children to keep eating.  "You need to eat more, Honey," they'd say.  "Here, take some more macaroni, some more gravy, another piece of pie."

When my grandmother, Mimi, had had enough, she would say, "I've had a gracious plenty."  And when she reached for the ticket to pay for a meal, she'd say,  "It would be my pleasure."  She never said "breast" or "leg" (too crude and immodest) when referring to a piece of fried chicken.  "I'll have dark meat," she'd say--or "Drumstick."  She never had to go to the bathroom for any reason other than "powdering my nose."

Years ago, I bristled when people told me I spoke "just like Rosalyn Carter," the First Lady.  At the time, I didn't want my roots to show.

Now, though, I like Southern accents.  When Mike says "bidness" for "business," I like it.  When he calls me "Dahlin" (even though that's what he calls all girls and women), I just love it.