[Ads-l] Conversation about accents with Valerie Fridland

Mon Apr 6 11:53:19 UTC 2026

Surprising to learn that the telegraph could transmit accents so early as
the 1860s.

Heh.

JL

On Sun, Apr 5, 2026 at 9:41 PM Gordon, Matthew <gordonmj at missouri.edu>
wrote:

> 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."
> > >>
> > >
> > >
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> > truth."
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