The North Carolina Southern accent is disappearing
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You may notice generational differences in Southern accents throughout North Carolina. Often, Baby Boomers and older residents greet you with distinct, melodic drawls. In younger generations, the twang is typically far more muted.
- These trends underscore how North Carolina's Southern accent is quickly fading.
Why it matters: How we talk says a lot about who we are, where we came from and who we're spending time with.
- "I can't imagine Southern dialects hanging on in North Carolina — even in rural parts — for more than another couple of generations," said Robin Dodsworth, a linguistics professor at N.C. State University.
Between the lines: There are a few reasons for the dilution of the regional drawl, which is happening in other fast-changing southern states like Georgia, too. For one, the number of transplants flocking to North Carolina makes it a melting pot of dialects, Dodsworth tells Axios.
- Larger markets like Raleigh and Charlotte experience the bulk of this migration.
- An influx of workers from all over the globe to North Carolina can be traced back to certain milestones, such as the arrival of IBM at the Research Triangle Park in the 1960s.
- Plus, immigration from Latin America and Mexico began to increase significantly following the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, and poultry and hog-processing began to boom in rural parts of the state.
By the numbers: North Carolina's population of about 11.2 million is expected to swell to over 14 million by 2050, according to Carolina Demography.
- Today, newcomers are coming from places with their own distinct ways of talking, including (in order): New York, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Mexico, New Jersey, Ohio and Georgia.
- "Their kids are going to mix with southern kids at school, and they're all going to affect one another in how they talk," Dodsworth says.
Case in point: There are subtle ways in which you may notice the Southern accent flattening. For instance, the vowel system in North Carolina has changed quite a bit, says Dodsworth, who has been studying how we talk in North Carolina since 2008.
- No matter where you went in North Carolina a generation or two ago, she adds, you'd find people with a "southern vowel shift." Words like "state" and "bike" might sound like "st-ah-t" and "bahk," for instance.
Yes, but: There are still folks who have that kind of drawl — you might just hear it less often. Plus, where you are in the state determines how strongly you might hear an accent, which might be more pronounced in rural parts of the state that've experienced less integration.
- One North Carolina-ism that's lived on: The last four governors of North Carolina have said "might could," Walt Wolfram, who started N.C. State's North Carolina Language & Life Project, told Our State magazine.
Zoom out: For a long time, there've been certain ideological assumptions made about Southerners due to their accents. They were degraded, says N.C. Sen. Mike Woodard, who grew up in Wilson, lives in Durham and teaches a course on North Carolina politics and history at Duke.
- "Southern accents have often been viewed as less intelligent accents or spoken by less intelligent people," Woodard says.
- Often, "language prejudice" is rooted in racial prejudice — traditional Black North Carolina dialects are distinct, Wolfram said, per Our State.
The big picture: There's a distinct pride about the Southern accent.
- It's a little sad to see it fade, says Woodard, whose family has lived in North Carolina since 1693, going back 10 generations.
The intrigue: Another notable piece of the dialect that's thrived — and perhaps even gotten more ubiquitous — is "y'all."
- The word used to be much more regional, its usage unique to the South. Woodard sees the gender-neutral word as inclusive, though, and one that's being adopted widely.
- "I guess to hear someone with a New Jersey accent or a flat midwestern accent or a foreign accent say 'y'all' the way they do, I feel a little sense of pride," he says. "Hey, we gave y'all that word."