AP on Southern "accent" reduction

[Wilson Gray]

On 11/23/05, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
> Subject:      Re: AP on Southern "accent" reduction
>
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> "Long Island lockjaw" is the version I remember reading about.
>
>   JL
>
> Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU> wrote:
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> Sender: American Dialect Society
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer
> Subject: Re: AP on Southern "accent" reduction
>
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> Quoting Jonathan Lighter :
>
> > A little further down the page :
> >
> > "[S]ophomore Ali Huffstetler...said she "luuuvs" the slow-paced softness
> of
> > her upstate South Carolina magnolia mouth."
> >
> > "Magnolia mouth" appears on Google about 600 times as both nickname and
> > common noun.
>
> Is that the Dixie equivalent of Locust Valley lockjaw?
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
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>
>
>
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Speaking of Southern accents, I'm probably mistaken, but I've gotten the
impression that "orruh" [r] is more common in both Southern BE and regular
Southern English than it used to be, judging by what I hear on trash TV, e.g.
Maury, Jerry, Judge Greg, Judge Joe, etc.

On the other hand, the BE linking R, as in the blues lines,

I got teahs all in my rise
I got tears all in my eyes

Tin tuh ya bidnis an' leave my reffa-uhs alone
Attend to your business and leave my affairs alone

which was pretty rare even when I was a kid in the '40's, seems to have gone
the way of all sound.
--
-Wilson