Want to Lose or Gain a Southern Accent?

By Bonnie Engel Lee, Ph. D.

“The Speech Doc”

Do you have a “southern” drawl you’re trying to lose? Or a voice over job that requires you to use one? I just found a good website that, believe it or not, is hosted by the BBC. Here’s the link… http://www.bbc.co/uk/dna/h2g2/A30501695 to the article on “The Southern Drawl”.

There are too many aspects (word choice, durational changes, etc.) to address all of them here. However, I’ve included some minimal pairs (pairs of words that illustrate some of the distinctions) to enhance your awareness of the differences. (See below)

After you’ve read the article, return here for some practice materials to help isolate some of the features of southern dialects. Examples are numbered. The first word after the number shows you how a word might be pronounced by a southern speaker; the second word is provided for contrast. In the center is a comment to explain the major differences.

Vowel Additions

Southern Speech/ Not Southern Speech

1. pay-ut - pet

2. say-ut - set

3. may-ut- met

4. way-ut - wet

5. fray-ut - fret

Vowel Differences

1. mah/ m…”eye” (my)

2. bah/ b…..”eye” (bye)

3. dah/ d….”eye” (die)

4. sah/ s….”eye (sigh)

5. crah/ kr…”eye” (cry)

Other Vowel Differences

1. Mon-dee/ Mon- day

2. Toos-dee/ Tues-day

3. Wins-dee/ Wens-day

4. Thurs-dee/ Thurs-day

5. Fri-dee/ Fri-day

R sound variations

1. holl-er / holl-oh (hollow)

2. foll-er/ foll-oh (follow)

3. yell-er/ yell-oh (yellow)

R sound with another vowel

1. har/ high-er (hire)

2. bar/ bye-er (buyer)

3. far/ fie-er (fire)

4. tar/ tie-er (tire)

5. lar/ lie-er (liar)

Primary Stress Patterns

Sometimes, the syllable which receives the primary stress is different in some of the variants of southern speech. In the BBC article, some of the examples given were “GEE-tar (guitar) or SEE-mint (cement), where the first syllable may receive the primary stress in some southern dialects.

First Syllable-Primary Stress Second Syllable-Primary Stress

1. ‘gui- tar / gui ‘tar

2. ‘ce-ment / ce-‘ment

3. ‘out-side / out-‘side

4. ‘be-long / be-‘long

Hope you enjoyed this little “exercise”. Have fun, y’all. (I used to live in Texas).

If you have any voice or speech questions for the “Speech Doc”, feel free to comment here or email your questions/comments to:

speechdoc@gmail.com