Southern drawl origin? (non-member query)

[Derrick Chapman]

And let me also add that the antebellum South was settled by such a plethora
of folk that finding a single smoking gun responsible for general Southern
pronunciation is unlikely.

You might look at "The Cousin Wars" for a hint about the cultural diversity
that Southern culture sprang from.

A lot of English underclass, Scots, Welsh, Irish, and the "Scotch-Irish"
(only Americans seem to use this term), Catholics, Jews, and other
undesirables from Europe, West African slaves (some who picked up French or
Spanish or Dutch before English), many many Indian tribes (before they were
annihilated), and Northerners who relocated to the South for better weather,
land speculation, and the exploitation of black labor.

You could even advance a theory that Southern dialect is the outcome of
constant drunkeness, bad oral hygiene, and in-breeding in the Old South.
<Foghorn Leghorn voice on> But, suh, I say, suh, if you attempted such a
scurrilous prevarication, I would demand satisfaction.  Pistols at dawn.