The Southern American English drawl, or "Southern drawl," involves vowel diphthongization of the front pure vowels, or the "prolongation of the most heavily stressed syllables, with the corresponding weakening of the less stressed ones, so that there is an illusion of slowness even though the tempo may be fast."
South Carolinians speak slower in general than most other Americans, a linguistic study shows. South Carolina ranked as the second slowest-talking state in an analysis by Preply, an online language learning platform. Louisiana came in as the top slowest speaking state.
It's clear to see that southern regions of the U.S. harbor the slowest talking states in the country. As presented in the chart above, 9 out of the 10 states listed are located in the South.
The southern accent is a product of a few hundred years, and many outside influences. Expansion, Immigration, and urban growth are all factors. In terms of our early American/immigration history, the majority of southern immigrants in the U.S came from rural areas in England where citizens pronounced the /r/ sound.
The Southern Drawl, like any accent, developed over the course of hundreds of years. There were many factors that contributed to its evolution including: plantation and farm life, Western expansion, immigration, and an increasing number and size of American cities.
Australian English arose from a dialectal melting pot created by the intermingling of early settlers who were from a variety of dialectal regions of Great Britain and Ireland, though its most significant influences were the dialects of Southeast England.
Does a South African English accent sound Australian? No. There are many South African accents, but the only one that is relevant to consider is the accent of a South African who is natively English speaking, in other words, someone whose first language is English.
Good hospitality and manners are well-known stereotypes of the American South. Psychologists believe that the South is so well-mannered because it has a culture of honor, where an individual's reputation is highly valuable.
Today, the Southern accent is categorized primarily into the Southern drawl and the Southern twang. Southern drawl: Slow and even-keeled, “like molasses just sort of spilling out of your mouth,” the Southern drawl can be found in the lower Southern and coastal dialect, as well as the New Orleans dialect.
Southern American English, then, comes from Northern England. At least, that's a major contributing factor. Southerners don't sound particularly cockney anymore, which is a side effect of a few centuries of isolation and other outside influences.
Louisiana is the slowest-talking state in the chart in America, averaging 4.78 syllables per second. Coming in at a close second is South Carolina, with an average speech rate of 4.80 syllables per second. Finally, Mississippi is in third place at 4.82 syllables per second.
Several academic studies have found that Japanese is the fastest recorded language. But indeed, every tongue has its unique beauty and value, regardless of its speed of spoken rate. It is always a great thing to learn a new dialect, whether it is fast or slow.
The older Southern dialects thus originated in varying degrees from a mix of the speech of these and later immigrants from many different regions of the British Isles, who moved to the American South in the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as perhaps the English, creole, and post-creole speech of African and African- ...
The Southern US accent was recently voted one of the top 50 in the world, making a strong appearance at No. 9 in the world. We wanted to delve a little deeper and find out some characteristics of the accent to see why people find it so sexy.
In this section, I am referring to Spanish spoken in Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia and Colombia. These dialects are often considered easier to understand, and the Colombian accent has been called the “most neutral Spanish accent.” That's because in this region, people speak Spanish more slowly and don't cut words.
It's safe to say South Australians have pronunciation 'variants' or 'preferences' — features you could liken to an accent, if you wanted to. The differences could be a product of SA's history. And, of course, it's normal for children to imitate their parents and teachers, generation-to-generation.
Southern accents also won out for friendliness and for making people feel welcome. Plus, participants found the southern accent the most attractive.
Courtesy and Politeness
Southerners are always smiling and take pride in going with the flow. This may come off as a happy-go-lucky attitude to the rest of the world, but no matter how casual their outlook on life's troubles may be, they're never a step behind when it comes to etiquette.
New Zealand tops the list of most polite countries — maybe it's hard to be rude when you're surrounded by beautiful landscapes. First let's clear up some vagueness. Does the most polite mean the kindest?
Many of these are exclusively Southern and quite charming. Greeting each other in the South has its own particular charm. One usually sees a genuine smile that is seen in the eyes as well. Men usually shake hands and women hug each other.
The results revealed that women and men find different accents attractive, and the only common accents on both lists were Australian and Southern. While men desired Israeli and Colombian accents the most, this was not mirrored amongst the women who were surveyed, who ultimately preferred British and Spanish accents.
In Australia, this dialect is sometimes called Strine /ˈstɹɑɪn/ (or "Strayan" /ˈstɹæɪən/, a shortening of the word Australian), and a speaker of the dialect may be referred to as an Ocker.
Generally speaking though, it can be said that the Welsh accent is probably closest to an Australian one. This is due to their similarities in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary choices – both Welsh and Australians tend to end words on a 'v' sound rather than an 'r' sound like other English speakers do.