How to Talk With a Southern Accent
It's no wonder we often imitate a southern accent. Many of the great speech makers in early America orated with a drawl. Just talking to a person with a southern accent can conjure up the scent of a homemade meal. Humor, political candidates and country music all come off a little better when touched by southern charm. If you want to talk with a southern accent, it may be easier to learn than you think.
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Instructions
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Buy a book or CD on the market if you want an elaborate education in the southern accent. Otherwise, just interchanging a few of your daily words with southern choices or understanding how to draw out some syllables will get you there.
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Use "y'all" every chance you get. This is appropriate in referring to a single person or a group of people. Never say "going to" again but insert "fixin to" and you will already seem like a pro.
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Stop differentiating the "e" and the "i" in a word. If you're doing it right, then someone should wonder whether you're wanting to sew or write when you ask for a "pen."
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Take words and add some syllables. "Why" should be "waa" and then "eye." The word "nail" should be "nay" and then "eel."
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Take two syllable words and shorten them to one, like change the "tar" (tire) on the car.
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Perfect a small vocabulary. Purdy, reckon, awfullest, gol darned, critter and breetches, and tarnation are all a good place to start.
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Well this is stupid as hell, I bet u an English major wrote this.
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For the people reading this article and wanting to learn to speak with a country accent, just know one thing. There is no right southern accent. I've lived in Tennessee and North Carolina plus I've been to many other southern states. Everyone is different in how they talk. Find what feels natural to you and don't worry about it. Plus it's not so much the accent that makes someone Southern but the values by which you live your life. I could just go on. I aplogize for the long comment.
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I live in southern Tennessee, and the only thing that applies to me (or any of the people I know actually) is the 'e' 'i' substitution. Those instructions listed above are more like the accents my friends and I do to make fun of rednecks.
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I am a southern well I was =3= I never developed my full accent so I'm still trying I was born in WinterGarden Florida :D
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South is big place. Most comments telling you never to do this or that - may apply in their particular area but not in the next state or county even. Example: Where I grew up in N Texas, "y'all" can be either singular or plural.
