All the websites we had to view for this week’s blog assignment treat the Southern dialect as a uniform joke for the rest of the country. I do not believe though that this was the intention of the page master of any of those websites. Rather just good natured poking fun at ones self. Unfortunately, these jokes perpetuate about the Southern people and the people who speak its dialect. Through this a storied and lovely sounding dialect is soiled.
Southern accents have been berated in television and movies for many years. Lippigreen states in her essay Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Southern belles “ In all these cases Southerners exhibit insecurity about their language.” How can we be expected not to though? If you were to ask somebody from outside of the region what their view of a southern individual was they would likely list Ellie Maye of the Beverly hillbillies or a similar character from television or movies. If the view of a southern accent is that of Ellie Maye certainly none of us would desire one.
America treats the South as a monolith, a geographical region filled to the brim with thick slow drawls and unintelligent people and its a shame because nothing could be further from the truth. Mark Twain, one of the better writers in history is a proffesed southern gentleman, Ted Turner one of the wealthier individuals in the country is from the South.
The second issue is this so called unitary dialog created by these so called dictionaries makes it seem as if we are all the same. This is not true. I have little in common with a man my age in Mississippi. Same as a man in New York would have little in common with a man in Vermont. I feel that the difference of the latter of the two statements is recognized and is not recognized in the South.
The South is a diverse region containing all sorts of people. Unfortunately the media reflects us as much different. In the future I would like to see a change in America’s views of its people in the South.
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