Do Southerners pronounce r?
Now, rhoticity (sometimes called r-fulness), in which all r sounds are pronounced, is dominant throughout most of the South, and even “hyper-rhoticity”, particularly among younger and female white Southerners; the only major exception is among African American Southerners, whose modern vernacular dialect continues to …
Why do some Southerners sound British?
This is probably a mixture of things. Appalachian speakers retain a lot of conservative features thanks to being geographically isolated, which means they sound something like some British speakers do, particularly people from the West Country, Northern Ireland, places like that.
Where does the US Southern accent come from?
Southern American English, then, comes from Northern England. At least, that’s a major contributing factor. Southerners don’t sound particularly cockney anymore, which is a side effect of a few centuries of isolation and other outside influences.
Do British people like South American accents?
No, British people like southeast US accents, those who can distinguish them. I watched coverage of the Harvey floods in Texas, and apart from being impressed by how Texans rallied round and helped each other, I started liking their accents.
Why are there no linking R’s in Southern Accents?
In older Southern dialects, all r’s are dropped after vowels, in positions like that of “very” ( [ ve.i ]) and “better off” ( [ beɾə ɔf ]). In essence, there never was a linking r in those accents. Still, as non-rhoticity has receded in the South, hypercorrective intrusive r doesn’t seem to have occurred**.
Why are there no linking R’s in the American South?
The American South, after all, has several non-rhotic accents that drop their r’s more extremely than New Yorkers or Bostonians. In older Southern dialects, all r’s are dropped after vowels, in positions like that of “very” ( [ ve.i ]) and “better off” ( [ beɾə ɔf ]). In essence, there never was a linking r in those accents.
Did Brits in the 1600s pronounce all of their Rs?
It turns out that Brits in the 1600s, like modern-day Americans, largely pronounced all their Rs. Marisa Brook researches language variation at Canada’s University of Victoria.