Southern Slang

For some reason, after I read all of these websites I was laughing. I think it is because whether they were trying to or not the authors were poking fun at the “Southern American English.” Wikipedia does not treat the South as a monolith because it states, “contrary to popular belief, there is no single "Southern accent". Instead, there are a number of sub-regional dialects found across the Southern United States which are collectively known as Southern American English.” But this was not the case with the others as they seemed to say that the South is the South and we all speak with a southern slang. A Glossary of Southern Accents defines a lot of “southern” words which for some reason I have never heard. I grew up in the city but I have been to some pretty country places, like deep into Alabama and have not heard people talk that way. Unless some of these words are only spoken on a certain farm or region in the South, I don’t know where they come from. I am sure that the Northerners liked to read this website and glossary of words because they were probably laughing at it the whole time saying, “I could see those rednecks talking like that.” Northerners think it is easy to pick a Southerner out of a crowd just by the way they talk or dress. This is stated by Rosina Lippi-Green in “Hillbillies, Rednecks, and Southern Belles” when she says, “If white southerners are not distinguishable by other ethnic markers, by characteristic physical features, or religion, language is one simple and effective way of distinguishing between self and other.” In my opinion that stands true for Northerners too, because when they speak their voice is very loud and their accent almost sounds rude. But when we southerners speak, almost everything we say sounds sincere because of our accent. Now which accent would you rather have?