Whither the Southern Accent

In school and formal places the southern accent has been said to be disappearing. Many feel it is just that people want to minimize the use of it. Some people find it to be “slow and dimwitted”(Collins and Wyatt p335) but the way people talk or have and accent is no indication of their intelligence. The southern accent seems to be dwindling because of the outside influence other cities. Now when you go into town you hear a variety of accents and drawls and people pick up on them and in many cases adopt that way of speech. Kretzshmar said, “The southern accent isn’t going anywhere. But you have all kinds of mixtures and changes”. (Kretzshmar p 334) In many cases you do not have to be originally from the south to pick up on the accent. Many times just being around it every day causes you to pick up on the subtle changes. I personally feel that the southern accent isn’t disappearing it just isn’t being used outside of the family. When I was down south for only two weeks I started to notice how I began to have that subtle drawl and by the time I was back home up north people questioned how long I was down there for. The way that some southern people may be considered wrong and improper up here in the north but down in the south it is accepted and used often in common every day conversations. Many people thing that it isn’t losing the accent as much as adapting to what is thought to be a more professional way of communication. For the most part the south will always be easy to pick out of a conversation and it just goes to show that the drawl and other accents like it are alive and well.