[Ads-l] Conversation about accents with Valerie Fridland (3)

[Jonathan Lighter]

Davis, says Wikipedia, was born in 1831 in Alabama and didn't move to
Mississippi till he was 15.

Which implies that he acquired his thoroughly non-Yankee Alabama-style
accent in the 1830s, when it must have been pretty firmly established.

He was killed in Virginia in 1863.

JL

On Wed, Apr 8, 2026 at 7:42 PM James Landau <
00000c13e57d49b8-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> One data point on the question of when the Southern accent appeared:
>  ttps://
> www.google.com/books/edition/Mr_Lincoln_s_Army/PVuMCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=mr+lincoln%27s+army%2Bgrimes+davis&pg=PT209&printsec=frontcover
> Bruce Catton Mr. Lincoln's Army
> One data point on when the Southern accent appeared:
> "[one Union officer] was a Mississippian   by birth---one of two
> Mississippians in theregular army, it was said, who had stuck with the
> Union when the war came.  He was Colonel Benamin F. Davis, calledGrimes
> Davis at West Point “ <snip> [Colonel Davis was a Union cavalryofficer when
> Lee’s Army surrounded Harper’s Ferry on September 14, 1862.  Instead of
> surrendering, he led Union cavalryon a night-time escape through
> Confederate lines. ]
> "[the Union cavalry] ran into a big Rebel wagon train,escorted by a small
> detachment of cavalry, bound for Sharpsburg.  It was too dark for anybody
> see the color ofhis uniform, and Davis had a fine Mississippi accent, so he
> simply posed as aConfederate officer and notified the driver of the leading
> wagon that he was toturn sharply to the right he got to the fork in the
> road…”
>
> James Landau
> jjjrlandau at netscape.com
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


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