[Ads-l] Conversation about accents with Valerie Fridland

Mon Apr 6 01:40:55 UTC 2026

I haven’t read Fridland’s new book, but I suspect she is referring to work by Guy Bailey and others arguing that many of the features we associate with Southern speech today (e.g., merger of PIN/PEN, monophthongization of /ai/ (time > tom) and other pieces of the Southern Vowel Shift  etc. ) were not in widespread regional usage before the Civil War but they spread rapidly in the closing decades of the 19th century. She alludes to part of this argument in the paragraph following the one JL quoted when she mentions infrastructure changes that developed during Reconstruction (e.g., expanded rail and telegraph networks, growth of towns and villages). I think Bailey’s “When did Southern American English begin?”  (1997) is the fullest treatment of the argument; I’m happy to share a PDF of the chapter to anyone interested.

Matt Gordon

From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> on behalf of Jonathan Lighter <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Date: Sunday, April 5, 2026 at 8:21 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Conversation about accents with Valerie Fridland

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Good point, John. Not only did most Americans stay at home during the Civil
War, nearly all military units were raised locally, with soldiers from the
same states and even towns.

Moreover, how can an accent come to be spoken by millions of people develop
after only a few years, especially with no radio, movies, TV, or even
telephones?

And again, what is *the* Southern accent ?  The average person can hear at
least two, not to mention the Southern-based BEV accent(s).

 JL

On Sun, Apr 5, 2026 at 8:48 PM John Baker <
0000192d2eeb9639-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> There really was such mingling during World War I and World War II. I know
> that a lot of slang terms date from those wars, but was there new accent
> formation?
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
> > On Apr 6, 2026, at 8:20 AM, Jonathan Lighter <
> 00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Fridland says that "the" Southern accent  .*..* " did not come around
> until
> > after the Civil War. [The war] brought together people towards a common
> > enemy and also a common cultural experience that bonded their speech in
> > ways that we find are really conducive to new accent formation."
> >
> > How is this even conceivable? Most Americans during the Civil War didn't
> > mingle with other accents any more than usual. And what of those
> > antebellum, Southern dialect humorists?
> >
> > JL
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Sat, Apr 4, 2026 at 2:49 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> >> wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >> <http://goog_231146203>
> >>
> >>
> https://nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Flifestyle%2Farticles%2Fwhy-american-accents-endured-while-114500674.html&data=05%7C02%7CGordonMJ%40MISSOURI.EDU%7C4ff97fa87f4d4417bb1408de937ac81d%7Ce3fefdbef7e9401ba51a355e01b05a89%7C0%7C0%7C639110352731679888%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJFbXB0eU1hcGkiOnRydWUsIlYiOiIwLjAuMDAwMCIsIlAiOiJXaW4zMiIsIkFOIjoiTWFpbCIsIldUIjoyfQ%3D%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=C44sKtXnFZqPExmYrHxzpMhgKVl1pfW3AAdhg94jwiY%3D&reserved=0<https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/articles/why-american-accents-endured-while-114500674.html>
> >>
> >>
> >> JL
> >> --
> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
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--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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