is texas south? was: Southern drawl origin? (non-member query)

[Lynne Murphy]

Andrea said:
>
> Texas is not the South, phonologically and culturally.  It is the West.
>

I think that depends on what part of Texas you're talking about.  Wacoans very
proudly assert that the south is to the east of town and the west is to the west
of it.  In other words, they consider the cotton-growing parts of the state to
be 'the south' and the cattle-rearing parts to be 'the west'.  Waco has a
debutante ball, the Cotton Palace, which would be right at home in Georgia, and
its middle-aged male denizens quite proudly wear the mantle of 'southern
gentlemen'.

To a northerner like me, it was the size of the hair-dos, rather than the accent
that made me interpret Waco as pretty darned 'southern' (and the omnipresence of
Southern Baptists).  But really, I think Texas is neither south nor west, it's a
creation unto itself.


Lynne