Southern drawl origin? (non-member query)

[Margaret Lee]

Joey Dillard has also studied the influence of African
American dialect on southern speech.


--- Derrick Chapman <derrickchapman at MINDSPRING.COM>
wrote:
> 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.


=====
Margaret G. Lee, Ph.D.
Associate Professor - English and Linguistics
& University Editor
Department of English
Hampton University, Hampton, VA 23668
Office:(757)727-5769; FAX:(757)727-5421; Home:(757)851-5773
e-mail:  mlee303 at yahoo.com   or   margaret.lee at hamptonu.edu

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